240 HZ Monitor – Is it worth the difference?

Viewsonic XG 2530

Our favorite: The Viewsonic XG 2530

Update: We’ve made an in-depth article on this on our parent website. If you’d like to, you can go and check it out here

A 240 HZ Monitor seems to be THE gaming hardware of the year. Especially in gaming monitors we have noticed significant improvements when comparing 144 HZ vs 240 HZ monitors. Much like a couple of years ago when we compared 144HZ vs 60HZ the difference is quite staggering. This is definitely a topic for enthusiasts and competitive gamers but it is well worth it. Let’s have a look at the available options for a 240 HZ monitor.

240 HZ Monitor for Competitive Gaming

For competitive gaming we are mostly interested in quick response times and fast refresh rates. A 240 HZ monitor does offer an incredibly high jump in this regard. This jump can be a big improvement for your gaming performance. Most players are currently on 144 HZ or even 60 HZ monitors. We already picked our favorite: the ViewSonic XG2530. Do you want to make the jump as well? Lets get our facts straight first.

We want the clearest image possible. We play games at lightning fast speeds and high frame rates, so the visuals can be blurry at times. Higher refresh rates can have a big impact on this. So as a reminder on how the different refresh rates look and how much motion trails they leave behind, please have a look at the following image:

Comparison from testufo.com

Please note that the jump from 60 HZ to 144 HZ and the jump from 144 HZ to 200 HZ seems to be particularly noticeable. You can also see this comparison in motion on testufo.com

There are no ‘professional’ (as in displays with exact colors for pixel perfect creative work) or ‘enthusiast’ monitors (as in displays with 4K resolution rates for gaming or movie enthusiasts) with 240 HZ on the market. So we are looking at this from a gaming angle where we need the clear, responsive visuals of a high refresh rate monitor and are less interested in exact colors or high resolutions. We want the FPS anyway 😉

Now, 240 HZ monitors are not a new thing per se. You probably have even heard of them before. EIZO announced their first 240 HZ display in 2015 (at that time most people were still making the transition from 60 to 144 HZ) and there have been quite a bunch of other non-native 240 HZ+ TVs on the market. Most of these displays used techniques to give the impression of 240 HZ refresh rates by interpolating frames and pixels. These are not true 240 HZ monitors and need to be avoided. Which is why we gathered only native 240 HZ monitors in the list for you.

To take native 240 HZ monitors into the mainstream, BenQ offered their flagship 240 HZ monitor in 2016 and added it to their XL line of products. The BenQ Zowie XL2540 was met with decent reviews but worries about motion trails (overshooting pixels that create a blurry visual) made us look at different monitors. ASUS and Acer monitors were met with good reviews as well but the high price point was not very attractive.

At a significantly lower price, the same TN panel, and the obvious benefits of a 240 HZ, 1ms response time display, the ViewSonic XG2530 is our recommendation for the best 240 HZ monitor.

At about $100 cheaper than the competition the price/value of the Viewsonic display is unmatched in this price segment. Now, the cheaper price comes at a small disadvantage of course. The XG2530 is missing G-Sync which is Nvidias counterpart to FreeSync and a functionality to reduce screen tearing at variable refresh rates. We personally don’t use any of these functionalities in CS:GO or Overwatch, but if you want to pay a premium for this you can go with the other options as well. Additionally, if you are already using an AMD graphics card you can use FreeSync with the XG2530 to get similar results to G-Sync.

240 HZ Monitor – Can you feel a difference?

In our testing, we can feel a significant difference between our old 144 HZ display and the new 240 HZ one. The jump isn’t as noticeable as when we first took the leap from 60 to 144 but it is still pretty impressive. It is once again one of those things you never knew you wanted. After going back to my laptop to write this article I already missed the smooth motion of my mouse pointer.

For dedicated competitive gamers the decision on buying a 240 HZ monitor is very easy. We want every kind of advantage we can get. Now the high price may make people think twice about the purchase but with the Viewsonic XG 2530 we have found a very reasonable value proposition. We don’t fault anyone for waiting a year or two on upgrading to 240 HZ though. In the meantime we are playing with a significant advantage 😉

Thanks for reading. We have gathered the currently available 240 HZ monitors in the table below. Take your pick and let us know in the comments on your personal favorite. You might also want to have a look at our CS:GO Pro Settings and Configs. A couple of pros are already using 240 HZ monitors as well.

NameRefresh RateSizeResolutionResponse TimePanelG-Sync / Free-sync / Adaptive-Sync
Viewsonic XG253024024.5"1920x10801msTNAMD FreeSync
BenQ XL254024024.5"1920x10801msTNNone
Asus ROG Swift PG258Q24025"1920x10801msTNG-Sync
AOC Agon AG251FZ24025"1920x10801msTNAdaptive-Sync
Acer Predator XB252Q24024.5"1920x10801msTNG-Sync
Acer Predator XB27224027"1920x10801msTNG-Sync

Kai

My mom said my eyes would turn into rectangles from playing too much PC. Joke's on her though, they are in glorious 16:9 now.

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64 Responses

  1. Sumana Soh says:

    For csgo, which one will be better? XL2540 or XG2530? The Zowie Benq has more features and looks sick as fuck and settings that can find on the internet by other users but viewsonic settings I can’t seem to find it.

    • Kai says:

      Hey man,

      Both are good choices honestly. It has been pretty easy for me personally.

      Since I don’t use the GSYNC (edited) the BenQ offers and I run an AMD setup anyways I went with the cheaper Viewsonic XG2530.

      If you have an Nvidia card and want to use G-Sync, like the BenQ design more and don’t mind the higher price, go with the XL2540.

  2. KrugeR says:

    @Kai What fetures does the BenQ XL2540 have that adds lag? And is there a list of all the gaming/e-sport 240hz monitors lag comparisons etc. I’m in the process of picking one of these and I’m having a hard time… 🙂

    • Kai says:

      Hi Kruger, I was talking about GSYNC in my other comment. I edited the comment to clarify. In terms of input lag I was referring to a review of the XL2540 from hardware.info

      We will potentially add an input lag column to our table here.

      Cheers, Kai

      • KrugeR says:

        Thanks for the quick reply. I have looked at all the information I can find regarding the subject. There is a lot of out there. This site has been a very valuable resource for me and many of my friends for many reasons. Keep up the good work!

  3. Notty says:

    The problem with these new 240hz panels is the input lag. All reviews around the web shows the screen lags at 15ms to 16ms. Sure, when you are using 240hz you divide that for 4 (240/60), ending up with 4ms input latency, wich beats any offer on the market. Be it 60hz or 144hz.

    The thing is, a good and fast 144hz monitor, like the famous LG 24GM79 (240€) or Asus MG248Q (300€), both rated at around 9.7ms input lag (dividing by 2,1), wich gives effective 4,6ms input lag. Now compare 4,6ms vs 4ms. Is that big advantage for 240hz considering you spent 500 bucks? And also taking into account that most games won´t get past 200fps (CS Go and OW can do it, most of the other games cant) thus increasing input lag even more. To me it isn´t worh it at all.

    Adding to that, if you ever use that monitor with a console at 60hz, input lag will be too high aswell. The only real advantage 240hz gives right now is the motion clarity, wich is clearly improved over 144hz. But that doesn´t justify anything. I still prefer a lower input lag 144hz monitor, by far.

    When 240hz tech matures and we get decent input lag screens (ranging from 9,5ms to 11ms like any good 144hz monitor), then we talk.

    • KrugeR says:

      I’ve tried both the Zowie BenQ XL2540 and the ASUS PG258Q. Both are 240hz monitors. Both felt really smooth as expected. But your point rings true Notty. Besides what you already pointed out all these “1st gen” 240hz monitors use the same panel. This means they all suffer from the same problem i found on both the benQ and the ASUS monitor during testing. What I’m talking about is horrible vertical scanlines. Once noticed you either learn to live with it or slowly lose all enjoyment from gaming. Once you see these lines it starts to feel like they’re everywhere. Ruining the experience. I ended up returning both monitors are currently using my old 144hz monitor. This scan line issue is not something wrong with the monitor itself but rather a side effect of pushing the limits of these panels. This issue is on all these monitors built on the same panel and tech. So I think waiting for further versions and developments is a good idea.

      • KrugeR says:

        Edit: Sorry for my english. It’s a 3rd language and it’s 04:44 in the morning 😀

        • Most of these fine lines artifacts (single-pixel vertical or horizontal lines, or checkerboard pixel patterns, seen in solid backgrounds during movement) — is an artifact from the LCD inversion logic. Otherwise known as the unforunate “inversion artifact” —

          Google “LCD inversion” for how the positive/negative polarity alternates every other refresh cycle to voltage-balance the LCD panel. This is supposed to be invisible but sometimes creates some faint visible artifacts, but can get worse with faster-pixel-response TN panels. This is indeed a side effect of pushing these panel technologies (fast pixel response means it’s hard to keep the pixel color perfectly stable everytime the pixel voltage polarity flips to opposite polarity during the next refresh cycle — sometimes the voltage is not perfectly symmetrical when the pixel polarity flips).

    • Robert Brook says:

      So if i can only push 144 frames with an old graphics card it would be better to use 144hz monitor as 240hz would actually have more input lag at 144fps? I’m thinking of buying 240hz monitor now then buying a new PC later. Would it feel really unresponsive when using my current PC with 240hz @ 144fps in the mean time or is the difference in input lag not that noticable?

  4. Davide says:

    I want to make an upgrade at my monitor (120 hz atm), I want to buy a 240 hz,who is better between Asus ROG Swift PG258Q & Acer Predator XB252Q ?

    • Max says:

      I personally use the BenQ XL2540 and could not be happier! 🙂 Try to take a look at them in real life if you can, that will make your decision way easier.

  5. Kevin says:

    Hey man what would you recommend, BenQ Xl2411P (144hz) or ViewSonic XG2530 (240hz)? Which offers the best competitive advantage? I read a comment above about input lag in 240hz monitors that does not occur in 144hz monitors. What do you say? My setup is a i7 8700k 5ghz clock and ASUS ROG GTX 1080 (I get above 150fps in the games I play).

  6. Founder of Blur Busters and inventor of TestUFO here.

    I’m the one who got ViewSonic to fix the frameskipping bugs in the early XG2530s from 2017. They fixed their firmware really fast; That frameskipping bug remained in several AOC and ASUS models for many months beyond. I wonder if some of the players are sitting on old firmwares with frameskipping with the TestUFO frameskipping test. There were a spate of firmware bugs where some monitors only displays 234 refresh cycles per second, skipping 1 out of 40 refresh cycles (previous refresh cycle being repeated instead, new refresh cycle being ignored). Very hard to see if your eye is not trained to it.

  7. Krazii420 says:

    Should I buy Acer Xf250q? If I have an 1440p 144hz g sync monitor already, or should I get Asus Xg248q or benq XL2540 monitor instead of Acer? Honestly I would care about views just the refresh rate.

  8. AW says:

    what about asus xg248q ?

  9. Astronaut says:

    Thanks for the infos !

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