AMD FreeSync And LG 34UM67 Widescreen Monitor Review
While the Lagom tests on the previous page lay out a monitor's performance in black and white (and blue and green and red and...), we also take into consideration a subjective analysis. After all, you're not purchasing a monitor to view test patterns for hours on end. To see how the LG 34UM67 performed in the real world, we viewed a series of 4K and HD video clips and fired up a few games. Torturous, we know, but hey, you guys are worth every minute of our entertainment.
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Avengers 2: Age Of Ultron @ 4K, Scaled To Full Screen
Watching movies on the LG 34UM67 was good in terms of image quality, but not without issues. The screen offers bright whites, dark blacks and even without any fine-tuning, colors seems well saturated. The panel's 75Hz rate and decent response time meant there was no visible ghosting either. If you're viewing content with a 16:9 or 16:10 aspect ratio, however, you'll end up with large, unused portions of the screen, like you see in the 4K Avengers clip above.
We also did quite a bit of gaming on the LG 34UM67, both with and without FreeSync enabled. We played some older titles like Left 4 Dead 2 (which can run at very high frame rates), and some newer titles like Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light.
When playing games that run at very high frame rates, the effects of FreeSync aren't quite as noticeable. We're sure if you stopped and stared and looked specifically for visual artifacts, you'd find some, but during actual gameplay they are not always noticeable.
When playing more taxing games, however, with frame rates that may fluctuate above or below 60 FPS or so, the effect FreeSync has on the on-screen imagery and / or lag is great. Disabling V-Sync may eliminate lag, but tearing is evident. And enabling V-Sync may eliminate the tearing, but the lag can be annoying. With FreeSync, the on-screen images don't suffer from visual artifacts and the tearing is also gone.
We wish there was an easy way to visually convey how adaptive fresh technologies like FreeSync and G-Sync affects on-screen animation, but there isn’t. We don’t have a means to capture DisplayPort feeds and shooting video of the screen and hosting it on-line doesn’t capture the full effect either. In lieu of an easy visual method to show how effective adaptive refresh rates can be, you'll just have to take our word for it.
We should also mention that simply using a higher refresh rate on your desktop is also great. There is a noticeable improvement when mousing or even moving windows around the screen, even at the LG 34UM67's 75Hz. If you're the type that gets headaches when looking at a 60Hz screen for too long, higher refresh rates may also help with that.
When playing games that run at very high frame rates, the effects of FreeSync aren't quite as noticeable. We're sure if you stopped and stared and looked specifically for visual artifacts, you'd find some, but during actual gameplay they are not always noticeable.
When playing more taxing games, however, with frame rates that may fluctuate above or below 60 FPS or so, the effect FreeSync has on the on-screen imagery and / or lag is great. Disabling V-Sync may eliminate lag, but tearing is evident. And enabling V-Sync may eliminate the tearing, but the lag can be annoying. With FreeSync, the on-screen images don't suffer from visual artifacts and the tearing is also gone.
We wish there was an easy way to visually convey how adaptive fresh technologies like FreeSync and G-Sync affects on-screen animation, but there isn’t. We don’t have a means to capture DisplayPort feeds and shooting video of the screen and hosting it on-line doesn’t capture the full effect either. In lieu of an easy visual method to show how effective adaptive refresh rates can be, you'll just have to take our word for it.
We should also mention that simply using a higher refresh rate on your desktop is also great. There is a noticeable improvement when mousing or even moving windows around the screen, even at the LG 34UM67's 75Hz. If you're the type that gets headaches when looking at a 60Hz screen for too long, higher refresh rates may also help with that.
