Review on High Dynamic Range BenQ PD2700U Professional Monitor with Anti Glare Screen - 3840x2160 HD by Eric Thompson

The BenQ PD3200U monitor was purchased after experimenting with other monitors like the VIOTEK GN32DA 32-inch monitor which was dull, grainy text and ghosting even at 144MHz. I needed a business monitor for graphic design (Adobe and Office apps) that could also be used as a gaming monitor for the Battlefield franchise, specifically the "V" game at the time of writing this post. I'm using Windows 10, so I'll give some hints on how to set it up. Click Settings > Ease of Access > Display and set Increase text size to 120%, which enlarges filenames and menus in Windows to a more readable size at a native resolution of 3840 x 2160. Scale and layout are automatically adjusted to 150% for text and applications and other elements. When the BenQ PD3200U monitor is set to full resolution, browsers need to be scaled to 120% for the best reading size. I'm using Firefox so I added the Fixed Zoom extension and set it to 120% for all pages. I also had to open Outlook, click View > View Settings > Other Settings and change the fonts to 10pt. Shogo's user interface. Outlook 2016 and 2019 need the per-folder font settings mentioned above (I would assume the same for 365). In terms of color accuracy, the factory settings were just perfect. However, if you find that it's just impossible to work visually at the native 3840 x 2160, which I did without being a CAD/CAM user, there is a solution. You need to right click on the desktop and Nvidia > Display > Change resolution and select the BenQ monitor. Click Customize. button and accept the risk warning. Click Create Custom Permission. and enter a safe 16:9 aspect ratio of Horizontal Pixels: 2880 and Vertical Lines: 1620, which uses the full width of the screen. Click Test and quickly click Save Settings. Scroll up to the 2880 x 1620 custom setting, select it and click Apply. The reason for this is that Nvidia's drivers assume a 30-inch monitor and therefore do not contain the required resolution. Once done, the Firefox browser no longer needs "fixed scaling". Reset to 100% and delete. Click Settings > Simplicity. Access > View and Slide "Enlarge Text" to 120% and "Enlarge All", the size should be set to 125%. Another tweak was the 9pt Outlook font instead of the 10pt in the Segoe UI mentioned above. The screen now looks like a 1920 x 1080 monitor, only with a much better resolution. After the above is done. When you're done, you'll have crisp 1920 x 1080 by 3840 x 2160 resolution for most of your desktop, except for custom Windows panels like Save Files and File Transfers. I also changed 8 bits per channel (24 bits per pixel RGB 4:2:0) down to 10 bits per channel (30 bits per pixel RGB 4:4:4) for maximum color control for Adobe Suite. (For AMD Radeon, in many cases their drivers limit 10 bits per channel at YCbCr 4:2:2). You can make this setting in Nvidia Control Panel > Display > Change Resolution > Use NVIDIA Color Settings and Output Color Depth: Dropdown. 10bpc and HDR are the same. This does not affect games where anything compatible with DX9 or later needs to display pixels in 24-bit floating point per channel. Note. There was a glowing bluish area on the right side of my screen at 10 bpc, so I went back to 8 bpc when I was creating a 2880 x 1620 resolution, which helped. Regarding the gaming issue with this monitor, I first bought an EVGA GeForce RTX 2080 XC graphics card. to ensure I had as many rendering options as possible. You should buy a UV001 10ft Gold Plate 4K Resolution Cable where the cables that come with the monitor are simple and short. Understandably, the monitor's 60Hz maximum refresh rate is a cause for concern. Ideally, 144Hz is optimal for modern gaming, but I've yet to find a monitor that can deliver crisp production text with 100% RGB colors, 144Hz refresh, and G-Sync or FreeSync. Using NVIDIA 441.66 graphics drivers during this test, I found Battlefield V to run great in GeForce Experience with optimal settings, which is basically "Ultra" resolution overall and DXR ray tracing at medium levels. The details were insane, too much to identify designer flaws in play wire models. In game I kept the Ultra settings but lowered the resolution to 1920x1080. Super crisp gameplay with no GPU load :) All other high-demand games I tried ran fine too. Change or preset user settings. The extra port headers and the ability to connect two processors to the monitor is a big plus since I also fix laptops and desktops. I was able to remove my 8-port USB 3.0 hub and use the monitor ports for the mouse and service USB cables. The speakers that come with the monitor are on the back and sound like big tin cans, meaning adding speakers or a headset is a must. In short, this monitor is very sharp and accurate for video and media production and delivers everything I need for weekend gaming. It's a very finicky monitor to set up properly, but after all the trouble I'm happy with it!