Post your PLS Overclocking Results

robomartion · Apr 15, 2013

If you've recently bought one of the Korean 'PLS' displays, e.g. QNIX QX2710, you will be happy to know that these should go straight up to 120hz, without any alterations to their hardware.

(i.e. no overlord 2b extreme pcb) At least mine has. Post your results, with the monitor brand, and type (glossy or matte) here, and whether you get any distortion when running at the higher refresh rate.

To overclock, simply open NVIDIA Control Panel, go to Change resolution, select the correct display and click Customize... Then click Create Custom Resolution... Here change the refresh rate to what you want. Click Test and you will find out whether your monitor is capable of running at that refresh rate. If it isn't, keep dropping it until it works.

You may see distortion at higher refresh rates, so just keep lowering it until you're happy. The distortion isn't permanent.

If your screen seems 'darker' or the colours seem wrong when you're running at a higher refresh rate, play around with some colour settings in NVIDIA control panel (brightness, contrast and gamma most importantly)

I assume this should be just as easy for people with AMD cards, have a look here:
http://www.nag.co.za/2013/03/01/weekend-project-overclocking-your-monitor/
Search for AMD on that page. (ctrl-f)

You can also use evga's pixel clock program. A quick google search will find it.

If anyone finds a way to make games run at 120hz in fullscreen mode, I'd be really happy.

Do this at your own risk!

robomartion · Apr 15, 2013

I have a QX2710 and it goes up to 133hz, but with significant distortion (red, green and blue lines).

It runs fine at 120hz, except that in the top right hand corner I get slight banding and it is slightly darker. This is unnoticeable in game unless looking at a solid lighter colour (the sky for example).

So far I've tried both Counter Strike: Global Offensive and Team Fortress 2 (windowed) and they look just as smooth as my vg278h when light boost is turned off. Assassin's Creed 3 lets me choose 120hz as a full screen refresh rate in settings and runs just as smooth.

dishayu · Apr 15, 2013

Wow, that is amazing news. I'll try this as soon as i reach home today. Hope my single HD6670 can handle 2560x1440 @ 120 Hz.

I don't game much, so just being able to push the pixels at 120 Hz should be good enough for me.

By the way, robomartian, which nvidia GPU are you currently using?

robomartion · Apr 15, 2013

GTX 670 PE

shadowfm · Apr 15, 2013

Ohhh i will test my QX2710 today when i get back from work.

Does anyone know if you can make custom resolutions in CCC?

Sunreeper · Apr 15, 2013

This is interesting, subbed may have to get this as a second monitor

yoi · Apr 15, 2013

omg , this monitor price is gonna rise as hell ...

* quickly buys 10 monitors *

Sunreeper · Apr 15, 2013

That's what I'm thinking I want to get one of these before when there still 300$ can anybody confirm whether this is actually 120hz or if its frame skipping if it isn't I think I'll sell my perfect pixel overlord monitors and get 3 of these

hamzatm · Apr 15, 2013

Well that sounds sweet!!

But importantly, are you certain you are seeing the 120Hz? I know for a fact that many, many monitors appear to support overclocking but on closer inspection it becomes clear that the monitor is actually skipping frames. I believe this post links a program that you can use to test for dropped pixels: http://www.overclock.net/t/1363440/nvidia-geforce-gtx-titan-owners-club/2170#post_19436523

Or another way to test is to hook up both this monitor overclocked, and any other monitor (e.g. I think you said you had a VG278HE?) running at 60Hz, and compare how smooth the cursor moves. A side-by-side comparison is essential.

dishayu · Apr 15, 2013

GREAT NEWS!
I got my monitor to work at 120Hz using on my HD6670 "Custom Resolution Utility"

http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU

But i had a bit of flickering/stuttering and artifacting at 120Hz. I'm reasonably sure this is because my GPU sucks. I finally settled at 108 Hz which works flawlessly. I am seriously thinking of getting 2 more of these monitors and getting a better GPU to drive them as well.

Hamzatm : I used the "Refresh rate multitool" in that post and i don't think i see any dropped frames.

Sunreeper · Apr 15, 2013

That's amazing I'm gonna get 3 then

dishayu · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sunreeper

That's amazing I'm gonna get 3 then

It is amazing indeed, but i don't want to judge only by the eye (since i'm told that a human eye can't differentiate above 60Hz or so). Is there any other possible way to accurately measure if this is really 120Hz (edit : i meant "if it really is 108Hz")?

kevinsbane · Apr 15, 2013

If it's working properly, the stuttering can also be caused by your DVI cable, which probably wasn't designed or manufactured to be passing a ~500mhz pixel clock signal. A higher quality cable may help there.

dishayu · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinsbane

If it's working properly, the stuttering can also be caused by your DVI cable, which probably wasn't designed or manufactured to be passing a ~500mhz pixel clock signal. A higher quality cable may help there.

Sorry for causing confusion. It's not working properly at 120Hz for me (artifacts and stuttering) but It's working at 108Hz. I don't think the cable is to blame here. I read an article years ago about expensive HDMI cable not making any difference. DVI is electronically the same as HDMI (sans the audio) afaik, so i really doubt that it would be the cable. I'm still looking at my GPU though. I really don't think HD6670 cuts it for 1440p @ 120 Hz.

kevinsbane · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by dishayu

Sorry for causing confusion. It's not working properly at 120Hz for me (artifacts and stuttering) but It's working at 108Hz. I don't think the cable is to blame here. I read an article years ago about expensive HDMI cable not making any difference. DVI is electronically the same as HDMI (sans the audio) afaik, so i really doubt that it would be the cable. I'm still looking at my GPU though. I really don't think HD6670 cuts it for 1440p @ 120 Hz.

DL-DVI is not electrically the same as HDMI.

That being said, the fact that the DVI signal is digital doesn't mean that a poor quality cable cannot degrade the signal to the point where it is unusable. Digital simply means that the signal doesn't have a smooth degradation curve (it gets fuzzy or blurrier until you see just static) - it has a "catastrophic" failure mode. Either it works perfectly, or it fails completely. Experience with overclockable "2B" Catleaps have indicated that cable issues can and have been to blame for poor overclocks. That's not to say that video cards might not be able to handle it, of course,but it is a possibility.

dishayu · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by kevinsbane

DL-DVI is not electrically the same as HDMI.

That being said, the fact that the DVI signal is digital doesn't mean that a poor quality cable cannot degrade the signal to the point where it is unusable. Digital simply means that the signal doesn't have a smooth degradation curve (it gets fuzzy or blurrier until you see just static) - it has a "catastrophic" failure mode. Either it works perfectly, or it fails completely. Experience with overclockable "2B" Catleaps have indicated that cable issues can and have been to blame for poor overclocks. That's not to say that video cards might not be able to handle it, of course,but it is a possibility.

Hmm... Thanks for the heads up. I'll try out a decent cable.

hamzatm · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by dishayu

It is amazing indeed, but i don't want to judge only by the eye (since i'm told that a human eye can't differentiate above 60Hz or so). Is there any other possible way to accurately measure if this is really 120Hz (edit : i meant "if it really is 108Hz")?

You can immediately tell between 60Hz and 120Hz (or 108Hz). This is because although the eye sees whatever Hz, the monitor does not output its own frames exactly in sync with the frames the eye sees. But at higher Hz more frames are displayed so there is much higher chance of your eye picking up frames as fast as possible.

If that doesn't make sense don't worry I'm terrible at explaining, but you can definitely see the difference just by looking at the mouse cursor. At 60Hz it moves with far less fluidity, much less frames shown per second. At 120Hz you see more of the cursor as it moves.

Moving the cursor in a circle, the 120Hz circle will be much more rounded due to more frames showing than a jerkier 60Hz circle of the same radius.

shadowfm · Apr 15, 2013

Ok i am trying to use this (http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU) with my 7850.

Ok so my first attempts seem to be quite bad.

Overclocked to 120hz: Flashing Solid Images. ( Entire screen kept flashing from one colour to the next) it looked like it was doing a color test or something.

Overclocked to 108hz: Same as above

Overclocked to 100hz: Same as above

Overclocked to 90hz: Same as above

Overclocked to 75hz: Stable and working fine.

rileyscottp · Apr 15, 2013

And what about the longevity of the display running at such high refresh rates?

hamzatm · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by shadowfm

Ok i am trying to use this (http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU) with my 7850.

Ok so my first attempts seem to be quite bad.

Overclocked to 120hz: Flashing Solid Images. ( Entire screen kept flashing from one colour to the next) it looked like it was doing a color test or something.

Overclocked to 108hz: Same as above

Overclocked to 100hz: Same as above

Overclocked to 90hz: Same as above

Overclocked to 75hz: Stable and working fine.

AMD cards can't do as much as Nvidia due to driver limitations, I think the max is 80 or something?

dishayu · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamzatm

AMD cards can't do as much as Nvidia due to driver limitations, I think the max is 80 or something?

I'm running 108Hz on a low end card with the latest AMD driver, so surely this argument shouldn't have much weight?

hamzatm · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by dishayu

I'm running 108Hz on a low end card with the latest AMD driver, so surely this argument shouldn't have much weight?

You could be right, I read somewhere AMD has limited their pixel clocks or something or other.

Maybe the pixel clock patcher program fixed it, shadowfm did you use the AMD/ATI pixel clock patcher?

shadowfm · Apr 15, 2013

Quote:

Originally Posted by hamzatm

AMD cards can't do as much as Nvidia due to driver limitations, I think the max is 80 or something?

Ohh is there anyway to break that limitation?

hamzatm · Apr 15, 2013

AMD pixel clock patcher!

ToastyX had a post on 120Hz.net forums

http://120hz.net/showthread.php?683-Overclocking-Quick-Start-Guide

Full guide right there ^^

shadowfm · Apr 15, 2013

Oh wow!

Just followed this guide here http://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-AMD-ATI-Pixel-Clock-Patcher

Patched the drivers and ran the testmode file.

120hz runs but there seems to be slight Artificing on the screen.

108hz seems fine

Super happy with this monitor

ch33z3 · Apr 15, 2013

Thanks for taking the initiative to make this thread man, and gj Shadowfm. Always wanted a 120hz catleap, but now that I can get something for half the price, I'll definately grab one, and it's even PLS

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