So, my boyfriend was one of the lucky few to win a DIY G-Sync kit. We put it all together last night, and have spent the better part of today playing with it. First off, a gallery of some of the pictures I took while installing:
Unboxing and install gallery
Some observations first: the kit came with a display port cable, this was unexpected and we had already purchased one, but hey, I can always use more cables. The manual is very detailed, and you can tell they mean for this to go into a more widespread production rather than to be something handed out to only a handful of people - I expected just a link to a website with instructions. There are some noticeable differences between the pcb I received and the one inside the review monitor that Andantech received, but nothing TOO major. Both pcbs appear to have a location for an HDMI port, though neither has the port soldered in. The LVDS cables mount 180 degrees from the original PCB, the manual notes this but I wasn't exactly reading the manual until I got to that point and saw it wasn't quite the same. This was rather unexpected, there is SO MUCH empty room on the pcb they easily could've mounted the connectors the same direction as the original. I'd really like to see the inside of the BenQ monitor that uses the same panel, as I think this kit could be used on that as well, but I don't own one to take apart.
Now, obviously since we scrap the entire pcb for the ASUS monitor, we lose everything associated with it. That means all of the OSD, including things like the crosshair overlays. The G-Sync OSD is very minimal, with just an info panel, brightness control, and button to enable/disable ULMB (the improved lightboost mode). ULMB seemed to look much less washed out than the hacked lightboost modes we ran before, however there's really no options for it, it's either on or off. ULMB won't work if you're in a g-sync mode, either, though hopefully that changes in the future.
There does look to be a jtag port (which wouldn't surprise me with the hardware they're using), and I fully intend to hook up my usbjtagnt to it and see if I can dump anything meaningful, but that'll have to wait until the shiny wears off and he'll let me tear it apart again.
As for actual performance, I'm impressed, and I was a bit skeptical at first. He was off playing Max Payne 3, and called me over to check it out. He's running a single gtx680, and normally plays with some of the settings lowered so he can come close to 100-120fps. I came over and couldn't believe how smooth everything looked, and then he pulled up evga precision on his phone, showing me it was running between 50 and 70 fps. Without seeing it in person, I wouldn't have believe it could've made that large of difference. Now, on games where he held 120 fps easily no matter what, it made virtually no difference. Our general conclusion was if you hold 120 fps, stick with the ULMB mode, but if you fluctuate around 60, G-sync looks amazing.
Anyone else get their DIY kits in yet and want to chime in? Anyone with questions?
Unboxing and install gallery
Some observations first: the kit came with a display port cable, this was unexpected and we had already purchased one, but hey, I can always use more cables. The manual is very detailed, and you can tell they mean for this to go into a more widespread production rather than to be something handed out to only a handful of people - I expected just a link to a website with instructions. There are some noticeable differences between the pcb I received and the one inside the review monitor that Andantech received, but nothing TOO major. Both pcbs appear to have a location for an HDMI port, though neither has the port soldered in. The LVDS cables mount 180 degrees from the original PCB, the manual notes this but I wasn't exactly reading the manual until I got to that point and saw it wasn't quite the same. This was rather unexpected, there is SO MUCH empty room on the pcb they easily could've mounted the connectors the same direction as the original. I'd really like to see the inside of the BenQ monitor that uses the same panel, as I think this kit could be used on that as well, but I don't own one to take apart.
Now, obviously since we scrap the entire pcb for the ASUS monitor, we lose everything associated with it. That means all of the OSD, including things like the crosshair overlays. The G-Sync OSD is very minimal, with just an info panel, brightness control, and button to enable/disable ULMB (the improved lightboost mode). ULMB seemed to look much less washed out than the hacked lightboost modes we ran before, however there's really no options for it, it's either on or off. ULMB won't work if you're in a g-sync mode, either, though hopefully that changes in the future.
There does look to be a jtag port (which wouldn't surprise me with the hardware they're using), and I fully intend to hook up my usbjtagnt to it and see if I can dump anything meaningful, but that'll have to wait until the shiny wears off and he'll let me tear it apart again.
As for actual performance, I'm impressed, and I was a bit skeptical at first. He was off playing Max Payne 3, and called me over to check it out. He's running a single gtx680, and normally plays with some of the settings lowered so he can come close to 100-120fps. I came over and couldn't believe how smooth everything looked, and then he pulled up evga precision on his phone, showing me it was running between 50 and 70 fps. Without seeing it in person, I wouldn't have believe it could've made that large of difference. Now, on games where he held 120 fps easily no matter what, it made virtually no difference. Our general conclusion was if you hold 120 fps, stick with the ULMB mode, but if you fluctuate around 60, G-sync looks amazing.
Anyone else get their DIY kits in yet and want to chime in? Anyone with questions?
