4K 144Hz Panels breaking down/dying within a couple weeks/months?

[GerKNG]

My story begins in early december where i purchased the new ROG Strix XG27UQR a 27" 4K 144Hz Monitor that just released.
a few days in and i had a full 2-3cm row of blue pixels in the bottom right corner. a day later the Monitor barely worked and the Panel had random Lines appearing near the blue pixels.
i got a replacement which ran fine until new year. I was playing a game and noticed heavy flickering with Freesync when the refreshrate was below ~100 Hz.
after a restart of the monitor everything was fine again until the flicker came back the next morning at the desktop. (i tested known good cables that i used for my G7.)
the flicker was so strong that my eyes hurt from watching just in the direction of the monitor... ended up with a refund.

i bought a Gigabyte M32U (which seems to use the same Panel as the new Samsung Odyssey G7A) and it was a blast for around 4 weeks... until the panel + backlight went off for a couple seconds before it came back. (i have two monitors hooked up and the M32U was never disconnected while the panel went black)
first it was once every 1-2 days. after a week it was several times per day until it just shut off completely and never turned on again. (the monitor was still on since i saw it in the display settings from Windows 11 and i could move a window over from the second screen to the M32U.)
ended up with a RMA and they told me that the panel is indeed dead and unfixable.

got a refund again...
meanwhile my GL850 runs since i bought it around a month after it launched a couple years ago.
my G7 and my HP X27i is fine. but so far ALL 4K 144Hz Monitors i owned are dead.

does anyone else have similar experiences? because 3 out of 3 still baffles me...

 

[Regeneration]

I guess COVID-19 introduced a lot of monitors defects. Last year I had a monitor saga as well.

Bought a ViewSonic gaming monitor, had dead pixels, replaced it, the new one had ghosting, sent it back, but wasn't fixed. So I tried ASUS, again dead pixels, replacement also had dead pixels.

Eventually, after 4-5 replacements, I went with Alienware and so far so good.

 

[Space Lynx]

I've had bad luck with monitors as well, I currently have been saving to get a LG 42" C2 OLED when it comes out... I know 100% I won't have issues with that. Can't wait for it to come out ^^

I'm just hoping that when I game in say 2560x1440 120hz windowed mode, it still looks good, i don't know how that works on tv's in pc mode @nguyen might be able to chime in here?

sorry to thread hijack...

 

[nguyen]

hm...could be the stock overdrive settings are just too agressive causing pixels burn out? pixels being tightly packed together combine with being overvolted sound like bad idea to me.

I've had bad luck with monitors as well, I currently have been saving to get a LG 42" C2 OLED when it comes out... I know 100% I won't have issues with that. Can't wait for it to come out ^^

I'm just hoping that when I game in say 2560x1440 120hz windowed mode, it still looks good, i don't know how that works on tv's in pc mode @nguyen might be able to chime in here?

sorry to thread hijack...

1440p on a 4K screen will looks worse than on a 1440p screen. So better get an RTX GPU with your C2 OLED as I can assure you that 4K DLSS Performance on a 4K screen looks better than 1440p Native on a 1440p screen (4K DLSS Performance get higher FPS too).

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Nixeus NX-EDG274K here and it's been great overall (there's some quirks though). I've had it since July 2020.

I know Nixeus put a lot of effort into the ad board on this monitor because off the shelf parts were inadequate. It has a god-tier scaler that can run virtually any resolution brilliantly. It even can do 30 Hz (oops).

 

[tabascosauz]

I was playing a game and noticed heavy flickering with Freesync when the refreshrate was below ~100 Hz.
after a restart of the monitor everything was fine again until the flicker came back the next morning at the desktop.

How consistent was this flickering? I have it from time to time in just one game which is engine-limited to 60fps - Freesync Premium/G-sync Compatible monitor as well, but 1440/165 not 4K/144. I haven't really found a solution for it, except restarting the entire comp. It's similar to the G-sync Windowed flickering problem, not sure how yours was.

Had some experiences with a bunch of monitors since the pandemic started and my S2721DGF is the only one that stuck around and is still well and good (basically 27GL850 as well just like yours, coincidence?). The rest went back within a week each, a mix of appalling uniformity and dead pixels. One of them was a Freesync 4K panel. Another was the much-lauded MSI MAG274QRF-QD.

Honestly, it just sounds like you got really unlucky. Happens a lot post-pandemic, it seems like QC + brand new higher refresh panels made quality really nosedive at all brands equally; it's always been a lottery but it never seemed to be this bad pre-2020. Now I only buy in-store/Amazon/Dell because of the return policy.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

AMD monitor certification literally only applies to the exact model (especially firmware) that the manufacturer sent AMD. So if you want the best FreeSync experience, you need to use the original firmware that was certified and never change it. That's the only firmware that AMD's drivers are programmed to handle. Running any other firmware version is effectively "adaptive sync compatible" which basically means your milage will vary depending on how much the firmware deviates from what AMD certified.

Nixeus doesn't put any firmware on any of their Freesync monitors that is not AMD certified. They also don't permit users to update their own firmware. If there's something wrong in the firmware, you have to RMA it with them to update the firmware and the new firmware is already AMD certified.

Monitors can't be like the wild west anymore because to make adaptive sync work correctly, there must be a close relationship between monitor and card.


TL;DR: A lot of people don't realize that most of their FreeSync problems are because they updated firmware in their monitor.


Edit: Ran into some monitors that make claims like 165 Hz "overdrive" support but the monitor can't actually handle that when adaptive sync is enabled. You really have to read the fine print on what is and isn't supported when adaptive sync is enabled. Even then, the fine print is often wrong (e.g. different regions say different things about the exact same model).

 

[Mussels]

My story begins in early december where i purchased the new ROG Strix XG27UQR a 27" 4K 144Hz Monitor that just released.
a few days in and i had a full 2-3cm row of blue pixels in the bottom right corner. a day later the Monitor barely worked and the Panel had random Lines appearing near the blue pixels.
i got a replacement which ran fine until new year. I was playing a game and noticed heavy flickering with Freesync when the refreshrate was below ~100 Hz.
after a restart of the monitor everything was fine again until the flicker came back the next morning at the desktop. (i tested known good cables that i used for my G7.)
the flicker was so strong that my eyes hurt from watching just in the direction of the monitor... ended up with a refund.

i bought a Gigabyte M32U (which seems to use the same Panel as the new Samsung Odyssey G7A) and it was a blast for around 4 weeks... until the panel + backlight went off for a couple seconds before it came back. (i have two monitors hooked up and the M32U was never disconnected while the panel went black)
first it was once every 1-2 days. after a week it was several times per day until it just shut off completely and never turned on again. (the monitor was still on since i saw it in the display settings from Windows 11 and i could move a window over from the second screen to the M32U.)
ended up with a RMA and they told me that the panel is indeed dead and unfixable.

got a refund again...
meanwhile my GL850 runs since i bought it around a month after it launched a couple years ago.
my G7 and my HP X27i is fine. but so far ALL 4K 144Hz Monitors i owned are dead.

does anyone else have similar experiences? because 3 out of 3 still baffles me...

Do you have a line interactive UPS?
Makes me wonder if you have power issues

I know that the US is pretty crappy with their power grid and standards, hows germany hold up there?

hm...could be the stock overdrive settings are just too agressive causing pixels burn out? pixels being tightly packed together combine with being overvolted sound like bad idea to me.



1440p on a 4K screen will looks worse than on a 1440p screen. So better get an RTX GPU with your C2 OLED as I can assure you that 4K DLSS Performance on a 4K screen looks better than 1440p Native on a 1440p screen (4K DLSS Performance get higher FPS too).

The modern nvidia settings allow you to scale however you want, i use my GTX 1080 to game at 1080p, while it outputs native 4K60hz to the TV itself

The world is finally moving towards the ability to run higher or lower than native res, at last


Gsync on freesync flickering is a problem both my VA monitors have, raising the Freesync range to 60-144/165 solves it here. (could probably fine tune it, but i'm lazy. stock was 48hz)
That said, seeing flickering at 100hz? yeah, that's a dead monitor.

 

[GerKNG]

Do you have a line interactive UPS?
Makes me wonder if you have power issues

i never saw a "UPS" in my whole life and the last power surge was probably in WW2.
and everything else i own works perfectly fine. just the 4K 144Hz Monitors are breaking down.

How consistent was this flickering?

it began very subtle like MBR backlight strobing that would not be in sync.

after 20-30 seconds it was as strong like this: Plasma VS CRT flicker effect - YouTube (except that the brightness changed but it was as intense)

Honestly, it just sounds like you got really unlucky. Happens a lot post-pandemic, it seems like QC + brand new higher refresh panels made quality really nosedive at all brands equally;

i guess that's correct. i checked some reviews on amazon and from a few other e-tailers and either it's a 5 Star review or a 1 Star review complaining about lots of dead pixels, or a completely dead monitor out of the box.

 

[Bomby569]

i would also suggest a power problem in your area or house. This are very sensitive products, much more then the pc itself

 

[Chomiq]

My bet's on poor QC and component shortage causing manufacturers to switch vendors to some shady brands. The good part is that you didn't have to jump through some hoops in order to get a refund.

 

[ratirt]

My story begins in early december where i purchased the new ROG Strix XG27UQR a 27" 4K 144Hz Monitor that just released.
a few days in and i had a full 2-3cm row of blue pixels in the bottom right corner. a day later the Monitor barely worked and the Panel had random Lines appearing near the blue pixels.
i got a replacement which ran fine until new year. I was playing a game and noticed heavy flickering with Freesync when the refreshrate was below ~100 Hz.
after a restart of the monitor everything was fine again until the flicker came back the next morning at the desktop. (i tested known good cables that i used for my G7.)
the flicker was so strong that my eyes hurt from watching just in the direction of the monitor... ended up with a refund.

i bought a Gigabyte M32U (which seems to use the same Panel as the new Samsung Odyssey G7A) and it was a blast for around 4 weeks... until the panel + backlight went off for a couple seconds before it came back. (i have two monitors hooked up and the M32U was never disconnected while the panel went black)
first it was once every 1-2 days. after a week it was several times per day until it just shut off completely and never turned on again. (the monitor was still on since i saw it in the display settings from Windows 11 and i could move a window over from the second screen to the M32U.)
ended up with a RMA and they told me that the panel is indeed dead and unfixable.

got a refund again...
meanwhile my GL850 runs since i bought it around a month after it launched a couple years ago.
my G7 and my HP X27i is fine. but so far ALL 4K 144Hz Monitors i owned are dead.

does anyone else have similar experiences? because 3 out of 3 still baffles me...

I bough my LG 27GN950 last year, March and no problems with it. Maybe you just had a bad luck.

 

[Bomby569]

I bough my LG 27GN950 last year, March and no problems with it. Maybe you just had a bad luck.

lots of friends bought that one and the M32U and they are all happy buyers

 

[ratirt]

lots of friends bought that one and the M32U and they are all happy buyers

Well, I am a happy buyer myself. The monitor is great. It does cost a bit and it is still hard to get it but it is worth the cash though.
If you have a bad luck and the monitor has a defect, no matter how much money you throw at it. If has a defect it will fail. So far mine works flawlessly.

1440p on a 4K screen will looks worse than on a 1440p screen. So better get an RTX GPU with your C2 OLED as I can assure you that 4K DLSS Performance on a 4K screen looks better than 1440p Native on a 1440p screen (4K DLSS Performance get higher FPS too).

Unbelievable. I hope you get paid for this bro, otherwise I have no words.

 

[Bill_Bright]

Do you have a line interactive UPS?
Makes me wonder if you have power issues

^^^This^^^

i never saw a "UPS" in my whole life and the last power surge was probably in WW2.

People assume when they have a decent power grid, they don't need a good UPS with AVR. That simply is not true.

Whenever I see multiple, unexplained failures, coincidences seem unlikely. So I always suspect power - at least enough to verify it is good.

This is a true story. A couple years ago I came home to all my UPSs beeping. Yet the lights were still on! A quick check of the LCD status display panel of my UPS showed the incoming line voltage was 143VAC!!!! It should have been ~120VAC. Another quick check with my multimeter confirmed, 142.8VAC and the 220VAC outlet in the garage was showing 285.6VAC! Not good - especially for things like air conditioning and refrigerator compressors.

I called the power company, explained to them I was a technician and what I had found, then told them if they didn't want to pay to replace all the air conditioners and refrigerators in this neighborhood, they needed to send someone out right away. And [happily], they did - like in 15 minutes! The electrician checked the power entering my meter and confirmed what I had reported. This also established the problem was not on my end, but with theirs - thus affecting at least every home in the neighborhood supplied by the common transformer.

They expedited a bucket truck out to check the transformer on the pole. They immediately determined the transformer "tap" was faulty. They had to kill power to the whole neighborhood and move the tap temporarily to a safe setting until they could replace the 30 year old transformer.

The temporary tap setting was still a little too "hot" at 258VAC (129VAC single phase). But at least that was a safe level and all the UPS (and I) were happy.

About 2 weeks later they replaced the old transformer with a brand new one and now we are sitting at 120VAC.

Note this destructive power anomaly was NOT a "surge" or a spike. But a constant high voltage scenario that probably would have gone on undetected - until people started complaining about their home appliances and other electronics failing at an alarming rate (beyond the possibilities of coincidences!).

Had I not had a the beeping UPS on my computer I probably would have fired up the computer and with the voltage being that hot, might have put too much strain on the PSU regulator circuits. This could have resulted in several unexplained failures of the electronics in my house (and all the neighbors' houses) too. The LCD panel made troubleshooting a snap. It also allowed me to easily explain to the power company trouble desk, in a convincing, believable manner, the urgency of the situation so they would send someone out so quickly.

Another common misconception is folks believing that destructive power anomalies must come off the grid. That also is not true.
Any large appliance inside your home (or office) can produce destructive anomalies. Refrigerators, water coolers, microwave ovens, toasters all send surges, spikes, dips and sags EVERY TIME they cycle on and off.

Modern high-wattage appliances attempt to suppress dumping destructive anomalies on the circuit – "IF" they are not damaged and are working properly. But low-tech cheap appliances may not. A cheap, $15, 1500W hair dryer made in some obscure factory in the backwoods of China with forced labor using questionable parts from a similar factory upriver, comes to mind.

@GerKNG - at the very least, you need to use a AC Outlet Tester to ensure the wall outlet is properly wired and grounded to Earth ground. I recommend one with a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupt) indicator as it can be used to test bathroom and kitchen outlets (outlets near water) too. These testers can be found for your type and voltage outlet, foreign or domestic, (like this one for the UK, or this one for German outlets) at most home improvement stores, or even the electrical department at Wal-Mart. Use it to test all the outlets in the home and if a fault is shown, have it fixed by a qualified electrician.

If the tester does not provide an actual voltage value readout (lessor models just have an "OK" LED indicator), a multimeter or kill-a-watt meter will work too.

 

[Mac the Geek]

In the late 90s/early 2000s, I had the opposite problem: the duplex I lived in was poorly wired, and the power was prone to "dirty" dips whenever a major appliance started up. My standard "surge protector" couldn't protect my equipment, as the voltage was dropping below normal instead of surging over it. I didn't lose any monitors, but I did lose a couple motherboards before I went out and bought a UPS with AVR circuitry. Never had a problem after that; and even now, 20 years and multiple moves later, all of my TVs and computing devices run through UPSes with AVR line conditioning.

 

[Bill_Bright]

That's a major problem with all surge and spike protectors. They do absolutely nothing for low voltage anomalies like dips (opposite of spikes), sags (opposite of surges) and brownouts (long duration sags). Another problem with surge and spike protectors is they wear out fairly quickly. This is why it is often recommended they be replaced every 2 years.

Do Surge Protectors Wear Out?

 

[Mussels]

i never saw a "UPS" in my whole life and the last power surge was probably in WW2.
and everything else i own works perfectly fine. just the 4K 144Hz Monitors are breaking down.



it began very subtle like MBR backlight strobing that would not be in sync.

after 20-30 seconds it was as strong like this: Plasma VS CRT flicker effect - YouTube (except that the brightness changed but it was as intense)



i guess that's correct. i checked some reviews on amazon and from a few other e-tailers and either it's a 5 Star review or a 1 Star review complaining about lots of dead pixels, or a completely dead monitor out of the box.

I can imagine high refresh rate monitors being more susceptible to power fluctuations, a line interactive UPS can help with that

I hear mine click and hum every few days as it catches surges put out by my dying fridge, as an example
(hooked up a meter to it, 120W normally with 900W spikes in line with the surges. without the UPS, i'd not have caught on)

 

[FordGT90Concept]

4K 144 Hz in a single cable requires Display Stream Compression which also requires a *really* good DisplayPort HBR3 cable. Both of these things have much higher requirements than those running 4K 120 Hz or less. I would recommend buying a certified cable and not trusting the one that comes in the box. The ability for the ad board to handle DSC is an engineering problem that can't be addressed by consumers.

If there's a problem with a monitor, the first thing to check is always the data cable (unless it reproduces even when it is not connected).

 

[thesmokingman]

My Sammy G9 240hz panel is solid. Power wise we've got solar and batteries so whole house power is clean.

 

[swirl09]

Ive mine 3 or 4 years (whenever it launched), probably only been off a few weeks in that time.

 

[eidairaman1]

That's a major problem with all surge and spike protectors. They do absolutely nothing for low voltage anomalies like dips (opposite of spikes), sags (opposite of surges) and brownouts (long duration sags). Another problem with surge and spike protectors is they wear out fairly quickly. This is why it is often recommended they be replaced every 2 years.

Do Surge Protectors Wear Out?

I hate dips/brownouts.

I'm getting a ups for a 5800 rig that was built Dec 26th 2021.

 

[Bill_Bright]

If there's a problem with a monitor, the first thing to check is always the data cable (unless it reproduces even when it is not connected).

The OP said this has happened with 3 monitors. So this brings up a point - @GerKNG - have you swapped cables?

 

[GerKNG]

If there's a problem with a monitor, the first thing to check is always the data cable (unless it reproduces even when it is not connected).

dead panels, dead pixels have nothing to do with a display port cable.

i use the same cable that i use on my G7, VG279QM, X27i, M32Us and GL850.

these new innolux panels are just trash.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

dead panels, dead pixels have nothing to do with a display port cable.

i use the same cable that i use on my G7, VG279QM, X27i, M32Us and GL850.

these new innolux panels are just trash.

G7 not HBR3...
VG279QM not HBR3...
X27i not HBR3...
M32Us is HBR3...
GL850 not HBR3...

Only one of those monitors is proof of anything.
3840x2160 @ 120 Hz = no DSC
3840x2160 @ 144 Hz = DSC required

DSC invokes another layer of complexity in the monitor and in the video card. Try dropping to 120 Hz when there's an issue at 144 Hz to see if the problem is actually caused by DSC.