Pros: Picture quality is amazing. Clarity amazing. Color is amazing. Size and resolution are breath taking. Zero bad/stuck pixels.

If you're coming from a smaller TN panel like I was (24" Samsung), you'll be left speechless at the size and picture quality.

Monitor stand is awesome and very adjustable and functional.

Lots of different options and features in the on screen display. The 1:1 pixel ratio so you can play old non-widescreen games at 1600x1200 without scaling is a nice feature.

Cables included for every type of connection and it even has a cable organizer you can attach to the back of the stand (had to do some searching to figure out what it was for).

Low power consumption.

Very happy with this purchase even though I had to shell out more for a monitor than I originally intended. I cannot say enough good things about it and highly recommend it.

Cons: The 60hz refresh rate may be a turn off for those that are used to higher refresh rates. For me personally, it's a worthy trade off for the size, resolution, and picture quality of an IPS/PLS panel and haven't noticed any ghosting while playing games or watching movies. Even though it's 60hz, it still has VERY very little measurable input lag for a 60hz monitor. Tracefree default setting is 60 which is not optimal (set it to 40 or even 20 for better results).

On my particular monitor, there is miniscule backlight bleed (practically imperceptible) for 2-3 inches in the top left side of my screen that goes 0.3 to 0.5 inches down when looking at a completely black screen. This is tolerable for me and a non issue (especially when my last monitor had bad backlight bleed), but this may be an issue for some people if there is any present on their monitor.

Other Thoughts: Looking at the most helpful critical review is a complete joke for this monitor. Seriously who the heck takes off 2 eggs because of a supposedly out of spec displayport cable that you can get a replacement for for $5 here or elsewhere? Be happy they even INCLUDED a cable for every type of connection the monitor offers. This ignorance seriously irked me considering he didn't have a single bad thing to say about the monitor but took off 40% for an out of spec pin on a cable most people don't even use.

Overclocking the refresh rate is supposedly pointless because it causes issues with this monitor so I haven't even tried and won't. TFTCentral did a good writeup on the monitor's strengths and weaknesses. They also have an ICC profile you can load with their preset calibration.

The built in speakers aren't all that great (not very loud especially given their location), but it's nice to have I guess. I use a headset anyway 99.99% of the time.

No detailed manual (you have to download the detailed manual).


Price, while expensive compared to TN and 1080p IPS panels, is EXTREMELY reasonable for a high quality 27" 1440p PLS panel monitor from a reputable company. I could not justify spending a little less money money on one of the cheaper monitors made from several Korean companies when I could get this one. Not worth the hassles and headaches if there is a problem.

Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) dimming may be an issue for some people, but it's not for me. I haven't the slightest clue what kind of flicker people are talking about when they mention this feature being a bad thing about the monitor. Most monitors use this type of dimming, but I suppose it would have been nice if this one didn't. Again however, this is a complete non issue for me.

Pros: Fast clock for GPU and VRAM means it's a very fast card for its cost. Both can be further overclocked. Gigabyte overclocking software works well (but doesn't have as many monitoring options as MSI Afterburner like memory usage).

4GB of VRAM lets you use dual monitors for gaming without worry. With the PS4 and XBox1 coming out around the corner, graphics quality in most games is going to jump significantly. 4GB of VRAM gives you plenty of breathing room for future improvements like texture quality which are coming because of the next gen consoles. It also means you can run high resolution texture packs for current games like Skyrim without worrying.

Cooling seems to be very efficient as the card stays cool and the fans are nice and quiet. I've yet to hear the fans at all over my low RPM case fans, even while playing demanding games.

Free copy of Splinter Cell: Blacklist (for now).

Cons: Some people report trouble fitting the card in their case. I have a Mountain Mods Pinnacle case so it's a non-issue for me.

Other Thoughts: This is your best option for a midrange card. A GTX 770 is better but will cost you 50% more for a 10-15% or so increase in performance. That gap shrinks if you overclock the GTX 760, but of course you can overclock a GTX 770 as well.

Some people complain about the 256-bit memory bus being a bottleneck, but I'm not so sure that is a problem like they make it out to be.