ViewSonic XG2431 - Review

Getting a good monitor is a really good upgrade for your gaming setup considering it just improves the overall gaming experience. However, it can be a really tough choice considering there are so many brands to choose from which are barely distinguishable from one another except for the design aspect. Enter, ViewSonic’s XG2431 Gaming Monitor that offers a little extra something which will definitely have gamers lining up to get it.

ViewSonic XG2431 Specifications, Design, and Ergonomics:

The XG2431 sports an all-black design with bezels that don’t take up a lot of space. It also comes with a great stand that is heavy, sturdy, and has a lot of functionality as well. You can adjust the height of the monitor, tilt it, and also rotate it 90 degrees. There is not much that can go wrong here: however it could’ve done a lot better in terms of the I/O slots and the control buttons.

Specifically, the buttons to adjust monitor settings are not convenient to use at all. There are multiple buttons that help you navigate across the different menus, but the placement of those feels vague. Obviously, you will not be able to see which button you press as it is beneath the monitor and you will have to rely on touch alone, which makes it a bit of a hassle. Another major things to note is the power cable that comes with the monitor. The plug for the cable is absolutely humongous and you will find it extremely difficult to find a socket where it would fit. You might want to keep another power cable handy as it uses a 3-pin PSU connector for the monitor as well.

ViewSonic XG2431 Display and FPS Performance

The display performance of the monitor is what sets it apart from others. The XG2431 is a full HD 1080p display that boasts a 0.5ms response time with a 240Hz refresh rate. When put to the test, the results hold out as it does not disappoint at all. We tested the monitor at the highest possible settings while running an RTX 2070 Super with Intel i9-9700k on multiple games. There was hardly any frame-drop that we could notice during gameplay when we tested it on Destiny 2, Valorant, CS: GO, and Apex Legends. The visuals were buttery smooth and there was also little to no motion blur that was visible. We were able to achieve around 240FPS on the monitor on different games without any stutter which is a great sign.

The XG2431 is also one of the only monitors that has received a certification from popular testing site Blur Busters. ViewSonic has worked extensively with BlurBusters to ensure the lowest possible motion blur in this monitor and it has done a great job at achieving it. Even during fast-paced gameplay when the frames change quickly, there is barely any motion blur visible which makes this a perfect monitor for FPS games and also competitive gaming.

The colour and the overall display is decent at best as the 1080p resolution limits the experience one can have while playing games that are more graphics intensive and which are better when all the details in its visuals are clearly visible. Unfortunately, as good as this monitor is at reducing motion blur, it somewhat lacks in terms of being able to deliver that.

The colour accuracy is fairly good pre and post-calibration; however, the HDR is just mediocre. The monitor also has a matte finish screen which has minimal reflections, but the colour accuracy is not exactly ideal for games that have expansive open world elements. The VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification is not something to bank upon considering there is no local diming feature available. There were also random instances we found during the testing where the brightness would suddenly go up and almost blind you but that could be an isolated issue in the review unit and is not to be reflected on the overall quality of the monitor.

The most interesting feature of this monitor is the backlight strobing which not a lot of monitors offer. Users can try different modes from the PureXP menu in the monitor settings to see which one suits them the best. Hardcore gamers and enthusiasts will enjoy using this feature in order to reduce the persistence blur.

In addition to this, the monitor also has really low input lag which is great for gamers. Our tests showed an average of 2.8ms at 240hz which is pretty awesome. Unfortunately, there is no VRR feature which means that it is not the ideal choice for using consoles like the PS5 or the Xbox Series X.