Review: AOC Agon AG251FZ

Conclusion

Solely looking at panel performance is missing most of the point for this monitor, clearly. AOC positions this as the screen for the gamer who enjoys super-high refresh rates, so we set up the fastest Radeon to date, the Fury X, and played through some of the games that can run at stratospheric frame rates.

First up at 1080p was Doom, routinely hitting 200fps and in the upper echelons of the supported FreeSync range, plays wonderfully smoothly. Dropping the maximum refresh rate down to 144Hz - still in FreeSync territory - shows a perceptible, but slight, drop in the instant response available higher up. And as we can go down to 120Hz and 60Hz through the settings, whilst still in adaptive-framerate mode, you begin to feel that something isn't quite right. It's like getting used to a QHD monitor and then going back to a FHD - there's nothing overtly wrong, but you know it can do better.

Switching gears to League of Legends also shows that gaming is at its best when over 144Hz and allied to adaptive frame-rate technology. Are the differences enough to warrant a near doubling of the price when compared to a screen of that specification? The answer is solely down to how much of a difference the extra refresh rate makes in games you play. For us, a 240Hz monitor is very niche, yet it is good to see that AOC both plays in it and does a fine job.

There's no real evidence of motion blur that can affect screens of this type, either, as the screen's overdrive setting, at medium, all but eliminates it, leading to a smooth, fluid gaming experience. If our pockets were deep enough, we'd use one of these screens solely for gaming and then switch to a larger, higher-resolution IPS monitor for productivity.

And there is the rub. No one monitor is perfect for all facets of the PC ecosystem. The AOC Agon AG251FZ is a fine choice for the budding eSporter who lives and dies by frame rate.

AOC Agon AG251FZ

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The AOC Agon AG251FZ is available to purchase from Scan Computers.

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