Bob
Setup was very easy, two screws go into the back of the monitor, two more into the base. A Phillips screwdriver is included. There is an HDMI 1.4 port that will do 1080 at 120hz, an HDMI 2.0 port that will do 1080 at 144hz, and a Display Port that will do 1080 144hz. The monitor comes with a Display Port cable. Upon powering the monitor on, it will be in 60hz. This needs to be changed in the Windows 10 settings. Under the resolution settings are Advance Display Adapter settings, thats where you change it to 144hz. If you attempt to change it elsewhere, it likely wont take. If your on screen text is even a bit fuzzy, you probably are still in 60hz mode and dont realize it. I changed mine in the AMD control panel, but it didnt actually change until I went into the Windows settings and changed it to 144hz there. FreeSync works very well. I believe the range is 49hz to 144hz. I use AMD Chill to keep my range between 70 and 144. All VSync is turned off so that FreeSync can operate unimpeded. If youre contantly above 144, which is unlikely on AMD hardware, then you may want to try Adaptive VSync. FreeSync also needs to be enabled in the monitor menu. OverDrive is supposed to give you better pixel response. I did not find this worth it, the small loss in color depth wasnt worth the slightly faster response time. The monitor also has advance calibration settings, gamma, red, blue, green, yellow, cyan, and magenta. I found the default to be slightly greenish blue, I lowered each of those a couple of ticks. I also lowered gamma from 2.2 to 2.4 just to get a little more depth on the black levels. Just to note, 2.2 was spot on in my testing, I just prefer the slightly darker shade of black. There is a movie mode that has deep blacks and super saturated, while it looks good, the shadows are crushed in games making it difficult to spot enemies. I found the FPS pre-set to be pretty good. The speakers are awful, not even worth mentioning. I also enjoy the curve monitor. My previous is a 27 inch flat and I always felt like I was sitting too close for the size. 24 inch on a desk is much more comfortable. Very good monitor for the price, 144hz is immediately noticeable, I cannot believe I went this long without it. I would recommend this monitor. My hardware is a Ryzen CPU with an AMD rx 580. Update:. Ive been getting intermittent black screens for about 3 seconds at a time. Ive tried many different settings. The fix seems to be to set the color to 6 bit rather than 8 bit. Update 2: Lowering the color depth did not fix the issue, it eventually came back. Ive also tried gpu scaling, full screen, preserve aspect ratio, vsyn on, vsyn off, overdrive on, overdrive off, frame rate limiter... Pretty much every possible setting. Ive tried every suggestion online. This seems to be a moderately common issue with various FreeSync monitors from various manufacturers. I have no choice but to return the monitor. I am trying a TN monitor. I am guessing that most of the VA monitors in this price range actually use the same panel from the same factory. To make sure I truly get a different panel, I am switching to a Dell TN FreeSync monitor. Update 3: Ive had the Dell D2719HGF for nearly a week without an issue. It has performed flawlessly. A couple of differences to note, the depth of the black level on the Sceptre is clearly better being a VA panel. However, the color saturation is just as good on the Dell with a bit of tweaking. The Dell is far superior is a few areas. I didnt notice until I compared, but the text on the Sceptre was a bit fuzzy, probably due to the lower quality panel and the curvature. I also didnt think I would notice a difference in speed or smoothness considering they are both 144hz FreeSync, but the Dell has noticeably less motion blur, which is should being a TN panel. The Dell build quality is also superior. And... The Dell actually works without going black every few minutes.