Buying guide
ZOWIE TN and DyAc vs OLED for esports
How BenQ ZOWIE's DyAc strobing on fast TN panels compares with 480Hz and 540Hz OLEDs for competitive shooters, including frame-rate needs, VRR, flicker, and picture quality.
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Walk into most professional Counter-Strike and Valorant events and you will still see 24-inch BenQ ZOWIE TN monitors on stage. At the same time, 480Hz and 540Hz OLEDs now match or beat those TN panels on refresh rate. This guide explains what each approach does well so you can choose for how you play.
What DyAc does
DyAc (Dynamic Accuracy) is BenQ's backlight strobing. Instead of keeping the backlight on for the whole frame, it flashes it briefly while the liquid crystals have settled, so your eye sees each frame for a shorter time. That cuts the smear caused by sample-and-hold displays. BenQ has iterated through DyAc, DyAc+, and DyAc 2, which ZOWIE describes as using a dual backlight design, and has announced DyAc 3 for its new 1440p XQ series.
Independent testing shows strobing TN can look exceptionally clear. TechSpot found DyAc+ on the ZOWIE XL2566K the clearest motion it had tested at the time, holding about 330 nits while strobing and usable from roughly 100Hz to 360Hz.
The trade-offs:
- VRR is off while strobing. ZOWIE's US pages list VRR as available only with DyAc 2 turned off. Strobing works best when your frame rate stays at or above the refresh rate.
- Brightness can drop, depending on the mode and model.
- Flicker-free operation is off while strobing, which matters if you are sensitive to flicker.
- Picture quality is TN picture quality: narrow viewing angles, color that shifts off-axis, and no meaningful HDR.
What OLED does
OLED pixels switch almost instantly and light themselves, so there is very little smear from slow pixels. Motion clarity then depends mostly on frame duration: about 2.1 ms per frame at 480Hz and 1.9 ms at 540Hz on a sample-and-hold display. To get those numbers you must render that many frames per second.
OLED keeps VRR, needs no strobing, and gives you deep contrast and strong HDR for everything else you play. The costs are price, burn-in precautions for static content, and larger 27-inch screens that some esports players find too big to take in at a glance.
Side by side
| ZOWIE TN with DyAc 2 | 480–540Hz OLED | |
|---|---|---|
| Typical size | 24.1 inches, 1080p | 26.5–27 inches, 1440p |
| Motion clarity | Very clear when frame rate matches refresh | Very clear at very high frame rates |
| VRR while at best clarity | No | Yes |
| Picture for other games | Poor | Excellent |
| Static desktop use | No burn-in risk | Precautions needed |
| Built for esports ergonomics | Shields, S Switch, bearing stand | Varies |
Which to choose
- You play one or two shooters competitively, on a stable high frame rate, and want a tournament-style setup: a ZOWIE DyAc 2 monitor such as the XL2566X+ or XL2586X+.
- You want one screen for competitive and everything else: a fast OLED such as the ASUS PG27AQWP-W.
- You want strobing and VRR together: look at the ASUS XG248QSG with ELMB Sync, or a G-SYNC Pulsar monitor if you have an NVIDIA GPU.
A useful reality check comes from PC Gamer's review of the 600Hz XL2586X+: its reviewer felt 600Hz was only slightly better than 360Hz outside professional play. Refresh rate above what you can render, or above what you can perceive, is money that could buy a better picture.