24” 1080p 165Hz IPS Gaming Monitor – AOC 24G2SPU Review

AOC’s last 24 inch, high refresh rate IPS monitor went down a treat as one of the best selling monitors on the market, so its replacement has a lot to love up to. This is the AOC 24G2SPU, and its main upgrade is a new and improved 165Hz refresh rate, from its new IPS panel. Is this still the king of the hill, is this worth your money? Let’s test it and see shall we?

First, let’s talk response times. AOC make a big point about this monitor having a “1ms response time”, and it’s at this point I’d like to introduce a new rating system, a fact checker, which rates this as… oh! A bare-faced lie! Wonderful! Why? Well first things first, AOC are calling the “MPRT” or “Moving Picture Response Time”, the response time, which is purposefully misleading because MPRT isn’t a pixel response time measurement (video explaining that in detail in the cards above). Second, this could actually come close to being called false advertisement, as the wording on their main product page expressly states “A pixel response time of 1ms means speed without the smear for an enhanced experience.” – they are explicitly stating that this monitor has a 1ms PIXEL response time here, but that’s just… wrong. They do then separately claim the panel runs a “4ms GTG response time” on the spec page – a direct conflict to their main product page, and equally wrong too.

Here’s what the response times look like with overdrive off. An average of 10.6ms, with some transitions taking over 17ms! The lowest I recorded was 4.9ms, or almost 5 times longer than their claim. But that’s with overdrive switched off, surely with overdrive on its maximum setting it’s going to be better, right? Well yes, but also no. Overdrive on “Strong” does knock the average down to 8ms, with a single result running a now lower 3.4ms, but that’s a charitable reading. The low end falling transitions still take upwards of 13 or 14ms, and only 37% of the transitions fit in the refresh rate window.

You’ll also notice a bit of an anomaly in the overshoot results – across the board, even on “Strong” overdrive, the panel basically doesn’t overshoot… Except for RGB 0 to RGB 204. That one goes to the moon and back – just look at the graph. It’s a massive spike, running 25 RGB values too high – but here’s the thing, RGB 0 to RG 153 basically doesn’t overshoot at all. RGB 51 to 204, literally nothing. It’s just that single transition that’s borked. My thoughts are that the overdrive modes haven’t been tuned properly, as with a more aggressive trim on the other transitions (and less on 0-204) this could be a pretty impressive panel.

What’s most frustrating about this is that if AOC were more honest about the response time, I’d actually have a lot less of an issue with this. Sure this isn’t lightning fast, but it isn’t all that bad. Yes it could definitely be better, and it’s not exactly your next pro esports display, but for the average gamer especially at this kind of budget I wouldn’t feel the need to complain too much. A look at the UFO test confirms the average performance, with between 3 and 4 ghosted frames on screen depending on the overdrive mode. The UFO does get relatively well rendered on most frames though so again while it’s not perfect, it’s good enough.

Moving onto happier news, input lag – regardless of how I measure it – is great. My time sleuth reports around 1.3ms of on-display latency, and NVIDIA’s LDAT reports a respectable and consistent 18ms which is in the upper tier of my results. What’s also decent is the gaming experience itself. The 165Hz refresh rate is definitely nice, and while the panel isn’t the fastest which did make it a little difficult for me to feel confident in clicking heads, it’s fast enough for you to have a decent time in most genres of games. Something like a racing game plays rather well on here, even if trying to drive with a keyboard is like slamming your head into a brick wall repeatedly.

I also rather like how vibrant the colours look here, and for good reason. The panel covers around 91% of the DCI P3 spectrum – a great result in this sort of class for sure. To top it off, AOC actually under-reported the panel’s brightness. They list it at 300 nits, but I recorded it at a little shy of 500 nits! That’s a substantial improvement, and for brighter environments that can make a big difference in usability for sure. It’s not quite bright enough for any level of good HDR support, despite the HDR modes available in the on screen menu. What also impressed me was the colour accuracy, with my SpyderX reporting an average DeltaE of just under 1, which is excellent and makes this a great choice for anyone who wants to game and do content creation.

It’s worth noting that the monitor has a healthy amount of adjustment from its stand, allowing for every motion from height adjust to tilt, swivel and even rotation to put it in portrait mode if you’d like. You’ve also got decent I/O, with a 4 port USB 3 hub – the yellow port is a charging port – alongside two HDMI 1.4 ports, a DisplayPort 1.2 port, and even VGA if you want to hook up something from literally a decade or more ago – oh and audio in and out too. The OSD is controlled with downward facing buttons on the right side – I’d prefer a joystick style switch instead but since the menu is fairly sparse you’ll only want to set overdrive to maximum, set your brightness, then leave it there.

All in all, the 24G2SPU is a decent option. The response times – and irresponsible marketing – definitely let it down, but for the price I’d find it hard to argue at least with the product itself. It isn’t perfect, but as far as a minor refresh to swap to a 165Hz panel goes this definitely isn’t a bad shout. The only final catch is that while stock lasts, the original 24G2U is currently £160 on Amazon, whereas the SPU is £200 instead. If it was my money I’d happily plant it on the OG, at least for the time being. Once that stock dries up, then sure, the SPU is an equally good choice.