If everyone could afford it, they would all be running huge high refresh rate monitors running at 1440p or 4k. But the reality is that high-end monitors are expensive. But most gamers have realized the importance of a high refresh rate and adaptive sync tech like FreeSync and G-Sync. Well, there is a cheap option available, at least normally (COVID has obviously caused supply issues across the board). Viotek has a smaller 22-inch monitor that runs at 1080p with a refresh rate of 144Hz and because of its price, it is one of their most popular monitors. The GFV22CB sells for $129.99 making it a great budget option, so today I’m going to take a look and see what you get for that price.

Product Name: Viotek GFV22CB

Review Sample Provided by: Viotek

Written by: Wes Compton

Amazon Affiliate Link: HERE

 

Specifications

Display Size

21.5 in

Dimensions (with stand)

19.34 x 6.17 x 15.1 in (491.3 x 156.7 x 383.5 mm)

Resolution

1920x1080p

Screen Ratio

16:9

Refresh Rate

144Hz

Display Type

VA Panel

Response Time

5ms GTG

Viewing Angle

H170° / V160°

Dot/Pixel Pitch

0.24795 x 0.24795 mm

Display Colors

16.7M Colors

Color Gamut

sRGB: 92%, – NTSC: 68%

Contrast Ratio

1000:1

Dynamic Contrast Ratio

1M:1

Brightness

220cd/m2

VESA

75x75mm

Ports

1x DP 1.2 (cable included), 2x HDMI 1.4, 1x 3.5mm Audio Out

Tilt-Adjust

-5° ~ 15°

Additional Features

GAMEPLUS, AMD FreeSync™, G-SYNC Compatible*, FPS/RTS Optimization, Anti-Glare Treated Screen, Low-Blue Light Mode

 

 


Photos and Features

Packaging for monitors range from crazy full-color setups for high-end monitors and basic or sometimes almost blank brown boxes. The Viotek GFV22CB comes in a brown box but they did use black print. In fact, they used a lot, most of the box is black with a picture of the monitor taking up most of the front. The model name is easy to spot and they also include the screen size right at the corner of the monitor picture. Viotek then breaks down some of the features with icons that show the 1080P resolution, 1000:1 contrast ration, 144Hz refresh rate, and more. Around on the back, they drop the picture and features with a basic design and the brand and model in the middle along with the screen size and “gaming monitor”. You aren’t going to be able to hide that this is a monitor though when it is sitting outside of your doorstep.

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Inside the box, like with any monitor, the GFV22CB comes wrapped up in foam with foam on each end keeping it safe. The stand comes stuffed into the foam up on top as well. Both halves of the stand are also wrapped up in bubble wrap and then they also have the cords also hidden in the foam as well. All together you end up with the two stand parts, a power brick/cord, a DisplayPort cable, manual, and screws/tool/and plug to put the stand together. 

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Here are the two stand halves, one is the larger wide portion and the other half is thin and simple. Both are cast aluminum with a black finish. The two bags of screws get you the five screws needed to put the stand together and on to the monitor in the left bag. The right bag then has standoffs for when you are using the included VESA mount to prevent the VESA mount from conflicting with the desk mount which I will show more later. The two stand pieces go together with four screws, once together the stand well… stands.

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So on the back of the GFV22CB, the four VESA mounts all sit around a small aluminum peg in the middle. This is where the included stand mounts and that is also why for VESA mounting you need to use the included standoffs. The center mount is a unique shape and will slide into the stand and you only have to use one screw to attach the two together. Viotek includes a second screw and an extra for the stand as well, just in case you lose one or have any problems. Once together there is a square rubber plug to cover the hole the screw goes in. While back here looking at the back you can see that the top 2/3rd of the back is flat and thin and all of the electronics are tucked into the bottom 1/3.

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To the left of the mount on the back, there is just one location with all of the connections put all together. On the left, you have the DC power plug which works with the power brick included. Two HDMI ports and one DisplayPort for display connection options. There is also one audio jack for an audio output.

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The side profile of the screen itself shows the size difference between the top 2/3 and the lower 2/3 on the back where they have all of the electronics all packed away. Up top, the thickness is around 6-7mm thick and down at the bottom, not counting the mount sticking out of the back that area is around 27mm thick.

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Now with this being a budget monitor, you can’t expect too much from the stand as far as movement. I was surprised that Viotek included any adjustment at all. You can’t pivot left or right, slide up or down, or anything like that. But you can adjust the tilt forwards and backward, including being angled down slightly at the most so if you have it sitting higher than you or you are sitting higher than the monitor you can get the viewing angle correct. I will say that our initial sample leaned a lot to the side and Viotek replaced that stand. The new one is better but I did have to pull on it to get it where I wanted.

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Then, of course, we have the business end of the GFV22CB. The bezel for the GFV22CB is almost all at the bottom edge. The top and sides both have a 3mm bezel which is especially nice if you are planning on running more than one monitor in the future. It also keeps the overall size down for transport as well. The bottom bezel was 15mm or just a hair over a half-inch thick which is still not that bad, two of the monitors on my desk right now have a similar side bezel on the sides lol. The screen is, of course, the main focus, and the GFV22CB is a 21.5-inch display and it runs a resolution of 1920x1080 aka 1080p which gets you that standard 16:9 aspect ratio. It is a VA panel and it has a refresh rate of 5ms grey to grey. Viotek has it listed with a contrast ratio of 1000:1 and with a dynamic contrast ratio of 1 million to 1. Its big feature is, of course, the 144Hz refresh ratio and along with that the FreeSync support and G-Sync support. That second one is surprising, a lot of monitors support FreeSync but G-Sync is more expensive, and Nvidias support for what they call Adaptive Sync aka FreeSync is often not supported on lower-end models because Nvidia has strict standards.

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The bottom edge in the center is where you will find all of the display controls hidden. It is a standard layout with a power button, enter, up and down buttons, and a menu button. All are labeled even though you can’t see the labels when the monitor is standing and all of the buttons are the same shape. Round with a hole in the middle. I would prefer the power button and a few other buttons have a different design that you can feel without looking. But you quickly pick up the layout even when just fumbling around. The rest of the bottom is filled with vents for airflow and a sticker with the model and serial number on it. You can also see here that the stand does come with three small rubber feet. You can also see how the stand is a little twisted. That is actually our replacement stand.

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Performance

For performance testing, I don’t have a colorimeter on hand, but with the GFV22CB being a sub $150 budget monitor I don’t think perfect colors are expected or there at all. I started off my testing by getting the monitor configured correctly and I wanted to make sure it would even run at the 144Hz that it was advertised at. Plugging in that big power wart and a DisplayPort cable and I was good to go and 144Hz came up right away.

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The next concern was with G-Sync, would Nvidia even support it? I honestly thought that the GFV22CB would be one of those “G-Sync possible” but only after overriding Nvidia’s strict GSync Adaptive requirements. Surprisingly once hooked up Nvidia popped up with support right away. You just need to make sure it is turned on in the control panel. You can also pick from fullscreen and windowed mode support.

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I mentioned the controls on the bottom of the GFV22CB. Well here is what the menus look like and most of you have most likely used a monitor with a similar layout and look as this is fairly standard. You do have all of the normal control with things like brightness and contrast as well as color temps and custom color profiles as well if you prefer. The menu has a few options for the menu itself as well where you can add transparency, move its location on the screen, and set the timer for it to close if you haven’t touched a button. You can also change your connection source if you have both the HDMI and DisplayPort hooked up and turn on FreeSync if you are using an AMD GPU.

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Like most “gaming” monitors these days the GFV22CB also has a few basic options to add a curser. The two examples below are the design options and you can pick from green or red. Now there are a lot of debates out there when it comes to games without a curser, especially anything competitive on adding one through the monitor which can’t be caught by anti-cheat software. I’ve personally never used one, but I do think that if I did want to use one both of these designs would too much. I would prefer to see a single dot option and a simple plus sign style. The options that the GFV22CB has would cover up too much. I also think black should be an option.

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To take a look at some of the GFV22CB’s performance I used Eizo’s monitor test. It doesn’t cover everything, and it leaves a lot to subjectivity, but it is a nice way to compare monitors and turn them when you don’t have a colorimeter. In the color uniformity test, I did notice some darker areas up at the top of the GFV22CB, especially the top right. Text on the text test was solid, though I haven’t used a 1080p monitor in a while so the screen door effect was a lot more noticeable for me.

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Being a VA panel there are tradeoffs. It does help with the contrast and the refresh rate which is important. But you also have to deal with a small viewing angle and that was obvious when I got to that test. The five dots on the screen are all the same color, but you can see how they change depending on the angle we look at the screen. The worst ware from the bottom which IMO is better than problems when looking down. Side to side was noticeable as well.

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I also took a look using testufo.com to make sure that the 144Hz refresh rate was working as well. It is obviously hard to photograph but you can see in the picture below that the gaps between movement were smaller as we got up into higher FPS. There is some notable ghosting but it is also exaggerated in the photograph as well.

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Overall and Final Verdict

Honestly, I have been running 1440p and higher monitors on my PC and with most of my testing setups for years now. Most have also been high refresh rate and have FreeSync or G-Sync available as well. The exception to that has been our LAN rig monitors for both myself and my wife. For one we keep them packed up and ready to go, which I know isn’t an option that everyone has. But I also wouldn’t feel comfortable transporting expensive monitors to events because of how easy they are to break and I’m not willing to go through the trouble of packing them back up into the original box for real protection. But I have been on the lookout for new options for a long time, we still have thick LCD options from before LED backlighting was available and they run 1080p but don’t have a higher refresh rate or any extra options.

The GFV22CB from Viotek stood out to me immediately as a possibly good option right when they send the monitors information over. Just on the stats alone, it is an interesting monitor. A cheap monitor running at 1080p, 144Hz, and with G-Sync and FreeSync support. The 21.5-inch size was a bit of a downside for me, I personally prefer 23/24 for events but it could work. It is significantly thinner as well. The stand that comes with the GFV22CB is a bit of a problem for LAN use as it doesn’t break down easily. I wish it used thumbscrews or similar. The stand also caused me a lot of headaches just in general. Our original stand had a big lean and our replacement worked but then had a lean at one point as well. It is a very cheap monitor and you can tell this is an area where they saved money to keep those other important features.

As for the monitor itself performance. In most ways, it was exactly what you would expect. It did run at 144Hz and it does support FreeSync. I was surprised that G-Sync worked out of the box, however. You also have to know that a cheap monitor isn’t going to be spot on for display accuracy. It worked well but I wouldn’t use it for editing photos for example. The viewing angle is horrible as well, just like with more VA panels. So you are going to want to get the monitor in a good position where you aren’t looking down or up on it too much, of course, the stand doesn’t have any adjustment (other than angling down and up slightly) so you might have to get creative.

All in all, though, it comes down to the price point. The GFV22CB sells for $129.99 (well it will/has, I will talk about that in a second) and at that price, you are getting a steal. You are getting gaming functionality at a budget price point and you aren’t really sacrificing anything that you wouldn’t already have trouble with on budget monitors. The only significant problem is that the GFV22CB sells so well that it was completely unavailable for a while now. The problems that I had with the stand caused delays in my coverage and then COVID and other outside factors delayed things on my end even more and when I went to write about the GFV22CB I couldn’t find ANY. But I’ve heard from Viotek that another shipment is coming in and those of you who don’t mind the small size and want 144Hz and G-Sync and FreeSync will be able to find the GFV22CB soon. Maybe it will be your next LAN monitor. I would love to see a similar model at 23/24 inches with a few stand improvements to make it easy to transport and I would for sure being picking up a pair for our LAN bags. That is of course when these crazy times calm down and events are a possibility again!

fv5value

Live Pricing: HERE

 

Author Bio
garfi3ld
Author: garfi3ldWebsite: http://lanoc.org
Editor-in-chief
You might call him obsessed or just a hardcore geek. Wes's obsession with gaming hardware and gadgets isn't anything new, he could be found taking things apart even as a child. When not poking around in PC's he can be found playing League of Legends, Awesomenauts, or Civilization 5 or watching a wide variety of TV shows and Movies. A car guy at heart, the same things that draw him into tweaking cars apply when building good looking fast computers. If you are interested in writing for Wes here at LanOC you can reach out to him directly using our contact form.

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campos replied the topic: #38769 20 Jul 2020 08:27
hi, could you take a picture of the monitor and transformer voltage? Since I'm from Argentina and I don't know if it would work with my 220v voltage. thanks
garfi3ld's Avatar
garfi3ld replied the topic: #38770 22 Jul 2020 06:16
Sorry its a touch blurry but I hope it helps! 100-240v is listed. If that doesn't work Im sure a 220v power supply that outputs 12v at 2.5 amps will be easy to find

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