doing so much research on gaming monitors that I now have mush for brains

[Boydie66]

I have an i7 7700k and a Galax “Hall of Fame” GTX 1080 GPU. My current monitor is an ASUS 27” 1080p 144Hz.
I play games such as Elder Scrolls, Assassins Creed and Witcher etc.
All the research suggests that 1440p is the way to go, 144Hz, 27”, (I live in a 1 bedroom apartment so my PC desk is tiny so depth wise of the monitor stand has to be considered), G Sync and I would like it to be curved.
All monitors I have seen have at least one element missing either no G Sync or they are not IPS or they are not 1440p or they are a flat screen. I really like the look of Asus’ https://www.asus.com/au/Monitors/ROG-SWIFT-PG27VQ/ but it’s a TN panel. Am I being too picky, as I sit right in front of the monitor? Is what I am looking for not available?
Should I look at 4K? Is going from 144 FPS on a 1080p to 60 FPS on a 4k going to be an improvement or not? Is there still issues with Windows scaling with a 4K monitor?
Any suggestions please.

 

[tinytomlogan]

The colours are much better on the TN's now but in reality you are the only one that will be able to decide if a faster panel is better for you or if you want colours to be better.

I personally use the PG279's and I love them but there is a freesync TN in the office that does look like butter with sync'd frames.

You need to remember though with Gsync (or freesync) enabled buying a 165Hz screen doesnt mean it runs at 165. To get 165Hz your game would need to be played at 165FPS

1440p is the best of both the resolution and performance impact wolds and youll only end up maxing a 4K screen out with basic games like rocket league.

So you need to decide colours - IPS/TN or refresh rate 4ms (IPS) vs normally 1ms (TN)

If youre just a casual gamer and enjoy turning all the settings right up for eyecandy then Id get a decent IPS based Gsync panel

Just remember if you get any in game issues with flicker etc then thats a gamer/driver issue not the screen itself

 

[Boydie66]

Just remember if you get any in game issues with flicker etc then thats a gamer/driver issue not the screen itself[/QUOTE]
I think I will have a closer look at the ROG-SWIFT-PG27VQ
Thank You

 

[AlienALX]

No you are not being picky. Buying a monitor is a nightmare of a task because as you rightly point out, there is always some sort of sacrifice. I would say if the primary use is gaming a TN will be OK. Mostly because you are looking straight at it. However, if you have to live with TN on a daily basis for work and so on? I would avoid. IPS and VA are so far ahead when it comes to black levels/brightness without going grey etc that it's not even funny.

I ended up choosing a media screen. 1440p, 70hz (well it's better than 60 and all of my games work fine and don't break) with Freesync that hilariously I do not use.

That was the trade off. I wanted G-sync but found it almost impossible to find a screen matching the rest of my criteria.

 

[Dicehunter]

PG279Q gets my vote, I had the PG278Q, Basically an earlier version of the PG27VQ you linked, And while TN for gaming is great, As soon as you lean a bit or want to do other stuff besides game, That's where it falls of a cliff, Spend the extra money and get the PG279Q with the IPS display, You won't be disappointed.

 

[Wraith]

Personally if I had the cash I'd go 27" 1440p at 75Hz+ IPS 1ms I feel your pain shopping for a panel it's almost as bad a building a rig just ticking all those boxes. As a lot of forum members know I game A LOT, I run 2 panels at the moment 1x 24" 1080p Acer TN 60Hz for Discord and monitoring and my primary is a 27" 1080p Asus IPS 75Hz 1ms panel I run all games on this at 4K DSR with NVIDIA Fast Sync enabled and it's night and day over V-Sync'd 1080.

 

[AlienALX]

Personally if I had the cash I'd go 27" 1440p at 75Hz+ IPS 1ms I feel your pain shopping for a panel it's almost as bad a building a rig just ticking all those boxes. As a lot of forum members know I game A LOT, I run 2 panels at the moment 1x 24" 1080p Acer TN 60Hz for Discord and monitoring and my primary is a 27" 1080p Asus IPS 75Hz 1ms panel I run all games on this at 4K DSR with NVIDIA Fast Sync enabled and it's night and day over V-Sync'd 1080.

It's the worst part of building a PC, that is for sure. With a PC so long as you are prepared to pay for it you will get what you want. With a monitor? you will never find the perfect one and will have to put up with sacrifice. Which really sucks.

If you went into buying a monitor with totally no compromise you wouldn't buy one. It really is that bad.

 

[Wraith]

It's the worst part of building a PC, that is for sure. With a PC so long as you are prepared to pay for it you will get what you want. With a monitor? you will never find the perfect one and will have to put up with sacrifice. Which really sucks.

If you went into buying a monitor with totally no compromise you wouldn't buy one. It really is that bad.

PCWorld have some beauties in at the moment and I'm so tempted to pull the trigger on a pair. The LENOVO 65CEGAC1UD has my eye with a couple of compromises namely the refresh rate but that should OC quite well.

 

[AlienALX]

Mine is OC. It's only supposed to do 70 on AMD, and I know a couple of people who OCed it to 70 on a Nvidia and failed. I think the latest one is guaranteed to do 70 on Nvidia though.

 

[SuB]

I have an i7 7700k and a Galax “Hall of Fame” GTX 1080 GPU. My current monitor is an ASUS 27” 1080p 144Hz.
I play games such as Elder Scrolls, Assassins Creed and Witcher etc.
All the research suggests that 1440p is the way to go, 144Hz, 27”, (I live in a 1 bedroom apartment so my PC desk is tiny so depth wise of the monitor stand has to be considered), G Sync and I would like it to be curved.
All monitors I have seen have at least one element missing either no G Sync or they are not IPS or they are not 1440p or they are a flat screen. I really like the look of Asus’ https://www.asus.com/au/Monitors/ROG-SWIFT-PG27VQ/ but it’s a TN panel. Am I being too picky, as I sit right in front of the monitor? Is what I am looking for not available?
Should I look at 4K? Is going from 144 FPS on a 1080p to 60 FPS on a 4k going to be an improvement or not? Is there still issues with Windows scaling with a 4K monitor?
Any suggestions please.

GSync is only "useful" if your frames are regularly below 60/the native refresh of the screen, I'm not sure where this idea of running 144hz Gsync comes from, but it seems daft, GSync was designed so that a monitor receiving a framerate lower than it's native refresh rate could display the frames without the need to buffer them between refreshes, causing input lag, Above 60hz, it's mostly pointless. That said, if you're looking to push 1440p or 4k, it'l help, rig dependent.

There are more than just IPS and TN panels etc now so that's also worth considering. You can get 144hz 1440p with better colour than IPS can produce, HDR with better response times and at better angles now. It'l cost you a lot though.

Personally, stick with Samsung/LG/Dell and avoid the Asus/Acer brands QC is crap there and they're far more "disposable" than the others, and they seem stuck in the TN/IPS tech when there's better options out there now.

 

[AlienALX]

Yeah I gotta say I did LOL when my mate said this morning "I'm not sure about this 35" screen being only 165hz (or 144, something like that). I might wait for the 200hz screens coming out soon". I then reminded him that his Titan Xp would probably only push around 80 FPS any way.

LOL 165 FPS at that resolution? dream on !!

 

[Boydie66]

So ditch 4k, ditch TN thats cleared for me. But I dont understand the argument of G Sync if I am going 1440p at 144 Hz and lets say I look at HDR on a 27 inch screen with my GTX 1080 and i7 7700k would G Sync be needed? I only game casually but like games to run smooth and like to have the eyecandy. I usually rely on Nvidia Geforce experience to optimise the game settings for me. Here is an example http://www.samsung.com/au/monitors/c27hg70/ would this monitor fulfill buttery smooth gaming with all the eyecandy? with my GPU and CPU

 

[AlienALX]

I would not buy a monitor with 1080 height. So 1440p is where you are going to want to be, because 1200 pixel height is kinda dead now. Don't forget if you are on Nvidia you can drive beyond the res of the monitor using Dynamic Super Resolution. I have a 32" 1440p and I play Fallout 4 and most others at 4k. Some games don't work properly with it, but they are usually B titles any way. I just bought a 1680x1050 monitor and have no plans at all to run my games at that res on it.

Gsync is the best sync technology out there. I've tried them all, and it was excellent for me because I was running 4k at the time with two Titan Black, meaning any sort of SLi fail at all meant I was playing in the 30s FPS wise. And it made a huge difference. However, there are other techs you can use within the driver that will improve your experience far beyond traditional Vsync too. So Gsync may be the best, but most of the time it is not worth the money unless you think you will be really struggling. And I can't see a 1080 struggling much at 1440p. It will at 4k, but you can always drop down out of DSR if you want to.

It's a shame Nvidia don't detail and give out more information on their actual drivers and the functions they have and what they do tbh. Some poor sod put an awful lot of work into it, and they hardly ever talk about how good they are. But yes, the Nvidia drivers are a Swiss Army knife, and you can have plenty of fun on just a regular old monitor.

 

[Wraith]

You don't need GSync, just use fast sync in the NVIDIA control panel for all games and disable V-Sync in game. It's witchcraft but keeps those frames buttery smooth even in DSR.

 

[NeverBackDown]

Fast sync is better than vsync/nothing but it's still not as good as Free/G sync

 

[AlienALX]

Fast sync is better than vsync/nothing but it's still not as good as Free/G sync

It all depends on the range IMO. Mine is stupid, IIRC 45-70? something daft like that. Meaning when you run out of horse power you get stutter regardless. Freesync with my Fury X did absolutely nothing for me at all.

 

[NeverBackDown]

It's better regardless. The range is a different scenario and specifically in this case it's irrelevant because using a GTX on a Freesync display doesn't work anyways

 

[Boydie66]

I would not buy a monitor with 1080 height. So 1440p is where you are going to want to be, because 1200 pixel height is kinda dead now. Don't forget if you are on Nvidia you can drive beyond the res of the monitor using Dynamic Super Resolution. I have a 32" 1440p and I play Fallout 4 and most others at 4k. Some games don't work properly with it, but they are usually B titles any way. I just bought a 1680x1050 monitor and have no plans at all to run my games at that res on it.

Gsync is the best sync technology out there. I've tried them all, and it was excellent for me because I was running 4k at the time with two Titan Black, meaning any sort of SLi fail at all meant I was playing in the 30s FPS wise. And it made a huge difference. However, there are other techs you can use within the driver that will improve your experience far beyond traditional Vsync too. So Gsync may be the best, but most of the time it is not worth the money unless you think you will be really struggling. And I can't see a 1080 struggling much at 1440p. It will at 4k, but you can always drop down out of DSR if you want to.

It's a shame Nvidia don't detail and give out more information on their actual drivers and the functions they have and what they do tbh. Some poor sod put an awful lot of work into it, and they hardly ever talk about how good they are. But yes, the Nvidia drivers are a Swiss Army knife, and you can have plenty of fun on just a regular old monitor.

Thank you for all the information I am afraid that most has gone over my head unfortunately but I do appreciate your time. The message I am getting is that to get a 1440p, go with IPS for the apparent better colours, though it was suggested HDR and stay away from ASUS, ACER due to QC issues, again too many choices for my limited knowledge. And if the one I choose has G Sync great if not dont worry as there are other tools to be used from Nvidia. Is that correct?

 

[AlienALX]

Thank you for all the information I am afraid that most has gone over my head unfortunately but I do appreciate your time. The message I am getting is that to get a 1440p, go with IPS for the apparent better colours, though it was suggested HDR and stay away from ASUS, ACER due to QC issues, again too many choices for my limited knowledge. And if the one I choose has G Sync great if not dont worry as there are other tools to be used from Nvidia. Is that correct?

Yes. There are two ways of using Sync without using laggy old Vsync in the drivers themselves. Plus there is something called DSR, which basically renders the game and 4k (or even higher if you wish) and then makes it fit onto your screen at that pixel density. So in a nutshell you can run 4k games on a non 4k monitor with most of the detail.

 

[Boydie66]

Yes. There are two ways of using Sync without using laggy old Vsync in the drivers themselves. Plus there is something called DSR, which basically renders the game and 4k (or even higher if you wish) and then makes it fit onto your screen at that pixel density. So in a nutshell you can run 4k games on a non 4k monitor with most of the detail.

Cheers I will look at DSR a bit closer.