What monitor

[Skouperd]

Hi guys, here is a question which I trust will open up some form of discussion. What kind of monitor will you recommend?

In the left corner, we have a Dell U2713H monitor, 2560x1440 monitor capable of 10bit colors. It is however limited to 60Hz but is great for the colour quality (display of over 1billion colours) and basically, being a 25x14 monitor.

In the right corner, we have a range of different 1080 monitors, capable of faster refresh rates such as 120Hz, for instance the ASUS VG278H (or whatever Samsung has or anything).

Now, I have a fair idea about the differences, the pro's and con's of each of the two monitors. Faster refresh rates = cool for games, better colours / higher resolutions = cool for photo editing etc. Also bear in mind that most of the games I play tend to be slower paced (you youngsters will get old too) so having a massive refresh rate is not the be all and end all for me. Regarding the additional GPU power needed to run the extra resolution, don't worry about that. I should add that I do about 50:50 editing and gaming...

Now, I would like some opinions on which one whould you suggest or if you have an alternative suggestion which will it be?

So, talk to me oh wise ones...


PS: BTW, I've tested out a http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00BUI44US/?tag=ufomonitors-20 monitor yesterday (friend asked me to "test" it till January) but I soon (as in within the first couple of minutes) noticed the monitor has a dead pixel on. A word of advise, if you have any form of OCD... do NOT get a monitor with a dead or stuck pixel on, it annoys the living crap out of you! Also, I am not that impressed with the colour range on it so will not be buying it.

[J_Th4ng]

Tough decision Denis, and a very interesting choice to be made.

My first thought would be that a higher res monitor needs more graphics horsepower to run. So you need to be sure to pair the 25x14 monitor with a very good GPU, and be prepared to upgrade GPUs as games come out with higher graphical fidelity.

Obviously, to get the most out of a 120/144Hz monitor, you need good GPU power as well. However, lower FPS from the GPU aren't as much of an issue with a high refresh rate monitor as they are with a high res monitor.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you're using the PC for. If it's graphic design work, then I'd go for higher res. If it's mostly for gaming/movie watching, higher refresh rates are king.

If I were upgrading monitors (and I will be soonish), I'd want the following:

- 27"
- 1080p (or preferably 1200p - unlikely I know)
- 120/144Hz refresh rate
- nVidia G-Sync

[Stu]

Anyone want to offer me their second hand monitors they no longer require? Offer me a price if you keen. I'm very much in the market for a new monitor.

[Megageth]

- 27"
- 1080p (or preferably 1200p - unlikely I know)
- 120/144Hz refresh rate
- nVidia G-Sync

I am also postponing any kind of monitor upgrade until such products ^ appear at reasonable prices. For some reason the manufacturers seem to have picked 24" as the standard for gaming. Hopefully 26/27" will have decent options along those lines though.

[KakHard]

Skoups, jy kan more kyk na my 27" SA950D in aksie.

120Hz is sag op mens se oë.

[Skouperd]

Thanks Eggy, will be really nice yes.

Mega, I think what a lot of people are saying is that whether you play on a 24" monitor versus a 27" monitor, and both have a resolution of 1920x1080 then the smaller monitor will enable you to actually take in more information at once that you having to turn your head around in case somebody is shooting you on the edge of the monitor. (physical size). Because let's all agree, whether we have a 19", 24" or 27" or 30" we never move further away from the monitors... I think that is why some of these great gamers actually prefer a small monitor rather than a bigger one which requires you to move your eyes / head to see things.

[KakHard]

I sit pretty far from my monitor (which is better for your eyes anyway) so the 27" is fine for me.

[Morphza]

I'm currently looking at the VG278HE (newer version of the VG278H)

[Skouperd]

that is a ncie monitor!

[Skouperd]

Ok, guys, here's what I did: I've got myself this monitor:

Asus VG278H 27" 3D LED with NVIDIA® 3D Vision kit , Trace-free , 2x 3w speaker , 3-way adjustable ( tilt+swivel+height ) stand , Full HD 1920x1080 ( 16:9 WUGA+ ) ; brightness- 300cd/m2 ; contrast ratio - 1000:1 / 50000000:1 , response time- 2ms / 120Hz , 120Hz - D-SUB + 1x HDMi + DVi + headphone jack- 100x100mm vesa wall-mountable

for the following reasons:

1. After seeing Eggy's Samsung SA950D in action, I really liked the fast response rates
2. I've played on an el-cheapo QNIX 2560x1440 monitor, and I am not sure if my GPU (AMD6870) was unable to push the resolutions or what, but after playing a little bit of Borderlands 2 (on low settings) I ended up with a mother of a headache.
3. I was not impressed with the QNIX colours at all.

Some reading I've done which may help people in future. You get different panels, LCD, LED, TN, IPS, etc. TN panels = fast, whereas IPS panels = great colours. The above monitor is a TN planel able to produce 120Hz, and a 2ms response time from Grey to Grey. I.e. it is fast. The colour gamets on it is not that great though and yuo will get back light bleeding etc (compared to profesional monitors). Compare that with an IPS panel, IPS panels is only able to operate (thusfar) at around 60Hz with the exception of some el-cheapo Korean monitors (like the QNIX above) which you can overclock to "120hz". It is in "quotes" because it appears some of these overclocks just drop some frames... either way, your IPS panels tend to only have response rates of 5ms and higher grey to grey but it supports a very large colour range, and even 10bit colours which is why these professional monitors is so slow but the colour is so good.

I have always had 2 monitors on my desk, so my thinking is to use this fast monitor here for my gaming and then get something like the Dell U2713HM (not the "H" version as the second monitor) once my bank balance have recovered from the above shock... (and fortunately, Drive Control will only get stock in the new year) to complete my setup.

Regarding the graphics card, in order to drive these monitors, I've managed to struck a deal whereby a company rents my gaming pc for some data processing until January in exchange for a GTX780ti . Fortunately, I did not had to wait till January to get the card, so I will be posting my benchmarks and reviews shortly on this setup using my LAN PC. Unfortunately, my main gaming rig is still with said company and as such I'll not be able to get the full joy of my gaming rig as yet!

Thanks for all the inputs, really appreciated.