1440 monitor for a 970 - advice requested

Hi all, read a lot of threads and realised I know nothing so thought I would just ask for direct advice.

I am currently running a GTX970 with an old Iiyama ProLite E2607WS, which I inherited from an old system. I was considering upgrading to an ultrawide but am now waving over a "normal" aspect 1440 monitor as I read that the 970 tops out about this resolution for gaming.

I am going to be using the setup for gaming, mostly playing WoWs, Overwatch, D3, BDO and soon - No Mans Sky. Nothing competitive, just casual.

I have no idea on TN/IPS/VA or whether I want to run 144Mhz or not.. I am open to the wisdom of the forum on all these.

My budget is roughly £500.

What would you guys suggest? Any input is welcome

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/dell...reen-led-monitor-midnight-grey-mo-084-de.html

That ticks all the boxes.

You could spend less of your budget and get a non G-Sync monitor, but if you are willing to spend £500, the Dell would be a good choice.

I'm also looking for a new, G-SYNC 1440 monitor as I want to upgrade to a 1070 or 1080 soon, but the more reviews and comments I read, the less sure I am. That Dell looks nice but I think the potential colour shifting from moving around would drive me nuts. My current monitor has an AMVA panel for whatever it's worth.

Narj said:

That Dell looks nice but I think the potential colour shifting from moving around would drive me nuts. My current monitor has an AMVA panel for whatever it's worth.

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I went from a Samsung 24" TN to a Dell 24" IPS (for two years) and I`ve just gone back to TN (the Dell 27"). Yes, if I look for it, I can see colour shift, even if I keep my head still. If I just use the monitor (and don't keep moving my head around, which I don't have to because I sit in front of my monitor when I'm using it), I am not really aware of the colour shift. It's something that most people will get used to, and won't be an issue. I have no regrets going from the 24" IPS to the 27" TN, the Dell is a really good monitor.

+1 for the Dell.

No issues with colour shifting over here!

Thanks for the quick responses.

I will take a look at that Dell. Is Gsync as good its touted to be?

scobley said:

Thanks for the quick responses.

I will take a look at that Dell. Is Gsync as good its touted to be?

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Ultimately, a very fast GPU setup, capable of running your games at a high framerate is better than having G-Sync. Given that most of us have graphics cards that may not be capable of continuous high framerates in some games, G-Sync does a good job of eliminating screen tear or stuttering if the GPU starts to struggle.

It is very effective. I`ve just turned off G-Sync and played The Witcher 3 for a few minutes with high detail settings. The average framerate was around 50fps, and as I moved around I could see screen tearing. Enabling G-Sync eliminated the screen tear and produce much smoother movement. G-Sync isn't a cheap option (adding about £150 to the cost of the monitor), but it is worth paying for if you want your games to look as good as possible. Having said that, some people might not be too bothered by a bit of screen tear or stuttering caused by uneven framerates, and prefer to use the £150 elsewhere (maybe an IPS instead of a TN panel ?).

scobley said:

Hi all, read a lot of threads and realised I know nothing so thought I would just ask for direct advice.

I am currently running a GTX970 with an old Iiyama ProLite E2607WS, which I inherited from an old system. I was considering upgrading to an ultrawide but am now waving over a "normal" aspect 1440 monitor as I read that the 970 tops out about this resolution for gaming.

I am going to be using the setup for gaming, mostly playing WoWs, Overwatch, D3, BDO and soon - No Mans Sky. Nothing competitive, just casual.

I have no idea on TN/IPS/VA or whether I want to run 144Mhz or not.. I am open to the wisdom of the forum on all these.

My budget is roughly £500.

What would you guys suggest? Any input is welcome

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If you want the monitor for gaming then you're best off with best refresh rate you can afford (i.e. aim for 144Hz) and either G-Sync or Freesync depending on if you have Nvidia or AMD GPU.

With a £500 budget this likely means a TN monitor if you're wanting G-Sync, such as the Dell S2716DG that several posters have recommended.

For gaming you likely won't notice or need to worry about the inherent colour accuracy and viewing angle problems with TN. But if you do a lot of work with photography, graphics or anything else that needs colour accuracy then you're better off with an IPS monitor. But 1440p + IPS + 144Hz + G-sync can get expensive, although there is this Acer within your budget (check some reviews though).

Pixel inversion lines are an issue on the 1440 TNs as well, which is due to the way the pixels are arranged on the panel. Once you see them you can't un-see them and they look awful

Nasher said:

Pixel inversion lines are an issue on the 1440 TNs as well, which is due to the way the pixels are arranged on the panel. Once you see them you can't un-see them and they look awful

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That's if you can see them. I`ve tried, but can't see them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzCOaqLo0jU

That doesn't help either.

so I guess my next follow up would be - given the spec mentioned at the top (GTX970) what would be the best monitor if I didn't have a budget?

Just figuring if I am limiting myself to £500 but could get something significantly better for £650 for example would it be worth waiting til I have the extra funds.

scobley said:

so I guess my next follow up would be - given the spec mentioned at the top (GTX970) what would be the best monitor if I didn't have a budget?

Just figuring if I am limiting myself to £500 but could get something significantly better for £650 for example would it be worth waiting til I have the extra funds.

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Yes.

Depends if you can find something that is significantly better.

It's a matter of personal opinion, of course, but at the moment the Dell S2716DG is one of the best 27" gaming monitors for the money (if you have an Nvidia GPU). For the extra £150, you can get a similar spec monitor with an IPS panel. That might be significantly better, but there are advantages and disadvantages with IPS panels.

There's also the VA panels which have faster response times than IPS, no backlight glow, better contrast and almost as good colours and viewing angles. Plus 120+hz. But do suffer from some degree of "black crush". They are 1080s panels. But if your used to looking at 1080 (like I am) it's fine. There's some nice curved ones for under 500 now if you shop around.

But there is no perfect monitor really. Also there's a bit of a lottery with the 1440 gaming screens, even with the super expensive ones. You might get a perfect one, but your just as likely to get dead pixels and bad backlight bleed. Then there is the hassle of having to do multiple RMAs until you get a good one :/

G-sync is NOT get out of jail free with regard to fps 30-60 range.

Low fps is low fps and you can tell g-sync or not.
You'll have to turn some settings down at 1440 on demanding titles. I would not be without my two 970s.
Depends how much that bothers you.

TBH I didn't find g-sync worth the money. If your already getting high fps on a high Hz screen you really have to struggle to notice it being on or off.

It doesn't eliminate mouse lag at low fps and it doesn't magically make everything super smooth. Where it does make a noticeable difference is on 60hz monitors where tearing is far more obvious.

Nasher said:

TBH I didn't find g-sync worth the money. If your already getting high fps on a high Hz screen you really have to struggle to notice it being on or off.

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If you're not getting high fps on a high Hz screen (playing demanding games with high detail settings), then it does make a difference. Is that difference worth the £100-150 difference ? £150 is about the difference between a GTX1070 and a 1080. Even the 1080 won't be able to maintain high fps in all games (especially if you're display is 2560x1440+). Some games are getting more demanding on GPUs, so having G-Sync will help to run these games with decent settings. Obviously G-Sync isn't going to make a GTX970 look as good as a GTX1080, but for the extra cost it is worth it if you want your games looking as good as possible.

I recently ran Witcher 3 my GTX1070 with and without G-Sync. Yes, it was OK with G-Sync disabled, but there was noticable screen tearing, not as bad as it would have been on a 60Hz panel, but I soon enabled G-Sync again and the game ran much more smoothly.

Dervious said:

I recently ran Witcher 3 my GTX1070 with and without G-Sync. Yes, it was OK with G-Sync disabled, but there was noticable screen tearing, not as bad as it would have been on a 60Hz panel, but I soon enabled G-Sync again and the game ran much more smoothly.

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Nowadays NVidia offers Adaptive Sync (and even Fast Sync for newer GPUs). These are much better options than vanilla V-Sync, work with any monitor and actually can approach G-Sync in visual quality (though G-Sync is always bit better, just much less noticeaby).