Hi, I've been browsing these forums for a couple of weeks now in search for a new monitor recommendation and I'm still slightly in doubt. A bit of background info... I bought my rig about 6 months ago and started by playing on a 32 inch Hitachi LCD tv. This wasn't really working and I finally found enough room to have a proper desk setup. Which left me using our 7 year old Samsung Syncmaster 920n... A lovely 1280x1024, VGA connected, office monitor.
I've been looking all over the places at every review on the internet and I'm still no wiser (well a bit wiser but not massively). I run a i5-3570 with a 2gb GTX 670. I achieve 60-70fps on the latest games with max settings and older games I easily get over 100fps and even on most of the newer ones if I tweak the graphics slightly.
So I've been considering a 120hz screen which really in the UK, narrows it down to one of the Benq's, in which I'm edging towards the XL2411t as it's cheaper, newer and seems to have fixed some of the 2420's problems.
Now my questions are:
1) Will my single GTX 670 really benefit from a 120hz screen. I'd assume so when I'm playing older games, etc but I don't want to be buying new games and having to turn the graphics down if they're not getting a decent frame rate. I assume that a 120hz screen will perform identically to a 60hz screen at lower frame rates? Although I will notice more laggyness if it drops from 120 to 60 than if I am consistently only achieving 60fps...?
2) I've read all the arguments online. Yes the human eye can see more than 30fps and yes, apparently 120hz is night and day compared to 60hz. This is my reason for wanting one to take advantage of my pricey rig. But the downside always seems to be the colours looking washed out. Now like I said, I'm playing on a 7 year old monitor and the colours genuinely don't bother me. The image looks slightly blurry due to the VGA input and the colours can shift on the screen a bit but I don't inspect every tree to make sure it has realistic colours and once I'm immersed into a game I tend not to pay attention to those things.
However, I do want the image to 'wow' me still, I want to turn on a game like Crysis 3 and think flippin heck, that looks brilliant. Am I going to get this from the benq? And if not is the 120hz really worth it for that major downside? My friends all think that PC graphics will be amazing compared to their consoles and will want to give mine a go, but if I stick them on a 120hz that looks shoddy I doubt they're going to be that impressed, especially if they aren't really noticing the 120hz advantages.
3) Are there any other recommendations that may suit me more? I play FPS's although I wouldn't necessarily call BF3 fast paced... Which is the reason I probably wouldn't mind a 60hz IPS or something as I would see 120hz being more beneficial for playing things like Quake and Counterstrike. I'm quite a firm believer that peripherals do not turn a player into Jesus, and that while they may be an advantage, I have never been killed by somebody and thought "Dam, they had a quicker screen than me". Other than FPS's I also play quite a variety of single player games so image quality may be more important than refresh rates to me. However, if the higher refresh rates produce a better image due to their smoothness then I'm good with that. I don't really have a budget for other recommendations but I probably have about £500 if I'm honest. I don't want to spend that but if it's genuinely worth while to do so with my setup then I'll consider it.
Thanks for any info, I didn't mean to rant but it turns out I did anyway. I'm sure I'd be happy with any screen so should just buy one but I want it to be right! I just get the feeling reviewers can be far too critical and that I'd probably be content with the colours and quality of a TN panel. Heck, I read reviews about my Punto online and it gets absolutely slated whereas I think it's been a good little car. Problem is the people reviewing them have driven things much much more expensive and probably don't appreciate how good it can be. It's probably the same with monitors, if they just reviewed a 1440p IPS panel, then obviously a 1080p TN panel isn't going to look that hot.
I dunno... Any help would be appreciated
I've been looking all over the places at every review on the internet and I'm still no wiser (well a bit wiser but not massively). I run a i5-3570 with a 2gb GTX 670. I achieve 60-70fps on the latest games with max settings and older games I easily get over 100fps and even on most of the newer ones if I tweak the graphics slightly.
So I've been considering a 120hz screen which really in the UK, narrows it down to one of the Benq's, in which I'm edging towards the XL2411t as it's cheaper, newer and seems to have fixed some of the 2420's problems.
Now my questions are:
1) Will my single GTX 670 really benefit from a 120hz screen. I'd assume so when I'm playing older games, etc but I don't want to be buying new games and having to turn the graphics down if they're not getting a decent frame rate. I assume that a 120hz screen will perform identically to a 60hz screen at lower frame rates? Although I will notice more laggyness if it drops from 120 to 60 than if I am consistently only achieving 60fps...?
2) I've read all the arguments online. Yes the human eye can see more than 30fps and yes, apparently 120hz is night and day compared to 60hz. This is my reason for wanting one to take advantage of my pricey rig. But the downside always seems to be the colours looking washed out. Now like I said, I'm playing on a 7 year old monitor and the colours genuinely don't bother me. The image looks slightly blurry due to the VGA input and the colours can shift on the screen a bit but I don't inspect every tree to make sure it has realistic colours and once I'm immersed into a game I tend not to pay attention to those things.
However, I do want the image to 'wow' me still, I want to turn on a game like Crysis 3 and think flippin heck, that looks brilliant. Am I going to get this from the benq? And if not is the 120hz really worth it for that major downside? My friends all think that PC graphics will be amazing compared to their consoles and will want to give mine a go, but if I stick them on a 120hz that looks shoddy I doubt they're going to be that impressed, especially if they aren't really noticing the 120hz advantages.
3) Are there any other recommendations that may suit me more? I play FPS's although I wouldn't necessarily call BF3 fast paced... Which is the reason I probably wouldn't mind a 60hz IPS or something as I would see 120hz being more beneficial for playing things like Quake and Counterstrike. I'm quite a firm believer that peripherals do not turn a player into Jesus, and that while they may be an advantage, I have never been killed by somebody and thought "Dam, they had a quicker screen than me". Other than FPS's I also play quite a variety of single player games so image quality may be more important than refresh rates to me. However, if the higher refresh rates produce a better image due to their smoothness then I'm good with that. I don't really have a budget for other recommendations but I probably have about £500 if I'm honest. I don't want to spend that but if it's genuinely worth while to do so with my setup then I'll consider it.
Thanks for any info, I didn't mean to rant but it turns out I did anyway. I'm sure I'd be happy with any screen so should just buy one but I want it to be right! I just get the feeling reviewers can be far too critical and that I'd probably be content with the colours and quality of a TN panel. Heck, I read reviews about my Punto online and it gets absolutely slated whereas I think it's been a good little car. Problem is the people reviewing them have driven things much much more expensive and probably don't appreciate how good it can be. It's probably the same with monitors, if they just reviewed a 1440p IPS panel, then obviously a 1080p TN panel isn't going to look that hot.
I dunno... Any help would be appreciated