Help: 27" 2560x1440 vs 29" 2560x1080

NeilF · 21 Oct 2013 at 15:01

Mainly for gaming and light office/browsing... Has anyone got experience of living with these sorts of monitors, or better still comparing them?

I love the idea of the super wide monitor for two reason:-
1) I love dual monitors, so this would in effect give me two 1280x1080 monitors.
2) Seamless widescreen views in game.

That said, the 27" 2560x1440 monitors give the same horizontal resolution, but a 33% even higher vertical resolution! But obviously the pixel pitch is far smaller (0.23mm vs 0.265mm) so I'm worried about things getting smaller and harder to see/read (text etc).

Finally is the consideration of my graphics card. ie: Is it powerful enough to make the most of these resolutions - Sapphire HD 7870 XT rev2.0 2048MB

eg:-
Dell UltraSharp U2713HM 27" - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-060-DE
Dell UltraSharp U2913WM 29" - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-066-DE

ps: My existing 22" monitor is 1680x1050 & has a pixel pitch of 0.282mm. I sit about 2.5ft away.

andybird123 · 21 Oct 2013 at 15:55

in regards things getting smaller and harder to read, you can just make everything bigger

for serious gaming, no your GPU won't be able to make the most of these resolutions
but it would probably play most things on medium type settings

FrankJH · 21 Oct 2013 at 16:46

The other thing you might find is that super-wide might still be considered a custom resolution in game for some time to come.

While the monitors are becoming more and more common, the added width / strange res might cause issues with graphics not looking exactly as they are designed.

NeilF · 21 Oct 2013 at 16:49

andybird123 said:
in regards things getting smaller and harder to read, you can just make everything bigger

Not always entirely possible? eg: Taskbar / icons / in game text etc?

realscot · 22 Oct 2013 at 07:40

i thought I wanted a 29inch superwide, there was one for sale locally to me at a good price so I went round to see it. It actually feels small, sitting next to a 24inch screen it just doesn't look right. Had issues with BF3 and BF4 beta jumping back to windowed mode despite recognising the resolution so decided against purchasing.

Glanza · 22 Oct 2013 at 07:51

1440p is the future

make sure you get a good IPS panel and you won't look back.

NeilF · 22 Oct 2013 at 08:50

realscot said:
i thought I wanted a 29inch superwide, there was one for sale locally to me at a good price so I went round to see it. It actually feels small, sitting next to a 24inch screen it just doesn't look right. Had issues with BF3 and BF4 beta jumping back to windowed mode despite recognising the resolution so decided against purchasing.

Oh!

covenantuk · 22 Oct 2013 at 10:14

1440P - in my view nothing substitutes for that extra vertical resolution. I find the 1080P screen I use at work very restrictive in comparison.

NeilF · 22 Oct 2013 at 10:16

covenantuk said:
1440P - in my view nothing substitutes for that extra vertical resolution. I find the 1080P screen I use at work very restrictive in comparison.

And you don't find the text/icons too small given the high DPI?

BubbySoup · 22 Oct 2013 at 15:59

Some points to consider;

Your card is going to struggle even more driving a 1440p display over a superwide.
Your FOV is bigger with the superwide, generally giving most people a better feeling of immersion when gaming.
Some people just cannot get on with the superwide ratio.
Vertical res really only matters on the desktop when comparing the 2.
Game support will get better as time goes on, but some games (RTS) may purposely restrict the resolution and older ones may always have problems.

jakspyder · 22 Oct 2013 at 16:24

I just got a 1440p screen. Its a beast.

Text is small but I find it perfectly reasonable (i've got good eye sight though..) you can always make things bigger.

Windows 7/8 taskbar is all big picture icons anyway. So having that small doesnt make a difference.

breadturbo · 22 Oct 2013 at 16:34

1440p and never look back, 1080 is so last decade now,
As said before the 7870 will play at the resolution but you would need two to use high settings. However you can normally disable AA on these 27" ones without noticing any difference.

There is the issue that your cpu may bottleneck the 7870 mind.

I will also add, if you can you;re better off with a 3gb card, there are many games I play that use over 2gb vid mem at 1440p (a 7950/70 off the MM is perfect)

NeilF · 22 Oct 2013 at 17:15

breadturbo said:
1440p and never look back, 1080 is so last decade now,
As said before the 7870 will play at the resolution but you would need two to use high settings. However you can normally disable AA on these 27" ones without noticing any difference.

There is the issue that your cpu may bottleneck the 7870 mind.

I will also add, if you can you;re better off with a 3gb card, there are many games I play that use over 2gb vid mem at 1440p (a 7950/70 off the MM is perfect)

Only just got this card, so don't want to upgrade it for some time