Confused on gaming monitors

[SnuggleWalrus]

Hey everyone!

I recently finished building my first pc for myself! It's great and I'm having a blast finally getting frames on my favourite games at max settings! However my monitor is very very old, its from my very first computer... its a Dell with 1440x900 at 60hz.

Now i'm in the market for a new monitor for gaming however after all my research I don't understand what I'm really shopping for, I've been through the stickies, reddit and god knows how many other forums trying to find a decent guide for my system.

What i'm after
1080p at least at 60 frames in my games (I don't mind changing the settings)

My build
Gigabyte gaming K3 Mobo
Intel 6600k OC'd to 4.4GHZ (Corsair h55 AIO cooler)
MSI GTX 1060 Gaming X 2050mhz
16GB RAM

Questions..

Do I need g sync? would it benefit my build?
Do I need 144hz or does this mean I need 144 fps? :S

currently the monitor I have is doing ok but I'd like something around 22" or higher for my desk with a nice picture, I hear the 1060 is good at 1080p which I'm fine with but what other things should I be looking for before spending money. I currently don't have a budget before I learn what i'm looking for then I'll save.

Thankyou everyone have a great day.

 

[mistersprinkles]

Ok so the monitor landscape at the moment is a bit complicated. HDR (high dynamic range-think insanely high contrast) monitors are finally coming on the scene but these are all super high end and cost prohibitive for most people.

With monitors, there are a few things you need to understand and make your mind up about before you pick a monitor:

Resolution and aspect ratio: Your card is ideal at 1080P, though it can run many less demanding games at high/ultra at 1440P and still get around 60FPS. The higher the resolution, assuming all other settings are kept the same, the lower your framerate will be, necessitating a more powerful video card. Aspect ratio is the ratio of the LXW of the screen. The standard now is 16:9 but there are 21:9 ultrawide monitors. These are great but they are always higher resolution than 1080P and some games are not compatible, meaning you will play with black bars on the sides of the screen.

Refresh rate and adaptive sync: The average refresh rate for monitors is 50 or 60Hz (depending on where in the world you are and what kind of electric supply you have). There are now monitors which will go much higher- up to 165Hz and beyond. Obviously, your video card must be able to pump out 144FPS for you to fully enjoy your 144Hz monitor. However, there are other advantages to high refresh rate monitors, and this is where adaptive sync comes in. Freesync (AMD) and GSync (NVidia) work by only refreshing the screen when a frame is sent from the GPU (Assuming that the GPU is operating within the sync range of the monitor- ie, on the DELL SD2716 that range is 40>140FPS). This has numerous advantages compared to a standard non adaptive sync monitor:

No tearing no matter what your frame rate (as long as it is within the sync range). Whereas, before, you had to either have Vsync on or be running at exactly the FPS to refresh of the monitor to prevent tearing. With a 60Hz Vsync, if you were suddenly getting 45FPS, the image on screen would look very choppy. With adaptive sync, 45FPS doesn't look so choppy, and there will be no tearing even if your framerate fluctuates wildly like 45-120. Doesn't matter. You can expect 50-100FPS for most games with your GPU at 1080P (and they do make 1080P Gsync displays) so it may be worth considering Gsync.

Panel Technology: There are many different types of LCD panels available (an LED display is just an LCD panel with an LED backlight). The two main types you will come across are TN and IPS. TN tends to have less input lag and lower response time (both good for gaming) but it suffers from reduced color gamut and the viewing angles aren't as good (this is why if you look at some computer monitors on a really weird angle the colors invert or look washed out). IPS has brilliant color reproduction and much richer color. It suffers from worse input lag and response time, and can suffer from something called backlight bleed.

 

[SnuggleWalrus]

That's a fantastic breakdown thankyou for taking the time to write that out for me! looks like I'm after a 16:9 1080p 60hz without gsync or 144hz with gsync then by the sounds of it?! a TN panel should be fine for me if I can adjust the viewing angle as it'll always be on my desk so I can adjust it to suit my needs.

 

[Amraam]

Ok so the monitor landscape at the moment is a bit complicated. HDR (high dynamic range-think insanely high contrast) monitors are finally coming on the scene but these are all super high end and cost prohibitive for most people.

With monitors, there are a few things you need to understand and make your mind up about before you pick a monitor:

Resolution and aspect ratio: Your card is ideal at 1080P, though it can run many less demanding games at high/ultra at 1440P and still get around 60FPS. The higher the resolution, assuming all other settings are kept the same, the lower your framerate will be, necessitating a more powerful video card. Aspect ratio is the ratio of the LXW of the screen. The standard now is 16:9 but there are 21:9 ultrawide monitors. These are great but they are always higher resolution than 1080P and some games are not compatible, meaning you will play with black bars on the sides of the screen.

Refresh rate and adaptive sync: The average refresh rate for monitors is 50 or 60Hz (depending on where in the world you are and what kind of electric supply you have). There are now monitors which will go much higher- up to 165Hz and beyond. Obviously, your video card must be able to pump out 144FPS for you to fully enjoy your 144Hz monitor. However, there are other advantages to high refresh rate monitors, and this is where adaptive sync comes in. Freesync (AMD) and GSync (NVidia) work by only refreshing the screen when a frame is sent from the GPU (Assuming that the GPU is operating within the sync range of the monitor- ie, on the DELL SD2716 that range is 40>140FPS). This has numerous advantages compared to a standard non adaptive sync monitor:

No tearing no matter what your frame rate (as long as it is within the sync range). Whereas, before, you had to either have Vsync on or be running at exactly the FPS to refresh of the monitor to prevent tearing. With a 60Hz Vsync, if you were suddenly getting 45FPS, the image on screen would look very choppy. With adaptive sync, 45FPS doesn't look so choppy, and there will be no tearing even if your framerate fluctuates wildly like 45-120. Doesn't matter. You can expect 50-100FPS for most games with your GPU at 1080P (and they do make 1080P Gsync displays) so it may be worth considering Gsync.

Panel Technology: There are many different types of LCD panels available (an LED display is just an LCD panel with an LED backlight). The two main types you will come across are TN and IPS. TN tends to have less input lag and lower response time (both good for gaming) but it suffers from reduced color gamut and the viewing angles aren't as good (this is why if you look at some computer monitors on a really weird angle the colors invert or look washed out). IPS has brilliant color reproduction and much richer color. It suffers from worse input lag and response time, and can suffer from something called backlight bleed.

Great post, and it reminds me just how much I NEED Gsync. Shame it's so much more expensive than Freesync, on average.

 

[LackyT]

That's a fantastic breakdown thankyou for taking the time to write that out for me! looks like I'm after a 16:9 1080p 60hz without gsync or 144hz with gsync then by the sounds of it?! a TN panel should be fine for me if I can adjust the viewing angle as it'll always be on my desk so I can adjust it to suit my needs.

A 144hz G-Sync panel would blow your mind coming from your current monitor. So if you could stretch to it, it would be a great fit and forget upgrade (as summarised in sprinkles post)