Future proofing a monitor purchase

Luggs · 12 Jan 2017 at 08:02

So, I finally have the funds to build a new pc and am looking at I5/I7 / Z270 and probably a 1070 (cant quite justify cost of 1080 for perf gains) and selecting a monitor has been the biggest headache so far...

From much reading, I believe a 27" / IPS / 1440 / 144Hz screen is the way to go (due to games I play and a shallow desk so anything larger will probably be too big). However the number of monitors and variety of price for these criteria is almost overwhelming...

The cheapest I can see are screens like the BenQ GW2765HT or the Acer 27" H277HU both at £300. Then you have screens like the DELL UltraSharp UP2716D at £480 but I can't see what you get for the extra price? The cheapest G-Sync I can find is the AOC AGON AG271QG at £570 - £270 more for G-Sync?

My last monitor has lasted me 8+ years and I really want my next purchase to last a similar amount of time - will probably be that long until I can afford to spend this much money on a new build again... Will G-Sync benefit a 1070? Will it add longevity to the monitor? Is it worth the premium for the PC specs?

The main game I am waiting for is Star Citizen (yes, could be a long time lol) but will be playing ME Andromeda, finally getting round to Witcher 3 etc in the meantime. Any thoughts or suggestions? Any other monitors you would recommend? I really didn't want to spend more than approx £450 but will stretch if G-Sync will benefit me and make the monitor last longer.

Thanks in advance for your help!

Baddass · 12 Jan 2017 at 09:17

there's a massive range of 27" IPS monitors available, but the cost difference you're seeing there is partly to do with G-sync (which does carry a premium) but also to do with the supported refresh rate. out of the models you've listed, only the AOC supports a high refresh rate about 60Hz

for gaming, i'd definitely recommend a high refresh rate panel if you can. An IPS panel will give you the best all round performance, without some of the limitations in image quality and viewing angles you get from other panel technologies. But the boost from 60Hz to 144Hz (or maybe a little above in the case of the AOC) is well worth it for gaming and will bring about obvious improvements. The addition of G-sync would seem logical as well, to cope with variable refresh rates and avoid any issues with tearing, stuttering etc.

popular models in the high refresh rate IPS space would be the Asus ROG Swift PG279Q, Acer Predator XB271HU as well. the AOC will be one of the more affordable high refresh rate IPS options though

Luggs · 12 Jan 2017 at 14:59

Baddass said:
snip

Thanks Baddass, appreciate the confirmation. I have been lurking here for months but wanted to ensure I was making the right decision.

Do you think a 1070 will be powerful enough to drive the AOC at max settings? With games like Andromeda / Witcher 3 / Star Citizen etc?

I was also holding out for new CES17 monitors, but a 1070 is never going to drive a 4k HDR quantum dot screen anyway lol. Hopefully something like the AOC will see me through until the next generation of screen tech and GPU's powerful enough to drive them, are within my budget!
Cheers!

Safetytrousers · 12 Jan 2017 at 15:18

Luggs said:
Do you think a 1070 will be powerful enough to drive the AOC at max settings? With games like Andromeda / Witcher 3 / Star Citizen etc?

It depends what frame rate you are happy with. Not even a 1080 will sustain 144fps at 1440p with Witcher 3 at all max settings. Some settings are not visually worth taking to max for the performance hit they have though.
You can look up the gaming performance of any GPU all over the net.

Luggs · 12 Jan 2017 at 16:08

Oh yeah, read about hairworks and MSAA? (which i mixed up with MSRA initially, that was a confusing google search...) I just generally mean running games in all their glory, I'm not a graphics whore at all. In fact, i'm coming from a 8 year old tn panel with a 1Mb 560Ti, so think i'm going to see a reasonable improvement without maxing all settings

DRSEire · 12 Jan 2017 at 16:56

Luggs said:
]AOC AGON AG271QG[/URL] at £570 - £270 more for G-Sync?

Jesus..It's a different game with Gsync though.

Luggs · 12 Jan 2017 at 18:22

DRSEire said:
Jesus..It's a different game with Gsync though.

Worth the uplift?

I presume that as future games become more demanding and the relative performance of the 1070 declines, G-sync will prolong the life of the monitor and GPU? Does it work like that?

DRSEire · 12 Jan 2017 at 20:59

Luggs said:
Worth the uplift?

I presume that as future games become more demanding and the relative performance of the 1070 declines, G-sync will prolong the life of the monitor and GPU? Does it work like that?

It's a game changer mate.I'm finding myself replaying titles that I had completed before I bought my panel just to experience them with Gsync.Amazing.

southernorth · 12 Jan 2017 at 21:29

I do agree that g-sync or free-sync would be highly valuable to have. Some users on this forum are of the mind that free-sync will 'win' the adaptive sync war in the end, due to the exorbitant add-on cost of g-sync pricing itself out of the market. As a result Nvidia may then support free-sync in the future. But who knows really, it's just speculation.

I would certainly say that HDR is something that will likely gain prominence in future high-end monitors, but this is only currently found in upcoming (and very expensive) top end monitors. Other new technologies such as quantum dot may also be worth considering.

In the end, a lot of quite cool and innovative technologies are being added to monitors coming out in the next few quarters. Meaning that if you intended to buy a monitor now for it to last a long time, I would wait until then to take advantage of these new offerings.

Luggs · 13 Jan 2017 at 08:16

DRSEire said:
It's a game changer mate.I'm finding myself replaying titles that I had completed before I bought my panel just to experience them with Gsync.Amazing.

Aye, that's what i'm thinking too, so many games I have had to turn down all the gfx settings to get it to run on a 560ti... sounds positive!

southernorth said:
In the end, a lot of quite cool and innovative technologies are being added to monitors coming out in the next few quarters. Meaning that if you intended to buy a monitor now for it to last a long time, I would wait until then to take advantage of these new offerings.

This is the crux of what concerns me the most, I know tech in general always has this issue that there is something better coming round the corner, but with monitors i'm struggling to understand what, when and whether is will be anywhere close to my budget. I'll be gutted to spend £570 on a monitor to have something new come out 3 months later for a little more money...

Is quantum dot realistically going to be anywhere close to £600ish?

Poneros · 13 Jan 2017 at 11:29

For your games, >60hz will be mostly unnoticeable. Gsync/Freesync WILL make a difference if you upgrade rarely, but don't rely on that to carry you too much - buying mid-range GPU every 2 years and then re-selling and buying the newer mid-range will still be heads and shoulders a better value proposition.

Quantum dot is going to keep being expensive for a while now, especially together with other features and Samsung just flopped with their iterations atm.

HDR is the real game-changer, but that's going to be much more expensive and together with other features it will certainly be £1k for the most part for another 2-3 years easily.

So right now for you & your needs & budget I'd say you should absolutely look at Freesync/Gsync, since they're the real game changing feature you can buy and really see a difference, and will help every day you play games until the next time you upgrade monitors.

Which one? Up to you. Personally I like the value proposition of Freesync and its monitors more than Gsync & Nvidia, though the latter is slightly better atm (lower gsync floor). >£300 better? No way. That's another new GPU you can get in 1-2 years, which will MORE than make up for the higher freesync floor range.

geordiejc · 13 Jan 2017 at 23:19

I own ASUS ROG SWIFT (PG278Q) 1440p/144hz/gsync & Acer HB280HK 4k Gsync 60hz. Gsync is amazing if your hardware allows you to run near @ max refresh rate of your monitorwith zero tearing and near identical input lag to vsync off.

I've just tested this for you;

on my 144hz 1440p monitor i disabled gsync and ran cs:go at 300+ fps on the 144hz monitor tearing is literally barely noticeable and you get the best (lowest input lag) If i enable gsync on the same monitor and limit the game to 142fps i get an near identical expeirence. However if you game on a 60hz monitor @ 300fps you do see tearing.

In my opinion a 27" 1440p IPS 144hz monitor without gsync is the best buy because @ 144hz tearing is barely noticable when rendering more than 144fps. I also own a gtx 1070 and can run every game @ 1440p > 100fps on ultra. IMHO, gsync is only good for 60hz monitors.

watch this : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8bFWk61KWA&t=1095s

Poneros · 14 Jan 2017 at 17:39

But the games he plays (with a 1070) means he will never even reach 100 fps, let alone keep well above it, so tearing will be a big issue.

geordiejc · 15 Jan 2017 at 10:54

Agreed the 1070 will be challenging to achieve 100+ fps. With some tweaking it's possible though, he won't keep the 1070 forever and this thread is about future proof monitors as his gpu horsepower increases down the road 100 fps plus will be achievable and it's barely noticeable at 144hz.

For now though if he doesn't render more than 144fps with vsync off there will be no tearing anyway as it's less than the monitors refresh rate therefore no need for Gsync?

Poneros · 15 Jan 2017 at 11:12

GPU horse power increases... but so do game requirements. Without a sli/cf setup it will be a decade before a single card will have surpassed the requirements well enough that he could comfortably game @1440p & 144hz on a single one. Hell, it's barely possible to do so with a 1080 now @ 1080p, and you still have to make significant sacrifices a lot of the time. But as I said before, high hz for RPGs & 3rd Person games is 100% wasted money while something like ultra-wide would give clear & visible (heh) gains; or just Freesync it and save money!

Luggs · 15 Jan 2017 at 14:14

Thanks for thoughts and feedback chaps and for taking the time to do that testing geordiejc. Spending £300 on a monitor I could upgrade again in 2-3 years, spending on £600 would have to last me 5-6 years, so that's why I'm struggling to decide whether gsync is worth that premium over new tech on an earlier refresh...

But then, if single gpu's can't drive new tech (hdr) maybe I'm better off sticking with a 1070 and gsynch monitor and seeing where we are with 12series of cards...

I would happily give my money to AMD, but with no contender to 1070 card, sadly freesync is pointless I think. Maybe I can see where they are in 4-5 years.

aoaaron · 15 Jan 2017 at 15:19

With the imminent emergence of OLED, 4k@144hz and HDR, I find it hard to justify spending top dollar now on a monitor. I was going to buy an x34a for 1k, but for 2.5k at the right time you can get a 65 inch OLED TV! The value just doesn't seem there in the monitor world. No doubt the sweet spot future proof monitor is either 1080p g-sync 144hz or 1440p g-sync 144z but the latter is incredibly expensive.

My plan is to wait for AMD offerings and upgrade accordingly. If AMD impress, I'll grab an ultra wide free sync monitor + new vega card and call it a day; investing in HDR via a TV purchase at some point.

If they fail to impress. I'll probably grab a 1070 + an ultra wide dependant on whats become available at that point. then its a question of what price the x34a is at that point or if the x34p is out.