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Monitor Dead, outdated GFX need advice

daveyg

daveyg

daveyg

Associate
Joined
17 Jul 2006
Posts
126
Location
Bristol, UK
Guys, I am not a big gamer. I'm now a family man and use the computer as much for photos, internet, kids homework and stuff as I do gaming.

My ancient 20" 1650x1050 monitor has just died. Until now my rig has been holding up fine as I don't play particularly up-to-date games, I have a huge back catalogue of stuff to play through which I never get the time for.

I have an i7 with a MSI Geforce 460 HAWK (don't judge). I knew the 460 would need replacing sooner or later but didn't expect the monitor to go first. So Now I am stuck. I had a budget of £200-£250 to buy a mid-range monitor, but am now realising I may need to by new GFX at the same time. I have no desire to drop £400+ on GFX, I may as well buy a console & walk away, but I don't want to.

I'm not really sure where to start as I am a long way out of the hardware loop and prices are way higher and brand gimmicks and jargon are through the roof since I last bought stuff.

I'm struggling to fix a spec for GFX or monitor so I can judge what best to do with the other so I can make a decision and get back up and running.

Any advice to get me started would be good.
 
@daveyg


ODE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £331.08 (includes shipping: £11.10)
​

or push 144hz which consoles cant touch , for the price of a £400 gpu

DE
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £401.08 (includes shipping: £11.10)


if you can push £220 for RX580 8GB on sale then even better , but make sure you've got a 550w PSU​
 
My basket at Overclockers UK:
Total: £260.08 (includes shipping: £11.10)​
​


<img height="1" width="1" style="display:none" src="https://www.facebook.com/tr?id=566386483572596&ev=PageView&noscript=1">




Very basic and will let you plug in instead of the GTX460 - Just do a driver refresh from Nvidia and that's you.

I's still consider the freesync and AMD setup though. Would last longer and kids get more benefit later on
 
For what you said, definitely AVOID TN monitors. Get yourself an IPS one, they look gorgeous. Which one will depend on the size & resolution you're after, certainly plenty of them available for few £ @ 1080p 24''. You don't really need a GPU upgrade to use them, but it will be a lot more enjoyable.
 
@Sasahara if my monitor hadn't died I would have probably spent ~£200. That is the price point I have bought every GFX card at over the years. I would then have upgraded my monitor 6 months later knowing I had headroom in my GFX card.

Now I have to get a monitor I'm in a spin as I don't want to get a monitor that is only a little better than I had, but I assume I will need a GFX upgrade to drive something above 1080p 60hz
 
Ok, so looking at the prices on OCUK if I drop for a new GFX card first the price drop on the RX580 to £215 looks pretty good, undercutting all but the cheapest 1060s, or save the £35 and take the even cheaper 570, but short term pain of £35 probably gives me longer term gain in performance?

You can see from the pricing the classic upsell. £100 doesn't get you much. Once you start pushing towards £150-£160 you just as well drop another £50 for something much better. It works as I can feel myself being taken in!

If I stick with NVIDIA I keep phyx but cannot afford g-sync whereas a switch to the red side makes freesync an option going forward as the monitors are a reasonable price. I assume with my budgets a freesync route is better than the current NVIDIA non-g-sync bells and whistles?

I know I am in the wrong thread for this Q, but if i got a 144hz monitor would I need freesync or g-sync to use the increased monitor speed?
 
No you would not need either but there's little price premium for Freesync and a significant price premium for GSync. For your aims and your budget an AMD Radeon and a Freesync monitor is the way to go. Because you work with photos and stuff you should avoid a TN monitor. Aside from that, there are few wrong choices here and a plethora of good ones.
 
Above all else I would choose an IPS monitor, for 60Hz there is no reason to pick TN.

After that I'd lean towards freesync and an AMD GPU. Adaptive sync vastly improves the experience at sub 60 framerates, which is a situation you'll probably encounter if you intend to keep the setup for many years.
 
daveyg said:
Ok, so looking at the prices on OCUK if I drop for a new GFX card first the price drop on the RX580 to £215 looks pretty good, undercutting all but the cheapest 1060s, or save the £35 and take the even cheaper 570, but short term pain of £35 probably gives me longer term gain in performance?

You can see from the pricing the classic upsell. £100 doesn't get you much. Once you start pushing towards £150-£160 you just as well drop another £50 for something much better. It works as I can feel myself being taken in!

If I stick with NVIDIA I keep phyx but cannot afford g-sync whereas a switch to the red side makes freesync an option going forward as the monitors are a reasonable price. I assume with my budgets a freesync route is better than the current NVIDIA non-g-sync bells and whistles?

I know I am in the wrong thread for this Q, but if i got a 144hz monitor would I need freesync or g-sync to use the increased monitor speed?
Click to expand...
Definitely grab the 580, It'll last years and you can get a basic Freesync monitor for next to nothing more that what a non freesync model costs. It's a shame you can't get on the MM, There's always something turning up on there.
 
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