Monitor Dead, outdated GFX need advice

[daveyg]

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]

@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

 

[daveyg]

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?