New Monitor Woes : 4K help please

[hkintheuk]

Good evening and thank you for looking in at my first post.

I rarely use forums because I'm the kind of person who does my own research, but this nut is proving more difficult to crack than I imagined.

My 10 year old Dell 2560x1600 3008WFP finally gave up the ghost, so I thought it time to upgrade.

I like the 30" screen size, I can get more done in terms of writing, running Virtual Table Top games, playing RPGS and strategy games, a bit of WOW, and Far Cry like games.

I needed to buy a new telly, so I ditched my old plasma and went for an LG 4K...and was blown away.

So that's what I am looking for...sharp, vibrant, colourful and vivid. I want to see all the textures and detail. 4K seemed obvious.

I went to PC World (Yeah I know, I ain't a noob...I build rigs and the like).

I expected to see, oh, I dunno, 40-50 monitors, all lined up for inspection.

Nope.

They had 4. All HP's. Biggest was a 27" 4K.

4 !

Feeling pretty hacked off, I spent weeks afterwards looking at online reviews, checking forums, and have now reached peak "Analysis Paralysis". I have lists upon lists, and have put my life on hold, trying to find an elusive monitor.

My rig (well the gaming one at least) runs an EVGA 1080TI, W10 Home, M.2 Nand SSD for boot and games. It's plenty fast for me when I built in in Jun 2017.

My criteria was simple, or so I thought.

4K 30" IPS, 100-120Hz. Display Port 1.4 compatible (as that's what the GTX 1080TI uses).

I can find plenty of 27" screens that hit the mark, but, well, going down from 30" to 27" seems a bit odd to me. I'll loose screen estate.

But then I thought...if I go 30" 4K, how will that look compared to 27" 4K ? Pixel density will be larger will it not ? So detail and crispness lost ?

Crazy that when buying a telly, you can go in many stores and look at all the makes, but can't seem to do the same with monitors !

Curved ? Don't know. Guy has one at work and I sat at it for 5 mins. Didn't feel comfortable to me.

I keep seeing the 32" Acer XB321HK come up on many of my lists..IPS...which is good for 4K, but again, the pixel density worries me.

I'm after sharp, crisp, beautiful and textured. After getting a 4K telly, I realised how bad my old Dell looked.

So, dear reader, if you have stuck with my ramblings for this long, what ticks the boxes for me, do you feel ?

Mu budget is 1K, but I'm in no rush to buy. Happy to wait for Black Friday, or in to 2019 if something amazing is just around the corner.

Thank you!

 

[Legend]

I have the Acer XB321HK. You do not need to worry about pixel density, you can't see the pixels. 32" is the perfect size for 4K.... 27" is just too small, and you need to have scaling at 150% to be able to read text easily enough. Even at 32" I find 125% is required.

The XB321HK is the only 32" 4K monitor with G-Sync also, which will come in handy and is a good thing to have with your 1080Ti. You can pick it up for about £650 if you shop around. It might come up cheaper in Black Friday, hard to know of course.

However, I'd warn you about entering in to the monitor lottery... as you've been out the game for so long and don't visit forums very much, you are probably unaware of this. The state of quality control when it comes to monitor manufacturing has reached an abysmal state. I went through x5 XB321's before finding one that was acceptable. The others had a combination of appalling IPS glow, bleed, DSE and/or dirt/dust under the panel. Pretty much every monitor on the market has a chance of suffering from one or all of these faults... although IPS glow is unique to IPS panels.

I am not discouraging you from the XB321... it's a great monitor as you've probably already seen from reviews... but just be prepared that the process might not all be smooth sailing, no matter what monitor you end up getting.

I wouldn't be too put off by a curved monitor though. It may seem odd when you first sit in front of one, but you very quickly adapt. I had an X34 before I got the XB321 (which I wanted for the extra res for productivity reasons), and I very much enjoyed it. It does add extra immersion to games, and is certainly easier to push than 4K, having significantly less pixels to push. In that sense though, if you're worried about pixel density, 4K definitely wins out there. The 34" (and even 38") ultrawide curved monitors on the market are mostly all 1440p and have the same pixel density as any 27" 1440p monitor will.

 

[Quartz]

Yes. If you can afford it, reject the bottom tier of 4K monitors (Acer, Asus, AOC) and go for a better source like Dell, Iiyama, Samsung, or Phillips. Dell do a 31" 4K monitor, the UP3216Q for ~£1000, but that doesn't have GSync.

Rather than 32" you might want to look at a 40" 4K monitor like the Phillips Brilliance BDM4065UC.

If you have a deep wallet, look at Eizo. Their 31" 4K monitor is a snip at £3700. But it is one of the very best.

 

[V F]

Yes. If you can afford it, reject the bottom tier of 4K monitors (Acer, Asus, AOC) and go for a better source like Dell, Iiyama, Samsung, or Phillips. Dell do a 31" 4K monitor, the UP3216Q for ~£1000, but that doesn't have GSync.

Rather than 32" you might want to look at a 40" 4K monitor like the Phillips Brilliance BDM4065UC.

If you have a deep wallet, look at Eizo. Their 31" 4K monitor is a snip at £3700. But it is one of the very best.

They go through quite strict quality testing. Uniformity, backlight bleed, pixel checks and colour accuracy.

 

[Squid Vicious]

There are currently no high refresh rate options for 4k 32" - and only one option at 27" which is £2-3k.

If gsync is a requirement then you're on the right track with the Acer.

If gsync not a requirement then I'd look at options from Dell, much better QC and customer service if you have any issues.

I run a 4k 32" benq and absolutely love the resolution - though now using as a secondary and ultrawide 35" as the primary to allow me to get by with a 980ti for longer.

 

[hkintheuk]

Thank you Legend for your very thoughtful and helpful reply, especially about the “monitor lottery”. I have indeed been out of the game for over 10 years as far as monitors are concerned, so this was timely and intuitive advice, thank you. I will read up on these things, so that’s a helpful starter list.

And perhaps you are right when you mention not discounting curved screens. Over in another forum post, there is a lot of chatter about the LG 34GK950G. I have read that they are easier to push thank 4K, and I expect it would be easier on my 1080ti.

I just wish there was a high street shop where I could compare a 4K monitor with a 1440p curved ultrawide. I might not notice much difference.

Quartz, that was very helpful about which tiers to be wary of. I’d always suspected AOC were at the lower end of the scale (I mean no insults to anyone with an AOC, because there are always “diamonds in the rough”). I did assume that the Acers and Asus though had such high market saturation because the products were upper tier. Yeah, I know marketing does have a role to play, but seeing them again and again in so many reviews either means they have a colossal marketing budget and/or nearly every review site is a bit “swayed”, or they genuinely are that good? I assumed the latter, perhaps wrongly ?

I can’t grumble about my 10 year old Dell…it has lasted well. My wife’s one is still going (I’ve probably cursed it now). Funny thing is, after the whole screen went white with weird artifacts, (and I tested my GPU and it was fine), I left it off for several weeks in a corner of the room. Tried it last night and it looked fine. I’m sure it will go again though, so not worth chancing it. Plus I turn 50 next week, and the missus is asking what I want


Iiyama…well that’s funny you mention them. Always used them at a previous place of word (CAD Design for music equipment….honking great CRT’S..yes, that was in the 1990’s). When my 30” went pop, I picked up an Iiyama and I was not impressed…looked washed out and the detail was terrible. Ok for general office work, so I put it on my music workstation. But it did surprise me and make me wonder if their quality had taken a nosedive.

I did look at the Phillips Brilliance BDM4065UC but it doesn’t have G-Sync, nor mention it’s Hz, so I’m doubtful on that one.

Never heard of Eizo, but at that price range, I think my music workstation would get first dibs..nah, scratch that…more soft synths

Thank you Squid Vicious for the nod on the Acer. G-Sync is a requirement. Intrigued about the BenQ though. Just checked and it's very much aimed at design work. Was that a major requirement for you ? Only 60Hz, so probably not as strong in the gaming arena though ?How does your 980ti handle it in 4K ?
What FPS rates do you get in games, if you play any ?

Update….seeing a lot of posts from a long running forum elsewhere on OCUK about the LG 34GK950G. Read some reviews online and they look very promising. This warrants more investigation. It does look somewhat gorgeous !

Thanks everyone who commented. Much appreciated.

 

[Legend]

Thank you Legend for your very thoughtful and helpful reply, especially about the “monitor lottery”. I have indeed been out of the game for over 10 years as far as monitors are concerned, so this was timely and intuitive advice, thank you. I will read up on these things, so that’s a helpful starter list.

And perhaps you are right when you mention not discounting curved screens. Over in another forum post, there is a lot of chatter about the LG 34GK950G. I have read that they are easier to push thank 4K, and I expect it would be easier on my 1080ti.

I just wish there was a high street shop where I could compare a 4K monitor with a 1440p curved ultrawide. I might not notice much difference.

Update….seeing a lot of posts from a long running forum elsewhere on OCUK about the LG 34GK950G. Read some reviews online and they look very promising. This warrants more investigation. It does look somewhat gorgeous !

Well there is a noticeable difference in sharpness between 34" 1440p Ultrawide and 32" 4K... I can attest to this myself having come from a 34" 1440p monitor to a 32" 4K one. The difference in PPI (pixels per inch) is 109 vs 137... which may not sound a lot, but it does make a difference. In fact, it isn't actually far off the PPI difference between a 27" 1080p monitor and a 27" 1440p one, although I think most people would say the jump from 1080p to 1440p is more noticeable, but I think that's just because you do see a lot more detail at 1440p which is lost at 1080p. 4K offers more detail and sharpness again, but it's not as obvious as when moving from 1080p. There's only so much our eyes pick up on after all. Still, if sharpness is a priority, it's something to keep in mind.

There's no question that 1440p Ultrawide will be MUCH kinder to your 1080Ti though, not that it does a bad job at 4K, but it would make G-Sync FAR more necessary, and at 32" you're limited to the Acer XB321 as the only option there.

The immersion on 34" ultrawide is nice, no doubt. I can't say I miss it massively, as the overall dimensions of a 32" 16:9 aren't too far off an ultrawide... it's under 10cm narrower, but about 6cm taller. Overall, I am very happy with it, but I think if productivity wasn't an issue for me and I was mostly just gaming, I would lean towards a 120Hz 34" Ultrawide like the LG 34GK950G simply because it would be easier to drive. 4K does look really nice though, and some games are quite stunning I must say.

Whatever you decide, you just need to cross your fingers and hope you get a good panel without issues! Above all else, make sure you buy from somewhere with a friendly return policy! Some retailers don't consider back light bleed or glow to be a fault, so it can be a real pain trying to RMA, although keep in mind you do have the right to return within 14-days no questions asked if you're not happy, albeit at your own expense.

 

[hkintheuk]

Thank you again Legend for your helpful advice. It's going to be a tough call...The LG does look pretty stunning and will be kinder on the 1080ti as you say. If I can find an independent store somewhere that has a 2K Ultrawide and 4K monitor, I'll be able to settle it once and for all !

 

[Psycho Sonny]

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/best/by-usage/hdr-gaming

https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/nu8000

 

[Robert896r1]

Hello fellow 3008wfp owner. Mine hasn't kicked the bucket yet but when I recently redid my PC i wanted something better. Ultimately I held off for 3 reasons:

- Lack of options in the 32inch 4k range
- Shameful "HDR" effforts
- Lack of QC and an overall push for high image quality with current crop of panels

I'll see what CES brings. My requests are basically; 32-35inch 4k panel with G-Sync and HDR with ~1000nits peak brightness.