Considering buy a new monitor, but will it make a difference?

[veteran]

Hey, I'm considering purchasing a 120hz monitor as I'm on a 60hz now, but my friend told me the 120hz wont make a difference as wow cant even handle 120hz. Is he wrong, will there be a big diff?

Thanks

[Twoddle]

There's a difference between 60Hz and 120Hz monitors when you drag windows around the screen on the desktop.

[tielknight]

When your playing some games and turn your character around and the environment spins around and such, the higher hz helps make it look smoother instead of everything turning into a blurfest. Thats if iI recall that bit correctly from some other thread I read.

[chazus]

There's a bit of confusion here.

60hz means your monitor can only effectively display ~60fps. That's why most people, in regard to WoW, say "Max FPS" is synonymous with 60fps. Even if you are GETTING higher fps (lets say 90), you're only seeing 60fps. This is why vysnc limits to 60fps, so your video card isn't working extra hard at getting 90fps, when 30 are 'wasted'.

Now.. if you have a system that gets more than 60.. say... 90. Getting a 120hz monitor will actually display those to some degree. HOWEVER, no system can do WoW 25 Man raids more than ~60fps anyway, so getting 120hz monitor for wow is a waste of money. 120hz monitors are better suited for first person shooters that are GPU based, not CPU based, where you can actually get 100-150fps on high settings with an adequately powerful GPU.

So... he's... not wrong, but he's not right. A 120hz monitor wont help for wow, however not exactly for the reasons he stated. It's not that 'wow cant handle it' so much as nothing has the power to run wow at those ratings in 25 raids.

EDIT: Yes, I know some information here isn't entirely accurate. Going from 60 to 90 fps isn't "wasting" 30 frames. But I stated it that way for the sake of debate/understanding.

[veteran]

There's a bit of confusion here.

60hz means your monitor can only effectively display ~60fps. That's why most people, in regard to WoW, say "Max FPS" is synonymous with 60fps. Even if you are GETTING higher fps (lets say 90), you're only seeing 60fps. This is why vysnc limits to 60fps, so your video card isn't working extra hard at getting 90fps, when 30 are 'wasted'.

Now.. if you have a system that gets more than 60.. say... 90. Getting a 120hz monitor will actually display those to some degree. HOWEVER, no system can do WoW 25 Man raids more than ~60fps anyway, so getting 120hz monitor for wow is a waste of money. 120hz monitors are better suited for first person shooters that are GPU based, not CPU based, where you can actually get 100-150fps on high settings with an adequately powerful GPU.

So... he's... not wrong, but he's not right. A 120hz monitor wont help for wow, however not exactly for the reasons he stated. It's not that 'wow cant handle it' so much as nothing has the power to run wow at those ratings in 25 raids.

EDIT: Yes, I know some information here isn't entirely accurate. Going from 60 to 90 fps isn't "wasting" 30 frames. But I stated it that way for the sake of debate/understanding.

Hmm, thanks for the answers guys, appreciate it! But lets say I get a 120hz/144hz monitor, what impact will it do ingame?

[Deleted]

Hmm, thanks for the answers guys, appreciate it! But lets say I get a 120hz/144hz monitor, what impact will it do ingame?

Didn't he just tell you that? If you're playing something that can run 90+fps it'll feel much smoother, if you're playing something that can't run 90+ then it's basically a waste and you're better off getting a nice IPS monitor.

[Mythricia]

It will feel more responsive. And potentially look smoother. That's all.


For some people that's a big deal, though. I personally greatly enjoy the feel of higher refresh rates, but then again, maybe I'm just sensitive to it. Some people will swear that they can't (Thus they suggest that nobody else can, either) feel the difference between 30 and 60 fps / hz, while some are able to repeatedly tell the difference between 45 and 60 fps/hz.



But it's worth noting that there's other factors than monitor refresh rate to consider here - and that's monitor input latency, and pixel response time. Having a 200Hz refresh rate doesn't matter if the pixels on the screen aren't capable of changing brightness fast enough to accommodate that... The perceived refresh rate can only ever be as fast as the pixels are able to change their brightness from one value to another. And high refresh rate can still feel slow, if the input latency is bad. If you had 0 input latency, even 30Hz would feel very responsive (But may still look choppy).

Input latency is the end-to-end time it takes between the monitor receiving the signal "Show this picture, dummy!" and actually showing it. There's also the monitor response time to take into consideration (as I mentioned above); this is technically not the same as the input latency... Response time (often stated like "2 ms") is the time it takes for the pixels on the screen to actually change their brightness (they have to change their voltage). True input latency is very rarely stated by the manufacturers, so you need to look at professional reviews for that (and by that, I mean reviewers who have the equipment and knowledge to test input latency accurately; most mainstream review sites can't do that).

Having bought a screen recently with some of the lowest input latency available in a consumer monitor, I can say that it makes an immense difference, even if I'm still running at just 60Hz. So, basically: 60Hz with a really good monitor with low input latency = feels really really great, and so does a 120Hz screen with good input latency.

A 120hz screen with poor input latency will still feel bad. There's like 3 factors that play a significant role in how a monitor displays the image to you, so.... Don't just look at the refresh rate.

[veteran]

Didn't he just tell you that? If you're playing something that can run 90+fps it'll feel much smoother, if you're playing something that can't run 90+ then it's basically a waste and you're better off getting a nice IPS monitor.

Any knowledge if WoW can run over 90+fps?

And Mythricia, I'm considering buying this one http://www.inet.se/produkt/2203191/b...-xl2420t-120hz , its swedish but u may understand it anyway. Is it good?

[Mythricia]

Any knowledge if WoW can run over 90+fps?

And Mythricia, I'm considering buying this one http://www.inet.se/produkt/2203191/b...-xl2420t-120hz , its swedish but u may understand it anyway. Is it good?

WoW can run easily at 120+ FPS, but it depends on the situation. The game engine itself struggles with running properly during raids (at least if you have decently high settings). If you turn off VSync, you should be able to test this yourself with your current monitor, it won't affect FPS. So you can check what FPS you get in the content you're interested in, with the settings you use.


Looking at the monitor, it seems it's got decent numbers across the board, for latency at least. Sites like this, can help a lot. Note the section at the end about Input Lag. This site also does technical reviews.

The BenQ seems to have ~13ms total input lag, which is decent. My Eizo Foris FS2333 has 4.6ms, but it's one of the most responsive screens around. However it's also a 60Hz IPS panel, so don't take that as me saying the Eizo is a first choice for pure gaming, I just wanted a compromise between photo/video editing and gaming... But it gives you an idea I guess.


The BenQ should be fine.

[Deleted]

no system can do WoW 25 Man raids more than ~60fps anyway, so getting 120hz monitor for wow is a waste of money. 120hz monitors are better suited for first person shooters that are GPU based, not CPU based, where you can actually get 100-150fps on high settings with an adequately powerful GPU.

I disagree, when I do LFR I'm at more than 90FPS on highest settings using an i7 overclocked with a hd7970 and there is systems that are far far far more powerful than that!

IPS vs 120Hz is the real question!

[Mythricia]

Well, CPU speed is irrelevant as well for WoW. There's something seriously wrong if you cap any of your cores running a raid (maybe with a ton of addons?) - it's the actual game engine itself that can't operate fast enough. It's old, and was designed for a different computer age.... But the end result is the same, anyway; nobody can run the game very well at high settings, or in raid / high pop situations. I run a first-generation i7 (2.8GHz stock), and it doesn't reach more than ~70% usage on any single core, and that's with me streaming my raids at 720p at the same time...


As for IPS panels; they're for people who need colour accuracy. It won't look any "better" - but it helps for people who need to do colour grading and trying to make graphics content appear similar cross-media. I suppose IPS generally can appear more vivid and colourful - but that's not correct colour anyway, and you can probably get the same effect on a TN/VN panel. IPS panels are also very slow (response time) compared to others, but in the case of screens like Ezio Foris FS2333, the extremely low input latency mostly makes up for it (The total latency isn't bad) - but it's definitely notably worse response time than my old 2ms Syncmaster.


Depending on how geeky you are, computer monitors can be like a science, and I should probably stop talking now :\


You'll do just fine with the BenQ.

[Deleted]

Any knowledge if WoW can run over 90+fps?

And Mythricia, I'm considering buying this one http://www.inet.se/produkt/2203191/b...-xl2420t-120hz , its swedish but u may understand it anyway. Is it good?

Perhaps you list us your specs? WoW can run 90+ but really depends what you're doing and which settings you're running at. You won't get a consistent 90+ (or even 60+) with ultra in 25 mans.

I'd recommend you this instead, also much cheaper:

Dell UltraSharp 24 "U2412M IPS || Review ||

[veteran]

Perhaps you list us your specs? WoW can run 90+ but really depends what you're doing and which settings you're running at. You won't get a consistent 90+ (or even 60+) with ultra in 25 mans.

I'd recommend you this instead, also much cheaper:

Dell UltraSharp 24 "U2412M IPS || Review ||

Here some speccs dunno if its all tho, no idea where u can see it all together.

Modell HP Pavilion dv6 notebook PC
intel core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @ 2,50 ghz 2,50ghz
ram 8gbit
64bit

[glo]

I disagree, when I do LFR I'm at more than 90FPS on highest settings using an i7 overclocked with a hd7970 and there is systems that are far far far more powerful than that!

IPS vs 120Hz is the real question!

Out of combat, not looking at the rest of your raid team.

[Deleted]

Here some speccs dunno if its all tho, no idea where u can see it all together.

Modell HP Pavilion dv6 notebook PC
intel core(TM) i5-2450M CPU @ 2,50 ghz 2,50ghz
ram 8gbit
64bit

Oh this is for a laptop? Yeah don't get a 120Hz monitor, there is no way you'll be able to run anywhere near 90+ FPS

[veteran]

Yeah it is, so 120hz monitor wont make a difference if I got a laptop ?

[Deleted]

No, because there is no way that laptop is powerful enough to maintain that high of an FPS.

[veteran]

Im not doing pve tho, im mainly doing pvp and thought it would improve the quality of my stream aswell? It will not?

[blackblade]

Im not doing pve tho, im mainly doing pvp and thought it would improve the quality of my stream aswell? It will not?

A better monitor will have 0 impact on a stream.

[veteran]

A better monitor will have 0 impact on a stream.

not rly, as u may get smoother gameplay and better fps so it will show smoother on the stream? Am I wrong?