Monitor Help, 144Hz or IPS for gaming but proffesional work as well.

[Mister K]

Hi all,

I am in the market for a long overdue upgrade but I am completely unsure on what to really get. My price range is pretty much up to £600 however the cheaper the better.

I do Web Design/UI/UX however also a very avid gamer. Now I am not sure whether I should go for an IPS or the Asus 144Hz Gsync monitor or similar higher Hz monitors with low response timers.

While id love to maximize my CS:GO/Dota2 and in future StarCitizen/The Division gaming experience I also have only 1 GPU atm, and if I were to upgrade it would be by getting another 780 (not anytime soon).

Can someone list some good IPS monitors? Dell Ultrasharp's are nice, bit pricey. That or Benq/Asus but I have no brand loyalty so eitherway.

________________

Price Range: £300 to £600
Requirements: Low Response Times/Good Color reproduction, but whatever you suggest its fine.

[fixx]

High refresh and good color reproduction are pretty much opposite goals for monitor makers with current technology, and you can't have both without compromises. You need to pick one end of the spectrum or get two monitors, one for work and one for play.

Most important question you need to ask for yourself is do you need accurate colors for work or is "ok" enough.

[Mister K]

High refresh and good color reproduction are pretty much opposite goals for monitor makers with current technology, and you can't have both without compromises. You need to pick one end of the spectrum or get two monitors, one for work and one for play.

Most important question you need to ask for yourself is do you need accurate colors for work or is "ok" enough.

Accuracy is important however anything is going to be better compared to what I have now. Any suggestions for some decent low response time IPS monitors under £600?

[Deleted]

1080p or 1440p?

[Mister K]

1080p or 1440p?

Both but with one 780 I assume 1080p will be a safer bet to game at 60FPS?

[Remilia]

High refresh and good color reproduction are pretty much opposite goals for monitor makers with current technology, and you can't have both without compromises. You need to pick one end of the spectrum or get two monitors, one for work and one for play.

Most important question you need to ask for yourself is do you need accurate colors for work or is "ok" enough.

/point NEC PA322UHD
That however is a bit... different.

Accuracy is important however anything is going to be better compared to what I have now. Any suggestions for some decent low response time IPS monitors under £600?

1920x1080 Dell U2414H
2560x1440 AOC q2770Pqu (don't get confused with g2770Pqu).
AOC's latency (response and signal processing) is about 16ms if I remember correctly (too lazy to check atm).
Dell's is nearly no signal processing lag and 8ms (read 4ms by people) pixel response.

[Deleted]

Both but with one 780 I assume 1080p will be a safer bet to game at 60FPS?

Depend on the game/s but yes definitely.

Dell U2414H ~£185 || Review

A 780 will be able to max or at least run on high with 1440p, you can afford to lower some settings on higher resolutions. Interestingly, with your budget you could buy a 1440p AND another 780.

BenQ GW2765HT + Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 3GB £296 + £310 = ~£606

For a single 1440p I'd look at one of these:

Asus PB278Q ~£400
AOC Q2770PQU ~£353
Dell U2713HM ~£400

[Belial]

Asus PB278Q ~£400

I have the PB278Q as my secondary monitor. Had it as prim. for some time and my only problem gaming on it was screen tearing, otherwise an overall great monitor. My primary monitor now is the Asus ROG Swift PG278Q. And believe me.. that monitor is a beast for gaming, but so is the price. What I'm trying to say here is, if you primary use is gaming go 144hz. If you use it mostly for work go for the PB278Q or some other IPS panel.

[fixx]

Both but with one 780 I assume 1080p will be a safer bet to game at 60FPS?

Again I'd say this depends on how much you want to work vs play.

Higher resolution makes any and all work on graphic design field significantly more productive so you'll be making nasty compromise for game framerates there. 1440p or 1600p is pretty much the standard today for any serious work and 1080@144Hz are toys for gamers.

[Deleted]

my only problem gaming on it was screen tearing

Screen Tearing has nothing to do with the brand or selection of monitor.

[Mister K]

For a single 1440p I'd look at one of these:

Asus PB278Q ~£400
AOC Q2770PQU ~£353
Dell U2713HM ~£400

Awesome, well it seems il be buying 1440p very soon then. Is screen tearing a huge noticeable issue with the above or other 1440p IPS?

Either that or il bight the bullet on the ROG Swift and shell out for that, 1440p + 60FPS+ and il loose slight color reproduction. I've done design work fine so far for semi large clients however its usually by comparing the designs on multiple monitors to get the idea of what im getting as a final product.

Thank you for the replies guys!

Edit: This seems nice http://www.ebuyer.com/452442-asus-mx...monitor-mx279h but silver, meh ^^

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Interestingly, with your budget you could buy a 1440p AND another 780.

BenQ GW2765HT + Gigabyte GeForce GTX 780 3GB £296 + £310 = ~£606

Good shout, Il still wait till about January for another 780 if I were to get one. I can add 3 in total but that might melt my case ^^ (lack of fans, never finished my project).

*Edit* - Right now I have:

SyncMaster 2333HD
Samsung DTV Monitor 10000:1

So I guess anything will be better than this ^^ That and my 17" Acer from like 2006/7... oh lawd...

[Remilia]

MoBo only allows for 2x SLI anyways.

That said, that MX279H is very expensive for what it is, way too expensive.

Screen tearing isn't caused by the monitor, it is caused by FPS not lining up with your monitor's refresh rate.

and yes, almost anything is better than what you have atm.

[Mister K]

MoBo only allows for 2x SLI anyways.

That said, that MX279H is very expensive for what it is, way too expensive.

Screen tearing isn't caused by the monitor, it is caused by FPS not lining up with your monitor's refresh rate.

and yes, almost anything is better than what you have atm.

Ah fair enough. I guess the specs and the price don't match up to comparable monitors?

Oh ok, I guess that's vSync jobs to do to reduce it ^^ (#newb)

Hmm, it's a choice between the Asus PB27Q or Dell u2713, hmm if only there was a computer shop nearby or somewhere in London which had range of monitors which you can test out before buying ^^

I guess If I am pretty much fine playing with the current setup I might as well go with a decent IPS and later down the line just get the gSync tech monitors from either Asus or whoever, they will probably go down the price as well.

Edit:

I did find this issue regarding the 2713HM

[Remilia]

I guess I should note something for color coverage, accuracy, and reasons why they're avoided or used by professionals.

Panels' color coverage or gamut is largely dependent on what is used for back light. Earlier were using CCFLs which aren't as harsh / bright as LEDs but allowed a different variety of color gamut. Nowadays it's LEDs with W-LEDs giving a rough coverage of the sRGB gamut (72%~ NTSC). GB-r / GB / RB LED LEDs giving a rough coverage of Adobe RGB (104%~ NTSC), and RGB LED or Crystal LED (CLED -rip-) covering more than 114% NTSC comparable to OLED and Plasma gamut.
Factory calibration is also to play part with the coverage.

Now, TN, VA and IPS (including AHVA, PLS and IGZO) can have that color coverage provided it's using the proper back light and calibration.

Color accuracy like gamut is independent from panel type. Color accuracy is largely dependent on calibration / factory set up. Some can have issues calibrating, doesn't matter if it's TN, VA or IPS. PA248Q comes to mind with having issues calibrating with user settings.

Now why IPS is used over TNs and VAs.

TN's viewing angle causes issue when doing professional artwork. The contrast shift and color shifts even when you're not looking directly straight.
VA's is similar but most notable is off center contrast shifts, where dark materials you look at straight on may appear just completely black.
Now most IPS (exception like Eizo EV2736W) also have something called IPS glow, where it's more prominent if you're looking at one at an angle you'll notice a silver/yellow (depends) 'glow'. It's possible to remove it as shown by the one mentioned before or with an inclusion of an A-TW Polarizer. This can also cause potential issues when working with more color critical dark content but it's not as prominent or of an issue than the other two.

[Mister K]

Aha I see. So I guess that's why people pay for Calibrating their displays. There is software that calibrates right?

I think Il be going with the Asus's PB278Q however not sure whether to order it from eBuyer or Scan. I need to finance it (I have the money however I need to buy few other things which will put me over my budget).

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-as...speakers-black - £400
http://www.ebuyer.com/397018-asus-pb...monitor-pb278q - £480 (£503 with finance) for 5 months.

Huge price difference :/

[Remilia]

Ah fair enough. I guess the specs and the price don't match up to comparable monitors?

Oh ok, I guess that's vSync jobs to do to reduce it ^^ (#newb)

Hmm, it's a choice between the Asus PB27Q or Dell u2713, hmm if only there was a computer shop nearby or somewhere in London which had range of monitors which you can test out before buying ^^

I guess If I am pretty much fine playing with the current setup I might as well go with a decent IPS and later down the line just get the gSync tech monitors from either Asus or whoever, they will probably go down the price as well.

Edit:

I did find this issue regarding the 2713HM
[video=youtube;kb_CXmXSQQU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb_CXmXSQQU[video]

There's a reason why I generally recommend AOC q2770Pqu now.

While U2713HM was one of the best per price during it's time (2 years ago), it doesn't really live up to what's being offered now. The back light bleed can be seen in TFT Central's review, similar layout as the one in the video you mentioned.

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Aha I see. So I guess that's why people pay for Calibrating their displays. There is software that calibrates right?

I think Il be going with the Asus's PB278Q however not sure whether to order it from eBuyer or Scan. I need to finance it (I have the money however I need to buy few other things which will put me over my budget).

http://www.scan.co.uk/products/27-as...speakers-black - £400
http://www.ebuyer.com/397018-asus-pb...monitor-pb278q - £480 (£503 with finance) for 5 months.

Huge price difference :/

I'd honestly not go with PB278Q, like U2713HM, it hasn't lived up to current offerings.

Calibration requires two things. A calibration tool, typically a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer. Former one being cheap to relatively expensive and the latter being super expensive and probably buy two 2560x1440 monitors with that money. And software, which a lot of colorimeters / spectrophotometers have packaged.

Then there's the eyeball it, which isn't really good.

[Mister K]

There's a reason why I generally recommend AOC q2770Pqu now.

While U2713HM was one of the best per price during it's time (2 years ago), it doesn't really live up to what's being offered now. The back light bleed can be seen in TFT Central's review, similar layout as the one in the video you mentioned.

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I'd honestly not go with PB278Q, like U2713HM, it hasn't lived up to current offerings.

Calibration requires two things. A calibration tool, typically a colorimeter or a spectrophotometer. Former one being cheap to relatively expensive and the latter being super expensive and probably buy two 2560x1440 monitors with that money. And software, which a lot of colorimeters / spectrophotometers have packaged.

Then there's the eyeball it, which isn't really good.

Just checked the price on eBuyer for the "AOC q2770Pqu" which is actually brilliant and probably won't even have to bother with the Finance.

Il watch some reviews on it, however what makes you go for the "AOC q2770Pqu"?

I always thought it was just pop in the calibration software and it would do its thing until you happy with the colors and hit stop ^^ Hell, I won't bother with that, unless I truly start needing it a lot for the work. Luckily I am in the digital design field rather than print.

[Remilia]

A umm... very in depth review.
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/aoc_q2770pqu.htm
It's... over kill of a review.

pcmonitors.info has one somewhere.

And no sadly that's not how calibration software works, it's actually a lot more boring than you would think. You put the device on the screen, run the software and (depending on the software) it'll flip through colors on either a small patch, or the entire screen and the calibration tool does it's job there.

[Mister K]

A umm... very in depth review.
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/aoc_q2770pqu.htm
It's... over kill of a review.

pcmonitors.info has one somewhere.

And no sadly that's not how calibration software works, it's actually a lot more boring than you would think. You put the device on the screen, run the software and (depending on the software), it'll flip through colors on either a small patch, or the entire screen and the calibration tool does it's job there.

Awesome thank you for the link and the help, super appreciate it! I think Il get this one once I am happy with the review, then sometime next year Il upgrade GPUs and get a 144Hz.

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Just out of curiosity. When it's compared to an IPS panel in that price range, is it better to go with the AOC or with a comparable IPS panel?

[Deleted]

http://www.asus.com/Monitors/PA238Q/

Had this for just over a year now and it's spectacular. Mine suffers from a tiny bit of light bleed in the bottom right corner, but it's only noticeable when the monitor is blank. I use it for photography mostly, colour reproduction and viewing angles are utterly superb, and I was shocked at how much more detail it brought out during gaming too.