Should I buy a Graphics card first or a Monitor?

vijay_001

Distinguished
Sep 21, 2011
330
0
18,790
I have only the PC & using it with my Philips 24" LED TV.

I am planning to buy a new Graphics card (hopefully 1070 or a RX 480) and a monitor for my pc but I am confused about which one should I buy first, a monitor or a graphics card?

 
Solution
I would try to figure out what you're going to buy, and then just pick. With an AMD card, adaptive sync monitors are much less expensive (they call it FreeSync), whereas adaptive sync equipped monitors that work with Nvidia cards (Gsync) are more expensive.

I do highly recommend adaptive sync monitors for gamers, but you'll need to look at the lay of the land within your budget to see which one suits your needs.

Geekwad

Admirable
I would try to figure out what you're going to buy, and then just pick. With an AMD card, adaptive sync monitors are much less expensive (they call it FreeSync), whereas adaptive sync equipped monitors that work with Nvidia cards (Gsync) are more expensive.

I do highly recommend adaptive sync monitors for gamers, but you'll need to look at the lay of the land within your budget to see which one suits your needs.
 
Solution


This. Don't buy a monitor without adaptive sync technology. So first figure out what GPU you're going to get.

EDIT: Actually, i would actually budget the two as a pair, seeing as, for example, G-Sync monitors are quite expensive.
 

g-unit1111

Titan
Moderator
I'd go with the consensus here so far and figure out what kind of monitor you want to get first before buying your GPU especially because of active sync. That will help you determine what GPU best fits your needs after you get the monitor up and running.
 
Figure out what resolution you want to end up at. Then buy a GPU that supports that. It will work with what you have now, and you won't need to buy again later. If Adaptive Synch is on the menu then plan accordingly. Make sure your PSU is capable fo doing what you want. It has to match your GPU.
 
The Philips 24" LED TV is a monitor that also has a tv tuner. It's likely already 1080p. Having a tv tuner doesn't make it a bad monitor. A gaming monitor at 1080p might have slighly less lag, or might have less ghosting, but most likely it's the same. (Typed on a 1920 x 1200 24" lcd TV that I use as a monitor). Keep your current TV as monitor unless it is "720p". Google your TV's model number to find if it is 1080p (good) or 720p (bad).

If you mainly play games a stronger Video card (also called GPU) will make the most difference. To get a good/valid recommendation you need to give your current PC specs including CPU, power supply size, current video solution, etc.) Googling your PC model number will help. Then tell us the case size for your PC. Some really slim cases cannot take a normal size video card, they need a "low-profile" card. Unless people know that they will make bad recommendations. Also saying how much you want to spend gets people in the right ballpark.