Best Gaming 1000$ or less monitor

aubrey08

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Jan 19, 2012
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Looking hard at the ASUS PB278Q 27-Inch WQHD LED-lit PLS Professional Graphics Monitor but feeling maybe i could snag something better i want to game at 2560x1440 resolution but with having the 7970 would it be worth lowering my in game settings to compensate for 2560x1440 resolution?
 
Solution
They don't make 120 Hz IPS panels or 120Hz monitors with 2560x1440. (It's a limit of the current cable standards, HDMI/DVI can't handle anything larger than 1920x1200@120Hz). If you want 120Hz, you're going to be sticking with 1920x1080 and a TN panel. It won't look as good as an IPS panel and the resolution is lower, but motion would be smoother. I hear that some people don't even notice the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz, while others can't stand going back to 60Hz, so you may want to check one in a store first.

1920x1080 with lots of AA on a 24'' screen will look similar to 2560x1440 with no AA on a 27'' screen. You're getting similar quality at a larger size with 2560x1440. 2560x1440@27'' is going to look noticeably better...

aubrey08

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Playing at 1080p is getting stale, knowing and seeing other new setups on high rez monitors make me drool can my current card handle 2560x1440 on ultra settings or am i gonna have to upgrade that as well? The new R9 series graphics cards don't really seem in specs all that much of a upgrade over current GPU am i wrong?
 

AnUnusedUsername

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Sep 14, 2010
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If there's a micro center near you, I'd seriously consider the HP zr2740w. Nearly identical performance to the ASUS, but it's only $400. (http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/hp-zr2740w-asus-pb278q-review,3490.html) I'll be buying one myself in a few weeks if they haven't sold out by then.

As for performance at 2560x1440, it depends on what games you want to play. It's kind of a given that performance will be notably worse than at 1920x1080. Higher resolution always looks better than anti aliasing at a lower resolution. So if your card can already handle lots of AA in whatever you want to play, it can likely handle a higher resolution with less AA, which will look about the same.
 

aubrey08

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If it will look about the same i see no reason to upgrade my display with current card i have. Someone else told me to grab the R9 290x would that card help achieve ultra settings on AAA titles on 2560x1440 resolution?
 

AnUnusedUsername

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They don't make 120 Hz IPS panels or 120Hz monitors with 2560x1440. (It's a limit of the current cable standards, HDMI/DVI can't handle anything larger than 1920x1200@120Hz). If you want 120Hz, you're going to be sticking with 1920x1080 and a TN panel. It won't look as good as an IPS panel and the resolution is lower, but motion would be smoother. I hear that some people don't even notice the difference between 60Hz and 120Hz, while others can't stand going back to 60Hz, so you may want to check one in a store first.

1920x1080 with lots of AA on a 24'' screen will look similar to 2560x1440 with no AA on a 27'' screen. You're getting similar quality at a larger size with 2560x1440. 2560x1440@27'' is going to look noticeably better than 1920x1080@27''.

"Ultra seetings on AAA titles" isn't a very well defined thing. Some titles (skyrim for example) require very little GPU power to run since they're console ports. Others like Metro are far more demanding. Sim type games like FSX require tremendous amounts of CPU power but not much in terms of GPU. AAA titles from a few years ago will run on very little GPU power, too. You'd be better picking a specific game or just looking up benchmarks. Paired with a decent CPU, a 290x will run a stable 60 FPS @2560x1440 in nearly all games, at least if you turn off AA. That card in particular is a bit overpriced right now, though.
 
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