1440p vs 4k Monitor, and Should I Upgrade My Card for It?

[JoebaltBlue]

Hello, I've been looking around for a second monitor, and I've come across the ASUS MG278Q (https://www.asus.com/us/Monitors/MG279Q/) which is 1440p and 144Hz. I would use it for gaming, and at present I have an R9 290, so I'm not too terribly certain I could run things on max graphics at 1440p resolution and/or even 120 FPS. In which case, what would you guys recommend? I have a fairly large budget so I'd be willing to get a 980Ti along with this ASUS monitor, or would my money just be better spent getting a 4k monitor (which I know little about) and the 980Ti?

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Buy a 1440 144 Hz to reduce tearing, while having smoother game play. 4k is ridiculous, IMO. Unless you know you can get playable framerates out of 4k, with Vsync on (including input lag) to avoid tearing, if that's an issue, then simply don't even consider one. If money is an issue, then consider a 1080 144 Hz/120 Hz panel instead. 980 Ti will run 1440 144 Hz fairly well, though. However, with that said--I cannot recommend a 60 Hz monitor, it's to slow for my taste, might not be for you, but that is my personal opinion on this. A lot of people prefer 4k, but a lot of them also don't mention that a 4k display will make things look 4x smaller in comparison to your typical 1080 display. 1440 is the sweet spot, IMO.


Quick explanation on tearing, and how a higher refresh rate helps minimize this effect to our eyes:


For simplicity I will use 60 and 120 Hz as examples:

A 60 Hz display refreshes every 16.67 ms, this is because 1 / 60 = 0.016 (16.67) ms. This means that the monitor picks up the frame in the GPU's frame-buffer every 16.67 ms, meanwhile the GPU draws a frame in the back-buffer. It then copies the frame in the back-buffer to the frame-buffer as often as it can.

Okay, so we know that a 60 Hz display refreshes every 16.67, but why does it tear? That is because the monitor has a set refresh rate, and it picks up the frame from the frame-buffer, at the same time the back-buffer copies it's frame to the frame-buffer.

It's not the monitor that is half finished, it's the graphics card that is half finished and the monitor that is causing it. The monitor has a set refresh rate, again: 60 Hz = 16.67 ms. The graphics card does not.

V-sync, G-sync, FreeSync, will stop this from happening, but locking your framerate to the monitors refresh rate, will not. However, by using a faster monitor, such as a 120 Hz display. What happens is that screen tearing occurs twice as much on a 120 Hz display, than on a 60 Hz--but why is the 120 Hz display better? That is because the difference between 2 frames, is going to be much smaller (faster). Simple math tells us that 1 / 120 = 0.008 ms. That is indeed much lower (faster) than what a 60 Hz (16.67 ms) display is capable of.

This means that the frame that is tearing, spends half as much time as the 60 Hz display, on screen. The result is that it's very hard for us to actually notice the tearing, on a 120 Hz display, in comparison to a 60 Hz display.

But bottomline is, without V-sync, G-sync and FreeSync--you will have tearing. While a higher FPS will make the GPU render a lot more frames, which increases the chance of screen tearing, again, it doesn't mean that there is a big difference between high and low FPS, regardless of what the monitor's refresh rate is.

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Hopefully you got something out of this. Do note that when comparing monitors, it's simply impossible to use the specs, manufacturers don't provide the real numbers. What you should take into consideration, is what LCD panel tech does it use? IPS, MVA, TN are the three common panels. With the IPS being superior due to it's accurate colors and viewing angles in comparison to the other two- MVA and TN.

 

[JoebaltBlue]

Wow thank you for the fast and informative reply. I never really understood screen tearing either, but this definitely helped me understand the monitor market much better.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

What is your total budget? Again, IF screen tearing is an issue, because you may have seen videos showing it in slow mo, which is obviously as far away from realistic as you can get when trying to prove a point. You will want either G-sync (Nvidia GPU) or FreeSync (AMD GPU). You should fill out this form provided by g-unit1111:

1. What Is Your Country Of Origin?

2. What do you plan to do with this monitor? (ex. Games, Movie Watching, Photo Editing, etc.)

3. What resolution and screen size do you want?

4. What refresh rate do you want? (ex. 60 hz , 70 hz.)

5. How much are you looking to spend?

6. Brands Preferred (ex. Samsung, Acer, Asus, AOC, HP, Viewsonic, etc. )

7. Brands Not Preferred (state reason why)

8. Are You Buying More Than One Monitor?

9. How Many Displays Can Your GPU Support Maximum? And what GPU and driver version are you using if applicable?

10. What Port Do You Want To Connect To (ex. DVI-D, HDMI, etc).

11. Is This Monitor A Primary Display Or A Secondary Display?

12. Is This A Secondary Display For A Laptop?

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Thread can be found here: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1879700/buy-monitor-start.html - interesting read, and very straightforward.

This will help us help you find your new monitor a lot faster, rather than asking a question at a time.

Edit: Manofchalk was part of the above thread too, so here is a somewhat detailed guide you may find useful: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/id-1661174/parts-guide-monitors.html

 

[JoebaltBlue]

Ah I see; here's my info then:

1. United States

2. Gaming

3. 1440p, screen size isn't too important, maybe only 25" minimum

4. Any refresh rate above 120Hz

5. Willing to spend upwards of $1000 on both the monitor and graphics card combined but preferably no more than $1500

6. No brand preference

7. No brand preference

8. I would only be buying one monitor

9. The R9 290 supports multiple monitors, and it is using the newest drivers (Catalyst Software Suite Omega (14.12))

10. Any port is fine, but I've heard good things about DisplayPort

11. Primary display which would make my current 1080p monitor the secondary display

12. This is for desktop use