Monitor indecisiveness for all around gaming - R9 390 GPU

[steelcityace]

I'm building a new rig with an R9 390 I picked up during the BF sales and I am completely overwhelmed by which monitor to pair it with. The computer will be mostly gaming - Fallout 4, Witcher 3, Starcraft 2 and some FPS (CS GO, Overwatch, TF2). I currently don't do any photoediting or movie watching on the PC.

I've tried to find some live demos of 144hz monitors (I don't know anyone that has one), but have had no success in finding stores which have 144hz in stock with the proper demo screen. I'm looking for a 24-27" screen, but outside of that, I am completely torn between 1080p IPS, 1080p 144 hz or 1440p IPS. Budget is flexible, but I'd like to stay around $250 - if I go 1080p IPS, then under $200. Either way, I currently have an ancient 1680x1050 panel, so anything I get will be miles better than my current setup.

My concerns are as follows:

Regarding 144hz - I'm not sure I do enough FPS gaming to realize the full benefit of 144hz, but everywhere I read from people that have them, they love them and would never go back to 60hz - no matter their primary gaming preference. Going 144hz also means no IPS, which people have said is a game changer in its own right.

Regarding 1440p IPS - while the R9 390 is a good card that can pump out Ultra settings at 1440p, how does gaming with older games scale (I still have older games I'd like to play - Fallout 3/ X-Com come to mind)? Also, if I go 1440p, my concern is my video card will "age" faster on Ultra/High settings, if instead I bought a 1080p monitor.

I'm leaning towards getting a 1080p IPS since it seems middle of the road. Since I play a lot of RPGs, framerates of 60+ are not always attainable anyway, so I'd rather have the better colors and picture that an IPS generate. Also, I feel like I'll get more legs out of my GPU since it will be able to play more games in the future at Ultra/High settings in 1080p.

However, I also don't want the "power" of my R9 390 to go to waste and be completely underutilized.

Any guidance/tips/general comments? Thanks!

 

[salawow]

144hz is indeed a life changer in games compared to 60hz, as long as your GPU can give you more than 60fps. Your R9 390 should be able to keep up for a while, so it depends on how long you plan to keep it. I don't think you will be able to run future games (let's say 2 years from now) at much more than 60fps. And you are right, most people can't go back after they get used to 144hz.

Pretty much the same about 1440p@60hz. You will be able to run recent games at more or less 60fps, but it will decrease with future games.

1080p@60fps IPS. Your GPU will be overkill in most games for a little while, but much more futureproof. an IPS monitor will indeed give you better colors, much better viewing angle, and the response time of modern IPS is good enough for gaming. However, IPS monitor come with one drawback which is often called "ips glow". It's some kind of gold/blue backlight bleed comming from the corners of your screen (mostly the lower corners). It's only a problem when displaying black or dark colors though. Playing games that are set in dark area, or in dark nights, will suffer from it. Personally, i can't stand IPS glow, but alot of people are ready to live with it just to enjoy all the good sides of an IPS monitor.

 

[steelcityace]

Thanks for your reply - I'm leaning towards going 1440p right now - mainly on the idea that I won't be able to run a lot of things above 60fps anyway on Ultra (FO4, Witcher 3, etc.). I really just think I'm overthinking my decision since my upgrade is going to be lightyears ahead of what I currently have.