PC Monitor Dilemma

[esprade]

So I've got enough money to build my machine, but not enough to get the monitor also. I did have more money but never considered to be playing 4K gaming and never expected PC monitors to be so expensive and hard choose.

I bought a Sony 50' HDTV 1080p for £450 and it looks fantastic, the image is crisp, colours pop, there's no funny motion blur or after effects, it's just a decent all round full HDTV. So with that in mind I had no idea finding a monitor would be so difficult and expensive.

I've heard tons of horror stories, poor saturation, bad backlight bleeding, tearing, wierd motion blur effects, the list goes on. With being able to buy such good TVs at large sizes you'd think finding a nice mid size PC monitor would be easy.

So my situation is basically this. I spend the next few months saving up for a mid range 1440p monitor I'll probably not be happy with, or simply go for a 1080p monitor up to 144hz and wait for 2K and 4K monitors to drop in price.

My build will be an X99 GTX1080 for development purposes of all kinds, music production, 3D rendering, Unreal Engine 4 etc along side some gaming, and of course with all that I have to get used to the basics and learn to use each of the tools. 2K gaming would be nice but it's not an absolute necessity, I'm sure 1080p at 144hz will look fantastic and better than a console gaming experience, so I'd still be able to play games and still able to use the development tools that I want to. Also, how long will it take before I start developing and rendering scenes at 4K quality? Likely a couple of years I'd imagine.

So what do you think? I'm tempted to just get a nice 1080p panel for a reasonable price and wait for higher res monitors to drop in price. With that I even question why I'm going for a GTX 1080. Lots to think about, lots of time spent designing the rig but also more time needed to be spend on monitor choice and longevity of the hardware.

 

[Solandri]

Any sort of the development work, especially coding, is much easier with two monitors. So you can get a basic low-priced 1080p monitor now, and wait/save for a better 4k 144 Hz or whatever monitor in the future. Use both when you finally get it.

BTW, you do know that you can use your HDTV as a monitor too, right? Most HDTVs take HDMI input, with some taking DVI or Displayport as well. You just have to find the TV setting which turns overscan off. The only drawbacks are most of them are limited to 60 Hz (even the 120 and 240 Hz models seem to not allow the higher frequency with external inputs), and 50" is so damn big you can't put it on your desk - you have to be sitting like 8-10 feet away.

 

[esprade]

That actually makes sense and sounds like the perfect thing to do. Of course you don't need a high res monitor for general computing, documents, spread sheets, coding etc, so at some point I'll need a second monitor anyway as projects develop and that doesn't have to be a top of the range IPS panel. And I'm sure multiple monitors will help with music production and any other sort of creative work as well.

So yeah I think that's what I'll do. Even though I'll not be running 2K+ I'll still be able to play games at ultra settings and work with VR kit when I get round to getting one. By then hopefully monitors will be a better price in a year or two.