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Monitor reccomendations for 24" / 27"

dave343

dave343

[H]ard|Gawd
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Oct 17, 2000
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I'm in search of a new monitor for gaming and general use. All I play is Skyrim and R6 Siege and a few other FP Adventures. I've been to a few stores and read as many reviews as I can but if anyone has recommendations it'd help me out. Here's what I'm looking for.

24-27"
Ideally 1440P but I'll go for 1080P if the quality and image are good.
144hz
Free-Sync with a good window (20-40 to 144hz)
I like the color depth of IPS and prefer that, but if there is a really good TN panel then TN it is.

I'm running a 380X 4GB. And my budget is around 400-500 US dollars.

Thanks in advance!
 
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Yeah, for $500 I would expect a good quality monitor, but when you go onto Amazon or Newegg and read all the reviews for some of these high end gaming/IPS monitor's, it sounds like the quality is hit and miss. I'd like Freesync, but when most monitors that support it are 40-75hz, that's a pretty small window.
I'd really like to go IPS this round, and I was looking at the PA248Q. Yes, I know the refresh rates would be alot worse then a gaming monitor in the same price braket, but... I'm currently using an 21.5" Asus VS228H-P 1080P **5ms** TN 60hz... so it's pretty bad in games like Siege. The color's are "ok to decent", but any dark area's in Rainbow Six Siege look like a 16/256 color image, it's horrible. And before the Asus I was using a 22" Samsung "best buy special"... so hopefully a good IPS will still have a better refresh rate then my $100 Asus. The PA248Q is also on sale right now, says it's factory calibrated.
 
I ended up going with the PA248Q. I just set it up tonight, played some R6 Siege, loaded up Skyrim, and already I'm regretting the purchase. I was half expecting to be blown away by the colors and quality but I find the PA248Q to be "ok". It's suppose to be pre-calibrated from the factory and the sheet inside detailed what they did.
HD Wallpapers look a little better, the colors look normal now I guess, but nothing spectacular. As for R6 Siege, again the colors didn't look as washed out like on my previous VS228H-P, nor over bright (if anything it looks under bright now), and Skyrim the same thing.
Including taxes it was $510, and so I had to pay an extra $360 (Canadian) for the upgrade but right now I'm regretting the purchase because it doesn't seem completely worth it. Maybe I'm just too use to the cheaper TN's and the off colors / refresh rates don't bother me. Ghosting does NOT seem like an issue on the PA248Q, at least that I can see. I'm sure it exists to some degree, but nothing that immediately stands out to me, however I never noticed ghosting on the VS228H-P either.
So overall, for the extra cash I coughed up, I can't say it was worth it. It's bigger, the color's are "better", games look a little nice(er), but to me those were such small differences, it's not worth the extra $. At least not $360... The VS228H-P already had decent colors, which is why I bought that one because of all the good reviews.
In R6 Siege when looking at dark area's on the VS228H-P, you would see massively big blocks of dark colors / black. I was expecting that to be complete gone on this IPS panel, but it's still there. Granted it's definitely not as bad, now it just looks like small lines that don't completely transition the color from dark to light. So that was a downer to see still there.

There were a few other LCD's I had in mind, and I was a hair away from purchasing the PB278Q with the 1440P res because it was only $60 more than the 24". What turned me off was reading Asus changed the panel from PLS which they still advertise, to AH-PVA which has even slower response times. The Asus VG248QE really interested me as it's 144hz and has really nice colors, and it's cheaper. Also the BenQ 24" XL series...
I suppose I could tick off the sales people and exchange this one as well, abet a restocking fee :( but I wouldn't know what to get now. FreeSync which originally interested me, seems to be limited to a small window of frame-rate on most LCD's, and 144hz LCD's seem to only be good if you're above 60fps (correct me if I'm worng), and since I run max settings I usually only hover around 30-40 which I'm more then happy with.
LG's new curved LCD's look really nice but that WQHD res doesn't seem to be supported by many games.
 
Pre calibration while not entirely meaningless, is ....well meaningless. You still have to calibrate it on your system to actually be "calibrated". If you are still seeing banding in smoke puffs or fog ect in newer games. It could be your gamma curve, or the setting you chose, IE: Game Mode, Low Blue light, whatever it has, rather than "standard" or "user" type setting where you can fine tune to image and colors.

As far as PLS vs (AHVA) which is what you meant, AH-PVA is not a thing..The difference in response time is not absolute. The fastest panels today used in most of the 144Hz ips xsync monitors are AHVA.
And most all panels of the IPS variety are 12-15 ms native. Only when overdrive is used do they become "4 ms" ect..

However all that said. While the PA248Q is ok for it's intended purpose. It's intended purpose is NOT gaming. It's supposed to be a "color critical" artist panel. And it also uses PWM, which while you may or may not notice it adds to an even worse gaming experience.

If you are ok with TN and 1080P and would like an xsync variant, the newly released Viewsonics with freesync are looking to be a nice affordable option. The VG24QE is a tested solution without xsyncs though and at your acceptable stated framerates do you no good. I would consider if you are not picky about which type of video card you use, going with an Amd card and a freesync panel. Cost less, great performance in the mid range ect..If you go up to 1440p, 144Hz, you are looking at a much costlier upgrade as you need a good card to push them, so new card, possibly new power supply ect... Things to keep in mind.
 
Acer XB270H is a great G-Sync monitor. Or ASUS MG278Q for FreeSync! Also the Asus PB287Q is a decent 4k display
 
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