Move to 2560x1600 or stick with 1080p/1200p

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LugNutX

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TL;DR - Looking for a new gaming display setup. Does it cost too much to maintain a 2560x1600 environment? Would dual monitors be a better solution for productivity vs. gaming performance vs. cost ratio? I'll spend a lot on an upgrade, but I keep my hardware 3-4 years.

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Long version...

I am in the market for a new build and I'm reviewing my display options as well. I currently use a 24" 1920x1200 LCD that I find to be a good size and have had no issues. As with all my new builds, I'm looking to add something bigger and better. I will spend $2-3k at a time, but I only do this every 3-4 years. I've narrowed it down to a few options:

1. 27-30" Monitor: Nice bump in size and resolution, but at what cost to the GPU? I could throw a GTX 680 at this right now and be happy, but for how long? As I keep my hardware a while, I have a difficult time believing I can run acceptable frame rates with that card at that resolution for a few years. The only saving grace may be that I don't play too many of the newest top tier games, as I usually wait for Steam sales to pick stuff up. That may buy me a little more longevity, but how much? The resolution would be great for general web browsing and productivity, and I love the size. Mmmmm....:)

2. 27" 1080p Monitor: Physically a jump up in size, but will the PPI bother me? The general consensus seems to be that it's not as much an issue within a game as it is on the desktop or browsing the web. Since my usage is split about 50/50 between gaming and other tasks, I wonder if the dot pitch would get bothersome. Thoughts?

3. Dual 24" 1080p Monitors: This would allow me to extend my desktop for productivity purposes, yet still maintain a decent PPI and manageable gaming resolution. I'm thinking two monitors for general use, switching to a single for gaming. The downside is that there isn't really any "WOW" factor on the gaming end, as I currently play at this size.

What would you do? What would Jesus do?
 
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LugNutX said:
What would you do? What would Jesus do?
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If I was in the market for a monitor right now, I would go with the 27" 2560x1440 IPS Crossover monitor from Korea off Ebay and get a 680 GTX.

I would only go with 1920x1080 resolution if its a 120hz panel
 
Marduk77 said:
If I was in the market for a monitor right now, I would go with the 27" 2560x1440 IPS Crossover monitor from Korea off Ebay and get a 680 GTX.

I would only go with 1920x1080 resolution if its a 120hz panel
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I've followed the thread on the Korean monitors, and they seem like a phenomenal deal, although there seems to be a decent chance of a less than perfect unit. I suppose it's a gamble worth investigating for the price involved.

My concern is still powering that 2560x1440 screen in gaming. While the GTX 680 would provide good framerates for the time being, I have to imagine that I'll notice those drop considerably faster over the next few years than if I was to choose a lower resolution monitor. I don't have the desire to replace the video card every 18 months or drop down to lowly settings. Would you anticipate this being a problem, or am I making a big deal out of nothing?

Regarding the 120Hz monitors, I'm sure I would notice the difference...I just don't know that it would be enough to convince me to spend almost double the amount for a comparable model of the same size. I'm mostly a casual single-player guy and rarely do MP (I'm terrible), so I'm not sure the ultra-high refresh rate would benefit my non-competitiveness.
 
I was also in a similar situation, had a 24" 1080p monitor, and now I've moved on to a U2711 and have been happy with this decision. I'm powering the monitor with a 5970, which I think will only manage medium settings for gfx intensive games in that resolution. Therefore I will be upgrading soon to a GTX680 soon when all the various non-ref models comes out.
As for your question on having to replace gfx card after 18mths if you went 2560x1440, I think you making a big deal out of it. At present it shows the GTX680 can easily handle high settings at this res and even if it can't later on, you have have to pop in another GTX680 for SLI which would be cheaper then to purchase.
 
I just moved to the catleap Korean 27inch LCD and my 580 GTX 3GB card is handling everything like a champ. Now I have not tried BF3 so there will need to be some tweaking from my old 24inch 1080P Dell. Overall if you are willing to sacrifice detail down the road, a 27inch and GTX 680 should be good for several years.
 
depends on what kind of games you play. a 2560 x 1600/1440 monitor should be better for strategy or RPGs since it allows you to see a larger area. for shooters, definitely go with 120 hz. this is limited to 1920 x 1080 unfortunately, but it works.

i was a skeptic myself regarding 120 vs 60 hz, didn't see that much of a difference at first. when i switched to my old display for a comparison... ugh, what the hell was this pixel mess? it was blurred, so smeared all over the screen it gave me nausea. and really choppy, like my crosshair kept jumping pixels. i couldn't believe i had played like that before, yet i must have been so used with that 60 hz choppiness i didn't realize the difference immediately.

i used to get simulator sickness before, to the point i had to take a break from gaming every hour. now this seems to be gone. i don't remember having had any nausea in the CRT days, so it must have come from the LCD (actually a pretty good Iiyama with 2 ms g/g, now using samsung S27A750D)

sure, everyone would like 2650 x 1600 @ 120 hz, but i doubt any LCD screen will deliver this kind of performance, rather wait for OLED. anyway, a hi-res monitor requires your graphics card to push 1.77 times as many pixels, this has a very noticeable impact on frame rate, while graphics quality isn't so much better IMO. now i'm the kind of gamer who tweaks his graphics for visibility and frame rate, but YMMV.
 
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Nonpareil said:
As for your question on having to replace gfx card after 18mths if you went 2560x1440, I think you making a big deal out of it. At present it shows the GTX680 can easily handle high settings at this res and even if it can't later on, you have have to pop in another GTX680 for SLI which would be cheaper then to purchase.
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I tend to shy away from SLI/Crossfire - it's been more of a source of frustration than enjoyment in my experiences, but I suppose the option is always there. Heat, noise and power consumption are always concerns too.

Vengance_01 said:
Overall if you are willing to sacrifice detail down the road, a 27inch and GTX 680 should be good for several years.
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I'm trying to avoid sacrificing much detail, although I know that's probably a pipe dream at any resolution. At such a high-res, I will likely be disabling AA (I usually do this on my 24" for most titles too) because the jaggies will be much less obvious. I would imagine this will add another 10-15fps in most cases.

Torr Samaho said:
depends on what kind of games you play. a 2560 x 1600/1440 monitor should be better for strategy or RPGs since it allows you to see a larger area. for shooters, definitely go with 120 hz. this is limited to 1920 x 1080 unfortunately, but it works.
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I'm primarily a strategy and RPG gamer, though I do occasionally play through a single-player shooter (Metro 2033, for example). However, I don't play enough shooters, nor am I competitive enough, to seek out a specific monitor to handle just one genre.

Thanks for all the advice - lots of good stuff in this thread. I believe I've ruled out the dual 24"s (not really enough room for a multi-monitor setup), and the deal on the Korean 27"s makes it difficult to justify the 3x pricetag of the 30" models. We're down to:

1. ~$400 27" Korean display
2. ~$300-400 27" 1080p display - May investigate 120hz (~$650) if I went with this res, though I still have concerns about the dot pitch. I would need to see it in person.
3. ~$400 Stick with a 24" display, picking up a high-end monitor over my current Sceptre TN panel.
 
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Uh what? You can get a brand new ZR2740w for around $650. PLEASE do not be one of those Best Buy-type consumers who buys larger-than-22" monitor with 1080p on it, because they look horrible. For that amount of money, just buy a large HDTV already if you're going to limit yourself to 1080p.
 
Xinmosni said:
Uh what? You can get a brand new ZR2740w for around $650. PLEASE do not be one of those Best Buy-type consumers who buys larger-than-22" monitor with 1080p on it, because they look horrible. For that amount of money, just buy a large HDTV already if you're going to limit yourself to 1080p.
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That's a good deal on a domestic 27", and would be less hassle and provide a little more purchase security, but is it worth the $250 jump from the Korean units? I understand the HPs probably have a better stand/casing and quality control, but what about the display itself?

I voiced my concern over the PPI/dot pitch on the "larger-than-22" 1080p screens, but I would still like to judge for myself. I'm willing to bet I'll find it unacceptable, but I'd like to see for my own eyes, thus it's still on the table for now. This option is at the bottom of my list. 24" is probably my cut-off for a 1080p screen.

I will most certainly not be buying a large HDTV.
 
LugNutX said:
That's a good deal on a domestic 27", and would be less hassle and provide a little more purchase security, but is it worth the $250 jump from the Korean units? I understand the HPs probably have a better stand/casing and quality control, but what about the display itself?

I voiced my concern over the PPI/dot pitch on the "larger-than-22" 1080p screens, but I would still like to judge for myself. I'm willing to bet I'll find it unacceptable, but I'd like to see for my own eyes, thus it's still on the table for now. This option is at the bottom of my list. 24" is probably my cut-off for a 1080p screen.

I will most certainly not be buying a large HDTV.
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If you can accept the possibility of some minor defects, The Korean monitor is the way to go as its the same exact LG panel. If you are a person who wants perfection, the Korean monitor is to much of a gamble.
 
Xinmosni said:
Uh what? You can get a brand new ZR2740w for around $650. PLEASE do not be one of those Best Buy-type consumers who buys larger-than-22" monitor with 1080p on it, because they look horrible. For that amount of money, just buy a large HDTV already if you're going to limit yourself to 1080p.
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How is the input lag on that monitor?
 
I went from 24" 1920x1200 TN > 32" 1080P TV > 30" 2560x1600 IPS back to a 27" 1080p 120Hz monitor...

Will stick with 120Hz 1080p for now, IMO 120Hz beats 1600p for gaming..
 
Xinmosni said:
PLEASE do not be one of those Best Buy-type consumers who buys larger-than-22" monitor with 1080p on it, because they look horrible.
Click to expand...

Disagree. My 27" Samsung 1080p 120Hz looks fantastic even when sitting close. Yes the dot pitch can be a concern, but that's why we have AA. I run 4x AA minimum and it looks great.
 
I went from 2x1080P 23.6" monitors to a Catleap monitor and wow... its awesome. If you've already got a 24" monitor, you can just double up with the existing monitor, so $400 is actually netting you the productivity bonus that going to 2x24" monitors would do. It also has none of the drawbacks that going to a 27" 1080P monitor would re: dot pitch. I've used friends' setups that have screens that large and the dot pitch was just painful when you sit close to it. 4xAA might be good enough when gaming, but reading text was another story altogether. My 460 SLI setup does struggle somewhwat at the new res in the more demanding games, so I will probably be upgrading to a GTX680 soon, but reducing certain IQ settings (shadows, occlusion) has mitigated that in the short term without a distracting loss in visual quality. The other benefit of the Korean monitors is that it is an IPS panel, so you will reap the color-accuracy and black level benefits outside of gaming as well. I don't notice appreciably more ghosting on it vs my 2ms or 6ms TN panels

Disclaimer: I have not gamed on 120hz screen, so I could be missing out on something awesome in that regard.
 
Gaming on a 30" 2560x1600 is like nothing else. Problem is, you'll never go back, and it costs a ton to drive a 30" properly. SLi required.
 
Thanks for all the help, everyone. I've decided to give one of the 27" Korean monitors a shot!
 
Good luck. Seems chances of getting a good panel (perfect or only a couple stuck pixels) are pretty high.
 
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