[SOLVED] 1080p75hz vs 1080p144hz vs 1440p75hz vs 4k60hz

[im_shadows]

Hey guys, help me choose between a 1080p75hz ultrawide monitor, a 1080p144hz (not ultrawide) monitor, a 1440p75hz (not ultrawide) monitor and a 4k60hz (of course, not ultrawide) monitor. Just to mention, these are the monitors available to buy where I live (there aren't no 1080p120hz, 1080p144hz ultrawide, 1440p144hz, etc), so please help me choose between these specific ones. All of them have the IPS panel, same size and cost the same. I've looked that the type of games I play may help me decide. But that's where things get a little complicated. The monitor will be used for gaming, mainly (I don't work with photography or stuff like that). I have more than 2k hours of CSGO and play some Battlefield and Valorant from time to time, but I also play almost every new triple a game, such as Death Stranding, Assassin's Creed, Control, etc. I feel like on some heavy singleplayer games (like AC:Odyssey) and on pretty much all online games (except for CSGO and Valorant), even though I have high framerate (doenst matter if I cap it to 60 or set it to unlimited), the gameplay doesnt feel fluid when I move my mouse too fast (from on side to another of the screen). I don't know if that's because of my low refresh rate or because of frametime issues. This makes me play most games on a controller (except for online games, that I play with mouse and feel somewhat uncomfortable with the performance). I have a GTX 1070, 16gb ram and a i7-8700, so I can run above 60fps on 1080p on almost every game at ultra/very high. Testing for 1440p, I can run at 60fps making a few changes. Another important thing to mention is that I will use this monitor with my PS4 Pro too. I feel like I'm now, after some research, between the 4k60hz monitor and the 1080p144hz.
My main concerns are:

• I've seen people complain about stutters and gameplay not feeling fluid when using a PS4 (Pro or not) on a 144hz screen
• Would the smoothness of a 1080p144hz monitor overcome the quality of the 4k60hz?

Just to mention, of course I would downscale the 4k60hz to play at 1080p60hz. I would use the 4k only for the PS4 Pro and movies. On some games I could also downscale it to 1440p (I know it will look better than 1080p but worse than a 1440p native).
I've been using a 720p 32" TV upscaled to 1080p60hz for 5 years, so anything related to blurriness when downscaling 1440p to 1080p/2160p to 1440p wouldn't be noticed by me. Although I now the benefits of a 144hz monitor and the quality jump from my 720p to 1080p (not to mention 1440p and 2160p), I've never used/looked at someone playing at one, and there isn't any store where I live for me to test it, so you guys are my only hope.
Thank you!

 

[King_V]

Smoothness - I suspect there's a lot of people who believe in the extra smoothness from super-high refresh rates, rather than actually being able to see them.

The best I've been able to tell from researching, the human limit (either to be able to see, or to be able to react to what's seen), tops out somewhere under 90fps.

That said, it seems that, for a given resolution, a 144Hz version of a monitor is sometimes about the same price as a lower Hz version of the same monitor, so it doesn't hurt to go high-refresh, even if you don't use that speed.


Disclaimer: I used to think it was a gimmick, but now I'm a huge fan of ultra-wide. The increased field-of view is amazing. So, I would recommend 2560x1080.

What GPU do you have?

It wouldn't be too bad to go to a 2560x1080 (ie: 1080 ultrawide) monitor with 75Hz. Make sure you have FreeSync. However, if you can get a 2560x1080 that goes to higher refreshes - specifically, if its maximum refresh is 2x or more what the minimum is - then the monitor probably also has Low Framerate Compensation (LFC).

What that means is: Say your monitor has a FreeSync range, like my son's does, of 50-144Hz. With FreeSync enabled, if the frame-rate goes below the minimum, say it dips down to 40fps, instead of tearing, the driver will run the monitor at 80Hz (ie: 2x the frame rate) and display each frame twice.

To the human eye, this appears exactly the same as if it were running at 40Hz and displaying 1 frame per refresh. This basically means, for all intents and purposes, the frame rate can dip down to as low as half the minimum FreeSync range, and still avoid tearing.


However, if the price for a higher refresh 1080 ultrawide is radically higher than the 75Hz version, I've seen that a lot of the FreeSync 2560x1080 monitors typically have either a 48-75Hz or a 40-75Hz FreeSync range. You don't get the benefit of LFC, but it's still pretty good to have that adaptable refresh rate.


Don't get a GSync monitor. GSync is proprietary, and works ONLY on Nvidia cards. On top of that, you have to pay extra for a GSync monitor, because the monitor has an extra piece of hardware for the GSync, which is licensed from Nvidia.