Question Advice on which Dell monitor to get

GregP74

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I'm planning on buying a new 27" monitor from Dell. (I'm going with them for 2 reasons -- I've had good luck in the past, and I've also got $200 credit from work.) It'll be running off an EVGA GTX 2070 board.

I do some gaming. Maybe 25% of my time is playing WoW or Grand Theft Auto 5. Maybe some other things but not big into those first person shooters. The other 75% of the time the pc is being used for working on documents & pictures and Netflixing.

I'm currently looking at 2 different screens. The U2719DC IPS one with the USB-C input as well as the S2716DG. That one's a TN with the higher refresh rates and the G-Sync capability.

I'm getting mixed messages about what I should go with. Gamer friends are telling me go with the one that has the higher refresh rates I'll be miserable without. Others are telling me the colors are going to suck and it won't be good for anything but gaming and that the U series one will be much better for me. I'm really at a loss here and don't know which direction to go.
 
That's a tough one. I've had several U series IPS panels from Dell in the past(2407WFP, U2711, U3415W) and picture quality was always fantastic though 2407 was VA based. That said, my current monitor combines that with G-SYNC which makes quite a difference in games that benefit from the technology, though mainly these are FPS. I know TN has come along way over the years, but I'll take a quality IPS or VA panel any day myself from visual fidelity as I'm not a competitive high refresh gamer need 100+ Hz . Since you are only gaming 25% of your time though, I would lean towards the IPS panel.
 

GregP74

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I've actually had a U2719D (same thing but regular usb input instead of usb-c) on my desk at work for a couple months now and I love it. It's big and bright and clear. I'm sure the U series would be a good choice.

Still kind of tempted to order the other one just to try it out and see how I like it. If it's not up to my standards for non-gaming I could always exchange it for the other one.
 
Yes, that's always an option as well. Both have there strengths and weaknesses given the choices. It would be hard to part with either though. Having an IPS or VA makes a TN look awful by comparison from my experience. Use TN at work. For gaming though, G-SYNC or Freesync really smooths out the gaming experience. You notice the tearing and stutters when going back to gaming without it.
 
which display do you have right now?
Depending what you do and how you do it, none of those statements from you friend might not even matter.
If you worked right in front of your monitor like most users do, then you might not even notice if you're working on an IPS or TN display.
You need to decide if high refresh rates and fast response times are more important that color accuracy and viewing angles.

A higher refresh will provide higher responsiveness in games, which translate into much smoother and quicker reaction.

I deal with hundreds of users daily and most of them cannot tell the difference between an IPS and TN monitor and they hardly notice 1ms vs 5ms response time and many others don't even care.
Response time explained
TN, IPS & VA explained
Refresh Rate
 
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GregP74

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The one I'm using at the moment is an old 23" IPS. It's nothing to write home about but it's decent.

I'm curious about the viewing angle and the color accuracy. How far off axis do you have to be for it to be affected? I don't really care if it's hard to read the screen when I'm 3 feet off to the side. As long as it looks alright when I'm sitting at my desk +/- 6 inches in any direction I'm happy. And as far as color goes yeah I want it to look like what it's supposed to but I'm not checking things against a Pantone when I'm working at the PC.

I probably can't go wrong with either one. I know the U series is going to be a good solid monitor that's great for general use and the picture may be a bit better. On the other hand the other one will be better for games. I guess it's a matter of using it day to day am I going to notice a bit less image quality more than I would notice better gaming performance. To be honest after a few days of using either one I probably won't even think about it anymore.

My biggest problem is I suck at making decisions. I should probably just flip a coin.
 

GregP74

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I may ask my boss if he'd mind me bringing my work monitor home next weekend and in the mean time get one of the gaming ones. Pretty sure I could plug them in at the same time and compare side by side.
 

GregP74

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I suppose I could also go a different route than the Dell. I could always put that credit towards something else. Looks like Asus has a nice (but pricey) IPS unit with G-Sync.
 

GregP74

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That's an option too. I kind of feel bad having this g-sync capable card and not using a monitor that can support it.

I've been looking at this ASUS PG279Q and it does seem pretty nice. Only has 2 usb ports instead of the 4 on the Dell and they aren't as easy to get to but I could plug my keyboard and usb dongle for the wireless mouse in there and have 2 free ports on my keyboard for anything that needs pugging in now and thenl.
 
Yes, that's another good options as well. Regading Freesync, Nvidia recently announced they would be certifying Freesync monitor technology that works properly with Nvidia cards to provide the same or very similar adaptive refresh capability that G-Sync monitors offer.

https://www.pcworld.com/article/333...c-monitor-support-geforce-graphics-cards.html

Just provides the user with more options overall, as G-SYNC monitors carry a price premium from dedicated modules inside the monitor. That said, I've very happy with my G-SYNC display.
 

GregP74

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So in my research I found the QC on the Asus unit seems to be hit and miss. I'm kind of thinking my best may be the U2719DC IPS one. I'll feel kind of bad about not using my graphics card's G-Sync capabilities but it sounds like this one may be my best bet for all around use. So pretty much I'm back to my original thoughts lol