Deciding on a monitor to pair with a GTX 1080

Timmster

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Between my Asus VC279H getting a cracked panel, my MSI R9 390 hitting it's limits on Fallout 4 at ultra and more recent games on high, and having no chance at getting a Vega 64 anywhere near MSRP, I decided to shell out for a MSI GTX 1080 during Labor Day sales and a new monitor at the same time. I also got Destiny 2 free with it and that promo ended a few days after I purchased the card. The card hasn't arrived yet so I can't even see for myself how much muscle I have to work with yet.

However I am hung up on purchasing a monitor. I'm not willing to spend $1000 to get every feature I want - 1440p 100+Hz 34" Curved Ultrawide with G-Sync, such as an Acer Predator or ROG Swift - but I have found some compelling offers around $500. I'm in my third year of college and this is the most I'll allow myself to spend.

Acer CZ340CK for $519.99
3440x1440p 60Hz 5ms 34" Curved Ultrawide IPS

LG 34UC87M-B for $509.99
3440x1440p 60Hz 5ms 34" Curved Ultrawide IPS

ViewSonic XG2703-GS for $536.99
2560x1440p 144-165Hz 4ms 27" IPS with G-Sync

I really want this to be worth it and last 3-5 years. Everyone raves about 144Hz as well as ultrawides, but I can't afford to have both.
I have only seen 29" ultrawides in person but have seen online comparisons of 34" and 27", and the view on ultrawides is awesome, especially in games. However 3440x1440 in recent games like Rise of the Tomb Raider and Gears of War 4 is around 80fps at highest settings, and games in the next 3-5 years will eventually likely run at 60fps at that resolution. Downscaling to 2560x1080 or dropping some settings will mitigate that, but detracts from the desired experience.
I have not seen any monitor over 60Hz in person, but everyone says it's even more of a "never go back" than ultrawides. Also with G-Sync on the above Viewsonic monitor lowering settings to achieve 60+ fps may not be an issue for well past 5 years, and I'd be more likely to keep the monitor after upgrading the GTX 1080 in 3-5 years.

I mainly play RPGs like Fallout 4, Witcher 3, and Shadow of Mordor, followed by League of Legends that I play with my brother and friends. I have a feeling I'll be playing a lot of Destiny 2 in the future however, and Star Citizen whenever it's finished, and that influences my decision: Ultrawide for insane immersion or 144hz for that smooth G-Sync bliss everyone raves about. I have analysis-paralysis here and the decision is made harder by the inability to experience them side-by-side.
 
Solution
GSync is a kind of a mix in a bag.
1. GSync costs around USD100-200 extra, which is quite expensive.
2. Monitors with GSync are mostly or all equipped with high refresh rate. Well, If you expect GSync to get rid of screen tearing, monitors with high refresh rate practically does not have them.
This makes GSync a kind of useless, especially, if your PC can deliver high fps.
3. Games on lower fps, e.g. between 40-60fps, feel a lot smoother than without GSync, just do not expect such low fps to be smoother or as smooth as higher fps.

if you ask me, GSync is expensive but can be useful sometimes (low fps situation), I personally do not think GSync worth the extra price. It is better to simply reduce the settings to gain more fps...but it...
i would recommend the view sonic, not because it the most expensive but because of the high Hz, slightly lower response time and G-sync which is great to have if you don't like screen tearing. i also don't really agree with the "curved" screen rave. the viewsonic has a good balance of resolution paired with Hz which i must say a great.
 
Depending on your usage, I would recommend:
- Acer XB271HU or ViewSonic XG2703-GS or ASUS PG279QR, if you do more gaming. Just be prepare to RMA this kind of monitor several time. The RMA risk is worth it.
- If you do something else, not only gaming, a monitor like Dell U3415W or LG 34UC87M or Acer CZ340CK is also nice.
See what you want or what you are going to do with the monitor first than choose a monitor.

3440x1440 gives you more pixel real estate for e.g rendering, editing, etc. The curve feature can be hit and miss at the same time, it depends on what you are doing. 60Hz is ok but not excellent for games.
2560x1440 gives you less pixel real estate. Less pixels means also more fps on the same PC. 144-165Hz is excellent for gaming fluidity.

Info:
I am using Acer XB270HU basically something similar to the viewsonic one.
 


If I sacrifice resolution for refresh rate I can get
LG 34UC79G-B
OR
Acer XZ350CU
both 2569x1080 144Hz 4ms curved ultrawides, Lg being IPS and Acer being VA, which still don't have G-Sync. I want so badly to just get a $1000 panel so I don't have to choose between these five, but that's nearly as much as I have in the tower.
Just look how much more you can see with an ultrawide. the difference is like looking through someone else's eyes vs looking through a window.
 


[strike]I decided to go with the viewsonic. As awesome as ultrawide would be I can't afford any of the ones with gsync and I would not be able to stand the tearing on the games that can't do 3440x1440p @60hz or 2560x1080p@144hz, and I was always been bothered by aliasing on my 27" 180p@60hz monitor, even on games with 16xMSAA.
So I'll get as much of the best of both worlds as I can afford if it means giving up ultrawide.[/strike]

Leaning towards ultrawide still. If I never see 144Hz I'll never know what I'm missing. I can see what I'd be missing by not getting an ultrawide.
 
First of all, for such a great graphic card, you really need a great processor, or else bottleneck will happen at processor end. Your card will put pressure on processor to process data and send frames to you for processing. I hope you selected a proper processor.

Then comes a monitor. With such a powerful card and equivalent processor, I will suggest to go with ROG/Predator monitors. I will go with a ultrawidemonitor with 34 inch 1440p. They will all do the best.
 


It is not as general as that. Games are written differently.
For cpu-intensive games, yes, the processor can be a bottleneck, especially to reach high fps.
Not all games are written that way. The processor is not yet a bottleneck.
This is where it gets tough. All of those investement to replace a processor, which is sometimes a bottleneck sometimes not. I would say, leave it as it is for now and see how the newer processor will be doing e.g. Coffee Lake.

I am still happy gaming with my E3 and GTX1080 for XB270HU tho'. If the fps went down even below 60 fps on some games, I still have the GSync, which can helps to smooth things up.
 


I have an i5 4690k overclocked to 4.5GHz with an h100i on it. In The Witcher 3 setting the resolution to 2880x1620 (closest I can set it to 3440x1440, about 90%) I get 50-70fps depending on if it's in town or outdoors with every setting including hair-works maxed. CPU usage only hits 80%. At 1080p I get 90-100fps and that's when the CPU hits 100% usage.

With those frame-rates if I got an ultrawide I would prefer it to have G-Sync, though sacrificing a few ultra settings to high to maintain 60 with V-Sync is not much of a difference.
 


See and that is why I'm hesitant to get a non-GSync ultrawide, even though they're in my price range.
 
GSync is a kind of a mix in a bag.
1. GSync costs around USD100-200 extra, which is quite expensive.
2. Monitors with GSync are mostly or all equipped with high refresh rate. Well, If you expect GSync to get rid of screen tearing, monitors with high refresh rate practically does not have them.
This makes GSync a kind of useless, especially, if your PC can deliver high fps.
3. Games on lower fps, e.g. between 40-60fps, feel a lot smoother than without GSync, just do not expect such low fps to be smoother or as smooth as higher fps.

if you ask me, GSync is expensive but can be useful sometimes (low fps situation), I personally do not think GSync worth the extra price. It is better to simply reduce the settings to gain more fps...but it is just me after using XB270HU for quite a while...well over a year...

BTW,
1. Witcher 3 is a GPU intensive game, the issue here is not your cpu, the story is different for other games tho'. GTX1080 struggles even on 2560x1440, if you max everything and use ENB mods. You definitely need GTX1080TI or better (in the future) for 3440x1440.
2. The sweet spot for gaming is now the 2560x1440 144/165Hz 27" with or without GSync.
 
Solution


I bought the refurbished Viewsonic. If I get a good panel that I don't have to RMA I'll have paid the same as a new 1440p 144hz IPS and will have GSync as a bonus. It's arriving this afternoon and I can't wait to see how The Witcher 3 and Fallout 4 look as well as how Quake Champions feels at 165hz.