G-SYNC worth almost double the price of the monitor ?

[Mugiwara777]

Hello,

I am buying a new monitor (AOC AG241QX 24-Inch) with a pretty solid price tag (£259.99), however i was originally going to buy the same monitor but with G-sync however this pushes the price up to £425.99.
I wanted other peoples opinion on this matter if the price difference if worth it for the G-sync as i do like buttery smooth graphics but i also like saving £165, I know what G-sync is and i know the difference between G-sync and Free-sync to save time on a few comments, this topic is purely opinions on whether G-sync is worth £165

I am currently updating my rig (mobo, ram, cpu) and possibly gpu but my 970 GTX does the job for now, so i am trying to save money in every aspect of this upgrade

 

[Herc08]

Honestly, I wouldn't pay for it. I think it depends on what games you are playing, and what settings you are playing it. What are you getting right now with your current monitor?

 

[Mugiwara777]

I usually play games like wow, overwatch, hots and do most of my single player gaming on my pc (darksouls, fallout 4, witcher 3). games like darksouls, overwatch and hots i can get an almost 60fps lock so i dont think my gpu is an issue as of yet but am liable to upgrade in the near future.

 

[Eximo]

I saw G-Sync as an investment that will fit future GPUs better. Not that I let my GPUs age too much, but I wanted the higher refresh rates now and smooth gameplay now. There are plenty of games my single 1080 can't run at 144hz, so G-Sync is quite useful for them. And for older titles, I like the consistency.

I'll probably keep this monitor for at least two more GPUs. Then consider replacing the monitor. The holy grail of monitors was just released by ASUS and ACer, but still too rich for my blood, and I would need to invest in a lot more GPU.

If this monitor is not going to be with you for very long, I suggest not getting G-Sync so that you can decide on FreeSync/G-Sync later on.

 

[TheFluffyDog]

I have some questions to ask you actually. First off i do many builds a year for friends/friends of friends and myself. I typically buy things and re-sell them because i like getting my hands on things and playing with new features. I care more about the tech, than the actual games i play on it. (nerd i know)

I would ask yourself this:

When i upgrade, am i opposed to an AMD option in graphics?

Will i be attempting to hit closer to the 144hz max refresh rate, or will i be aiming somewhere in the <120hz range for my avg FPS?

Does tearing even bother me above 100hz?


The reason i ask is tearing starts to become less noticebale the higher the refresh rate, making the sync technologies less important. The reason i ask abotu AMD is that at or near the upper limits of a 144hz monitor i would bet ALOT of money that you would never be able to tell the difference between freesync and Gsync.

My favorite implementation of g-sync is large, 4k monitors where output refresh rates from the computer are consistently 1/2-2/3 the refresh rate of the monitor. If you are averaging 100fps or more, (greater than 2/3 the refresh rate) chances are freesync will look the same anyway, and yes adaptive sync technologies have great image improvement when your bouncing between 100-144hz. (some would say they are really only good below 100fps, i call bullshit. Although the effect above 100fps is less noticeable i definitely still notice it it fast paced games like borderlands)


Also for reference ive seen the following monitors both in demos and owned 2 of them:

Acer predator XB271HU
*OWNED* Asus MG279Q (forced 50-120hz free sync range in CRU)
Acer XG270HU
Asus ROG PG348Q (Awesome monitor, 100hz is pretty close to 144 to the human eye and the rest of this monitor is just great)
*OWNED* Samsung S34E790C (scaler was sub par, but within the 80-100hz pretty nice experience. Messing with the scaler didn't yield to good of result on my sample)

 

[madmatt30]

^ that's nail on head really.
That aoc is a very very good screen .
Your 970 is going to struggle at 1440p , nor to the point of unplayability but you are going to have to drop settings substantially as opposed to 1080p & enable adaptive vsync

I'd say buy it ,then keep your fingers crossed for Vega to be good value & go for an amd card in the future to make use of the 30-144htz freesync capability of that monitor.

 

[TheFluffyDog]

^ that's nail on head really.
That aoc is a very very good screen .
Your 970 is going to struggle at 1440p , nor to the point of unplayability but you are going to have to drop settings substantially as opposed to 1080p & enable adaptive vsync

I'd say buy it ,then keep your fingers crossed for Vega to be good value & go for an amd card in the future to make use of the 30-144htz freesync capability of that monitor.

I would say even if VEGA Launch is a dud, the prices will fall fast like they did with Fiji. I would say around christmas time we either have a great value card from AMD to compete with NVIDIA or we have the typical AMD undercut pricing scheme which will save you money on an AMD GPU. So either way i think someone trying to save a few extra dollars cant go wrong with madmatt30's plan.

 

[Mugiwara777]

I rarely upgrade my rig as much as i like to as i play all aspects of video games (ps4 and switch) so i usually upgrade once every 4-5 years, also i am a bit of a Nvidia fanboy and would always try to get a Geforce over an AMD.
I cant say if screen tearing will be an issue to me over 100hz as ive never gone over 60hz, i only seen 144hz on my friends monitor and thought *good god i want some of that pie*, also i suppose max 144hz isnt a big issue to me and i dont mind fps being 10-20 lower as long as it is still playable (can cope with 45-50 fps on a 60hz monitor)

Also matt has a solid point on 1440p will make my 970 drop in framerate, so my silky smooth overwatch will become rusty at higher resolutions, which would cause my framerate to flux and what do you know G-sync becomes useful. If i were to upgrade my gpu i would make an effort into going with Geforce over AMD so its unlikely i will utilize the Freesync.

£160 is alot however the more responses i get the more im leaning towards cancelling my order and waiting on a solid 1440p 144hz G-sync, which makes my mind more at ease but my wallet cry. First world Problem.

 

[Mugiwara777]

Ok after much thought i decided to spend the extra £160 and get the G-sync.
After reviewing my specs and what i want out of gaming it came to the obvious conclusion that G-sync is needed, my conclusion isn't for everyone but
G-sync seems like a good investment for future upgrades and being a Nvidia fanboy i dont see myself buying an AMD to utilize the Free-sync any time soon.

Thank you everyone who commented and help me reach a decision.

 

[TheFluffyDog]

Ok after much thought i decided to spend the extra £160 and get the G-sync.
After reviewing my specs and what i want out of gaming it came to the obvious conclusion that G-sync is needed, my conclusion isn't for everyone but
G-sync seems like a good investment for future upgrades and being a Nvidia fanboy i dont see myself buying an AMD to utilize the Free-sync any time soon.

Thank you everyone who commented and help me reach a decision.

since you have decided to go with the G-Sync, which has better frame handling in the <100hz range, i would say the best thing you can do now is hold out on the GPU upgrade, because once your GPU can handle +100Hz consistently it will have lost some of its value.

This is actually really good for you, because most people always talk about how Graphics is your bottle neck on FPS, but that completely changes over i would say 80-90hz. I have a 980ti right now, and a 144hz monitor, and the bottleneck for me in Borderlands, Just Cause 3 (as examples) is my CPU. I mean, in Just Cause 3, when something blows up my 4670k at stock clocks would give me 30fps (for a short time). Ran same type of test loops after my 4.6Ghz OC and those dips are now 45hz. And my average fps on stock clocks in Just Cause 3 went from 80hz to 100hz after the OC, meaning i'll never get 144hz even if i have 3x980ti's

This is a good chance for you to make sure the rest of your PC is ready for the +100hz region, which actually does have alot of CPU bottle necks. On a 60hz monitor, i would never have know that the OC on my processor would yield a 25% performance increase, because it only yielded the increase above the refresh rate of the monitor. as the little mermaid says "its a whole newww worrldd" (@144hz)