Looking for second monitor, I already have a 1080p 144hz gaming monitor

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Mar 3, 2015
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Hey everyone,

I have been doing some research and have found without a doubt that the 1440p 144hz ASUS rog monitor is the best for gaming. When I built my pc I didn't think that the difference would be huge from 1080p to 1440p. I apparently was wrong. I now am looking for a second monitor to support my gaming rig. I could go with a 4k 60hz gsync monitor that could run tv shows and movies or I could get the 1440p 144hz ASUS RoG monitor for more extreme gaming.

My computer specs are;
Core i7 5930k cpu @ 3.50GHz
16 GB DDR4 2400
MSI Nvidia GeForce GTX 980 X2 SLI
ASUS Rampage Extreme V Motherboard

Current monitor: Acer XB270H Abprz 27" Full HD G-Sync LCD Display 144Hz

Monitors I'm looking at getting:
Acer XB280HK 28" 4k Ultra High Definition LCD Display Monitor
ROG SWIFT PG278Q

I do play a lot of games and work on my computer pretty much all the time. I also watch a lot of tv and movies on my computer. I guess the best way to ask my question is, as far as gaming is concerned is it a vast improvement to go from 1080p at 144hz to 1440p at 144hz? Or would it be viable at this point to get myself a 4K monitor so I could enjoy my movies, TV shows and maybe a few games on?
 
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For gaming 27" 1920x1080 has good pixel density so moving to 4k wouldn't help you much. Have you checked the ultrawide 21:9 monitors, with the panoramic view and extra view on the sides gives you extra immersivness at 60fps, which will allow you GPU to run 3440x1440 resolution monitor at very high quality.

http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-34UM95-34-Inch-LED-Lit/dp/B00JR6GCZA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425377966&sr=8-1&keywords=34um95

Linus review:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnrxNfxRK_4
 
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Thanks for your response. I have seen these monitors, in fact I have a couple friends that swear by them. One of them has two set up at his desk and they look great. At this point however, i don't see the benefit going with an ultra-wide at 60hz over the ROG 1440p at 144hz (they do offer a 4k ultrawide as well from lg, but that monitor is 300 more then a 4k monitor with gsync), with the resolution and the price being similar (the width at first stands out, but after using them both for awhile you realize that the extra screen space isn't that much of an upgrade) its hard to justify it. Also with both the acer and the rog I would get nvidia Gsync and the 3D vision 2 (I do plan on playing in 3d and getting the 3d package from nvidia).

I did notice that you said there wouldn't be that much a difference in pixel density from the 1080p to the 4k. I was asking whether the difference in a 1080p monitor at 144hz compared to a 1440p monitor at 144hz would be drastic enough to deter me from getting myself a 4k monitor for watching movies, tv shows, and doing some occasional gaming (on that monitor i would play games like, civ, trine, diablo 3, ect... nothing super serious like battlefield, that would be played on my 1080p 144hz monitor).

 
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The upgrade from 1080p to 1440 is very minor visually and you will not feel much satisfaction for spending that much money on it.

There is a cheaper version of that ultrawide monitor 29inch.

http://www.amazon.com/LG-Electronics-P-Class-29UM65-29-Inch/dp/B00HYZXZ7O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425408293&sr=8-1&keywords=29um65
 
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Cost is not entirely an issue right now. I would like to stay bellow or around 1000$. I do understand what you are saying, I think. To be clear, from what I am understanding, since I have a 1080p at 144hz gaming monitor already, a 1440p monitor even at 144Hz wont give me the bang for the buck I am looking for.

I believe you are also saying I should go with a 34” CLASS 21:9 ULTRAWIDE™ WQHD IPS MONITOR over the acer 4k monitor with gsync and 3d vision 2. From what I gather you believe this monitor looks better for movies and tv shows (since that is what I stated I would use it the most with). This could be entirely possible because of the increase resolution on width. If that is true, I would definatley consider it over the 4k. However, through more research I have found that very few games support that extreme width and will be droped to a 1440p resolution with black bars (to adjust the width back to a normal range), this wouldn't be an issue except the refresh rate would still stick around 60Hz and with no Gsync I doubt any games would be worth playing on it. Now with all that being said, if the video quality is still better then a 4k monitor it might be worth it on a productivity level, I use a lot of applications like photoshop, UDK 4, and 3ds Max.


I just want to be clear because of the amount of money I will be putting into this monitor.

So to clarify, is the video image quality of the 21:9 ULTRAWIDE WQHD on par with that of a 4k resolution (for movies and tv shows)?

as far as gaming goes will I be able to play more games with a 4k and my setup or is there enough support for games to be played in ultrawide WQHD?
 
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As far as gaming goes, most games support the resolution but some of the hub might not be adjusted for the resolution but will still be there, just smaller or bigger than intended.

For movies, usually the limit isn't pixel density but the movie quality itself, a bellow 2GB movie will look pixaleted on both ultrawide and 4k, but it will look much more pixaleted on 4k. And cinema theaters use panoramic view which is similar to 21:9 ultrawide ratio.

Regarding the G sync, you don't really need that, you can always turn adaptive v-sync on and it will work the same as g-sync expect it will use more GPU and if you play serious competitive FPS where v-sync cause extra delay compared to g-sync but if you are not a professional player that shouldn't be an issue.

The pristine color representation of IPS panel and the extra view on left and right will immerse you into games far more than a 1440p 144hz. If you play Counter Strike: Global Offensive competitively thren go for 144hz monitor.
 
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Thanks for your response once again. All of this discussion has gotten me back on the forums and doing research lol. I have been looking a lot closer at the 21:9 monitors since I posted on here. I do however disagree with a few points you made (I could easily be wrong, for me this is all reviews and hearsay, the only thing I have tried for myself would have to be the Gsync, and the basic ultrawide, not the 1440p).

I have herd that the ultrawide is the way to go for immersion, which makes sense especially because people are worried about the frame rates on the 4k monitors (especially those that only have one card, 4k wants a minimum of 4gb of video ram, 8 to be safe). Waiting for a higher Hz monitor is not applicable for me because from what I hear they have reached the potential for data transfer using the display ports and cables currently available. So having a faster refresh rate for anything over 1440p is not possible. Only so much data can be pushed at one time.

* As a side note, there are a lot of articles out there stating that producing the 1440p image at 144hz is very taxing on your GPU's even more so then 4k at 60hz. it has something to do with rewriting that much data on the screen that quickly. Either way you look at it you need a beast of a computer to run both.*

This leads me into the ultrawide, Gsync, and gaming. I have read that most games are not supported and in order to get them to work at 21:9 you have to download a third party program to get them to run. This of course is not a problem but not what you stated before (again I could be wrong, its hearsay), even with the program, I have also herd that not everything will work and even if it does the UI HUD, as you stated, will not look right.

Gsync, is amazing, I have used it. Apparently it is such a big deal that Radeon is making its own version, and companies are trying to make cords and other peripherals that do the same thing. From what I gather you don't notice a huge impact from it UNLESS you are gaming at 4k. The idea behind the technology is the same as Vsync, as you stated, except it is not virtual, it actually is syncing the GPU and monitor (Yes in this case it would be at 60hz or 60fps, which is fine for my gaming needs on anything except Battlefield 4, which as I said before I already have 1080p 144hz monitor for that.). This technology gives us the ability to play previously unplayable 4k games, by getting rid of screen splitting and dragging. With all of that and the fact that the ultrawide is still only sitting at 60Hz anyhow, i still do not see much of a reason going with the ultrawide.

For productivity and screen real-estate the increased resolution is supposed to be phenomenal on both of the products. You do get a little more with the ultrawide, but honestly it is not much. This leads me into a uniformity issue on my desk (yes, i know its stupid), right now I have the Acer XB270H which is the exact same design, size (I think its an inch bigger in the screen) and shape as the 4k Acer. While the Ultrawide does look great, i'm not even sure it will fit on my current desk, and with the inability to rotate and lift the monitor I feel I would get overly frustrated with placement.

I also wanted to point out that the Acer 4k monitor uses Twisted Nematic Film (TN Film) as a screen (people hate and love it) this does however give it an incredible 1ms response time and decent viewing angles. The Ultrawide uses IPS and sits at 5ms response (not a big deal, just not designed for gaming)

For movies, I do like the point that theaters use panoramic view, but I don't see that as a massive selling point (for 200+$ more). I don't usually download things under 2 GB especially if its movie length. For instance I could have less then 30 movies in a folder that is over 145gb.

So for now, I think I am going to go with the acer 4k monitor. It's a big choice for me, especially since I wont be able to get anything else for my computer for awhile. If you have any other input or noticed I was wrong about something please let me know. It will still be at least a week and a half before I order the monitor.

This is a good link that gives a good rundown on the 4k monitor I found later last night. This person has almost the exact same setup I do. He is running an older cpu but the same GPU setup.

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/6749/using-the-acer-x...

He also goes onto explain why Gsync might be the best thing for computers for awhile. He also states he has officially switched from the ROG Swift to the Acer 4k for sheer graphic beauty , it did take a few hours to get used to the decrease in frame rate (144 to 60) but after he got used to it he says it was great.

If you do have any other input let me know what you have and use.
Do you have a 4k monitor?
does it have Gsync?
do you have the 21:9 WQHD and a 4k?
or is what you have said hearsay as well?

 
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Also just to give you a little more of an idea, I have around 260 games on steam alone and usually stick with strategy (cid meiers), rpg (elder scrolls, Stick of Truth), and MMORPG (such as World of warcraft or swtor). I play very few FPS and action games, just Battlefield 4 and I plan on playing GTA 5.
 
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What you want is a Acer Predator XR341CK 34" ... depends how long you are willing to wait for it to be released!

Another option is the Acer XB270HU 27" which should be released much sooner, 1440P IPS 27" GSync, basically a ROG but with a decent quality panel.
 
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YES that is exactly what I'm talking about, that ultrawide would be perfect, its not 4k but 1440 and it has the Hz/curve/Gsync to back it up. Release date is a problem, I could wait but with the price tag probably upwards of 1500, I doubt I will. That price is derived from the new LG Curve 1440p pricing $1299.99 (which doesn't have Gsync or 144Hz).

The XB270HU would be nice, but there isn't that much of a difference between that and the monitor I already have. That was my original question was if I should get a 4k or the ROG Swift. Having a 1080p 144hz monitor makes it hard to want a 1440p 144Hz one without something special to go with it (ultrawide). If the difference is big enough to justify dropping another 800 bucks then we can talk but I doubt it is (according to xStampede, it isn't). Going to 4k however just might be.
 
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I bought Ultrawide LG 29EA93 2560x1080 this week and i use it in dual setup eyefinity with my 27" AOC 1920x1080 for a combined 4480x1080 resolution in games. For movies i use just the ultrawide.

It works in all the games i tried so far(Grid 2, Need for Speed Rivals, Counter Strike: Global Offensive, Battlefield 4, Skyrim,..) without any additional 3rd party program, i have AMD R9 280x and multi monitor Eyefinity is easy to set up and works like a charm in all games i play, without any HUB problems, it puts the hub interfece in the right possitions, also in CS:GO you can customize the HUB anyway you want, and more games have hub customization options.

It might be different with Nvidia but i doubt they are behind AMD in multi-monitor compatibility.

The IPS panels 5ms response time is not noticeable, not even in fast FPS, and i'm an old Counter Strike pro so i know what i'm talking about when i talk about input lag and response time.

The main reason i love the ultrawide IPS is for the immerse beatifull colors and the wider field of view gives you so much more information in the games and the extra immersion. It was hard for me to sacrifice the response time and put CG:GO aside when i was buying this monitor but now i realized that the response time isn't an issue, i get same Kill to Death ratio in competitive CS:GO games so far.

Regarding the G-Sync, Nvidia marketing did good to make it look more important then it really is, normal V-Sync works perfectly as long as your GPU can do 10% more FPS than it would need otherwise, The main problem with V-Sync is in fast competitive multiplayer FPS like CS:GO where the V-Sync might cause extra delay because of the way it interpolates the frames.

4k is great especially on a very big monitor with G-Sync, if i had enough money for that i would consider it myself but for now, i'm happy with how i comboed my old monitor with the new and both having 1080 and working great together, i wouldn't exchange this setup for any 4k at the moment.

EDIT: Forgot to mention that ultrawide is the only way that i could use 2 monitors for gaming because the aim crossfire(or car in racing games) isn't split on 2 screens but it is entirely on the ultrawide screen so it doesn't interfere with my aim / driving. With dual normal 16:9 monitors the eyefinity and car are split in half making it annoying or not worth to use in dual monitor setup.

EDIT 2: Forgot to answer you regarding height adjustment, you can always buy an aftermarket VESA stand and have all the adjustability you want. They cost 30-100$.
 
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Interesting perspective. I'm not huge on setting up cross panel gaming, the bevels drive me nuts and I'd rather put one monitor right in front of me close, however I have herd that the crazy amount of extra field of view is helpful. It is a toss up and I will be watching more reviews and reading more about it over the week. I have also herd that 28'' for 4k is about as small as you can go without it becoming unbearable. My XB270H is only 27'' and it feels perfect as far as size goes i am about a foot and a half away. I have, sadly, never really looked at or used a 4k monitor. With the new resolution I might hate it but my feelings are pretty strong on 28'' being the perfect size.

As far as the Gsync thing goes, marketing or not, it works. I have never had vsync work this well before, and anyone using a 4k monitor right now without gsync or 4 gpu's, i think would agree with me (from what i understand you can not play 4k comfortably right now without it or 4 gpu's and even then with DA Inquisition you are still only pushing 40 fps).

I can admit however when I don't know much about something and this is the case here. From what I understand it is amazing, the people that are hating hard core on it are usually amd users or people that think the pricing is way too high (I didn't intend to get it originally, it just was on the monitor and after exploring it, I realized it was amazing). I know this is probably wrong but for me vsync was used when your computer wasn't able to make something smooth because of insufficient computer specs. gsync seems to be used when there is just so much information the monitor needs a second processor to help line up all the information correctly. Essentially making 4k playable at 60Hz. I guess i see the Gsync as a crutch for the lower Hz. Like I said, I am probably wrong.

as far as everything else, it all makes sense. 5ms is no biggy, and before my xb270H, which isn't very old, i was using a crappy 8 year old HP monitor. I am sure that was way worse, and i played competitively on it. However, when you are spending close to 1000 bucks on a monitor it is good to be thorough.

 
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That actually makes a huge difference, I did not know that. As stupid as it sounds one of my main concerns was the mount. I have a friend with that monitor you have and he swears by it. I may go back to that because of the aftermarket mounts. Thanks, I will look more into the 21:9
 
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V-Sync was made for same reason as G-Sync, so that stronger GPU's don't do more frames than the monitor can output. To tell you the truth same way as i turn off V-Sync for CS:GO i would turn off the G-Sync, just because the response time, even if people are telling my V-Sync doesn't affect that i still turn it off during competitive ranked FPS matches.

Anyway 21:9 might not be what you need or what you are looking for, i use it also for video editing and productivity, also i got mine monitor second hand for fairly cheap 240€(with 10 month warranty left), i was lucky to get that deal, otherwise i might have gotten 144hz 16:9 monitor because 21:9 were way out of budged if i was buying it new.

One thing is for sure thou, now that i seen the picture quality of IPS i will never go back to TN panel.
 
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