Question Looking for the Unicorn < $350

[makemorelove]

Hello, it took me many hours and I still haven't found the one, maybe because it doesn't exist?

I need to put gaming (3060ti) and Photoshop / Lightroom (wife) under the same roof.
Here's a list of things that I thought are valuable, but I'm yet unable to find in ONE monitor.

AHVA IPS or IPS
HDR
G Sync
1.07bil colors
< 1ms
> 23"
> 300 nits ???
144mhz+

Max price 350$

If you are aware of a better option than the stuff above for the same price or less, please let me know.
In general they are fast with no color or all the color but 60hz and no g sync.
I would never waste server space if I haven't tried to find it by myself and I suppose at some point after 100 models you are getting lost, I'm lost now.
Please help.
Thanks <3

 

[Karadjgne]

The price isn't the limiting factor here, the HDR is. Most monitors that 'claim' HDR, are full of bunk. At best they'll be a HDR-like wannabe where enabling HDR kills performance and really doesn't do anything to help the picture quality.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/394712/everything-you-need-to-know-about-hdr-on-your-pc.html

You can check Hardware Unboxed, who goes into much more detail on specific 'HDR supported' monitors and their utter failings. If you aren't looking at monitors capable of HDR1000 certified, you are pretty much wasting time with HDR as a primary requisite in your search. Time would be better spent on getting a better grade monitor, even a 1440p monitor that'll give you a better resolution, better clarity etc, and 27" is best for 1440p, making Photoshop/Lightroom work easier. Unless it's the wife requiring the HDR10bit compliance

 

[makemorelove]

The price isn't the limiting factor here, the HDR is. Most monitors that 'claim' HDR, are full of bunk. At best they'll be a HDR-like wannabe where enabling HDR kills performance and really doesn't do anything to help the picture quality.
https://www.pcworld.com/article/394712/everything-you-need-to-know-about-hdr-on-your-pc.html

You can check Hardware Unboxed, who goes into much more detail on specific 'HDR supported' monitors and their utter failings. If you aren't looking at monitors capable of HDR1000 certified, you are pretty much wasting time with HDR as a primary requisite in your search. Time would be better spent on getting a better grade monitor, even a 1440p monitor that'll give you a better resolution, better clarity etc, and 27" is best for 1440p, making Photoshop/Lightroom work easier. Unless it's the wife requiring the HDR10bit compliance

I suppose I could negotiate the HDR requirement as I find that there's no such thing anyways in this price range 8+fcr seems not to be that or hdr400 or all the other non HDR, hdr marketing things.
Recently I found this tho : TUF Gaming VG27AQ1A
Is that a monitor that can show REAL RED and so on for the photoshop / lightroom stuff, as it seems to be a match for the 3060ti and my gaming dreams. I just don't know how much red is red and I don't know if this is one of the monitors that shows red like washed and similar to orange or its the "REAL RED" ? :\

 

[Karadjgne]

Reviews put the Asus Tuf as being spot on color-wise, with a better than normal ips picture, right out of the box, but it's still a 400nits brightness, so it can look a little washed out in certain lighting. That's going to be true of any monitor like this. You'd need one that can hit the uber darks like a VA or OLED in order not to get a little washiness.

But that's entirely different from reds looking like oranges due to color gammut limitations. Gammut limitations are generally normal for 'Gaming' monitors, 'Creativity' monitors like the ASUS ProArt PA278QV specialize in color gammut above gaming performance, so your Reds will be Red not any chance of Orange, but you'll lose out on free-sync, gsync and high refresh rates as those aren't Photoshop requirements in any fashion.

Budget being limited, kinda blows getting one of each, personally I find dual monitors an absolute necessity, single monitors are too limited, too many compromises.

 

[makemorelove]

This one any good?
Optix G251F

 

[Karadjgne]

It's ok, little slow on the response time so has a bit more ghosting possible. May or may not be noticible unless done in comparison.

The biggest issue with all this isn't your choices in monitors, it's your need to have 1 monitor cover every scenario to a higher standard, and at your budget, that's not happening. You can get a very good gaming monitor or a very good creativity monitor but not both in one.

And monitors do change within the same model, no 2 pictures are exactly the same, so it's possible you get one monitor that has a more orange tinge to the red, and the exact same monitor that has a more yellow tinge to the white. That's the purpose of calibration, to try and mitigate those differences to your needs.

 

[makemorelove]

The biggest issue with all this isn't your choices in monitors, it's your need to have 1 monitor cover every scenario to a higher standard, and at your budget, that's not happening. You can get a very good gaming monitor or a very good creativity monitor but not both in one.

Indeed, that seem to be the biggest issue, the budget. So as I thought there's no such thing that can do both perfectly.
I think I was able to narrow down things to the ones below :
MSI Oculux NXG253R
MSI Optix G251F
Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQ1A 27
LG 27GP850-B
Optix MAG321QR
AGON AG275QX/EU
Dell G2723H

Please if you or anyone has any free time to help a stranger 😀

 

[Karadjgne]

I'd not do 1080p at 27" unless you plan on sitting much farther away from the desk. 23.6/24" is as large as reasonable and still maintain the smaller pixel size. At 27", the pixels are noticeably larger, just to fill the screen space.

Its like sitting 3 feet away from a big screen TV, it's all pixilated and fuzzy, not coming into focus and a clear picture unless you move further back.
Same for 1440p once you hit @ 32".

So the Dell is a no.

The rest is a personal choice, plenty of reviews from places like pc magazine, rtings etc. Some are better than others, like the MSI Oculux NXG253R is very decent, and the MSI Optix MAG321QR has only middling color accuracy for an IPS panel, not to be confused with the Optix MAG321CQR which is a VA panel with terrible blacks.