Question Quality gaming Monitor for under 4k but above 1080p?

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FlamingPC

Sep 8, 2022
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Hey guys, looking to pick up a monitor for gaming that is less than 4k but better than 1080p. Is that even a thing? My current monitor supports 1920 by 1080 at 60hz on a 1070ti. About to upgrade to a an Nvidia 3090ti more than likely but will not go to 4k gaming. What would be the best monitor in that situation? I went into my local Best Buy today and they had a nice AOC brand gaming monitor and MSI but I wasn't sure if they're that good. Both were like 27inch and curved (is that good or do you prefer flat?) which is what I'm looking for but neither seemed to support HDR (do I even need that?). What would you recommend?
 
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An RTX 3090 Ti is kinda wasted on anything but a 4K monitor, unless you also have something like a Ryzen 5800X3D or a 12th gen Core i9 to be able to achieve high frame rates to begin with (the CPU determines the maximum FPS your system can get).

Unless it's the only video card you can get or it's somehow cheaper than a 3080, I'd say get something less and use the difference to get a nice 1440p monitor.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
An RTX 3090 Ti is kinda wasted on anything but a 4K monitor, unless you also have something like a Ryzen 5800X3D or a 12th gen Core i9 to be able to achieve high frame rates to begin with (the CPU determines the maximum FPS your system can get).

Unless it's the only video card you can get or it's somehow cheaper than a 3080, I'd say get something less and use the difference to get a nice 1440p monitor.
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That might just be the plan. 1440p, that sounds like the resolution I wanted to spit out but didn't know the exact numbers. Thank you.
 
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Lastly, I was perusing my local Best Buy yesterday and saw a bunch of curved displays and thought they looked pretty sharp. Any thoughts on curved display vs flat? Any reason you would opt to stick with a flat over curved?
 
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FlamingPC said:
Lastly, I was perusing my local Best Buy yesterday and saw a bunch of curved displays and thought they looked pretty sharp. Any thoughts on curved display vs flat? Any reason you would opt to stick with a flat over curved?
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It's really a matter of preference. Though having used a curved monitor for a while, I can't say there's any real practical difference.
 
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hotaru.hino said:
It's really a matter of preference. Though having used a curved monitor for a while, I can't say there's any real practical difference.
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Gotcha. I'm thinking if I got a 27inch curved, with the desk I have and the monitor positioning being rather close to my face, it seems like it might be more immersive? In that the curvature kind of captures your side peripheral? I don't know. I might just be talking out my ass but giving a reason to opt for a flat monitor as my next upgrade. I need to get a monitor upgrade regardless. I'm currently on a Samsung 24inch from 2015 that has zero real gaming qualities about it. I think whatever I switch to is going to be light years ahead in terms of technology. It would only be right to upgrade to a nice one if I'm going to pair it with either a 3080 or 3090.
 
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4k doesn't actually exist. 1080p is 1920x1080. 4k is 3840x2160. So in realistic terms it'd be 2160p.

720p is HD. 1080p is Full HD (FHD). 1440p is QHD (Quad HD) and 4k is UHD (Ultra HD).

They call 1440p as 2k because it's resolution is 2560x1440, it's not really close to 2k, but that's what's it's called. 4k is the same thing, 3840x2160, which is 4x the resolution of FHD.

2k and 4k are just common usage terms, not actually technically correct, but close enough for advertising purposes. The general public would see 2160p as double 1080p, when in reality that's just vertical, not horizontal as well.

But those are standard 16:9 widescreen resolutions that'd you'd find commonplace anywhere. What are gaining in popularity are the Ultra (21:9) and Super (32:9) widescreens, which aren't any taller than a 16:9 monitor but are 1.5-2x wider, a Superwide is basically 2x monitors side-by-side without the bars in the middle. Awesome for some games like CSGO or Battlefield or CoD as you'll get a massive field of view side to side.

Most of the Superwide will play standard 16:9 or super 21:9 by boxing the screen, so you could youtube and game on the same screen, like picture-in-picture.

A 3090Ti would not be overkill by any means on a Super or Ultrawide 1440p because instead of 2560x1440 you'd be pushing 5120x1440 or 3440x1440.
 
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Karadjgne said:
4k doesn't actually exist. 1080p is 1920x1080. 4k is 3840x2160. So in realistic terms it'd be 2160p.
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If we're going to be pedantic here, 4K resolution is really a loose collection of resolutions whose horizontal pixel count is approximately 4,000. This includes 3840x2160. Some snobs will claim that the only 4K resolution is the Digital Cinema Initiatives definition of 4096x2160, since it's actually over 4,000. It's a similar story with 2K resolution. 1080p is included in that term (and funny enough, 2560x1440 is not).
 
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Pedantic. Lol. Yes. 🤣 I agree. But some have a clue as to what a resolution is, the general populace doesn't, they rely on marketing and advertising. My wife is technologically clueless, barely grasping the concept that 4k and 1080p are different resolutions. To her, one looks better than the other, and thats all that matters.
 
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FlamingPC said:
Hey guys, looking to pick up a monitor for gaming that is less than 4k but better than 1080p. Is that even a thing? My current monitor supports 1920 by 1080 at 60hz on a 1070ti. About to upgrade to a an Nvidia 3090ti more than likely but will not go to 4k gaming. What would be the best monitor in that situation? I went into my local Best Buy today and they had a nice AOC brand gaming monitor and MSI but I wasn't sure if they're that good. Both were like 27inch and curved (is that good or do you prefer flat?) which is what I'm looking for but neither seemed to support HDR (do I even need that?). What would you recommend?
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Recommendations can be tough because the amount you want to spend, the games you play, etc. will be different. Personally I would recommend the AW2721D at 1440p 240Hz for $750. It's a fantastic all around monitor in my opinion. I'm not an Alienware fanboy, I've had some great Asus and Acer monitors, but I've loved my experience with the two Alienware monitors I have.

Of course I'm biased because these are my own monitors but they're just the ones I have experience with. I have the Alienware AW2721D and the Alienware AW3418DW. The 27 is 1440p 240Hz and the 34 is curved 1440p ultrawide 120Hz. I had the ultrawide first and I loved it but after upgrading my GPU I wanted 240Hz and a 24 or 27 inch monitor. The ultrawide was starting to become a bit much for anything other than open world games which I don't really play anymore.

The AW2721D looks great out of the box for anything I play on it. I never felt the need to do any sort of calibration. Sports games, shooters, RPGs, YouTube, etc. Everything looks as it should to me. Some monitors I've had in the past seemed to be great for some things and not so great for others. I don't use HDR so I can't really comment on that part of it. I think I tried it once on this monitor and the brightness has to be halved or something to use HDR so I never bothered with it again.

This monitor also has GSync Ultimate and feels much smoother than the GSync compatible Asus 240Hz monitor I had been using to play FPS games. Overall it's just a fantastic monitor no matter what you're using it for.
 
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KevBacon said:
Recommendations can be tough because the amount you want to spend, the games you play, etc. will be different. Personally I would recommend the AW2721D at 1440p 240Hz for $750. It's a fantastic all around monitor in my opinion. I'm not an Alienware fanboy, I've had some great Asus and Acer monitors, but I've loved my experience with the two Alienware monitors I have.

Of course I'm biased because these are my own monitors but they're just the ones I have experience with. I have the Alienware AW2721D and the Alienware AW3418DW. The 27 is 1440p 240Hz and the 34 is curved 1440p ultrawide 120Hz. I had the ultrawide first and I loved it but after upgrading my GPU I wanted 240Hz and a 24 or 27 inch monitor. The ultrawide was starting to become a bit much for anything other than open world games which I don't really play anymore.

The AW2721D looks great out of the box for anything I play on it. I never felt the need to do any sort of calibration. Sports games, shooters, RPGs, YouTube, etc. Everything looks as it should to me. Some monitors I've had in the past seemed to be great for some things and not so great for others. I don't use HDR so I can't really comment on that part of it. I think I tried it once on this monitor and the brightness has to be halved or something to use HDR so I never bothered with it again.

This monitor also has GSync Ultimate and feels much smoother than the GSync compatible Asus 240Hz monitor I had been using to play FPS games. Overall it's just a fantastic monitor no matter what you're using it for.
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What if your CPU can't pump out 240 FPS? Then the extra money is just wasted.
 
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Zerk2012 said:
What if your CPU can't pump out 240 FPS? Then the extra money is just wasted.
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Haven't seen a cpu that couldn't hit 240fps in a very long time. It just depends on the game. In Skyrim, I've got enough mods to cut fps to 60, so my gpu is loving that, but I can hit over 300 no worries in CSGO. Some ppl can hit closer to 500fps.

Having a monitor refresh higher than fps output isn't really an issue, that's what g-sync, Freesync, adaptive v-sync etc is useful for.

By comparison, the old plasma tvs had a 600Hz refresh, most lcd tvs are now 120/240Hz, yet 99% of Hollywood Blockbusters are shot/rendered at 24fps, and cable TV shows play at 30fps.
 
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Karadjgne said:
Haven't seen a cpu that couldn't hit 240fps in a very long time. It just depends on the game. In Skyrim, I've got enough mods to cut fps to 60, so my gpu is loving that, but I can hit over 300 no worries in CSGO. Some ppl can hit closer to 500fps.

Having a monitor refresh higher than fps output isn't really an issue, that's what g-sync, Freesync, adaptive v-sync etc is useful for.

By comparison, the old plasma tvs had a 600Hz refresh, most lcd tvs are now 120/240Hz, yet 99% of Hollywood Blockbusters are shot/rendered at 24fps, and cable TV shows play at 30fps.
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Completely depends on the game!
Why pay for a 240HZ monitor if you can get nothing close to it.
Also they are a bunch of games that are poorly optimized that can't get to 240.

Since no games were listed who knows. A ton of people are just fine with 60 FPS just depends on what your playing for twitch shooters more is great for just a average MMORP who cares.
 
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