Which monitor to purchase?

[Taneras]

Just ordered a new desktop tower with a xfx 280 black edition (overclocked) gpu. I'm wanting to run a dual monitor setup and I already have a 24 inch Samsung monitor (which I want to use for web browsing) and I'm looking for another monitor for gaming. There are some nice 1920x1080 24 inch monitors out there, but I'm wondering if I could go larger with the gpu that I ordered.

I'm hearing about different resolution monitors, like 1920x1200, 2560x1440, 2560x1600, etc and was wondering if the xfx black edition 280 would be able to run some of the higher resolution screen - and if so which ones? If dropping my current 1920x1080 24 inch samsung to help this gpu run a 1440p or 1600p for gaming I'd consider just using that one monitor.

I've been out of the loop with regards to monitors so thanks for the advice!!!

 

[T3PShooter]

I would recommend selling your current monitor and buy a QNIX QX2710 Evolution II http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CAKD6LI. It's a beautiful 1440p Samsung IPS panel display and the best part is that you can overclock the refresh rate to at least 90Hz.

 

[Taneras]

I would recommend selling your current monitor and buy a QNIX QX2710 Evolution II http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CAKD6LI. It's a beautiful 1440p Samsung IPS panel display and the best part is that you can overclock the refresh rate to at least 90Hz.

T3P, thanks for the quick response! That does look beautiful!

So it might be too much to have the 24 inch 1920x1080 as a web browser along with that monitor for gaming with this gpu?

To clarify on the gaming monitor, I don't need to run Crysis 3 on ultra at 1440p, but high would be nice

And that actually brings up another question. Which would look better, 1080p at ultra or 1440p at high?

 

[T3PShooter]

I would recommend selling your current monitor and buy a QNIX QX2710 Evolution II http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CAKD6LI. It's a beautiful 1440p Samsung IPS panel display and the best part is that you can overclock the refresh rate to at least 90Hz.

T3P, thanks for the quick response! That does look beautiful!

So it might be too much to have the 24 inch 1920x1080 as a web browser along with that monitor for gaming with this gpu?

To clarify on the gaming monitor, I don't need to run Crysis 3 on ultra at 1440p, but high would be nice

And that actually brings up another question. Which would look better, 1080p at ultra or 1440p at high?

Personally, I would go with 1440p. I've also used dual monitors before and found it completely useless IMO. I'm only doing one thing at a time and if I'm waiting for a game to load then just Alt+Tab to your browser window. You can still get some cash for your current monitor to put towards something else and a 27" 1440p display looks pretty amazing.

 

[Taneras]

I would recommend selling your current monitor and buy a QNIX QX2710 Evolution II http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CAKD6LI. It's a beautiful 1440p Samsung IPS panel display and the best part is that you can overclock the refresh rate to at least 90Hz.

T3P, thanks for the quick response! That does look beautiful!

So it might be too much to have the 24 inch 1920x1080 as a web browser along with that monitor for gaming with this gpu?

To clarify on the gaming monitor, I don't need to run Crysis 3 on ultra at 1440p, but high would be nice

And that actually brings up another question. Which would look better, 1080p at ultra or 1440p at high?

Personally, I would go with 1440p. I've also used dual monitors before and found it completely useless IMO. I'm only doing one thing at a time and if I'm waiting for a game to load then just Alt+Tab to your browser window. You can still get some cash for your current monitor to put towards something else and a 27" 1440p display looks pretty amazing.

Thanks for your advice, I'll certainly start looking at 1440p monitors and start with the one you've suggested

 

[rhysiam]

Actually, having additional screens connected while gaming on one screen makes almost no difference to performance.

As someone who runs 3 screens for productivity purposes, I completely (yet respectfully!) disagree with T3PShooter. Using a computer with a single screen drives me nuts now, it's just so much more convenient being able to drag things to multiple screens.

Having said that, it's really a personal preference thing, so go with what works for you. There's no reason not to run your existing 1080p screen alongside the new QNIX if you can afford it.

 

[Taneras]

Thanks rhysiam, not sure what to do at this point.

One possible issue has me thinking that I should keep both - some games I play max out at 1080p. For example, Diablo 3 doesn't allow resolutions above 1080p, so how would that look on a 27 inch monitor? I've heard that you don't want to go above 24 inches with 1080 before it starts to look stretched.

If this is the case, whether I want to run dual monitors or not, I'll likely still want to keep my 24 inch 1920x1080 monitor to run some of my other games.

What do yall think, 1080p on 27 inch monitor, does it look stretched? Or can you not notice the difference?

 

[rhysiam]

I think Diablo 3 works okay on larger resolutions and there seem to be some hacks to get it working better, see this: http://www.reddit.com/r/diablo3/comments/20pi27/a_way_to_run_true_1440p_in_d3/

It's really hard to comment on something like monitor DPI as people seem to experience it completely differently. It's very subjective. Have you got a decent computer store nearby? My advice would be to go in and check out a few monitors. See if you can notice the pixels (or if they bother you) on a 1080p 27". It's definitely more noticeable with text than with pictures/games, but even for the latter some people rage at it. It's not a big deal for me, but personally I'd get a better quality 24" than a 1080p 27" if I had those choices. Still, a 1440P trumps both hands down if you've got the GPU to keep it stocked with frames.

 

[Taneras]

I think Diablo 3 works okay on larger resolutions and there seem to be some hacks to get it working better, see this: http://www.reddit.com/r/diablo3/comments/20pi27/a_way_to_run_true_1440p_in_d3/

It's really hard to comment on something like monitor DPI as people seem to experience it completely differently. It's very subjective. Have you got a decent computer store nearby? My advice would be to go in and check out a few monitors. See if you can notice the pixels (or if they bother you) on a 1080p 27". It's definitely more noticeable with text than with pictures/games, but even for the latter some people rage at it. It's not a big deal for me, but personally I'd get a better quality 24" than a 1080p 27" if I had those choices. Still, a 1440P trumps both hands down if you've got the GPU to keep it stocked with frames.

And the xfx 280 black edition would be a good enough gpu to power a 1440p resolution monitor for most games? It wouldn't have to run Crysis 3 on ultra at 60 fsp, but a good stable imagine on high would be required (and similair for other graphics intensive games).

 

[rhysiam]

That's probably touch and go. One of the key benefits of the monitor you were linked to above was overclocking it to 90Hz or higher... you're not going to get 90fps at 1440p with highish settings for graphics intensive games. Anandtech Bench is a good (quick) way of getting a snapshot of the sort of performance you'd be looking at.
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/product/1332
Or read any (trusted) review of the R9 280, should give you a range of benchmarks to get a sense of what your performance will be like.

FWIW, I have a single 7950 (basically an R9 280) and occasionally game with eyefinity on 3x1200p. That's nearly twice the pixels of a single 1440p monitor. I've yet to find a game that I couldn't get playable frame rates on, though it usually requires a pretty decent drop in quality (BF3 & Tomb Raider both ran ~40fps single player). My motherboard won't take a second video card and I don't game enough to justify a full upgrade. Faced with the choice I'll take lower quality settings across three screens than higher settings on a single screen. But others would choose differently no doubt.
If you keep your 1080p screen, you've always got the option of reverting to that if you want dial up the settings for a specific game (or say, to try out TressFX on tomb raider for example).
Plus there are plenty of great games (Mass Effect 3, Divinity Original Sin for example), which aren't that demanding on graphics hardware and will run beautifully on 1440p.