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Hey peeps.

Now my gaming PC has settled in and is working correctly after it's build, I need to turn my attention to my monitor set-up. I currently have 3 1080p screens in a 3 x 1 arrangement, but I'm not happy with them. The screens were cheap (and look it when in use), they use TN (that attempt at black isn't fooling anyone!), and watching movies (Blu-Ray's mostly) is irritating, as by default the film pans across all 3 screens - bezels and all. The only way to stop that is to put each screen back to being standalone.

Anyway, I want to replace them with a single large screen, but don't know what to buy. I was looking at the Samsung U28D590 28" 4K display, or the slightly more obscure LG Flatron 34UM65-P 34" 21:9 QDH display.

My Pc will have an easier time driving games on the LG as it's just over half the pixels, but 4K is apparently so good - Or do I just buy a really good quality 1440/1600p display?

My own preference would be for a nice 27" 1440p monitor but these things are such personal choices, those large 21:9 monitors would be very nice for racing games etc.

I don't really see the point of a 4k display for gaming, it's such hard work driving that at decent frame rates and my old eyes probably wouldn't notice the difference lol.

What kind of games do you like to play?

Well, funnily enough I mostly play racers and FPS - Right now I'm mostly between GRID Autosport and Battlefield 4. The Crew Beta was a lot of fun too, and I will probably buy that when it's out.

I defiantly want an IPS screen, that much is certain, and LG's are both IPS (the Samsung isn't). The mega wide LG also comes with either 3440 x 1440 or 2560 x 1080 resolutions, both being 34" wide.

From a cost perspective, all of the 1440/1600p screens are a lot cheaper than LG's screen at 2560 x 1080, and it's higher resolution cousin is nearly double the price (£850!). Any recommendations in a 26 inch+ good 1440/1600p screen out there then???

The ASUS model seems to get good reviews, it's a PLS panel.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/asus_pb278q.htm

I haven't used one myself though so make sure you read up on it first! It's on Amazon for about £430. http://www.amazon.co.uk/PB278Q-Widescreen-Multimedia-2560x1440-DisplayPort/dp/B009668YPM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1409655627&sr=8-1

*Edit. Don't forget there will be fancy new Freesync monitors out next year too, might be worth hanging on to check them out.

Also check TR's recent recommendations! http://techreport.com/review/26961/tr-august-2014-peripheral-staff-picks

My vote was 2560x1440 for two rather important reasons:

1) 16:9 - you may not like it, but that is by far the most common gaming/TV show aspect ratio, and all the 4K screens are still 16:9
2) 1440p is about the limit of what single GPUs can push in modern games without requiring you to drop graphics settings to compensate.

The fact that you can pick up beautiful IPS panels at that size for low low prices is just icing on the cake.

Get the asus pb278q. One of the best monitors I've ever owned, and the stand is awesome.

Having multiple inputs is a plus, not to mention the extreme color accuracy right out of the box.

Based on what I have read gaming visuals @ 4K are meh unless you pixel peep. The performance hit @4K is substantial and, in my option, not worth it.

I'm considering the Asus PG278Q G-Sync display.

Edit: I see you are running a Crossfire setup. You'll have to wait for a FreeSync display.

1. I love the idea of 4K, but I just don't think the hardware is there for it yet. VERY hard to get 60+ fps on decent quality settings for most games, and 60 Hz on 4K is not quite the same as 60 Hz on 1080p. No idea why.

2. If you're even considering 1080p or 1440p now, you MUST get a 120 Hz display. Period.

3. I personally just got a LG 34UM95, e.g. 3440x1440. AWESOME. I game and work on it. Highly recommended for productivity. Gaming is great, but it has some flaws: (a) no 120 Hz support, and (b) it's an IPS, so there are some issues with gray-to-gray / ghosting. Noticably worse than the monitor it replaced, an 27" Apple Cinema (which I still use), but doesn't seem to affect my gameplay. More of a mental / quality thing.

Wow, leave this thread for a day and look at all the feedback. Thanks everyone so far.

Immediately, I'm not looking at 4K at all. It's too new, and my graphics cards from benchmarks back up what everyone else says in here - I will struggle with frame rates. Funny considering they are 2 of the fastest single chip graphics cards out right now. So...

...I looked up the Asus PB278Q (£479.99) and yeah, I can see why it's so acclaimed and it has a lot of positive reviews at my e-tail outlet of choice too. That may be just what I'm after, and it's in budget.

On the same site for £20 more, I come across the Hazro HZ30WiG. I've never heard of the company personally, but at face value the additional £20 over the Asus gets you a 10-Bit panel, it's 30" 16:10 and a metal case. It has good reviews, but aesthetically looks a little ugly - I guess you can't have everything. Anyone got any experience with this brand, as I'm leaning very heavily towards the Asus right now.

JdL wrote:

I personally just got a LG 34UM95.

I've seen one of these, and I think honestly it's the screen I want above all else. I can't afford one tho, so never took that idea any further as they are around £850 here.

TFTCentral.co.uk have a great, detailed review of the 30" Hazro, but it's a very slightly different model. ends in E rather than G
http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/hazro_hz30wie.htm

According to Hazro, the difference is only the panel change from the 2011 LG.Philips S-IPS to the newer LG.Philips AH-IPS.
There's very little difference between the two, but the AH has a higher light transmission value than the older S, resulting in brighter images given the same backlight, or power savings at the same brightness. Response time, viewing angles and colour reproduction are essentially the same.

The Asus VG248QE is a nice 1080p 144hz monitor that won't set you back too much, it's $279.99 on Newegg.com right now.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product

Or for $10 cheaper, the BenQ XL2411Z 1080p 144hz monitor.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... -_-Product


If you're a gamer above all else, high refresh > *

Otherwise, wait for affordable G/Freesync.

I would probably go for a G-Sync/FreeSync display for a gaming monitor. The one Scott reviewed sounds really good despite being TN (that is, it's good on colors and viewing angles compared to other TN displays).

Of course, that display is also ~$800 (USD), and you'd need a GeForce card to get the G-Sync butter...so an alternative would be this guy from Monoprice.

IPS
2560x1440
27"
~$400 USD

At least this is what I'm looking at. I'll probably wait to upgrade my display (from 1080p TN) until G-Sync and/or FreeSync becomes available at a similar price and quality point as the IPS one I linked.

Waiting's worth it, for when Freesync comes out in 2015. Changing to Nvidia and a G-Sync display will cost you an arm and a leg, so the option to do something with VSync improvements right now isn't a good one.

Freesync gaming screens are going to be 144Hz TN panels though, and even though the G-Sync Asus is very good for a TN, it still suffers from vertical colour inversions and gamma shifts and it's still technically 6-bit technology which means that full colour comes from dithering. TR's review gallery clearly shows that the best-in-class ASUS suffers the same old TN-panel fate, even if it's the best example of TN so far - it's still TN.

If you don't know what to do, but you're stick of staring at your cheap, old TN displays, head to ebay and grab one of these for about £230 (after import duty) to tie you over. It's PLS (so realistically you're going to see 5ms G2G response times) and it's all-but-guaranteed to reach 90Hz according to forums, though you might get lucky and find it'll do 144Hz. Sure, the stand isn't that good but if it bothers you just buy a VESA100 adjustable desk clamp which is way better than any footstand.

If and when Freesync comes out, you can decide whether you want to "downgrade" to a TN panel to get the Freesync goodness, and if you do you'll appreciate already owning a PLS panel so you can read websites, watch movies and do graphics work without suffering the disadvantages of TN colour reproduction and gamma shifts as much as 30% from the top to the bottom of the screen.

I had a 120Hz Samsung 1080p 27" TN screen a few years ago, and supplemented it with a 27" 1440p Korean IPS panel similar to the one I linked above. Within two months I'd sold my TN panel on ebay and bought a second Korean screen. No review can prepare you for the difference you see with your own eyes, but as long as you don't mind using ebay or similar, you can get these screens cheap and sell them on for very little loss if you don't like them. TN is nasty but fast. IPS/PLS are beautiful but slower. As someone who's colourblind, I didn't really think I cared about better colour reproduction but the difference was so huge that I really, really did.