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I built my cousin a system a few years ago and now she is wanting to update the GPU. First thing she says is that she wants a GTX 1080. But after discussing it for a bit it became clear she would never use it to its full potential and would be a waste of money considering she is still using an old 19" TN panel 1920x1080 monitor. After looking at a 2560x1440 a friend has she came to the conclusion it looked nice and all for games, but she has issues reading things off the desk top and while surfing the web. So she never bothered to update her monitor.

So my proposal was to step down to a 1070 and use the money saved to get the best 27" IPS/PLS monitor possible while staying in the budget of $700 or so. Here is what I came up with.

GIGABYTE GeForce GTX 1070 Founders Edition - $394.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125870

This monitor is the best I could do while sticking to 1920x1080 that included a DisplayPort.

Samsung SE650 Series S27E650D 27" LED LCD Monitor - 16:9 - 4 ms - $232.69
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA1UH3H72737

As an option I tossed in the only 2560x1440 I could find that fit in the budget. Yet, wasn't an off brand I had never heard of before.

Acer K272HUL (UM.HX2AA.D03) Black 27" IPS 2560 x 1440, 4ms (GTG), 60Hz - $269.99
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009996

I'm not a monitor guru so I have probably overlooked something. Any one have a suggestion for monitor in the $200 to $300 range that has a IPS/PLA panel, DisplayPort, etc? In short the best bang for the buck.

I pretty sure that you can say AOC is a respected brand now.
They tend to be a little cheaper.

On the vid card you may want to look at the GTX 1060 or the RX-480 to shave a few dollars off.

I suggested a 1060 and hit a brick wall. It took some convincing to drop to a 1070.

Plus dropping down to GPU's with lesser capabilities to save a few bucks for a better monitor leads to having more monitor than said GPU can utilize. Just where that line is I'm not sure but I'm sure its there some where.

Another consideration is she wants the GPU to run GPU Grid and other Distributed Computing projects. She is more into DC projects than I am these days.

Take a look at the Dell SE2717Hx for a $150-ish IPS 27" 1080p monitor.  This would pair well with a $200-ish Radeon RX-480 8 GiB graphics card.

The 1070 is pretty much locked in if she goes for updating her monitor. If not she will fall back to the 1080 that she originally wanted. Its her money and her choice. Just thought I would try to get more bang for the buck with the 1070 and a monitor over the 1080.

I looked at that Dell and its only flaw was the lack of a DisplayPort.

I'm currently typing this on the Acer K272HUL's older brother at work.  It's a good monitor, and $260-$270 is the lowest it usually gets to on sales I've seen.  No complaints.  I haven't used it for gaming, so I can't comment on ghosting although mine is advertised as 6ms and the new one is 4ms response time.  The stand is a bit wobbly, but that's pretty typical for monitors whose stands connect to the base of the screen rather than the middle.  Certainly nothing out of the norm.

A 29" 2560x1080 IPS monitor would run you $250-ish .

JustAnEngineer wrote:

A 29" 2560x1080 IPS monitor would run you $250-ish .

That monitor goes on sale for $215.  Just an FYI if you have time to wait.  It's the monitor my brother has.  With FreeSync, it pairs well with his RX480.  I borrowed it for a few months while he was out of the country, so it pairs well with my RX480 also

Running a 1080 or 1070 with a sub-par monitor is likey buying a Porsche and then putting bargain basement tyres on it. Just like the tyres are the only part of the car that touches the road, the monitor is the only part of the computer that touches your eyes (metaphorically speaking).

I would recommend budgeting a little extra for a 144 Hz+ monitor, otherwise you'll be wasting a lot of GPU cycles at 60 Hz. G-Sync monitors are expensive, but there are still a few 144Hz ish ULMB/Lightboost-only models out there. I'd advise camping for a good online sale on a high refresh rate monitor, preferably one with G-sync. Refurbs can be decent value too (1070 user who bought a refurb ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q here).

Voldenuit wrote:

Running a 1080 or 1070 with a sub-par monitor is likey buying a Porsche and then putting bargain basement tyres on it. Just like the tyres are the only part of the car that touches the road, the monitor is the only part of the computer that touches your eyes (metaphorically speaking).


I would recommend budgeting a little extra for a 144 Hz+ monitor, otherwise you'll be wasting a lot of GPU cycles at 60 Hz. G-Sync monitors are expensive, but there are still a few 144Hz ish ULMB/Lightboost-only models out there. I'd advise camping for a good online sale on a high refresh rate monitor, preferably one with G-sync. Refurbs can be decent value too (1070 user who bought a refurb ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q here).

In a normal gamer use situation I would agree she is going for too much GPU compared to her monitor or the monitors that fit the budget. However, the GPU is going to get used to its full potential doing the DC projects. While not even close to the eye candy it would be paired with the right monitor. However, the intangible/non visible benefit is important to her.

If money were not an issue I would definitely recommend a G-sync monitor. But, money is an issue and that rules out the 144 Hz as well. I found two Acer 144 Hz monitors with IPS and DisplayPort, $740 and $800 for those. The others that came up were the Crossover brand I had never heard of before. Kind of leery of a new brand that has one review out of 4 different models. Plus those were at least $100 over the budget for the lowest cost model.

Khali wrote:

If money were not an issue I would definitely recommend a G-sync monitor. But, money is an issue and that rules out the 144 Hz as well. I found two Acer 144 Hz monitors with IPS and DisplayPort, $740 and $800 for those. The others that came up were the Crossover brand I had never heard of before. Kind of leery of a new brand that has one review out of 4 different models. Plus those were at least $100 over the budget for the lowest cost model.

Are you in the US? Because 144 Hz monitors can be had really cheap these days.
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=144+hz+monitor
LG has a 29" IPS ultrawide that runs at 75 Hz for ~$269...

I'm not in the US so I'm a little out of touch with your retailers, but aren't the Monoprice or QNix monitors the best value still? 2560x1440p60 in good-quality Philips AH-IPS.

I don't know what the balance of gaming/compute is going to be but it's worth checking out what sort of compute she's doing. Whether AMD beats Nvidia or vice-versa is less about the performance of the card, and more about which architecture the compute loads work best on. Sometimes a Fury X will run twice as fast as a 1080, and sometimes a 1080 will run twice as fast as a Fury-X. It depends on the type of compute and it's not even as clear cut as OpenCL vs CUDA either.


The 1070 is going to be better at gaming than a Fury or Fury X but I would expect the Fury to be a better DC solution for the money unless she absolutely must have CUDA.

Voldenuit wrote:

Khali wrote:

If money were not an issue I would definitely recommend a G-sync monitor. But, money is an issue and that rules out the 144 Hz as well. I found two Acer 144 Hz monitors with IPS and DisplayPort, $740 and $800 for those. The others that came up were the Crossover brand I had never heard of before. Kind of leery of a new brand that has one review out of 4 different models. Plus those were at least $100 over the budget for the lowest cost model.

Are you in the US? Because 144 Hz monitors can be had really cheap these days.
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=144+hz+monitor
LG has a 29" IPS ultrawide that runs at 75 Hz for ~$269...

Thanks for that link. I had not gotten around to checking on Amazon, just been using NewEgg's search to narrow down what I was looking for. Only problem I see with that list is they are almost all 24" when I am looking for a 27".

Khali wrote:

Voldenuit wrote:

Khali wrote:

If money were not an issue I would definitely recommend a G-sync monitor. But, money is an issue and that rules out the 144 Hz as well. I found two Acer 144 Hz monitors with IPS and DisplayPort, $740 and $800 for those. The others that came up were the Crossover brand I had never heard of before. Kind of leery of a new brand that has one review out of 4 different models. Plus those were at least $100 over the budget for the lowest cost model.

Are you in the US? Because 144 Hz monitors can be had really cheap these days.
https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=144+hz+monitor
LG has a 29" IPS ultrawide that runs at 75 Hz for ~$269...

Thanks for that link. I had not gotten around to checking on Amazon, just been using NewEgg's search to narrow down what I was looking for. Only problem I see with that list is they are almost all 24" when I am looking for a 27".

Yeah, 27" 60 Hz monitors are not too expensive, but 27"+144Hz gets pricey.
Btw I have the Acer K272HUL bmiidp 27" monitor you mentioned in FP, got it two years ago at around the same price. It's a pretty decent panel (8 bit AHVA), but the build quality is typical acer. i.e. if robots went to the bathroom they would use acer plastic as toilet paper. Currently using it as my secondary monitor.

Kmart pickup only (..so you'll need one near you for this deal)

This manufacturer is no longer in business, so no warranty.. except Kmart does accept returns - as a result only moderate risk for such an inexpensive monitor.
http://www.kmart.com/en_us/customer-ser ... olicy.html

http://www.kmart.com/upstar-28inch-4k-u ... 507308001P

That is an impressive price, and it's hard to argue against the value.

K-Mart wrote:

Display:
· Max Viewing Angle - Horizontal: 170
· Max Viewing Angle - Vertical: 160

Those viewing angles indicate that it uses a TN LCD panel.

..they apparently had a production-run problem with a large batch of their monitors regarding power-failure reset: many didn't "reset" properly and required going through the (apparently obtuse) controls to get it reset properly.  (..like going through Korean menu steps to get to the English menu to then find the reset.)  Newegg has this mentioned in their reviews section.  (..my guess is that once you determine the proper button pushing sequence that the problem isn't really a problem should you encounter another power-failure - IF you have a monitor with this problem.) Of course I'm sure that some are out-right failures as well, and a fair number with unfix-able stuck pixels (..which seems to be a problem industry-wide).  It's an "iffy" purchase, but again - a full month for return.

Just thought I would give you folks an update. She went with the Gigabyte 1070 and the Acer 2560x1440 monitor and is tickled pink.

After installing and seeing how her system turned out I decided I liked it well enough to do the same. I needed to replace my failing 780 Ti and I was still using an older TN monitor myself. On the Distributed Computing side of things the 1070 out performs my 780 Ti and a GTX 680 combined running the Collatz Conjecture project. Not sure how she is doing with GPU Grid since there has a been a big lack of work from that project the last month or so.

So if any one is looking to replace an older monitor and do not want to shell out the big bucks for a 4k or one of the Sync monitors you might give the Acer K272HUL a look.

I also have the Acer K272HULbmiidp and it's a good 1440p IPS monitor at $280 (maybe it's been lower than that? 260?). The frustrating thing to me is that there are two versions of the K272HUL. One is TN, the other is IPS. The TN is easy to spot because it's much cheaper, and has an advertised 1ms GTG response.

If she's still not liking the size of things on the 27" 1440p monitor, have her play around with DPI Scaling (also called custom text size). On the Windows 7-10 screen resolution window, it's a hyperlink that says something like "Make text and other items larger or smaller" (on the Windows 7 machine I'm typing this on). There are a few presets, 100%, 125%, 150% or you can set a custom scale. I have all my machines at 110% scaling.

DPete27 wrote:

I also have the Acer K272HULbmiidp and it's a good 1440p IPS monitor at $280 (maybe it's been lower than that? 260?). The frustrating thing to me is that there are two versions of the K272HUL. One is TN, the other is IPS. The TN is easy to spot because it's much cheaper, and has an advertised 1ms GTG response.

If she's still not liking the size of things on the 27" 1440p monitor, have her play around with DPI Scaling (also called custom text size). On the Windows 7-10 screen resolution window, it's a hyperlink that says something like "Make text and other items larger or smaller" (on the Windows 7 machine I'm typing this on). There are a few presets, 100%, 125%, 150% or you can set a custom scale. I have all my machines at 110% scaling.

Aye, we both have been trying different DPI scaling settings. I think I have mine tuned in to where I like it.

She got hers set the first day she had the new hardware. Like I said, she is tickled pink with the larger screen area and how well it looks over all.