advice wanted for 1440p 144Hz monitor purchase ($850 budget)

Discussion in 'PC Spec Talk' started by Jigg1yJoe, Sep 7, 2015.

  1. Jigg1yJoe

    Jigg1yJoe Lurker

    HeyGuys

    i've been doing research ahead of making a sizeable investment for an awesome gaming monitor (also will be watching blu-ray movies on it.. so prefer IPS to a TN panel).

    here is a link to my gaming rig

    i have a single GTX970 gpu for now but am planning to add another for SLI to drive the new monitor
    (the deal on my GTX970 was just too good to pass up in favor of the GTX980 which was IMO overpriced at the time, and this was before the 980ti was available)

    My first choice was th
    e Asus ROG Swift PG278Q but i've seen so many bad reviews that i think it's just not a good investment (i don't want to be dealing with RMA's and extended warranty), there just seems to be a considerable amount of problems with this TN panel, although it's really the ONLY 1440p available which has 1ms response time and NVIDIA G-SYNC.

    Now i'm considering the Acer Predator XB270HU which i have only seen good reviews for so far, it seems to me to be a far superior monitor (mainly because it has IPS panel instead of TN) and also has NVIDIA G-SYNC which will pair nicely with my 970 (even higher refresh rates when i upgrade to SLI 970s)

    i'm linking to UK prices because i am located in London, UK. i guess i can buy from newegg.com as they do have it listed as available here but i have not purchased from them before.

    £570 converts to around $850 so thats really the upper limit of my budget, and i'm not even looking at anything 4K because i just don't have the gpu power to drive that resolution (and have no intention to replace current gpu setup for the next few years.. besides upgrading to SLI setup of course)

    thanks for reading, please share your thoughts, opinions and especially your experiences if you own (or have used) one of these 1440p 144hz monitors for gaming.

    kind regards, Joe

    .
     
  2. Pickings are thin monitor wise I think the Acer is pretty much your only choice.
    I'd avoid SLI for now though the performance per £ of a second card is really bad. DX 12 might change that I'd hold fire for now
     
  3. Jigg1yJoe

    Jigg1yJoe Lurker

    tyvm for the response @Belovedof_CTHULHU

    those are 2 really good points you've made and i'm actually reconsidering my options..

    since i don't have the GPU to drive 100+ fps refresh rates i wouldn't get the full benefit from either of these screens and i've also been seeing reviews that the build quality of the Acer is sub-par (although Acer's QA process may have improved since the batches of July 2015 panels) which is imho unsatisfactory considering it's premium price tag !!

    there are other "irritating" issues such as the shiny black bezel on the Acer which reflects light from the desktop, i mean that could get really annoying over time : ((

    i'm looking at a completely different specification in this BenQ BL3200PT 32" (60Hz fixed refresh frequency & 4ms latency) beast of a monitor, which would suit me as i'm not a CS:GO style gamer and really don't enjoy the FPS genre much anyway (i'm only really playing Witcher 3, Batman AK & occasional GTA V) and i enjoy my blu-ray movies.

    That £350 price tag is also very tempting..
    [ EDIT :: it was £350 at the time i posted this but the offer ended i actually managed to find an even better deal so i'm getting it for < £300 incl. delivery ]
    i̶ ̶m̶a̶y̶ ̶e̶v̶e̶n̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶c̶i̶n̶g̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶o̶r̶d̶e̶r̶ ̶t̶o̶d̶a̶y̶ (since this is a monitor that my existing GTX 970 can easily drive at high -> ultra settings in most of the games i'll be playing : ))

    i'll post feedback in the next few days i̶f̶ ̶i̶ ̶d̶o̶ ̶i̶n̶d̶e̶e̶d̶ ̶p̶l̶a̶c̶e̶ ̶a̶n̶ ̶o̶r̶d̶e̶r̶, just to let others know if this decision turns out to be a good compromise.

    i'm sure the 1440p 144Hz market will provide more choice in the coming 6-9 months, but i really need something to improve my gaming (and movie watching) experience today and do more upgrades in a year or two.


    Joe
     
    Last edited: Sep 10, 2015
  4. excessnet

    excessnet Lurker

    Well, your last post was in some way what I was about to say : Why?

    Keep your money and get a 1080p monitor, later, you'll be able to buy a 4K monitor with the PC that goes with it for a better price and be able to enjoy more content.

    1440p is not, but not worth it IMO. 1080p -> 4K, skip 1440p :D
     
  5. You are more than welcome!

    I like that monitor that one or the acer equivalent are what I would be choosing between if I was buying right now

    While this is true it's kinda always true
     
  6. Jigg1yJoe

    Jigg1yJoe Lurker

    in reply to "advice wanted for 1440p 144Hz monitor" ?

    i did indeed switch the specification to a fixed 60Hz alternative
    (due to the realization that my GTX 970 is not able to reach the higher demands of 144Hz)

    thanks for replying, but i'll have to completely disregard your opinion (as it is irrelevant to this topic !)
     
  7. excessnet

    excessnet Lurker

    Yeah, I advice you NOT to buy 1440p monitor, cause it's worthless right now in my opinion and keep your money until the technologie pricepoint will be lower and worth getting it.

    Sorry if you dont want advice when asking for them.
     
  8. vr00mfondel

    vr00mfondel Moderator Moderator

    Well, the only real advice I can give you is to stay as far away from the ASUS ROG Swift as possible... While it has amazing picture and all, I am now on my third Swift since I bought it in January... Lots of people having problems with this monitor.
     
  9. Jigg1yJoe

    Jigg1yJoe Lurker

    yep agreed.. good advice there @vr00mfondel

    worth mentioning that i also found an alarming amount of bad reviews for the Acer model too (regarding multiple RTB warranty claims)
     
  10. Jigg1yJoe

    Jigg1yJoe Lurker

    idk if i just got lucky but BenQ delivered on this product, i cannot fault it in any way, the build quality is exceptional, the panel has no dead pixels and the colours and onscreen images are stunning from a decently wide viewing angle (which is important for viewing movies with friends)..i am more than happy with my final decision.

    the only thing i can really add is that if you don't already own a high-end GPU and are NOT looking for the best-of-the-best to pair with that GPU.. then you could probably get the same or very similar results with a 24-27" 1080p monitor.. although considering that i got a deal on this screen (which took it under £300 incl. delivery from BenQ) i get the advantage of having that extra on-screen space of a 32" without any compromise, since it has the same DPI given the higher resolution, and my GPU can handle the extra load without issues (i still have to experiment with some tweaks to see if i can push this panel to 120Hz using unofficial drivers).

    If you want to get a cheap display, then get a cheap display.. this discussion was never about that (see OP) since i had an $850 budget to begin with.

    i guess the major thing that i have learned is to do your due diligence when researching and take all of your requirements into consideration.

    thanks to everyone who participated, kind regards
    Joe
     
  11. chrisdash

    chrisdash Lurker

    I have the Acer XG270HU with AMD Freesync, 1440p and 144Hz and am very very happy with it. There is also a G-Sync version of it.



    Excessnet, I think you missed the point of it being 144Hz. There are no 4K 144Hz screens on the horizon, and Display Port at this time can only drive 4K in 60Hz. So thats a couple years away. The difference in smoothness for fast games between 60Hz and 144Hz is so fricken huge that I would go 1440p 144Hz over 4K 60Hz anytime. I don't really need the extra pixels of 1440p, but the extra frames of 144Hz (120Hz even) make a world of difference.
     
  12. vr00mfondel

    vr00mfondel Moderator Moderator

    I should probably add that the general assumption is that the ROG Swift problems stems from the fact that the g-sync module normally cant handle 1440p+144hz, so it is basically an overclocked g-sync unit in the monitor. It is widely believed that it is the cause for the Swifts breaking...
    And there is really no way of telling if other manufacturers have done the same "hack"... So in general, I would stay away from the combination 1440p+144hz+g-sync, until it is firmly established that there is a monitor that can handle it without problem (for a long time)

    I would also like to add that I think 1440p is a perfect resolution for 27"
     
  13. Jigg1yJoe

    Jigg1yJoe Lurker

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