Good, reasonably priced 40"+ 4k monitor (gaming)

SaltyNuts

Platinum Member
May 1, 2001
2,399
275
126
Any thoughts? I'm seeing a lot of these $500 or less, although those might all be cheapies that suck. Its mainly for gaming, but mostly I play low intensity stuff like RTS stuff. Sometimes the occasional FPS like Battlefield 1 or War Thunder or World of Tanks, but I'm not trying to be a contender in Quake champion so I don't think I necessarily need one with a response time that is the fastest available (I say this because I remember a few years ago when I was looking at 4k monitors one issue was their response times were pretty slow, so I held off).

Thanks!

By the way, is there a big difference between a 4k monitor and a 4k TV? The TVs always seem cheaper. But I definitely don't want to buy a TV if it has hassles making it work perfectly as a monitor. Thanks for any help.
 

Elfear

Diamond Member
May 30, 2004
7,096
640
126
I have a 40" Phillips that has been a great monitor (BDM4065UC). AVA panel so the blacks are excellent. Games that can take advantage of high-res textures look gorgeous at 4k (e.g. modded Skyrim). With that much real estate and great black levels, you can also try custom resolutions (21:9 looks really good).

It's not a perfect monitor as there have been complaints of banding (I see it on a bright white screen when looking slightly off angle) and I wish it had adaptive sync, but for the price and size, I can't complain.
 

chubbyfatazn

Golden Member
Oct 14, 2006
1,617
35
91
The LG 43UD79 just started shipping here in the US... can currently be found for $650 at some places. It does have Freesync, but it looks like it's limited to 56-61Hz... better than nothing I suppose.

Currently mulling one over myself to replace my fried 31" 4k. I'm not a fan of LG but for the price it seems to have the rest of its competition beat (of course, it's brand new). Just waiting on someone to confirm it's PWM-free and I'll probably bite.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/11310/lg-43ud79-b-launched
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
limited to 56-61Hz...
At that point it barely counts.

At least offer 45-75hz or something.

56-61 might as well just be a straight 60hz and be done with it, I bet you'd never notice 56-61 with the naked eye compared to just 60hz.
 

SaltyNuts

Platinum Member
May 1, 2001
2,399
275
126
Thanks guys! What might Freesync be? Is that monitor indeed a good choice for a big 4k monitor these days, despite this "Freesync" limitation? Will it be ok in first person shooter games? (again, I'm not playing competitive, just don't want to play and be like "wholly crap this is unplayable!). Thanks!
 

tential

Diamond Member
May 13, 2008
7,355
642
121
Freesync is something that improves the quality of the experience. So this would be better than other 4K monitors or TVs without freesync.

To keep it painfully simple, for your buying needs in your bracket, it's basically Freesync or not. And you want Freesync as it will improve the quality of your experience at 4k.

That's the basics.
 

mnewsham

Lifer
Oct 2, 2010
14,539
428
136
That doesn't tell him literally anything about what freesync is or does.

Freesync is adaptive frame rate. Your monitor normally functions at ~60hz for 60 refreshes every second, for smooth gaming you want to have more than 60fps in order to smoothly play at 60hz.
Freesync allows your monitor to dynamically alter it's refresh rate on the fly to correspond with your GPU's framerate. So for example, this monitor has a freesync range of 56-61hz, meaning the panel can adjust itself within those parameters. If you're playing a game and suddenly hit a heavy action scene where your GPU drops down to 56 or 57 fps, the monitor will drop it's refresh rate to match so you don't have any visible frame skipping.

As I said earlier, with a freesync range of only 56-61hz it's pretty much not noticeable on this monitor, where it really shines is on the panels that have 144hz where the freesync range can be from ~40-144hz, a MUCH more impressive refresh rate range than just 56-61hz.
 
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Flapdrol1337

Golden Member
May 21, 2014
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56-61 might as well just be a straight 60hz and be done with it, I bet you'd never notice 56-61 with the naked eye compared to just 60hz.

I disagree, it will still enable you to play without tearing with lower input lag compared to 60hz vsync.