Question Upgrading from a 60 Hz monitor...

[Turbonium]

Short of going to the store and staring at the different refresh rates and judging for myself, what's the best refresh rate to get on a monitor, taking into account that my system needs to be able to churn out the required FPS to take advantage of it?

I'm thinking 120 Hz or 144 Hz should be more than enough, while keeping in mind FPS requirements.

(I've avoided it so far because I don't want to "notice" how "bad" my 60 Hz monitor is.)

 

[OlyAR15]

The whole point of variable refresh rate monitors is that they will match your card’s output, so just get whatever you like.

 

[Tech Junky]

Denial is a river in Africa that flows to bury your head in the sand

Anyway... I've upgraded my laptops to better spec options.. do I see a difference? Well, I'm not looking at the FPS because I'm not gaming where FPS is the goal. My objective is better colors and more real estate with a 4K screen. Both laptops had FHD and the current one was FHD/144 but the colors were so washed out compared to the 4K120 I have in it now.

External monitors are easy to swap to whatever you want to use so, go for it. Getting the specs on them though isn't quite as easy as the laptop screens though when trying to compare colors / PPI / etc.

However, I would recommend looking at them in person because just because they look good on paper doesn't mean they will when you're looking at them for several hours. Side by side on the shelf you'll see differences in the colors and performance.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

Yeah I am certainly no visual or audio expert however from work experience I have learned everyone’s eyes & ears work differently. A bunch of us may say “get this monitor it has great specs” but you get it and it sort of sucks.
Personally I would put effort into looking at it and if you can’t which is probably likely make sure you can return it.
If I were getting a monitor I would go above 1080P and highest refresh rate that’s affordable. I know we could really dig into color spectrum vs panel manufacturing process but I know little of that subject.

 

[Tech Junky]

I would go above 1080P and highest refresh rate that’s affordable.

To an extent I agree. If we're talking gaming / FPS the 2K 1440P seems to be the sweet spot for most. Anything above a 120hz is just fluff though since it's just optical trickery to make it appear to be faster than it really is from a technical standpoint.

The fastest options though are FHD. It's all subjective though.

 

[Fanatical Meat]

To an extent I agree. If we're talking gaming / FPS the 2K 1440P seems to be the sweet spot for most. Anything above a 120hz is just fluff though since it's just optical trickery to make it appear to be faster than it really is from a technical standpoint.

The fastest options though are FHD. It's all subjective though.

**I want to add consider your on going video card budget too**
I would love a 4k not super big monitor. I do not want to get on the halo video card pricing bandwagon.

 

[Tech Junky]

halo video card pricing

Prices are bottoming out now that crypto has tanked again. The cheapest option though is a laptop w/ a higher end GPU. I got a 12700H w/ RTX3060 for $1300 whereas on the PC side the card alone would have been about the same price just for the card.

https://pcpartpicker.com/products/video-card/#c=499&sort=price&page=1

Now though $400 gets you a 3060 which is pretty reasonable considering what the market has been through the last couple of years.

It's all relative to what you want to do w/ the card + monitor though.

 

[aigomorla]

As Oly stated you buy your monitor to match the videocard your going to pair with.
Now if your going to ugprade videocards thoughout the life of the monitor, then you future proof the monitor.

You do not just slap a ultra high refresh rate monitor with an GTX1630 gpu for example, and expect to see vast improvements.

Also i wouldn't touch a 3060.... its imo NOT worth it.
Get at least a 3060ti, if not, id go over to AMD with a 6700XT which you can typically get for around $469 depending on AIB.

https://www.amazon.com/PowerColor-Graphics-Powered-Raytracing-Infinity/dp/B08Y934HZQ/ref=sr_1_3?crid=37MSN7LEO8XKK&keywords=6700xt&qid=1656529104&sprefix=6700xt%2Caps%2C107&sr=8-3

And the performance should speak itself for that slight cost increase.
3060 vs 6700XT => 6700XT wins...

3060Ti vs 6700XT => 3060Ti is about equal. In some cases one is better then other.

If you have a 5000 series Ryzen, go 6700XT /w SAM enabled.
This would be my deciding factor. (Is your system Intel or AMD).
Sam off vs Sam on.

- YouTube

Auf YouTube findest du die angesagtesten Videos und Tracks. Außerdem kannst du eigene Inhalte hochladen und mit Freunden oder gleich der ganzen Welt teilen.

www.youtube.com

Or if you don't care about gaming at all.
Get the Alienware 34 QD-OLED as the monitor is beautiful and displays wonderfully, and its a true OLED that costs less then 2000 dollars, as the only other OLED PC monitor is the LG one for Professionals, and its priced at near $3899.

 

[Tech Junky]

Also i wouldn't touch a 3060.... its imo NOT worth it.
Get at least a 3060ti,

I was speaking from a Laptop POV. Obviously on the PC side there's more options and benefits to adding the TI to the end of the name. Since not mentioned by OP though the ag is a 1060 due to the price spike for the past couple of years and a 3060 would be a giant leap and the TI is a smidge better but at what cost? Sometimes the market does funny things and you can score a deal on a TI for very little more than a non-TI card.

3060 is just the middle ground for the average person these days. I don't really keep up with the AMD options at this point as they tend to be problematic with the systems I use. Though by going open source on the driver front that might change my view on them a little bit. Since I don't need a CPU on my server setup it's a $400+ savings I can spend on something else.

 

[aigomorla]

I was speaking from a Laptop POV

oh i missed that....
But if im not wrong, the 3080 mobile gpu prices were not that much more expensive... its the other stuff they packaged with it that made it expensive.
So it maybe possible to find a cheap 3080, and then addon the extra ram and nvme.

Unless the supply chain killed alll prices across the board.

 

[Tech Junky]

@aigomorla

Meh, I picked up the 12700H / 3060 for $1300 w/o all of the other bloat.

3060 - https://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=products.view&product_id=30903

3080's come in at $2500 or $1200 more than the 3060. I consider that to be more than being cheap. then again they're TI models. The 3070TI's though are $1800 and that's still $500 more.

https://rjtech.com/shop/index.php?dispatch=categories.view&category_id=220&subcats=Y&features_hash=V294

On the PC side though it's a different story completely.

 

[BoomerD]

I picked up a Dell 32" 1440/165hz monitor in January to replace my aging Dell 24" 1080/60hz monitor. My PC has a 2070 GPU. Seems to handle the new monitor just fine.

 

[BoomerD]

I am also planning to upgrade my old monitor. I like the quality of Dell monitors. What can you say about your monitor? Does it have any critical flaws?

No complaints so far. Actually, the only things I'm not crazy about is the lack of horizontal swivel...and, being a VA panel, it's not ideal in bright rooms.