I have a 1680*1050 monitor for gaming, and I always hear people arguing over whether jumping to 1080 is really that big of a difference or not. I wouldn't know, since I've never really used a 1080p monitor. Is it really that big of a difference?
I think your current monitor is sufficient. Use your current panel until you have money to go ultra HD or something.
Take the opportunity to upgrade to 1080p if you current monitor craps out.
You can get some decent budget IPS displays, I have the AOC i2367h, pretty cheap, looks decent, 1080p, not sure of price in your region, but I got them from my computer store for $220 a piece; Im running 3 of them in eyefinity, pretty bawws displays, only drawback is that they dont have rear mounting holes.
i went form 1680x1050 60hz to 1080p 144hz. the hz was nice but i didn't noticed the extra space in gaming. in normal use the extra space is nice to have. 1680x1050 was great for gaming, you have less pixels so yo have higher fps:). you can go to 1080p but going from a 20 inch 1680x1050 screen to 1080p 32 inch is bad.
there aren't 144hz 1680x1050 screens with 1ms i believe or atleast not many. that's a + for 1080p.