Hello there, folks. I have been saving up for the holiday season to upgrade my old monitor. Its is an old Dell S22240L, had it for quite a while now. As much as i love the old girl and it has served me well for 1080p gaming when i had one 7970, ever since i upgraded to two 7970's they have been a bit overkill for just 1080p gaming. So i was wondering if you guys can help me decide if i should go for a 3 monitor setup like for example 3 BenQ XL2420's or if a single 1600p monitor worth the price like say a Dell Ultrasharp U3011. Please recommend other monitors if they are better, the ones i mentioned are just used as an example. Also would like an insight from someone who plays racing simulators about multi-monitor setups if they serve any purpose, as my main gaming time goes into rFactor, iracing and such.
I recommend ips panels if you are going for anything other than 120hz. Especially for getting neat viewing angles if you ever plan on moving your head with a three monitor setup. You might not get 120hz with three monitors. If you go single monitor I would go 1440p over 1600 unless you have bottomless pockets.
Thanks for the quick replies guys. And the thread Berserker linked to is quite awesome. The thought of those good korean 1440p monitors have not even crossed my mind before, silly me. Iam new to the forums so did not know about that thread before. Good job nudging me in the right direction. Also another dumb question, can my setup handle three 1440p monitors, considering my 7970s are not the bigger 6gb versions and are only the 3gb ones. Iam quite sure they can handle three 1080p monitors but have no clue about how they might perform on three 1440p monitors.
It can handle it but not very well you WILL have to turn down alot of settings. especially on games like crysis. two 780s had trouble triple 1440s
A single 1440p monitor has 180% the pixels of standard 1080p Meaning if you get 54fps at 1080p you will see 30fps at 1440p and every monitor you add only makes it harder. If you went from 1080p to triple 1440 your graphics card would have to render 10.8 MEGAPIXELS that's about 5x standard 1080p (2.07MP) so to put that in comparision if you got 100fps @ 1080p you will see about 20fps @ triple 1440.
I would not recommend getting a triple 1440p setup unless you're willing to upgrade your geraphics cards more. The recent 290X would does incredebly well at htese high resolutions and i would recommend getting one with an AFTERMARKET cooler because the stock card right now runs hot.
Aha, so a single 1440p monitor it is for me then. As i have no intentions of upgrading my cards anytime soon. Well this thread most certainly helped my wallet i must say. :) And as i am quite convinced by the 1440p scene, should i just go for the cheaper korean ones or do the major brands like Asus or Samsung really give a lot of noticeable benefits compared to the Shimian and X-star shown in the 1440p club thread? Sorry for all the questions if they may seem a bit annoying, as this is probably going to be my one upgrade for a long time to come so i just want to get this job done right. :D
Just checked the price for Asus PB278Q, it sure is well within the price bracket i was hoping for, £430 on amazon UK. Thanks for the tip again Berserker, I might as well go with that suggestion.
The koreans are a good deal but with the big names like Dell ultrasharp or the asus ones,.. you're paying for expandability and flexablity. Owner of the X-star here. The monitor only tilts and only has one DL-DVI connector. The big brand monitors have adjustable heights rotation and MORE input possibilities. I knew this when i bought it and i was fine with it. Why? for me i don't need to raise my monitor up more, the tilit is fine for me, I will only ever use DL-DVI for this monitor having more connectors is bragging rights,... I won't ever use them.
With the koreans you will have to make some comprimises. If the premiun is worth it to you go aheads. If i had the money at the time I would've paid the premiun because it's worth it in some cases.
Didn't realise you were in the UK. I got my ASUS PB278Q for around £440-450, with an Amazon Prime membership. You could activate a 30 day free trial of Prime, and possibly get the monitor discounted.
It comes with all the connections you need, including DVI-D, and additional European adaptor.
With the Korean panels, you might have to pay import duties. Customs might recharge you for delivery, should they open it. Not worth the risk, considering the price. It's much more suitable for US customers. That's largely my opinion.
Yes there is a VESA mount on it, but it will add to the cost a little depending on the quality and functionality of said arm. HOWEVER with the X-star sepcificlally you can not take off the clear foot of the monitor. the base can be removed. Watch the lastest tek video to understand what I'm saying