Hello all. Currently I'm using my TV as a monitor and I'm going to be picking up a real monitor in the coming months. I have a R9 280x so I definitely wouldent be able to push 120fps consistent or atleast without turning down settings quite a bit. So would getting a 120hz monitor be worth it with inconstant frame rates? Also what kind of price range do they usually go for?
While having a 120hz monitor can be helpful in a select few competitive games, you're going to be paying a premium for a monitor that will have inferior contrast and viewing angles compared to other displays in it's price range. Unless you're a CS fanatic, I strongly recommend you consider getting an IPS display instead.
I have a Samsung S23A750D 120hz monitor and I really like it I got it on ebay for $170 to replace a 60hz monitor. I really like 120hz 1080p over 1440p which was the other option at about 250-300 usd(new). I play almost primarily fps games so I think its worth it but if you play other games not fps I would probably look at other options such as 1440p. But if you do play a lot of fps games you will notice the smooth movement and for me less eye strain. Lightboost is also a really cool feature I recommend you check out in person its quite amazing how little motion blur there is.
Why not get a 1440p 120Hz IPS? Overlord has them.
I'd always go for better colours or a higher resolution over 120+ Hz. You will only benefit from a higher refresh rate while playing fps games, but good colours and a higher resolution will impact everything you do on your monitor (watching movies, doing work, gaming, etc.) If you are a competitive FPS player or you do nothing other than playing FPS games on your PC then by all means get a 120+Hz monitor, but in any other situation I'd highly recommend either saving your money or upgrading to IPS and/or 1440p.
Do you play FPS games? Do you take them seriously? If not, then don't get a 120Hz monitor.
I personally prefer IPS panels. Though, I wouldn't mind having a second 120Hz monitor, if it were practical.
You can get a cheap IPS panel now, then add a second 120Hz panel. Best of both worlds.
I am getting a 120Hz 1440p IPS Overlord soon. Why not have it all?
The best thing about 120hz monitors is that they can render over 60fps, which is really cool and awesome. And if you can't run 120fps on your games, you can run them in 90fps and still get a more smooth experience.
Though, as great as it is having those smoother animations and faster response, you lose out a lot on colour accuracy and viewing angles. So they're fairly terrible for surround, and as "preferred" they are for FPS and twitch games, they're still not for everyone who takes those games seriously because colours tend to be less defiant, for example modern shooters and historic shooters generally have a very "brown grey and black" as their colour palettes, and with the degraded colour quality, a lot of the colours will look more like each other, therefore you may not see heads peaking over boxes or something of that sort.
So with the pros of getting that smoothness you're sacrificing viewing angle and colour quality. Going from a TV to an IPS panel would be quite the nice contrast in colour reproduction, while going to a high frequency TN where the colour quality won't increase, and may decrease, you'll get more smooth gameplay with a 280x running 1080p at an average of 90FPS in somewhat demanding games and your full 120FPS from less demanding games. (also, you may not notice the difference between 60hz/60fps and the 90/120 variety right away, it'll be something that you won't notice until you go to someone's house where they use 60hz monitors and you think "hmm why does it seem a little less smooth"