So Many Monitors ...

T

Toff

Guest
I've decided to upgrade and am purchasing a new laptop with a 980m in it.

The big question now is what monitor to buy for when I want to game on a larger screen.

144 hz 1ms TN panel
IPS panel
24" or perhaps a 27"
1920x1080 or even higher (my eyes are not as good as they used to be so I would never run the OS at higher than that)

Right now I'm leaning towards a 24" 144 hz 1ms TN one (1920x1080).
Anyone used one of these? If so, what do you think of it?
Anything I am missing that I should consider?
What do you like?

Price isn't a huge issue but I like value for my money.
 
Find out for what you need the monitor.

Then ask yourself these questions?

1) Do I need 100% correct colors (-> professional level graphics artist stuff) or is 95% good enough?
2) Do I need zero input lag for your next Counterstrike session or is "more or less zero" enough?
3) Do I want some 3D stuff? 3D requires twice the speed because the effects needs to be faked for both eyes.
4) Do I want Pivot? That's the possibility to turn the monitor 90°. Good for displaying a full A4 page at once.
5) Is my PC fast enough for more than 1080p gaming?
6) Do I want a high pixel density? 4k is coming. 1080p on 23" is a lot, 1080p on 27" is only okay - but more requires a faster PC because you want to play on the display's natural resolution. Scaling should be avoided if possible.
7) Does size matter?
8) Do I need multimedia gimmicks like TV tuner, media player, USB hub, speakers?
9) Do I need special connectors like Display Port for my 32 27" monitors?
10) Do I want to attach more than 1 PC to the monitor?

Facts:
A decent IPS panel has a better image quality than a good TN panel because IPS can show the full color spectrum. So IPS panels can be convinced to show *exactly* what your printer will output. TN on the other hand gets the colors somewhat right. That's perfectly fine unless you are used to the better stuff. ;)
IPS is slower than TN.
Every TFT uses a TN panel unless mentioned otherwise.
There are other panels - "Accelerated" IPS panels (whatever the real name is) or TN panels with a slightly higher color spectrum. Things like this are usually a major selling point.

----------------------------------------
This is not a question:
Keep your old TFT. Dual TFT rocks! It's a huge timesaver.
 
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Fraid I can't help with the monitor - I have a 16:10 fetish and don't think there is enough content to justify ultra res hardware at $$$ premium. I also can't tell the difference between 60 and 120 hz - the really intensive games I prefer to run at 60 with max sliders, rather than 120 with medium sliders.

Just out of interest - what model laptop did you order?
 
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I always like to see a monitor in action before I buy, if that's possible. The differences in quality can be quite suprising - some cheaper ones are horrifyingly bad.
 
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If I were shopping for a new monitor today, I'd opt for 27" or even 30". 1920x1080 on a 27" is stretching things a bit, but you may or may not like it (see it in action firsthand).
 
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Sony W805 50 inch. I don't see the difference between monitors and TVs anymore
 
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If I were shopping for a new monitor today, I'd opt for 27" or even 30". 1920x1080 on a 27" is stretching things a bit, but you may or may not like it (see it in action firsthand).

I find 1080p okay a 27". It's certainly not enough on a bigger monitor though if you want to do more than watching movies and playing games.
 
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I'll probably make a trip to Microcenter soonish and see what they have on the floor.

Definitely. As well the obviously crappy ones, I've often found that it is not the best reviewed or most expensive ones that have the best picture, when I've seen them in real life.
 
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Bear in mind that, like TVs, LCD monitors will look completely different in a bright store setting than they will in a moderately-lit office.
 
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Right now I'm leaning towards a 24" 144 hz 1ms TN one (1920x1080).
Anyone used one of these? If so, what do you think of it?
Anything I am missing that I should consider?
What do you like?

Price isn't a huge issue but I like value for my money.

No offense but with a mobile computer and a comparatively weak (OK, strong for a laptop but weak compared to desktop GPUs ;) ) GPU, a 144Hz LCD doesn't make any sense at all. In the vast majority of modern games, you're never even going to get close to being able to push 144fps unless you turn the settings all the way down.
144Hz is absolutely pointless if you don't have a GPU (or SLI/xFire GPUs rather) that can render frames per seconds at around that value.

The GTX 980m is about as fast as a desktop GTX 770. The realistic target with medium to high settings in modern games is 60fps on a full HD (1080p) or 1440p display max to run at the corresponding rate of 60Hz.

Since you have noticed yourself that your eyes aren't as good as they used to be, I could imagine that a 27" display would suit you quite fine. You will find many people online who are like "waaahhh you crazy? 1080p on 27 inch??? it's like looking at the screen through a tennis racket!!11".
That is way exaggerated, of course. The image may be marginally less crisp than 1080p at 24" or 1440p at 27" but the effect is negligible. There is definitely no real sense of "pixelation" as some people would have you believe (probably the ones who have actually never even seen or owned a 1080p 27" LCD).

I have personally owned this ASUS monitor until recently and I'm still alive :) . No, seriously, it had excellent image quality at a very fair price.
If you can/want to spend more, you should look into IPS or PLS (PLS = Samsung's version of IPS) panel based displays.
Popular choices in 27" are the Dell UltraSharp U2715H (1080p or 1440p… there are two versions of this one), Samsung S27D850T (1440p), or if you like it a bit smaller in 24" the Eizo Foris FS2434-BK or if you like it really BIG (like myself since I got this screen a few weeks back :) ) there's the 32" Samsung S32D850T (1440p) which has a VA panel (great colors and contrast… latency perfectly OK as long as you're not the super-twitchy competitive multiplayer FPS gamer).
 
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I currently game on a projector but I'm really tempted to get one of the 30+ inch curved 4k monitors.
 
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