Going "high" resolution, need advice

[Virgule]

Hi all,

 

So in a few weeks I'll have enough money to spare for what I think would be a well deserved monitor upgrade. I was seriously thinking of going for a 1440p (or 1600p) IPS monitor and I need input on different key points that could influence my choice. 

 

1- I initially thought of going with a cheap korean monitor. Might be because of the decrease of the canadian dollar but these "cheap monitors" are a little more expensive than I remember. Pixel perfect versions of the Qnix QX2710, Xstar DP2710, Yamakasi whatever, etc. sell for approximately 400$Can.

 

So my first concern is : Is going with a korean monitor really worth the savings when comparing to the well-received Dell U2713hm for instance (currently around 700$) ?

 

2- Most korean monitors are known to overclock well. I haven't really heard anything from more brand recognized monitors. My guess is this is due to the fact that people pay more for them and are less willing to overclock them. I would love to be able to overclock a bit to have a more fluid gaming experience at the cost of some settings turned down.

 

3- Compatibility wise, most compatibility charts I see on ebay listings for korean monitors only feature last gen gpu information (HD6970, HD 6990, ...). I have a R9 290, would there be any compatibility problems going with a korean monitor.

 

4- Some say that QHD (1440p) and QXGA (1600p) monitors are a little flawed, content wise, because they aren't a interger amount of the 1080p and 1200p resolutions like 4K is. So there's constant upscaling of HD content and near no native content. Is upscaling a downside of these monitors ?

 

5- I like the idea of waiting for an affordable 4K IPS monitor. However, I feel that it could take an eternity for that to arrive. Even 2.5K monitors' price seem to be unaffected by the arrival of 4K monitors to the market, so I'm really wondering when would good 4K IPS monitors be a reality. I feel I should just go for a 2.5K monitor now has it is a good noticeable upgrade. Thoughts ?

 

6- In light of all these facts, which monitor would you recommend ?

 

Thanks for the input.

[Excon]

@OneGun is an monitor expert. Sorry for a vague response but I'm on a tablet. I CA say the Dell has many issues. The Korean monitors match stuff like the PB278 in every way but the stand. Your GPU is compatible, all you need is dual link DVI. Yes content is mostly upscale but it's not to bad, how much you value that is up to you. Also 4k is a lot harder to drive, that's a major issue at the time

[Virgule]

@OneGun is an monitor expert. Sorry for a vague response but I'm on a tablet. I CA say the Dell has many issues. The Korean monitors match stuff like the PB278 in every way but the stand. Your GPU is compatible, all you need is dual link DVI. Yes content is mostly upscale but it's not to bad, how much you value that is up to you. Also 4k is a lot harder to drive, that's a major issue at the time

Thanks for the advice.

[sonarctica]

@GoodBytes knows his monitors better than anyone on the forum dare I say. He will let you know that a 1440p monitor from a reputable company like Dell or Asus is the way to go.

[Virgule]

@GoodBytes knows his monitors better than anyone on the forum dare I say. He will let you know that a 1440p monitor from a reputable company like Dell or Asus is the way to go.

I can't wait !

[Enderman]

dont get cheap korean crap

they get dead pixels easily

 

dont get 4k because you will be limited to 30fps

 

i would recommend a high quality asus or benq monitor that is 2.5k 120hz, or some other reliable brand

you may want to look into larger screen sizes, 27 or 30 in

[Virgule]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824276053

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176242R

 

What about this one ?

Not expensive at all ! Refurbished is a problem with monitors ?

[GoodBytes]

I would avoid those ebay Korean brands. Unless you know exactly what you are getting yourself into, or you really need 2560x1440 and on budget and can't wait for your budget to grow.

The reason why I am saying this is you get what you paid for. There is a reason why these monitors are cheap. Yes, granted, I am sure that Dell, ASUS, Lenovo, LG, HP, NEC, and about another manufacture that sales monitors have high markups, especially in this range of product. But still.

The way these small businesses running on eBay, selling monitors do, is that they purchase A- panels from manufacture (usually Samsung or LG, as they are the biggest IPS panel producers).

A- panels, are panels that are faulty. The faults can be visible (dead/stuck pixel) or not (doesn't means specifications, or other issues that are not faulty pixels, such as: too slow, malformed grid resulting in a area or full screen not as sharp as it would be (might or might be visible to you, or notice, unless you have the proper panel next to you), durability issue (transport, survive hits, or longevity of the product not reaching the original warranty of the panel). LG, and Samsung offer 3 year warranty on the products they made, that is why company that implement these panel, also offers you 3 year warranty. I mean the panel is the large cost of the monitor being produced, if LG or Samsung didn't offer such a warranty, believe me, they would be at a loss. It's like if you build computers, and you offer 10 year warranty, but the highest warranty you have in your computer is 3 years. What happens if after 3 years most of them break? You'll be in big trouble.

As those are A- panels, they have no warranty from the manufacture, as they are rejects. But they offer you a 1 year warranty. That is nice. However, if you check the terms and conditions, you'll see that they pretty much covers nothing, filled with conditions, to simply not cover you. Also, they bet big time, that's even if you fall on the warranty, you will give up trying to send this 27inch monitor to South Korea. And, depending on your live, potentially pay duty fees for the replacement one that you'll receive. Not to mention the time it will take for the monitor to reach their office, and process it. That is probably 1 month of wait time without a monitor. Dell however, allows you to keep the monitor, while they shipped you the replacement one. So, assuming your monitor is still usable, you always have a monitor on your desk. If it's not, well in 2-3 days you'll have a replacement one. In the case of Dell, specifically, the return shipping of the faulty monitor is also covered by them. In the replacement monitor box, you'll find a pre-paid shipping label, just swap the monitors, and stick the pre-paid shipping label over the old one, and call the appropriate mail carrier to come and pick up. That simple and easy.

So, even if you get those "perfect pixel" monitor that they claim you can still have other faults. Another fault not discussed is response time. What if you think you are getting 8ms response time panel, which you check reviews for actual performance of the monitor panel, and like it, but because it's faulty you get 12ms for some reason. You have no way of proving it doesn't deliver.

That said, monitor QA at panel manufactures are in batch. So if 1 is faulty in the batch, the entire batch is considered faulty (however it is rare that the ratio is like this, else they won't be doing by batch, as it's so many panel that they could have sold but not throwing them at the bin, or selling it for cheap to recuperate some of the cost). The highly recommended brands seams to buy these faulty batches and pick the best they have and use that. So, you could be mostly fine, without anything obviously wrong with it.

The monitors panel are put in generic cases, with buttons that don't do anything, with dual link DVI only. Some monitors don't even have brightness control or just a few predefined levels, depending on the brand and model. Some even just plays with the monitor brightness/contrast colors to emulate the screen brightness, but the back light is always fully lit at max brightness.

IN addition, those with on screen menus, despite extremely limited, uses generic monitor circuit, probably engineered years (or knock off) ago in China or something, still produced today. They have god awful input lag. More than 30ms. It's not even funny.

How about overclocking you say?

Well here is the thing:

1- IPS panels aren't fast enough yet, to deliver 120Hz. Maybe in a couple of years, but not today. SO teh results, is that the LCD liquid isnt' fast enougth at turning to catch up the speed it needs to deliver true 120Hz.

2- Dual link DVI specification, states (and you can check that), max resolution is 2560x1600 @ 60Hz colors OR 1920x1080 @ 120Hz. 1920x1080 for 120Hz. The resolution is not matching what you need. Meaning you are going over the specification. And that is why many people that got those monitor, can't pass 90Hz at best. And most have detected (if they tested for this), frame drop. The monitor is not displaying all the frames. DVI can't handle the load. Shorter and better wire might help, but still.

Pay a bit more, especially when you catch specials, and get yourself a proper monitor:

-> Not glossy.

-> Solid build quality.

-> Fully adjustable stand.

-> Full and proper warranty coverage.

-> A+ panel purchased.

-> Actual R&D to offer you a nice monitor features, use the best abilities of the monitor, and provide well designed circuitry for the best performance (low input lag).

-> More features

-> An actual proper on-screen menu with options

-> You can return if you don't like it

It just makes all sense. And it's not THAT more expensive, especially if you shop around or wait for specials.

Now, it must be noted that

[GoodBytes]

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824276053

http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824176242R

 

What about this one ?

Not expensive at all ! Refurbished is a problem with monitors ?

HP really focuses for office work with their monitors. They don't assume you'll play games. The company is a bit disconnected. No wonder they loosing footprint on the consumer market.

Check out Dell monitors, they are the best value for your money, in my opinion.

For example the Dell U2713HM: http://accessories.dell.com/sna/products/Gaming_Accessories/productdetail.aspx?c=ca&l=en&s=dhs&cs=cadhs1&sku=225-4015

(I saw the monitor at 550$ several days ago, at Dell's 12 day deal thingy which they do several times a year). I would wait for a similar price. Or you can pick up the phone and ask for a price. You'll be surprised. (Shipping is free when you order monitors from Dell). It's a well reviewed monitor as you can see: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/dell_u2713hm.htm (in depth monitor review)

[Virgule]

Thanks GoodBytes, so much valuable information.

 

Now what do you think of upscaling 1080p to 1440p ?

[GoodBytes]

I don't know. I don't have a 27inch monitor to test, or looked into. You are first asking this to me.

If you check in depth reviews from sites like TFTCentral or Prad web site, they cover this somewhat. Look for "Interpolation" in the reviews.

I have noticed I link to the wrong review to the Dell monitor I suggested.

I linked to the U2713H and not the U2713HM which is a step down model (more affordable)

[Virgule]

I have noticed I link to the wrong review to the Dell monitor I suggested.

I linked to the U2713H and not the U2713HM which is a step down model (more affordable)

Yes apparently, the only differences is the H is 2 ms faster (response time) and also has mini-DP connectivity. It sells for 400$ more. Amazing.

[GoodBytes]

Yes apparently, the only differences is the H is 2 ms faster (response time) and also has mini-DP connectivity. It sells for 400$ more. Amazing.

You forgot that the U2713M

-> has GB-LED back light to provide you with more true white, instead of the blu'ish tint/cold white that you get from a white LED back light. GB-LED is much more costly than white LEDs. It is perfect green and blue LED's put very very very close together, and has a layer of red phosphor to out put a white light. It's just 1 step down from RGB-LED, which costs even more, hence why it's reserved on select pro grade monitors. It is also why the monitor is thicker.

-> The monitor is wide gamut

-> Its able to produce 1.07 billion colors (if you have the GPU, software and content to take advantage of it)

-> As it's wide gamut, it supports Adode RGB color profile, and does come calibrated with report with it.

-> It has touch sensitive buttons (that works well) to make it less visible

-> You have a lot more control on colors thanks to the more advance color processor, allowing control of Gain, Offset, Saturation, and Hue. Where for Hue and Saturation you have beside Red green and Blue adjustment, you have Cyan, Magenta and Yellow for fine tuning even more.

-> It support side-by-side picture-in-picture.

-> The monitor can be calibrated directly with a color calibrator (X-right is the only calibrator supported. Which is fine, as it is a consumer grade monitor after all). This is more costly to implement.

-> It also has a card reader

The U2713M replaced the the old U2711. U2713HM is a cheaper version, less fancy version.

The U2713M does have higher input lag than the U2713HM, but again it's more for people doing photo works than gaming. See is as a monitor for people that aren't professionals but seek the best colors, or a professional side monitor or something, or for someone where the colors do mater a lot, but aren't doing anything critical color accurate, or amateurs starting up going to be professionals.