New display?

[Birrin]

Hey! I'm currently running 2 60Hz screens from like 2009 with my GTX 1080 setup, which I've been told is a complete waste. I've never been able to compare it to higher refresh rates, so I'm perfectly contempt with what I currently have. Is it worth upgrading to a higher one? If so which should I get? I have a budget of around 600USD. And will it cause problems if I only buy one, and keep a 60Hz as a second monitor?

 

Edit: Clarification.

[NunoLava1998]

I don't know much about monitors, but two ASUS PB277Q's should be good (1ms, 75hz, 1440p):

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Monitor: Asus - PB277Q 27.0" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor  ($265.90 @ OutletPC) 
Monitor: Asus - PB277Q 27.0" 2560x1440 75 Hz Monitor  ($265.90 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $531.80
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-17 03:45 EST-0500

Not sure if your card can handle them however

[LukeSavenije]

I would look into higher refresh rate 1440p displays, even a ultrawide if  you can find any. 1080p/60 is a waste of power, but that's said by someone that runs a 1070ti on a 1080p tv

[NunoLava1998]

8 minutes ago, LukeSavenije said:

I would look into higher refresh rate 1440p displays, even a ultrawide if  you can find any. 1080p/60 is a waste of power, but that's said by someone that runs a 1070ti on a 1080p tv

I agree.

For 479$, you can get a 144hz, 1ms, 1440p ultrawide curved monitor:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Monitor: Samsung - C32HG70 31.5" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  ($479.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $479.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-17 03:56 EST-0500

[KnightSirius]

Honestly I'd run the other two monitors as secondary and tertiary displays, no need to upgrade them if they're fine for just being extra monitors. if you put your whole budget towards a single high quality display that you'll use as your primary (center) display. There are a few great options depending on your preferences.

You can get a TN panel G-Sync display that is 1440p, or a IPS panel (better colour compared to TN) with the same specs except it doesn't support G-Sync but FreeSync instead. Which you won't be able to use with your Nvidia card. I'd personally say go with the Acer as G-Sync is an awesome feature and unless you're coming from IPS you probably won't care too much as it'll be a big upgrade whichever way you slice it.

Acer XB271HU (TN) ($500) - TN Panel / 1440p / 144Hz / G-Sync

Asus MG279Q ($510) - IPS Panel / 1440p / 144Hz / FreeSync

EDIT:
Acer XB271HU (IPS) ($550) - IPS Panel / 1440p / 144Hz / G-Sync
The price on this used to be ~$680 last time I looked at it (recently), so this is actually my recommendation at the moment. $50 more for the IPS variant is well worth it.

[KnightSirius]

20 minutes ago, Strike105X said:

This is highly based on personal preferences but where here to give options and your here to select whichever fits your preferences the most after all , so with that out of the way, personally i recommend an ultra wide 3440×1440 and ditching the monitors unless you need them, went myself from a 2 monitor setup to an ultra wide one and never looked back, really loving it (personally i also didn't go higher then 75Hz with the refresh rate, i tried higher ones but its not at a point where i wanted to invest for it).

Definitely good point to bring up, although at a budget of >600 USD i'st hard to recommend an ultrawide unless you are dead set on getting one, having experienced it before.

Only remotely comparable ultrawide I can find is this Acer Predator, which is a pretty low resolution display not to mention jumping back down to a TN panel and that's 80$ overbudget.
Acer Predator Z35 ($680) TN Panel / 2560x1080 / 144Hz / G-Sync

To get a model with a decent resolution, you need to jump up another $50, and that's a VA panel, a slight improvement but not an IPS either and you lose G-Sync support...
Asus UWQHD ($730) - VA Panel / 1440p / 100Hz / FreeSync

To get all the features of the 16:9 Acer I recommended above you need to spend $920 (67% more)
Asus PG348Q ($920) - IPS Panel / 1440p  / 100Hz / G-Sync

Tough sell for me, unless you have the budget. 16:9 / 1440p really is the way to go with budget taken into consideration. Ultrawide is awesome though, panels are just expensive.

[Loxa]

1 hour ago, Birrin said:

Hey! I'm currently running 2 60Hz screens from like 2009 with my GTX 1080 setup, which I've been told is a complete waste. I've never been able to compare it to higher refresh rates, so I'm perfectly contempt with what I currently have. Is it worth upgrading to a higher one? If so which should I get? I have a budget of around 600USD. And will it cause problems if I only buy one, and keep a 60Hz as a second monitor?

 

Edit: Clarification.

My main question would be what do you do most (game/image editing/video etc), i wouldnt advise a 1440p ultra wide if you are in to your gaming. How much do you prefer picture quality to performance? All monitor panels have trade offs (VA/IPS/TN).

 

And to answer your question it is prefectly fine to run a 60hz monitor in conjunction with 75hz/100hz/120hz144hz+.

[Giganizer300PRO]

1080p 60Hz is definitely old stuff and with a 1080 it's worth getting a better monitor. $USD is a very nice budget for a monitor and you can get some amazing stuff for that kind of money. Now, you should probably buy one great monitor and keep one or two of your existing 1080ps as extra (it will work fine). 

Now it's really up to you what you want, but for $600 you can get away with a lot. First decide between high refresh rate 1440p and low refresh rate 4K. This really depends on the games you play. If you play esports titles, then 1440p is for you and if you play only AAA titles, go for 4K. If you play a mix of the 2, i would recommend 1440p unless you're really casual in the esports games. With 1440p, the higher refresh rate will also benefit you outside of esports games, because you will hit 100+ in some older/less demanding games. If you go for 1440p, you have to decide if 120-144Hz is enough for you or if you want to go all refresh rate and go over 200Hz. You can get an IPS or VA panel at 144Hz (which I would highly recommend), but if you want to go higher you'll probably have to drop to TN. You should only go full refresh rate if your focus is mainly in esports games and you're highly competitive.

 

Here's a 27" 1440p 144Hz Samsung monitor that I believe just came out not that long ago:

Samsung - LC27JG50QQNZA

It's quite affordable, but it's not perfect. It's a VA panel, which is pretty good, but not quite as good as IPS. It is also curved, which is more or less a gimmick, but it does bother some people. It also comes in a 32" variant with the same specs.

 

I saw some great options mentioned by other people before me, like the Acer XB271HU. Here it might also be worth mentioning the AOC AGON AG271QG and the ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q. These would usually be above your given budget, but if you can find a good deal on them they might be worth picking up. You are paying the G-Sync premium tho, so it's up to you if you want to skip on that and drop $100-$200.

There is however one more that I would mention. For the given budget, this one is only an option if you live in North America. It's a sort of middle ground between 1440p high refresh rate and 4K. It's a 1440p 34" Ultrawide with refresh rates from 100-120Hz. While these models do have decent refresh rates, it's highly likely you will see ghosting and similar unwanted effects (how much varies from model to model, but mostly depends on how lucky you get with the panel). 

It's more or less the same or a very similar panel, sold by different brands. It's the same panel or almost the same that's in the more expensive Samsung, LG, Asus, Acer, etc. monitors, but it's not of the same high quality. The panels in the expensive ones are something like A+ tier, but the panels in these cheaper ones are around B tier, at best A-.

Here's a few models:

Massdrop Vast

Pixio PX347c

VIOTEK GN34C

 

[Giganizer300PRO]

1 hour ago, NunoLava1998 said:

I agree.

For 479$, you can get a 144hz, 1ms, 1440p ultrawide curved monitor:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Monitor: Samsung - C32HG70 31.5" 2560x1440 144 Hz Monitor  ($479.89 @ OutletPC) 
Total: $479.89
Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available
Generated by PCPartPicker 2018-12-17 03:56 EST-0500

The CHG70 is actually a 16:9 curved, not an ultrawide. It is still a nice monitor, but there is a similar newer model, the JG50. They look pretty much the same and they've got mostly identical or very similar specs (1440p, 144Hz, 27" and 32" variants, a VA panel, 16:9 aspect ratio, etc.), but there is one main difference. The CHG70 is a Quantum Dot and is marketed as HDR. That's also why it's around $200 more expensive (MSRP). However, I would advise anyone interested in buying the CHG70 to first investigate the HDR capabilities/actual performance, because things seem a bit vague. On Samsung's website it says the brightness is 350 nits, which might be a bit low for HDR. I also remember seeing something about it might being an 8+2 and not an actual 10 bit panel.