monitor Higher refresh rate or resolution?

[Eretein]

Hello, first time posting here, so sorry for any mistakes in tags or section.

I am thinking about buying a PS5 when it comes out, but I would like to buy a new monitor for it. I am currently using an old VGA-only 21" 1080p monitor that I got for free. It is more than 8 years old, yes, that is right.

So, PS5 will support (hopefully on all games) 60fps and 4k. Few years down the line, I would also like to upgrade my PC, from my current GTX 970, to something better, maybe the 3k series by NVIDIA.

I have a limited budget of around £250/280; and I am undecided between a 1440p monitor at 60hz, or a 1080p monitor at more than 60hz (probably 75hz as they are cheaper and come usually with an IPS panel).

What should I do? I saw some monitors that have both for £270, but apparently they have really bad back light issue on dark colours (Acer Nitro VG270).

 

I never even saw a higher resolution than 1080p so far, and never used something with a higher refresh rate than 60hz. Also, I have always been gaming with V-Sync on, as my monitor would show some tearing; so I don't know which one I would prefer.

I know Linus and company prefer higher refresh rate, but buying a PS5 and possibly a new GPU and using it on a 1080p monitors seems a waste.

I also, I don't play FPS, so I am not sure if I would benefit from a higher refresh rate. I mainly play single-player story driven games.

 

Sssooooo....what should I go for? What's your experience? Can I have a free GPU (joking xD)

 

I hope I gave enough info.

Thanks

[DSD27]

For PS5, resolution no doubt, because it will never go beyond 30-60 fps anyway.

[Eretein]

12 hours ago, DSD27 said:

For PS5, resolution no doubt, because it will never go beyond 30-60 fps anyway.

Yeah I thought about it. But later down the line I would also buy a new GPU, and I would use the same monitor for both PC and PS5. So on PC I would be able to reach higher refresh rate. So that is the part that bothers me. I can't decide between higher resolution or refresh rate. I am thinking about doing higher resolution and 60heartz has I would not play competitive games, so I don't really need much fps....

[Totalimus]

Quite a difficult question indeed.

Over the last three years, I've gone from 1080p 144Hz to 1440p 60Hz to 1080p 60Hz to 1440p 144Hz. And as long as I was not playing any FPS games and used a controller (when using a mouse, the lack of fluidity was quite noticeable on 60Hz screens, at least after having played on 144Hz), gaming seemed fine on all of them.

If PS5 is going to offer support for 1440p resolution like Xbox One(Xbox One X ?) did, then I'd consider 1440p 144Hz to be the sweet spot, otherwise I'd go for a 4k screen.

[Doobeedoo]

Well, it's said to support both 4K and 120Hz so some games may have higher refresh rate mode. So best to get something that is 4K 120Hz though. If not TV since you also plan to use a PC then a monitor. There will probably be more options, though around their release the Eve Spectrum monitor will be one such monitor that should be a very nice choice. 

[DSD27]

4 hours ago, Eretein said:

Yeah I thought about it. But later down the line I would also buy a new GPU, and I would use the same monitor for both PC and PS5. So on PC I would be able to reach higher refresh rate. So that is the part that bothers me. I can't decide between higher resolution or refresh rate. I am thinking about doing higher resolution and 60heartz has I would not play competitive games, so I don't really need much fps....

You'll be playing on PC as well? That's a different story.

For competitive fps games: refresh rate. For everything else: resolution. For me, I find 75hz to be the sweet spot, it will be very smooth with g-sync. I have a 1440p IPS 75hz monitor (freesync but compatible with g-sync) and it's amazing. After you go 1440p, 1080p is trash.