With my system will a 4k 144hz monitor even benefit me?

[TexasBulldog74]

I have a higher end build and i was looking into a new monitor (currently using the 27" MSI MAG271cqr 144hz) but i don't even think it will benefit me in gaming since im using last generation's Sapphire Nitro 5700xt Plus.  The rest of the PC is an x570 MSI Unify, 32gb 3600mhz ram, XPG Gen 4 SSD for my games, Ryzen 9 5700x...

 

Would it be smarter to hold off and use that towards a current generation GPU then worry about the monitor or buy the monitor now and save for next generations GPU?

 

[RONOTHAN##]

I wouldn't really upgrade with that monitor for games. 27" 1440P 144Hz is basically the sweet spot for price, pixel density, difficulty to drive, etc. If you're doing production, a lot of content consumption, or want a really big monitor for some reason, yeah go 4k, but be warned that you will want a 3080/6800XT or better for high settings 4k 144Hz. Plus with how fast the monitor market is moving (there's the new Samsung OLED tech, 4k 240Hz panels have been announced, etc.), once you end up getting a newer, top end card you'll be able to get either a 4k 144Hz monitor used for dirt cheap from someone who got one of those said OLED or 240Hz ones or just buy one of those new top of the line monitors at that point. 

[TexasBulldog74]

1 minute ago, RONOTHAN## said:

I wouldn't really upgrade with that monitor for games. 27" 1440P 144Hz is basically the sweet spot for price, pixel density, difficulty to drive, etc. If you're doing production, a lot of content consumption, or want a really big monitor for some reason, yeah go 4k, but be warned that you will want a 3080/6800XT or better for high settings 4k 144Hz. Plus with how fast the monitor market is moving (there's the new Samsung OLED tech, 4k 240Hz panels have been announced, etc.), once you end up getting a newer, top end card you'll be able to get either a 4k 144Hz monitor used for dirt cheap from someone who got one of those said OLED or 240Hz ones or just buy one of those new top of the line monitors at that point. 

Gotcha.  I keep up with PC components pretty good but the movement and tech increases in monitors is something i don't really follow.  

 

I think my issue with this monitor is when I edit photos (armature photographer with a paid gig every now and then) the images just don't look good but then i'll see them on my laptop and its gorgeous.  its just strange.  Its been great in the gaming world but i think the problem is im looking for a best of both worlds solution but i don't know what monitor that would be, if that even exists.

 

[tkitch]

Yeah, you can't game a t 4K on your system.  1440 would be much better!

 

That being said, if you do other work that would be good on a 4K display?  Go for it.  

[gamagama69]

depends on what you wanna play on it. I personally avoided 4k with a 3080 just because I like to crank settings and still get over 100fps in most games.

 

You'll probably be able to run triple a games at 4k60 at a mix of high and medium settings depending on the age of the game. stuff like cyberpunk and anything similarly intensive might run lower.

 

some older games you might be able to crack 100fps but don't count on it being very common for anything newer than like 2016 or 17

[TexasBulldog74]

4 minutes ago, tkitch said:

Yeah, you can't game a t 4K on your system.  1440 would be much better!

 

That being said, if you do other work that would be good on a 4K display?  Go for it.  

my situation is right now is I have about $1200 PC money set aside so i think I was debating buying a new GPU like a 3080 or buying a new badass monitor.  I think i'll get a new monitor that i can utilize for my photography that will give me room to upgrade into on my next GPU purchase which likely wouldn't be until the next generation.  Overall im plenty satisfied playing my call of duty at 1440p.  At least if i go that direction i'll see an increase when i do finally upgrade GPU's down the road.

 

Thanks guys.

[RONOTHAN##]

Just now, TexasBulldog74 said:

Gotcha.  I keep up with PC components pretty good but the movement and tech increases in monitors is something i don't really follow.  

 

I think my issue with this monitor is when I edit photos (armature photographer with a paid gig every now and then) the images just don't look good but then i'll see them on my laptop and its gorgeous.  its just strange.  Its been great in the gaming world but i think the problem is im looking for a best of both worlds solution but i don't know what monitor that would be, if that even exists.

 

When you do go to upgrade, I would probably try and go for a 4K 144Hz panel. A lot of the IPS ones out there really are beautiful (I personally really enjoy my Aorus FI32U, it's pretty color accurate and a great gaming display, but I'm not a photographer with the closest thing I've had to photo editing being MS Paint so take that with a grain of salt) and should make a pretty good photo editing by day/gamer by night monitor. It's just that if you can just edit photos on your laptop for the time being and upgrade your monitor when you upgrade your GPU that would be what I do. 

 

Either that or go dual monitor setup, professional 4k 60Hz high color space panel for photo editing/content consumption and keep using your MSI monitor for gaming. If you have the desk space for it that would be the best of both worlds, you can keep gaming on a relatively easy to drive monitor with a high refresh rate yet have all the benefits of a professional monitor with just more screen real estate in general (2 monitors is infinitely better than 1 for anything professional).

[TexasBulldog74]

10 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

When you do go to upgrade, I would probably try and go for a 4K 144Hz panel. A lot of the IPS ones out there really are beautiful (I personally really enjoy my Aorus FI32U, it's pretty color accurate and a great gaming display, but I'm not a photographer with the closest thing I've had to photo editing being MS Paint so take that with a grain of salt) and should make a pretty good photo editing by day/gamer by night monitor. It's just that if you can just edit photos on your laptop for the time being and upgrade your monitor when you upgrade your GPU that would be what I do. 

 

Either that or go dual monitor setup, professional 4k 60Hz high color space panel for photo editing/content consumption and keep using your MSI monitor for gaming. If you have the desk space for it that would be the best of both worlds, you can keep gaming on a relatively easy to drive monitor with a high refresh rate yet have all the benefits of a professional monitor with just more screen real estate in general (2 monitors is infinitely better than 1 for anything professional).

Thanks for your advice.  It gives me an upgrade path to plan for.  I'll look into the Aorus monitor too.

[191x7]

10 minutes ago, TexasBulldog74 said:

Thanks for your advice.  It gives me an upgrade path to plan for.  I'll look into the Aorus monitor too.

I can help with the "images don't look as good as on other devices" problem. For that, you don't need a different monitor.

What you need is actually way cheaper. It's a monitor (screen) calibration tool like the X-Rite ColorMunki, iDisplay or DataColor SpyderX. Just get the cheapest one.

Then you need to calibrate your monitor(s) [that is a relatively simple procedure that takes ~30 minutes and creates a color profile for the display to use].

That way you'll have pretty accurate colors on your devices, and the pictures should look about the same.

The MSI MAG271cqr uses a good VA panel, it's just not properly calibrated out of the factory.

 

Here's how to calibrate:

 

 

   

If you're using a single monitor, get a cheap one to use as a side monitor. It will help you a lot with the workflow, and even in some gaming situations.

Doesn't need to be same size, resolution etc. 27" 1440p and 22" 1080p have similar size pixels.

 

As for the upgrades, you'd be recommended to upgrade the GPU some time after the launch of the new generation. Maybe next year.

And yes, I'm on a Pulse 5700XT with a Ryzen 5900, 32GB RAM and using a 32" 1440p 144Hz VA with a 22" 1080p VA.