Looking at buying a monitor with good colour/brightness

[Morgion]

I read the top sticky post, saw it say  nothing about colour gamut, and then say 'there are basically none that aren't studio quality/price' for HDR. However I'm hoping that maybe things have changed in the past 2 years? I don't know. Pardon me for being a bit long-winded. I know what I want but it's not what I keep seeing other people suggest to gamers so I have to give my reasoning =P. Skip to the bottom for a simple breakdown.

 

Anyway I'm a gamer who is finally upgrading their 10 year old pc (gonna go from a 460GT to a 3800, lool, ddr3 to 5 too. I know 4 is better bang for buck currently. I don't want 4 to become unavailable and/or more expensive by the time I need to upgrade it like DDR3 happened for me and my kingston blus, trying to future proof somewhat here in case my next NEXT upgrade is another 10 years). But while I'm getting all these major upgrades, I figured it would be pretty silly to have a screaming new pc and a 1080p monitor with less than super quality.

 

Now I've looked at 4k and 1440p side by side, and frankly unless you screen capture it or are looking really close, I personally didn't notice that big a difference at a glance (albeit several). I HAVE however seen OLED displays and me go 'wooooowww'. I can't afford OLED though, next best thing I can come up with is a good colour gamut with high quality HDR I rekon. .

 

Now when I try to listen to reviews and info on monitor research, they're always blabbing on about 244hz and 1ms refresh rate great for gamers etc. I mean I AM a gamer, but I'm honest here. I don't NEED much more than 120hz refresh. most of the games I play are NOT competative online (though I do that sometimes, so 120 is nice, certainly more than 60), and even then. What the heck are the chances my rig, as good as it is, is going to be able to MAINTAIN 240fps over the course of years? pretty much zero, even IF I lower my graphical settings.

 

So basically, I want a monitor that is CAPABLE for gaming, 120hz-144hz, something like that. Not terrible in the input lag department (I play bullet hell shmups so anything past  the refresh rate is sin). I don't pretend to be a top 10 player in CS Go or something, and I'm not competing in frame perfect speedruns or anything. So beyond that, I want it to LOOK good for colour/ HDR.

 

Does this monitor exist? I've looked and looked and so many monitors don't even mention their HDR quality. So far from what I can find is the Samsung Odyssey G7. Which to my understanding has PASSABLE HDR, but still not super ideal. What do you guys think of it. If you turn HDR on for that thing, does it improve the visuals? Or is it just a gimmick button? My issue with that monitor is it's overkill on the 'gamer specs', increasing its price needlessly to me. Its cost is too high for me to be happy with, but not so high it's out of the question. it's in the 'I'll grumble for a few months, bite the bullet and get it eventually if nothing better shows up on sale' budget range for me. Oh yeah, if I wasn't clear. I do want 1440p, not 4k, not 1080p. Though I'll take a 4k if it hits all of what I want without costing more than the g7, but I doubt it, so I'm just assuming not.

 

From what I can gather, anything that is HDR400 isn't worth mentioning, does this seem accurate? HDR10 doesn't mean much, it's more of a format designation or something. But if it was capable of HDR600 it would probably say that instead. So I'm guessing HDR600 and above is what I'm really looking for, but I see so few, and the only one I've seen that is less than a grand is the odyssey g7.

 

Resolution: 1440p ideal. I'll take 4k if it isn't more expensive for some reason but I doubt it.

Frequency: 120-144hz. It's not that I don't want more, but I don't want to pay a premium for it

Size: I'm looking for 27"

I prefer curved, but am willing to look at flat if a good option stands out

Hoping for non-gimmick  level of HDR... Does this exist? yet sub $1000? Is HDR600 even good enough yet? or is that still just a gimmick button too?

 

 

Back in the day, I had this hella heavy chunky 60ish pound viewsonic monitor that had this little double brightness button. When lugging t hat thing to a  LAN party, people saw the difference from the monitor, not my amazing TNT2 graphics card (lol). I'm kinda hoping to do that again against all the hohum mainstream $300-$500 (canadian) monitors that go for 188/244hz over colour/brightness. Is this still even possible without a $2k studio monitor?

[191x7]

Check this video:

 

Anything you get, I'd recommend getting a display calibration tool like the X-Rite Colormunki or iDisplay or something from Datacolor like the SpyderX.

[Stahlmann]

2 hours ago, Morgion said:

Now I've looked at 4k and 1440p side by side, and frankly unless you screen capture it or are looking really close, I personally didn't notice that big a difference at a glance (albeit several). I HAVE however seen OLED displays and me go 'wooooowww'. I can't afford OLED though, next best thing I can come up with is a good colour gamut with high quality HDR I rekon. .

There's your first problem. If you can't afford OLED, then you (sadly) also can't afford a real HDR LCD monitor. They are even more expensive than your typical 48" OLED TV.

 

2 hours ago, Morgion said:

Does this monitor exist? I've looked and looked and so many monitors don't even mention their HDR quality. So far from what I can find is the Samsung Odyssey G7. Which to my understanding has PASSABLE HDR, but still not super ideal. What do you guys think of it. If you turn HDR on for that thing, does it improve the visuals? Or is it just a gimmick button? My issue with that monitor is it's overkill on the 'gamer specs', increasing its price needlessly to me. Its cost is too high for me to be happy with, but not so high it's out of the question. it's in the 'I'll grumble for a few months, bite the bullet and get it eventually if nothing better shows up on sale' budget range for me. Oh yeah, if I wasn't clear. I do want 1440p, not 4k, not 1080p. Though I'll take a 4k if it hits all of what I want without costing more than the g7, but I doubt it, so I'm just assuming not.

The G7 has pretty bad HDR to the point where it can look a bit better or worse than SDR depending on the game.

 

2 hours ago, Morgion said:

From what I can gather, anything that is HDR400 isn't worth mentioning, does this seem accurate? HDR10 doesn't mean much, it's more of a format designation or something. But if it was capable of HDR600 it would probably say that instead. So I'm guessing HDR600 and above is what I'm really looking for, but I see so few, and the only one I've seen that is less than a grand is the odyssey g7.

Yes, HDR10 stands for "HDR 10bit" (which describes the color bit depth), so it's not a verification for HDR quality. If a monitor is only HDR10, then expect the worst as it didn't have the hardware to pass even the HDR400 standard.

 

For TV's it's a different story. The Display HDR 400, 600, etc. tiers don't exist and there is only HDR10. But TV's have much better HDR anyway and mid-range options already have pretty good HDR hardware.

 

2 hours ago, Morgion said:

Resolution: 1440p ideal. I'll take 4k if it isn't more expensive for some reason but I doubt it.

Frequency: 120-144hz. It's not that I don't want more, but I don't want to pay a premium for it

Size: I'm looking for 27"

I prefer curved, but am willing to look at flat if a good option stands out

Hoping for non-gimmick  level of HDR... Does this exist? yet sub $1000? Is HDR600 even good enough yet? or is that still just a gimmick button too?

 

 

Back in the day, I had this hella heavy chunky 60ish pound viewsonic monitor that had this little double brightness button. When lugging t hat thing to a  LAN party, people saw the difference from the monitor, not my amazing TNT2 graphics card (lol). I'm kinda hoping to do that again against all the hohum mainstream $300-$500 (canadian) monitors that go for 188/244hz over colour/brightness. Is this still even possible without a $2k studio monitor?

Now comes the sad reality: There are no good HDR monitors in your price range. Currently the cheapest monitor that also features a real HDR experience is the Alienware AW3423DW, but that one starts at $1300. So for anyone but the high-end buyer HDR will be mediocre at best. So if you're not shopping in that budget, i'd disregard HDR for now and look for a monitor that has it's strong points in other specs.

 

I'd suggest you look at the MSI MAG274QRF-QD. It's the best monitor with the specs you're looking for.

 

That being said, there are some real HDR 1440p monitors coming. Idk how exactly they perform yet, as i haven't seen a review from a reputable monitor reviewer. One example is the AOC AG274QXM and it's priced around $1000. So you're paying more than double of the MSI monitor i mentioned with the only added feature being HDR. 

 

[Morgion]

1 hour ago, 191x7 said:

Check this video:

 

Anything you get, I'd recommend getting a display calibration tool like the X-Rite Colormunki or iDisplay or something from Datacolor like the SpyderX.

Never heard of those tools, I'll keep those in mind though, thank you. As for the video. I saw it before while doing something else, and didn't really hear him talk about t he colour any longer than the usual stuff I don't care as much about, because he doesn't, but listening again (since you posted), I noticed he did in fact mention it with the same length of time, and paid better attention. He specifically mentioned the MAG274qrf-qd 27 having particularly good colour for its price range. I overlooked this before, so thank you. It's $200CAD cheaper than the G7, which is right on the line between significant enough to ignore the G7, and not significant enough for me to consider the G7 still. But then he said the G7 has better longevity and is better for 'future proofing', and like I said, my pc is 10 years old, and I s uspect I'll wait a longass time to upgrade again, so future proofing isn't nothing to me even though I didn't mention it. So I'm honestly confused again.

 

Would you happen to know if the MAG274's  colour gamut is better or worse than the G7? regardless of price? I think I'll prefer the mag even if it lasts half as long if it's better (noticeably, but need not very noticeably), otherwise, not.

[Morgion]

1 hour ago, 191x7 said:

Check this video:

 

Anything you get, I'd recommend getting a display calibration tool like the X-Rite Colormunki or iDisplay or something from Datacolor like the SpyderX.

Never heard of those tools, I'll keep those in mind though, thank you. As for the video. I saw it before while doing something else, and didn't really hear him talk about t he colour any longer than the usual stuff I don't care as much about, because he doesn't, but listening again (since you posted), I noticed he did in fact mention it with the same length of time, and paid better attention. He specifically mentioned the MAG274qrf-qd 27 having particularly good colour for its price range. I overlooked this before, so thank you. It's $200CAD cheaper than the G7, which is right on the line between significant enough to ignore the G7, and not significant enough for me to consider the G7 still. But then he said the G7 has better longevity and is better for 'future proofing', and like I said, my pc is 10 years old, and I s uspect I'll wait a longass time to upgrade again, so future proofing isn't nothing to me even though I didn't mention it. So I'm honestly confused again.

 

Would you happen to know if the MAG274's  colour gamut is better or worse than the G7? regardless of price? I think I'll prefer the mag even if it lasts half as long if it's better (noticeably, but need not very noticeably), otherwise, not.

 

@Stahlmann

 

Thanks for your reply too, I looked at yours before replying, but somehow missed the bolded part (derp), but now saw it, and confirms what I concluded from the first post. I would like to know though how much do you think is the double price jump worth it? The thing is my budget is... complicated. I make more than enough money, but the issue is convincing the household boss to indulge my wants, which rarely happens, but now it's happening because my 10 year old computer bought the farm, so now I'm kinda given a high priority budget thing because one of my 2 jobs is at home on my pc, and I HAVE actually made a few bucks with games in the past (back when my 10 year old pc was new). I'm inherently budget-conscious. But at the same time, my available budget is especially high right NOW than it would be otherwise, so I'm looking for stuff normally beyond my budget because it may not happen again for way too long. Though I kinda think I'm already stretching my luck by going ddr5 with z690. I know I can do it, but adding  monitor cost on top, pushing it.

 

I'm also considering if I should just rock my 12600k, ddr5, and rtx3800 with my 1080p,60hz(lol) monitor (samsung 27 c396). wait a couple more years, and PRAY I can get a real HDR option.

 

Pardon me for not being aware, but how likely are monitor prices to drop in price over a year or two? not just MSRP, but go on sale and such? If I keep my eye out, can I splurge later? I'm massively patient, but don't want to wait more than a couple years for a big benefit if I can get a decent benefit now.

[Stahlmann]

27 minutes ago, Morgion said:

@Stahlmann

 

Thanks for your reply too, I looked at yours before replying, but somehow missed the bolded part (derp), but now saw it, and confirms what I concluded from the first post. I would like to know though how much do you think is the double price jump worth it? The thing is my budget is... complicated. I make more than enough money, but the issue is convincing the household boss to indulge my wants, which rarely happens, but now it's happening because my 10 year old computer bought the farm, so now I'm kinda given a high priority budget thing because one of my 2 jobs is at home on my pc, and I HAVE actually made a few bucks with games in the past (back when my 10 year old pc was new). I'm inherently budget-conscious. But at the same time, my available budget is especially high right NOW than it would be otherwise, so I'm looking for stuff normally beyond my budget because it may not happen again for way too long. Though I kinda think I'm already stretching my luck by going ddr5 with z690. I know I can do it, but adding  monitor cost on top, pushing it.

 

I'm also considering if I should just rock my 12600k, ddr5, and rtx3800 with my 1080p,60hz(lol) monitor (samsung 27 c396). wait a couple more years, and PRAY I can get a real HDR option.

 

Pardon me for not being aware, but how likely are monitor prices to drop in price over a year or two? not just MSRP, but go on sale and such? If I keep my eye out, can I splurge later? I'm massively patient, but don't want to wait more than a couple years for a big benefit if I can get a decent benefit now.

So far the monitor market moved EXTREMELY slow when it comes to HDR adoption. For the last years the only real options were $2500 and up. I suspect new OLED monitors will drive the HDR entry-price down, but i don't expect real HDR monitors to go under $1000 atm.

 

For now most people are probably still better off ignoring HDR. Unless you're ready to spend over $1000 you won't be getting any noteworthy upgrade from "HDR monitors" with the 400, 600 and even some 1000 options.

 

Currently the cheapest entry into real HDR displays is probably LG's OLED TV lineup. But they're at least 42" big, which is probably too big for most people.

[Morgion]

So all I need for my  PC now is a cpu and I'm done. Then I'm going to try and get a monitor, probably in like a month or two after. I've since seen other monitors go on clearance and such that  have an original price like $300-$400 more, but were 2 years older or something, and they still seem to not compare in terms of colour gamut. Thanks again guys, it really seems like this one is exactly what I'm looking for.

 

Most recently I saw one weird gimmick-sounding gigabyte 'tactical gamer' monitor that looked like it might be a better deal and was heavily discounted as to be $100 less (this is in CAD currency mind you), and it seemed to advertise the colour gamut more, so I got excited, but then I found some page that lists %s using various colour measuring...standards? I don't know what the terminology is, and it was quite a bit below. Honestly I'm looking forward to seeing this guy. I hear it looks bad if you don't play with the settings, but that doesn't bother me, I'm patient and I don't panic about things, so I'll do so to my liking.

 

It's weird though. Even though computer monitors seem to be evolving really slowly in terms of adopting good HDR and all that, at the same time it's surprising at how monitors that are like $300-$400MSRP more than the MAG-27something-QD one and are only a year or two older seem to really be behind technologically speaking.

 

I DID find a slightly cheaper (after a clearance discount) BENQ monitor that apparently had even BETTER colour gamut and peak brightness and all that.. but 60hz only. I WOULD like at least 120. Bust.