1440 monitor for <$300

[CaptainKlark]

So I'm planning a build that is about $2300, and I want to get a monitor that has 1440 resolution, display port, and decent lag and refresh rate for gaming. And I'm looking to spend less that $300.

I have heard that you get what you pay for with monitors, so if the only monitors that fit that criteria will crap out on me in a few months, I'd rather go with something else in say 1080p.

Thanks in advance,

[Guest Onlynormalgamer]

So I'm planning a build that is about $2300, and I want to get a monitor that has 1440 resolution, display port, and decent lag and refresh rate for gaming. And I'm looking to spend less that $300.

I have heard that you get what you pay for with monitors, so if the only monitors that fit that criteria will crap out on me in a few months, I'd rather go with something else in say 1080p.

Thanks in advance,

Maybe few bucks more and go with asus rog swift? Best one

[CaptainKlark]

Maybe few bucks more and go with asus rog swift? Best one

What's the exact model?

[Rhizix]

What's the exact model?

Don't bother, hes talking about a 700+ dollar monitor

[alby800]

Maybe few bucks more and go with asus rog swift? Best one

A bit more than a few

[Guest Onlynormalgamer]

A bit more than a few

Hahaha

Well,you can always steal one

Anyway,for that budget I would go with 1080P monitor.

Go with VG248QE,I have it my self,it is nice for the money. It is like fastest monitor out there,so if you are hardcore gamer you will find use for it.

But if you don't do that much of FPS games,and if you really dont game that much go with IPS panel monitor,they are slower,limited to 60hz(most of them) but they have better picture quality.

[CaptainKlark]

Hahaha

Well,you can always steal one

Anyway,for that budget I would go with 1080P monitor.

Go with VG248QE,I have it my self,it is nice for the money. It is like fastest monitor out there,so if you are hardcore gamer you will find use for it.

But if you don't do that much of FPS games,and if you really dont game that much go with IPS panel monitor,they are slower,limited to 60hz(most of them) but they have better picture quality.

I do game, and that is what this build is mostly for, but the only fps I really play is tf2, so the need for uber high refresh rates isn't huge. I have heard that ips is mainly for color work, but does it actulaly have better clarity?

[eLucid]

Maybe few bucks more and go with asus rog swift? Best one

 

Hyperbole much? It's $1000 after taxes.

[Javathejhut]

How about an xstar dp2710 from eBay? Check out tek Syndicate, they bought over 25 and have had no problems. Mine is on its way in the mail

[fertileturtle88]

Most Korean 1440p monitors will suit your needs. Only buy from someone that doesn't seem shady. I would recommend offerings from QNIX, XStar, Yamakasi (i think that is how its spelled), and Green LTC. These have great reviews, just look for the right one for your needs and a $300 should be possible to find. I have a Green LTC I got for 300 that came with HDMI. I'm not sure if you can find one with displayport but I know most come in DVI. I have been running this monitor since the beginning of summer OCed to 110 hertz so you should be fine on reliability if you want to go with the brand I have. Most of them have really jank stands so if you can buy a monitor mount and you should be golden if you can't stand a bad stand. 

[rjrider]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-STAR-DP2710-LED-MULTI-27inch-AH-VA-Panel-WQHD-2560x1440-Computer-Monitor-/331180242313?pt=Computer_Monitors&hash=item4d1be17589

[fertileturtle88]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-STAR-DP2710-LED-MULTI-27inch-AH-VA-Panel-WQHD-2560x1440-Computer-Monitor-/331180242313?pt=Computer_Monitors&hash=item4d1be17589

I support this, but he is looking for something with displayport Can he elaborate as to why?

[Gauzl]

Hyperbole much? It's $1000 after taxes.

You forgot to mention that's Austrralian dollars.

[eLucid]

You forgot to mention that's Austrralian dollars.

No, actually. That's Canadian dollars. It's well over $1000 after taxes in Vancouver. 

[Grrizz]

How about an xstar dp2710 from eBay? Check out tek Syndicate, they bought over 25 and have had no problems. Mine is on its way in the mail

That's the one I got and I'm stoked with it, I was lucky enough to get no dead pixels and pretty much no backlight bleed, it only has a small 1"x0.5" patch of discolouration at the bottom which TBH I didn't even notice for the first week but can now see when I have a white screen up and don't look at it directly (on the LTT forums ;P), I will probably open it up at some point to see if its the frame pressing on the screen. I'm planning on ordering another this afternoon, I bought from dream-seller and the shipping was very fast.

@OP: The ones with display ports don't overclock well though, so if you are fine with dual-link DVI you can get them to 90+Hz. And make sure you get the PLS ones not the AH-VA one linked above.

[CaptainKlark]

How about an xstar dp2710 from eBay? Check out tek Syndicate, they bought over 25 and have had no problems. Mine is on its way in the mail

 

 

Most Korean 1440p monitors will suit your needs. Only buy from someone that doesn't seem shady. I would recommend offerings from QNIX, XStar, Yamakasi (i think that is how its spelled), and Green LTC. These have great reviews, just look for the right one for your needs and a $300 should be possible to find. I have a Green LTC I got for 300 that came with HDMI. I'm not sure if you can find one with displayport but I know most come in DVI. I have been running this monitor since the beginning of summer OCed to 110 hertz so you should be fine on reliability if you want to go with the brand I have. Most of them have really jank stands so if you can buy a monitor mount and you should be golden if you can't stand a bad stand. 

 

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-STAR-DP2710-LED-MULTI-27inch-AH-VA-Panel-WQHD-2560x1440-Computer-Monitor-/331180242313?pt=Computer_Monitors&hash=item4d1be17589

 

 

I support this, but he is looking for something with displayport Can he elaborate as to why?

 

 

That's the one I got and I'm stoked with it, I was lucky enough to get no dead pixels and pretty much no backlight bleed, it only has a small 1"x0.5" patch of discolouration at the bottom which TBH I didn't even notice for the first week but can now see when I have a white screen up and don't look at it directly (on the LTT forums ;P), I will probably open it up at some point to see if its the frame pressing on the screen. I'm planning on ordering another this afternoon, I bought from dream-seller and the shipping was very fast.

@OP: The ones with display ports don't overclock well though, so if you are fine with dual-link DVI you can get them to 90+Hz. And make sure you get the PLS ones not the AH-VA one linked above.

So sorry for taking a while to get back. I looked into one of the Dell Ultrasharps, but it was $500. I was considering just bitting the bullet, but I am intrigued by these Korean brands. Do they last well over time? It would be nice to over clock, but again it needs to last without dead pixels, or screen bleed. I don't want to have to bank on "getting lucky" if you see what I mean.

The main reason I want display port is because I have heard it's better... That's all I have to say. I know very little about the actual technologies involved, other than that vga sucks. As you can see I have a great understanding of how monitors work.

[Grrizz]

So sorry for taking a while to get back. I looked into one of the Dell Ultrasharps, but it was $500. I was considering just bitting the bullet, but I am intrigued by these Korean brands. Do they last well over time? It would be nice to over clock, but again it needs to last without dead pixels, or screen bleed. I don't want to have to bank on "getting lucky" if you see what I mean.

The main reason I want display port is because I have heard it's better... That's all I have to say. I know very little about the actual technologies involved, other than that vga sucks. As you can see I have a great understanding of how monitors work.

As for lasting over time I doubt anyone can answer that for sure yet but generally speaking screen controllers aren't something that degrade any more than any other electronic device and the panels should last as well as any other. Generally dead pixels and backlight bleed aren't something that develop over time so how it is out of the box is how it will be but you do have to roll the dice somewhat when ordering, I have heard fairly positive things about the PLS panels as far as number of reported dead pixels and backlight bleed but it is a bit of a gamble none the less, there is no sugar coating that fact, you are still buying A or A- grade panels. In saying that if you end up with a dead pixel or two you can always sell it for $200-250 and buy another, chances are you will get a good one before hitting normal retail value anyway but it is a lot more hassle. The other thing to note is the lack of OSD which at first glance isn't a big deal because you can calibrate the colours in software (and you will have to calibrate it) but some games I have found over-ride software colour profiles which is annoying, its something I am trying to find a way around at the moment (currently testing a program called Monitor Calibration Wizard which is supposed to re-apply the settings after the game has loaded).

Display port has a higher available bandwidth then DVI, at stock speeds (1440p 60Hz) it means absolutely nothing however when you get up to about 100-110Hz (I forget exactly where) dual-link DVI officially hits its bandwidth limit, you can get nicer quality cables that will allow you to go higher (120Hz) unofficially though. The Korean controllers with multiple inputs don't overclock well so if you want to overclock you are pretty much limited to dual-link DVI, how far you can overclock without dropping frames comes down to both the quality of the controller and the quality of the cable, generally you can guarantee at least 90Hz, some will go all the way to 120Hz but personally I would consider anything over 100Hz lucky (you might get there but not too often without dropped frames) but because of diminishing returns the jump from 60 to 90Hz is far more noticeable then 90 to 120Hz. From what I hear the AH-VA panels don't overclock well either which is why I recommend the X-Star DP2710LED PLS, there are also good overclockable IPS ones around but I couldn't name the exact models right off the top of my head (Catleap was one brand) you would have to look into which are good and which don't overclock.

If you really want a different input whether it be HDMI, DP or even component there are screens out there with them but as I mentioned earlier they are known to be bad overclockers so you would have to be fine with 1440p @ 60Hz.

[Geekazoid]

@CaptainKlark, from your thread title, I thought you were asking for a 1440p display for greater than $300. The reason is because ">" means greater then. You should've put "<" which means less then. This kinda makes what your asking in your OP conflict what you're asking in your thread title.

[CaptainKlark]

As for lasting over time I doubt anyone can answer that for sure yet but generally speaking screen controllers aren't something that degrade any more than any other electronic device and the panels should last as well as any other. Generally dead pixels and backlight bleed aren't something that develop over time so how it is out of the box is how it will be but you do have to roll the dice somewhat when ordering, I have heard fairly positive things about the PLS panels as far as number of reported dead pixels and backlight bleed but it is a bit of a gamble none the less, there is no sugar coating that fact, you are still buying A or A- grade panels. In saying that if you end up with a dead pixel or two you can always sell it for $200-250 and buy another, chances are you will get a good one before hitting normal retail value anyway but it is a lot more hassle. The other thing to note is the lack of OSD which at first glance isn't a big deal because you can calibrate the colours in software (and you will have to calibrate it) but some games I have found over-ride software colour profiles which is annoying, its something I am trying to find a way around at the moment (currently testing a program called Monitor Calibration Wizard which is supposed to re-apply the settings after the game has loaded).

Display port has a higher available bandwidth then DVI, at stock speeds (1440p 60Hz) it means absolutely nothing however when you get up to about 100-110Hz (I forget exactly where) dual-link DVI officially hits its bandwidth limit, you can get nicer quality cables that will allow you to go higher (120Hz) unofficially though. The Korean controllers with multiple inputs don't overclock well so if you want to overclock you are pretty much limited to dual-link DVI, how far you can overclock without dropping frames comes down to both the quality of the controller and the quality of the cable, generally you can guarantee at least 90Hz, some will go all the way to 120Hz but personally I would consider anything over 100Hz lucky (you might get there but not too often without dropped frames) but because of diminishing returns the jump from 60 to 90Hz is far more noticeable then 90 to 120Hz. From what I hear the AH-VA panels don't overclock well either which is why I recommend the X-Star DP2710LED PLS, there are also good overclockable IPS ones around but I couldn't name the exact models right off the top of my head (Catleap was one brand) you would have to look into which are good and which don't overclock.

If you really want a different input whether it be HDMI, DP or even component there are screens out there with them but as I mentioned earlier they are known to be bad overclockers so you would have to be fine with 1440p @ 60Hz.

Okay, all good things to know. I guess I'll look to find one of these monitors that can be returned if broken, and also for one that has an OSD. 

And sounds like I'll be running a dual link DVI cable. 

 

@CaptainKlark, from your thread title, I thought you were asking for a 1440p display for greater than $300. The reason is because ">" means greater then. You should've put "<" which means less then. This kinda makes what your asking in your OP conflict what you're asking in your thread title.

I'll fix the title then.

[Grrizz]

Okay, all good things to know. I guess I'll look to find one of these monitors that can be returned if broken, and also for one that has an OSD. 

And sounds like I'll be running a dual link DVI cable.

The OSD is a bit of a trade off, the controllers that overclock don't have an OSD or at least I haven't heard of any that do, it is also left out to decrease input latency.

[CaptainKlark]

The OSD is a bit of a trade off, the controllers that overclock don't have an OSD or at least I haven't heard of any that do, it is also left out to decrease input latency.

So sorry if I'm necro-ing the thread, but I was thinking. If these monitors have problems displaying colors correctly, wouldn't making a color profile calibrated to the monitor set up in the os work just fine? Or do games and such override the os's profiles?

[Grrizz]

So sorry if I'm necro-ing the thread, but I was thinking. If these monitors have problems displaying colors correctly, wouldn't making a color profile calibrated to the monitor set up in the os work just fine? Or do games and such override the os's profiles?

I do use the OS's colour calibration to correct it on the desktop (you can use your graphics cards colour adjustments too) however games will over ride the profiles, I think it has something to do with DX taking control (I'm not sure if it applies all versions of DX or even all games but it does happen in all the core games I play ATM). I'm still looking for a full proof way around it because Monitor Calibration Wizards force profile option didn't do the trick for me (I still have to try CPK and colour sustainer) but there are manual ways to get the profile to apply on some games that play up, things like in Archeage I alt+tab out and in NV control panel set 'use Nvidia settings' without applying it then when I click back in it will flip back to the OSs profile, not ideal but it works however on others like Star Citizen I cant get it to stick regardless of what I do at the moment. The one way I have heard of to keep your profile is to run games in borderless windowed mode, there is software to force borderless if the game doesn't support it, however being a FPS fan this doesn't appeal to me due to it working more like having V-Sync turned on so there's a trade off there, though in single player that would probably be a good solution and for MMOs I do this because I often browse the web at the same time due to the tendency to have large slow patches in the games . When my next screen arrives I might open it up and see if I can find something in there to permanently adjust the colours.

For me its not a huge deal breaker because next year (when the prices drop a bit) I want to upgrade to a 3440x1440p panel as my main and the 1440p's will be secondary's so because I wont be gaming on them the profile wont change. Regardless the monitors are still great deals, mine un-calibrated has a slight yellow hue to it which I fix by dropping the red and green channels brightness to ~75%. It only really stands out on brighter/white colours so generally in games where there is a lot of colour variety on the screen it isn't overly noticeable but its certainly not ideal.

Sadly I don't have a whole lot of free time these days but when I do get a chance to look into software solutions or find a hardware mod that'll do the job I'll be sure to post anything I find on LTT.

I find it interesting that there aren't more people talking about this issue because even though its not a deal breaker for me and presumably many others it is something note worthy IMO.

[Grrizz]

Good news, you motivated me to test some of the other profile lockers while I'm watching Mod24 and CPK (colour profile keeper) seems to be working for me, its fairly easy to use too, once you have your profile setup in windows (maybe NVCP too didn't try that but will at some point because adjusting everything in there is easier) you open CPK hit the '*' and save the current profile then set that as the one to lock and away you go Tested and working in Archeage, BF4 and Star Citizen

[CaptainKlark]

Good news, you motivated me to test some of the other profile lockers while I'm watching Mod24 and CPK (colour profile keeper) seems to be working for me, its fairly easy to use too, once you have your profile setup in windows (maybe NVCP too didn't try that but will at some point because adjusting everything in there is easier) you open CPK hit the '*' and save the current profile then set that as the one to lock and away you go Tested and working in Archeage, BF4 and Star Citizen

Sick. I'll have to get CPK and try it out. So to change settings do I have to make a .icc, or a .icm file? Or are those available online.

Thanks for all the help by the way. Really looking forward to doing this build.

[Grrizz]

Sick. I'll have to get CPK and try it out. So to change settings do I have to make a .icc, or a .icm file? Or are those available online.

Thanks for all the help by the way. Really looking forward to doing this build.

NP glad to help where I can.

You'll have to make the profiles as each monitor is unique so someone else's profile isn't going to be ideal for you even if you both have the same monitor, you can use the windows colour management wizard to setup your screen then CPK can save the current settings as a .cpk/.icc/.icm file, you might be able to use your GPU control panel to do the same but I haven't tried that yet, I hope you can because you get a lot more options and you don't have to start from scratch each time you want to make an adjustment. If you're like most people and don't have a calibration kit I use http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/ in conjunction with the windows wizard and a selection of pictures that I'm familiar with, I find using a couple of different test pattern sources gets you a better image but at the end of the day what looks good to you is the most important thing (unless your a professional artist ). The other option is to get a picture/test pattern or two and have them professionally printed then calibrate to match the printed colours.