Impulse to Buy

[Spookytooth]

Hi Everyone,

 

My rig is from Bloomfield 2008 era and has played AAA titles on close to full settings consistently with no problem up until this year (it did have one GPU upgrade when it finally overheated to death (GTX295 ->GTX990ti)

So I'm Looking at upgrading my pc come the coffelake-X  Nividia 20xx era and have started researching monitors along with the other parts.

 

My issue is that I keep hearing amazing things about new monitors but now having researched them it seems that to get anything you always have to give up something else! Amazingly enough I'm feeling like the monitors i bought shortly after buying this rig in December 2008, 3 Dell U2711's (10 bit IPS - 1440p, 60Hz, 1.07B Colours) in January 2010, Might actually not be worth upgrading at all even after almost 8 years! 

GSYNC and 144Hz + and Ultrawide all sound nice until i see it's still only 1440p or worse 1080p and mostly TN.

 

So guess I'm wondering do I: get an IPS 144Hz+ 1440p ultrawide and keep 2 U2711's on the side

                                               get a IPS 4K 60Hz and keep 2 U2711's on the side

                                               wait and hope the coming Acer/Asus 4k 144Hz (Ultarwide??) can be pushed easily by the 20xx range

                                               or just say what's the point, technology hasn't really moved on very much, and buy nothing

 

Please help me with your opinions (BTW i don't care about the price of upgrading, just the validity, after all the U2711's cost me over $6000 at the time)

 

[samcool55]

What are you planning to do? Gaming? Video editing?

[TidaLWaveZ]

You... must... resist!

 

 

Also, given the rarity of the GTX 990ti you should be able to sell that and get anything you want.

[Domsch]

Well, since the Dell's where pretty much as good as it gets back than, they still hold up nicely.

The only "downside" to them is 60Hz refresh rate. The Problem is, 60Hz is perfectly fine until you get a 144Hz Panel, then you can't go back really.

If you WAN'T something new, Adding an Ultrawide to the Mix might be nice. Even the currently available 100Hz Options would be an Upgrade over your Dell's. Keep in mind though, that putting thos all side by side can be epic but uses a fair bit of Deskspace. Maybe mounting the 27"s on Top of the UW can be an option.

Most GPU's struggle with 4k. Not only because of Raw Power, but also Memory Size and CPU come havily into play at those Resolutions. In my personal experience, below 32 Inches 4K is great for Productivity but not that big of a difference in Games. The Added sharpness isn't as staggering as going 1080 to 1440 on 27".

 

For me Personally, The number of monitors is most important for Productivity. I'll take two 24" 1080p Panels over a single Ultrawide because Windows's Window Management is sub par. Linux and i3? Ultrawide all day.

So i'd add a nice 27" 144Hz Ips Panel and keep the Dell's. This doesn't get overly wide, Nvidia Surround in this case can be even better than Ultrawide if you want immersivenes and Productivity always is better with more monitors over raw Pixel count. If you can fit and afford a 34" UW and keep your Dell's on the Desk, that can be good. Be prepared to move your head a lot from left to right though.

 

Waiting for 4k and 144Hz isn't worth it i think. Pushing 144 Fps in 4k will take a major GPU Upgrade. So you're quickly looking into 2k and above for display and GPU(s). Plus no body knows what will come. Waiting never works in tech really.

 

If you personally feel your Dell's are fine (and they probably are if you don't "need" the higher refresh rate for competitive FPS) not buying anything is totally fine.

[Spookytooth]

Thanks for the great reply Domsch, you really helped me make up my mind.  Rig is 40% chess analysis 40% AAA gaming 20% video consumption btw. I thought gaming was really all that factored.  I do like having separate screen for video though. Obviously i typo'd 990 and meant 980

[irrelevancyhack]

would say doesn't work changing anything just except enjoying the "new" (comparing to 2008..) 144hz 1ms display that are only made for gaming. Theses kind of monitors work when you are really ultra focused on every movement on the screen and have to react ultra fast. But AAA titles will have poor colors compare to your dell monitors.

 

you find very cheap 144hz/1ms today, for me it's the only thing that could be worth trying (games like overwatch, quake, csgo, cs source, cod, tf2..).

 

otherwise if you don't play theses kind of FPS game at a serious point, i don't really see what you would change anything there. you can spend some money on increasing your saving account