No monitors in your price range are actually g-sync, which involves g-sync hardware in the monitor itself. That’s exclusively a feature of high end monitors these days. What you’re looking at is “g-sync compatible”, which basically means that they’ve confirmed the monitor works with the open sync standard which is an open part of the dp/hdmi standard, which is equivelant to AMD’s version called freesync. G-sync compatible doesn’t require anything extra and shouldn’t cost anything extra. Technically monitors that haven’t been tested by Nvidia to work with g-sync compatible won’t be labelled that way, but if a monitor says freesync or variable refresh rate in the specs it should work even if it’s not labelled g-sync compatible.
If you want a cheap solution, you might have some luck at thrift stores. It really shouldn’t be too hard to find a used but decent monitor for under $100.
Drove around today checking out monitors in person at Staples, Walmart, Best Buy and even PC Richard. The last one had a 27" monitor in 1080p I played around with to get a feel for how text looks when not gaming. Looked fine to me. Blocky, of course, but crystal clear since that’s kind of the natural consequence of giant blocky pixels. I don’t know why people online say 27" 1080p has “blurry” text. It’s crystal clear, but blocky. I kind of like blocky.
None of my top 8 choices were available at any local stores, but surprisingly Walmart has a tempting offer:
Here’s a link to a ridiculously long review from something called rtings dot com. My eyes glazed over very quickly, but I got the impression that the model isn’t an obvious lemon.
It’s a 27" 1080p IPS for $188 that checks almost all my boxes: 144 Hz, 1 ms, 1000:1, Displayport and VRR (so gsync might work), using a mere 27W.
The only clear miss is that it’s 17.49" tall, and the stand only has tilt adjustment. Worse, it has super thin bezels so the top row of pixels is probably around 17.25" or higher. Measuring now taking care to be precise, my current monitor’s top row of pixels is at 15.0625" (1/16th), so the top of the screen would be over 2" taller. My eyes are at around 6"; I’m already looking up with the monitor tilted down now.
But it’s an IPS panel. If I don’t get this I’m getting the ridiculous 280 Hz TN panel above. These are now my only two choices. The IPS panel is on sale for 4 more hours, the TN panel for 8 more hours. I’m buying one or the other within the next 4 hours.
Is that IPS panel too good to pass up? Would I be a fool to go with the TN panel that otherwise meets or exceeds all my other criteria? Kind of need answer fast.
EDIT: Here’s the Newegg page for the TN panel:
I’m leaning toward the TN panel. I just need a heads-up as to whether that’s a stupid decision or defensible.
There’s always the possibility that you can use your old stand with it, if they’re both the same standard. I wouldn’t swear by it but, if you did buy it, it’d be worth checking out when you got home.
Well when you put it that way, the Optix is VESA compatible. (100 x 100 mm) So in theory, $30 on an aftermarket monitor stand and I can lower it however I please, yes? Or maybe it turns out that once it’s set up I don’t mind the extra height after all, no extra stand needed.
I’d go with the IPS monitor. IPS is worth more than the additional speed/refresh rate, which has diminishing returns. The difference between 60 and 144hz is huge, the difference between 144 and 280, though similar in scale, is much less perceptible.
And yes, most monitors have VESA mounting holes, so you can buy a stand that suits you better.
They tested it to work with g-sync/freesync, but you do need the displayport connection for that.
In the end I decided I really didn’t want to ‘ruin’ 27" with 1080p. When I eventually switch to 1440p I’ll have to move up in screen size, otherwise it’ll just be “wow that text is small!” all day long.
It seemed to make the most sense to stay in the 24" class, and just go balls to the wall TN panel for this tier. It should still be an upgrade for me, especially if I ever get a real video card. Then it will be a massive upgrade compared to getting a real card with my current monitor and its 60 Hz gimpiness.
So I ordered the TN panel from Newegg. 7 to 10 days for delivery, but at least it’s free. Years down the road, my next monitor will be 27", 1440p, and IPS or better (oled, maybe?). Bigger, higher resolution, better panel tech. A triple whammy upgrade.
32" 1440p is an option, but you can also just do the same thing you’re doing now - scaling it up in windows - at the same ratio you’re experiencing now with a 27"/1440p monitor.
OLEDs are almost never used in monitors - they still have some concerns about burn in and so they don’t do well with computer monitor tasks. IPS is generally the best you can get for picture quality.
Back on topic, looks like I was so preoccupied with monitors I almost missed out on the Autumn Sale on Steam, which started Nov 24 and ends in a few hours.
Cities: Skylines on Steam
$7.50 (75% off $30), 4 GB, Mar 2015
Or the deluxe edition for $10. I’m excited for this one. At least the base version.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown Complete Pack on Steam
$10 (80% off $50), 20 GB, Oct 2012
Includes Enemy Within. Or you could get just Enemy Unknown for $7.50.
I own so many games now, there’s usually nothing I want in the sales anymore. As is usual recently, I only bought some DLC.
The Assassin’s Creed series is all 70-85% off. Steam doesn’t have Valhalla, but Odyssey is only $14.99. That’d be a hell of a deal if I didn’t own it already.
Personally I don’t know. However, if a game like that exists, this guy has probably played it. You may want to take a look through his videos to see if anything catches your attention.
I also bought Deathloop. I started a thread on here, to the sound of tumbleweeds, no replies.
I’ve just finished it as well, I found it quite enjoyable though the ending sort of appeared to me a lot faster than I expected, I was dicking around and that’s it, the final loop is a go.
I’ve tried the invading other timelines to little success. You don’t start with much as an invader, and don’t earn much on a loss. Sometimes 3 out of 4 disconnected too.
It reminded me a lot of Prey: Mooncrash, which I consider the spiritual sequel to. If you’ve not played that, it is well recommended and virtually a completely different game from Prey. Not a timeloop, a simulation which recurs, and you do things by stages and in different ways until you work out the best way.
I played Valhalla but never finished it, as it is astoundingly long and starts to feel very samey after the fourth or fifth major area you clear.
I picked up Odyssey on a sale last week and wish I’d known that it and Valhalla are almost identical games in different times periods. Very similar systems all the way through. But I like the Greek setting way more, and so am enjoying this one much more.
I hated the “Get invaded by another player” aspect of Watch_Dogs and turned that off after the forced introductory time. I don’t see myself liking it much better in this game. My understanding is that you can turn it off in Deathloop as well and will be doing so as soon as I get there.
Yes. You can turn it off, she does invade but much less of a challenge than real players, and I think the npc one only killed me once out of the 40 odd times she appeared. The real players all seemed to have full slab abilities and good weapons.
