Going for 1440P with a GTX970. 144hz, G-sync, TN or IPS... Confused

[kefegg]

Hi,

I'm looking forward to buy me a 1440P screen. But: a lot is being said and written.

-1. My card would be not powerful enough to maintain 60FPS on a 1440P resolution.
-2. 144Hz is useless if you can't maintain 144FPS or more.
-3. G-Sync is an overrated option. Especially with a 144hz monitor.
-4. IPS is for graphic freaks and TN is for gaming.

Okay, these are the things I've been told, heard and read.

I'm looking at a Dell U2312HM (1080P IPS) monitor for 5 years.
So I'm used to work with an IPS panel. I use it for office, cad drawing, Photoshop and Gaming.
Except for CounterStrike GO I rarely have more than 80FPS.
Standard I turn on V-sync to maintain 60FPS.

Now, what I would like to know:
-Going from 1080P to 1440P, will I have to sacrifice 20FPS for this upgrade? (That's whats on the internet) Keep in mind I'm running things with a 970GTX.
-IPS will be my first choice, but I'm not willing to pay a lot of money for a monitor with 'much' backlight bleeding. Should I go TN, knowing I'm sitting always right in front of my screen?
-Black isn't black: IPS vs TN?
-60, 120 or 144hz... What happens if I only get, let say, 40fps?
-G-sync, worth the extra price?

Maybe I just better keep my Dell until prices drop or new technology get's way to consumers.


Any other tips are welcome.

 

[SelenaGomez]

CS GO with 970gtx you should be getting far more than 80 fps on a 1080p monitor. Yes you will drop 20 fps or more going from 1080p to 1440p in every game.

It seems like its hit and miss with IPS back light bleed. Seems like its a lottery on how much you get with MANY people having to send their monitor back a few times before getting a good one.

If you only get 40fps then having a 144hz monitor is useless and a huge waste of money.

IPS has better color contrast than TN not just better viewing angles. However with good TN panels the colors are still great looking.

IF you are not planning to upgrade your graphics card for many years and you dont want to spend alot of money on a monitor and you only play CS Go and mainly jsut use it for work, go for a 1440p 60hz IPS monitor without G sync. G sync increases the price substantially and you are not a big gamer. Th higher resolution will be nice for your work photoshop and drawing etc. You should be able to get around 60 fps with 1440p res with most games on high with your 970

 

[kefegg]

I do play other games also. Most of them are racing games and a few action games a la Batman, Shadow of Mordor, Metal gear solid...
Those games are more fps hungry and harder to feed. But they do run at fixed 60FPS or around 80fps.

CSGO is somewhere around 300FPS.

I wanted to go for a second hand DELL U2515H (1440P IPS 60Hz) monitor for about €250,-
But on the other hand, why go cheap on a monitor.

I replace my GPU's every 2th generation. Or there must be a significant boost powerwise or graphicwise.

And let's say I do 60/40 work vs gaming.

 

[simas]

I think it boils down to your preferences - my setup is similar to yours in the graphics department , I run 970 GTX with cheap 27 inch 1440p IPS monitor and have been happy with it for years.

if I happen to buy a game before it is optimized and it was sluggish to my eyes , then I usually dropped resolution to 1080p on the same 27 inch monitor (dragon age inquisition had to do it, witcher 3 originally). at the same time, extra monitor real estate is extra real estate.

"But on the other hand, why go cheap on a monitor."
exactly, monitor is the part of your build you will absolutely interact the most with (and likely keep the longest). you can always drop down the resolution of particular program to less than what monitor supports and change your mind later (i.e. after GPU upgrade, software optimization ,etc). you can not do the reverse and play 1600p on 1080 monitor regardless of internal components.

buy once, cry once.

 

[kefegg]

@simas: If I might ask, how does the 970 perform with the 1440P resolution?
Do you have to turn down a lot eye candy to maintain 60FPS?
If you downscale to 1080P what's the look of it and how does the FPS goes?

 

[kefegg]

I tried something, don't know if that is what I might expect.
I turned on DSR and set the resolution to 1440P.

Desktop and applications look like crap, all blurry.
Games, on the other hand, they look and perform surprisingly good.

Some numbers (didn't touched the graphical settings, just changed the resolution and turned of V-Sync. Games ran fine without stutter or tearing on native 1080P):

• Dirt3---125fps
• Dirt Rally---66.15fps
• Grid2---156fps
• Grid AS---83fps
• Metal Gear Solid 5---60fps
• Mortal Kombat X---60fps
• NFS Shift---160fps
• NFS Shift 2---150fps
• The Division---64fps
• CS:GO--- +150fps
• Batman AK---72fps (min 38fps)
• Shadow Of Mordor---61fps (min 41fps) -->auto settings resulted in 66 avg vs 49minimum
• Project Cars---between 60 and 85fps

What I did notice is that there was some tearing in some games.
Is this due the use of DSR and haven't got a monitor that is capable to compute the +60fps?

Would these numbers be the one that I might see when using a real 1440P screen. And would a +60hz screen be worth it?

If I compare the benchmark tests (with DSR) in 1080P and 1440P, I do loose some 10 to 25 fps.

G-sync works only above 40FPS. Keep this in consideration?

 

[amenx]

Have been on 1440p for 2 1/2 years starting with a gtx770 then a 970. No game has let me down so far, many on maxed out settings and others with slightly reduced settings. AA is not as critical to me on 1440p so that is first thing to turn down or off.

Only game that I can not play to my satisfaction is Ark Survival, but its poorly optimized and still in beta stages. Every other game looks far better to me on 1440p even with reduced settings vs maxed out on 1080p. For now a 970 is sufficient for me on 1440p, but may not be the case as more demanding games are released over time.

p.s. I should say since I dont play fast paced games, less than 60 FPS doesnt bother me, even down to 40 in many games I am OK with that, so each to their own.

 

[Tweak155]

I think it boils down to your preferences - my setup is similar to yours in the graphics department , I run 970 GTX with cheap 27 inch 1440p IPS monitor and have been happy with it for years.

if I happen to buy a game before it is optimized and it was sluggish to my eyes , then I usually dropped resolution to 1080p on the same 27 inch monitor (dragon age inquisition had to do it, witcher 3 originally). at the same time, extra monitor real estate is extra real estate.

"But on the other hand, why go cheap on a monitor."
exactly, monitor is the part of your build you will absolutely interact the most with (and likely keep the longest). you can always drop down the resolution of particular program to less than what monitor supports and change your mind later (i.e. after GPU upgrade, software optimization ,etc). you can not do the reverse and play 1600p on 1080 monitor regardless of internal components.

buy once, cry once.

Good advice from one of our lurkers

 

[thetuna]

I would say go 1440 and don't look back.
The increased resolution is a big productivity booster.

For gaming, if you just don't max every setting you can still get acceptable framerates.

My current setup has two 2560x1440 monitors; one is a matte TN 144Hz with freesync, the other is a glossy IPS 60Hz.
The IPS unquestionably looks better (there is IPS glow, it does not bother me), but the 144Hz is very nice.
I usually aim for about 50fps, and the freesync really smooths things out.
Everything feels more 'connected' than if I was playing the same game on the IPS screen.

If I was in your shoes – assuming it fits your budget – I would get this: Amazon Acer-Predator-XB271HU-27-inch-Widescreen

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

I've got one of the XB271HU's, paired on a gtx970. Pretty much perfect, aside from not capping 144hz on every game. Some games perform better than others, but almost everything I've thrown at it hits north of 60fps.

Protip: pull AA down to 2x or so. 1440p isn't enough to turn it off completely without jaggies, but you really see little more than a performance hit above *very* basic AA settings.

 

[looper]

It seems like its hit and miss with IPS back light bleed. Seems like its a lottery on how much you get with MANY people having to send their monitor back a few times before getting a good one.

I believe that issues with recent IPS panels are blown way out of proportion. The folks who have had issues post and re-post numerous times, often at several popular tech forums.

I received my Acer 27" XB271HU monitor about a month ago. The best quality gaming monitor I've ever had... absolutely no problems. I've been a computer home hobbyist/gamer since @ 1993. And no, I don't work for Acer, nor am I paid to post this.

 

[looper]

I've got one of the XB271HU's, paired on a gtx970. Pretty much perfect...

Yes, I love my XB271HU as well.