Given the following requirements, I’m trying to purchase a gaming monitor that will fit the following characteristics.
My computer, which will be delivered by Dell after January 22, will be the following:
Alienware Aurora R11
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 10GB GDDR6X
32GB Dual Channel HyperX(FM) FURY DDR4 XMP at 2933MHz
Not sure about other games, but the game I’m most interested in playing is Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020.
Monitor characteristics I “think” I need:
3440x2160 (4K) -OR-
3840x2160 (4K)
3440x1440 - Although, I would like to try to stay with 4K
G-Sync -OR-
G-Sync Compatible
No 1080P
Added question (Saturday, January 2, 2021)
Regarding the Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), since I’m leaning towards a 4K monitor, what VRR should I strive for? Is it 60Hz, 100Hz, 120Hz, 144Hz?
As far as the software-control V-Sync, I’m not clear on what part that plays, if at all.
I would like the monitor to be @34” and about $1,000 USD or below.
Any thoughts on possible monitors would be most appreciated.
Thank you,
Tony
Well, you say no 1440p, but an ultra wide UWQHD sort of ticks all your boxes. You can get one at 34" with a nice curve that gives you a great field of view, G-Sync compatible, 120 Hz, with HDR10 well within your price range. You should be able to run MSFS quite well on Ultra at that resolution with that computer and stay consistent above 30 fps except perhaps the known airports that cause performance issues.
Unless you’re using an ultra-wide, curved is just a gimmick that offers nothing. It really is nice on an ultra-wide though.
Acer (both under their normal and Predator gaming lineups) have such monitors. LG also make some great ones. I know when I was shopping for mine (I got an Acer), there were several available that would have been great had I been looking for just a gaming monitor.
I chose the slightly older Acer (normal vs Predator) at only 100Hz because it had an IPS panel with full sRGB and AdobeRGB colour accuracy (I’m an astrophotographer and need that for editing), but the newer ones have faster 120Hz panels, just without IPS panels.
Even if you don’t play other games, that high refresh rate is a treat even in the Windows desktop and how smooth window animations and mouse movements are. To get a good 4K monitor with that, you’ll be paying a small fortune.
I just got Alienware 3420DW which is 3440 x 1440 120hz G-Sync. No HDR but it has DCI P3 color space. Personally, I think HDR on windows is not that good. The resolution is perfect for flight simulator games because the field of view. I wasn’t expecting much from this monitor because it wasn’t that expensive as others with similar set of features. However, I got blown away with the picture quality.
just a side note, I do have RTX3090 from Nvidia, no overclocking, just stock, with this resolution, I only get around 40 FPS in NYC area (my home base) on Hight settings. Thanks to G-Sync, it feel butter smooth. So I think G-Sync or VRR is much useful than other features on a monitor.
Indeed. Whatever flavour of it you get (most will work with an nVidia card these days), that will help smooth out frames drastically.
HDR is nice, but it’s certainly not a feature that would be a make or break thing for me. Like you said, it’s really not that great on Windows in general. You’re not missing much by not having it.For me, colour accuracy, high refresh rate, and VRR were the biggest selling points when I got my monitor.
Thank you, Crunchmeister71, for the additional insight. As an ex-flight instructor, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 has a special appeal for me, particularly the navigation aspects. All of the details that go into getting the best gaming monitor without spending a small fortune is overwhelming.
Tony
I’ve thought about a 49", however, I noticed that the cockpit instruments are not easily visible, thus needing another monitor to hold the instrument panel. I imagine you can get used to that and scroll down as necessary.
49" super wide is getting a bit ridiculous. You have so little vertical resolution compared to horizontal. I’m sure it has its place, but the 1 such monitor I’ve seen I found WAY too wide for my liking. But of course, that’s my personal taste. I wouldn’t recommend buying one blindly without seeing it in person first though.
As for which to get, I don’t have anything specific in mind. Acer, Dell, LG and many others make great UWQHD monitors. You don’t necessarily need top of the line for an enjoyable experience, but cheaping out on something like that will leave you regretting your purchase.
Mine happens to be an Acer XR342CKP, which is a slightly older model that’s since been replaced by a 120Hz variant since (mine is 100Hz). It wasn’t cheap when I got it 3 months ago at just under 1000 Canadian shekels, but there were also much more expensive comparable models that were up to $2k Cdn and up for the same size and feature set. The Acer Predator variant of it is more expensive, but has full G-Sync vs just FreeSync / G-Sync compatible and is 120Hz for a couple of hundred more, but didn’t have the colour accuracy I needed for my photo editing, even though it was a better gaming monitor.
In the end, pick a feature set you want and find something that fits your budget and you should be happy.
It’s essentially two 27" 2K monitors side by side. I like it and don’t find it “ridiculous” at all. I find it fits human vision very well and being it’s almost a million pixels less than 4K (11% less pixels) it’s also a little less taxing on performance than 4K.
Some people love it. Others hate it. And it’s an expensive thing to buy blindly in case you do hate it. There’s technically nothing wrong with it. It’s just not everyone’s cup of tea.
I have a BenQ EX3501r 35" 3440x1440 (21:9) curved, and absolutely love it. Paid around 500 for it in last year’s Black Friday sales. Yes you can tell it’s not 4k (it sits next to my 5k iMac!), mainly when you look at text. But when you fire up the sim, it’s incredibly immersive.
I did look at a 49" 32:9 superultrawide, but it wouldn’t fit in the space available.