Guild Wars 2

I’ve had my monitor for a long time, it’s actually about 10+ years old at this point. I’m looking to replace it (and improve on it) for a reasonable price. That being said I have a few problems.

• I don’t know what a reasonable price is
• I don’t know what brands are reliable these days
• I don’t know what’s worth it for the money

My current monitor is Gateway 19.5", 1440×900 (FPD1975W)
(( Link to Amazon )) http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-FPD1975W-Widescreen-High-Definition-Flat-Panel/dp/B000H2PMXQ

I did try connecting my PC to our new TV (LG 49" 4k), and daym did it look pretty. GW2 was tracking 40-50fps running around The Grove at max settings, I didn’t check combat… but I would think it can handle the load for a 2k/4k monitor at 30+ fps (which is fine for me)

I’m looking to get away under 500$ for the upgrade, but I’d also like to feel like it’s a substantial gain which will last me another 5-10 years.

I’m pretty sure I don’t want a curved monitor, and i don’t think I want a shiny one (I hate the glossy look on some TV’s, so just a guess). But I’d love some input on what brands are reliable (but you’re not spending ‘too’ much on the name) and what I should look for (or avoid) as far as the whole pile of features.

Rule of thumb for anything involving money: Get 5 “quotes”. In this case, go to amazon.com, walmart.com, (or whatever) and then the 3 stores closest to you that sell monitors.

You can find a pretty huge (like several feet), high quality monitor for in the 100-200 dollar range. I would personally recommend you splurge because a monitor is something you’re going to get tens of thousands of hours out of.

Edit: I know I didn’t quite answer your question, but I’ve literally never had a monitor fail on me in my entire life, and I’m pretty old.

Teleniel.1809:

I’ve had my monitor for a long time, it’s actually about 10+ years old at this point. I’m looking to replace it (and improve on it) for a reasonable price. That being said I have a few problems.

• I don’t know what a reasonable price is
• I don’t know what brands are reliable these days
• I don’t know what’s worth it for the money

My current monitor is Gateway 19.5", 1440×900 (FPD1975W)
(( Link to Amazon )) http://www.amazon.com/Gateway-FPD1975W-Widescreen-High-Definition-Flat-Panel/dp/B000H2PMXQ

I did try connecting my PC to our new TV (LG 49" 4k), and daym did it look pretty. GW2 was tracking 40-50fps running around The Grove at max settings, I didn’t check combat… but I would think it can handle the load for a 2k/4k monitor at 30+ fps (which is fine for me)

I’m looking to get away under 500$ for the upgrade, but I’d also like to feel like it’s a substantial gain which will last me another 5-10 years.

I’m pretty sure I don’t want a curved monitor, and i don’t think I want a shiny one (I hate the glossy look on some TV’s, so just a guess). But I’d love some input on what brands are reliable (but you’re not spending ‘too’ much on the name) and what I should look for (or avoid) as far as the whole pile of features.

Do you know what kind of video card you have today and what resolution do you use? Do you plan on upgrading video card/computer in the near future? What kind of connection between video card and display do you use today?

Is Guild Wars 2 the only game you play and do you have other usage of monitor like editing pictures or video? How many people will be watching your display? Is it only you watching a video/play game or maybe kids/wife/husband that also want to see what is going on?

https://forum-en.gw2archive.eu/forum/game/players/IPS-or-144Hz-monitor/first#post5973973

A bunch of the new monitor tech was discussed here

I upgraded my machine last year (from Pentium D, board graphics)
to I7-4790 w/ Nvidia GTX 750 Ti

I don’t plan to upgrade the graphics card again for quite some time.

As far as what I play… GW2 & starcraft 2 are the only graphics intensive uses. I will connect my machine to my TV if I want to watch a movie (because I mean 49" 4k you can’t beat that). I also play some things on emulator (because it’s easier than wrangling my older game systems) and very old games.

I do like my wider monitor that I have now, although I could use it being just a Weee bit wider since often times if I want to run 2 programs I can’t really fit them both entirely on the screen at a resolution I’m happy with. So I was looking to be able to look nice, and be larger than what I currently use, at the same quality (which means I need more pixles if I’m going to get wider). These 2 programs will not both be games, however one might be a game + internet/files/etc. which I might find useful.
I’m 99% sure my video card doesn’t support dual video out, or I’d consider just getting a second monitor!

If you’re willing to drop up to $500 on a monitor, why not spring for two decent 1080P monitors? It doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to drive games at exceptionally high framerates (at least not in GW2) so 144Hz might not be worth it, but you can get decent 23-24" IPS monitors at around $150-170 each.

Oh, just read that you did consider it. Your GPU should be fine to drive 2 monitors unless there’s something strange I’m not aware of; it’s standard on GPUs these days. What brand/model 750ti is it?

Personally I use an Asus VS239H-P and I’d definitely recommend it; the stand is crap but the monitor is nice. I paid $160 but it looks like they’re $132 at Newegg. My mom also has a 24" Asus 1080P IPS panel and it’s just as nice; definitely something worth considering. I’ve also got a second monitor and it’s well worth the investment, especially if you get matching monitors; mine are different and it’s slightly annoying.

Why do you say your monitor can’t run dual monitors? Does it say so in the manual?

I’ve run dual monitors on both ATI HD 5770 and nVidia 560Ti, both 2-3 generations behind your card. And I use them much like what you are describing. My bigger, higher resolution screen I use for fullscreen gaming. And I recycled my old screen (lower resolution) to become a browser/youtube screen while I gamed.

It’s easy for any GPU to run 2 screens if it’s just a desktop (if you’re old enough to remember when Matrox was a thing, you’d understand). Multi-monitor gaming is when you need a beefy GPU.

An easy test if you can output 2 monitors: Plug your TV and monitor in at the same time and see what you get. You may need to adjust your display settings, but Windows 7 and 10 both behaved on my setup.

Going back to your original question: $500 is a decent budget for a monitor (I’m assuming USD here), for example:
http://www.amazon.com/Dell-Monitor-P2415Q-24-Inch-LED-Lit/dp/B00PC9HFNY/ref=sr_1_2?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1455530130&sr=1-2&keywords=4k+monitor

Most mainstream brands (Asus, Dell, Benq, Acer, AOC, Samsung, LG) have pretty good QA nowadays and give zero dead pixel guarantees. You can also get imported lesser-brand LCDs (seems to be mostly from Korea) for cheaper but the QA is less stringent and may not come with the same guarantee. I don’t have first-hand experience with these, but google will be able to help.

Go look at http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/ I’ve found them the most comprehensive site for reviews.

I may be way off on my times. I was under the impression that dual monitors was not a standard feature. If that is the case, i very likely would have opted for the lower cost, as I didn’t have any intentional plans for dual monitor.

My current computer desk is… about 2’ square end table. I have a small lap desk that I use for my mouse, and play from my couch. I don’t really have the space to do dual monitors without stacking them on top of one another, although if it sticks out the sides of the table that shouldn’t cause any problems.

Teleniel.1809:

I may be way off on my times. I was under the impression that dual monitors was not a standard feature. If that is the case, i very likely would have opted for the lower cost, as I didn’t have any intentional plans for dual monitor.

My current computer desk is… about 2’ square end table. I have a small lap desk that I use for my mouse, and play from my couch. I don’t really have the space to do dual monitors without stacking them on top of one another, although if it sticks out the sides of the table that shouldn’t cause any problems.

Support for dual or more monitors is pretty much standard these days, even the internal gpu’s on modern mobos support at least dual monitor outputs.

There are a myriad of creative mounting options available for limited desk space installations, from a single stand clamped or mounted to a desk or wall with multiple arms to support monitors, to flat wall mount solutions provided you have enough wall space.

Don’t forget to do research on the cables and connection types, as hdmi may not give you the best quality, and not all dvi cables are the same.