Guild Wars 2

So I’ve finally admitted I need to get myself a decent monitor, but the problem is I don’t really know what to look for, and I don’t want to waste my money.

My budget is about £250, but of course if I can get it for less I won’t complain. I’m looking for something to work with a Radeon R9 200 graphics card and i5-4670 processor. (I can provide other specs if necessary but I think those are the relevant ones.)

I’m not looking for anything huge, my current one is 24" and that’s fine, it’s just the resolution and picture quality isn’t great and I don’t want a touch screen or 3D, but as I said I don’t really know what I should be looking for, so any help would be appreciated.

You need to be a bit more specific.

Which specific R9 200 GPU is it? Some are based on older chips which don’t support FreeSync. (e.g. a 280 or 280x don’t, but a 285 does)

What are you upgrading for? And why do you feel the need to upgrade? It’s hard to recommend anything unless we know what your baseline is, and what you want to get out of a new monitor, other than being “better”.

Also knowing what you use your PC for is also useful… games, movies, multimedia editing, etc

Sorry about that, like I said I don’t really know what I’m doing here (I’ve previously used screens I was given or bought the cheapest I could).

The graphics card is a 280x (specifically the Sapphire Vapor-X model).

My current monitor is an Acer K242Hlbd and I’m looking to upgrade it because whilst the size is nice the picture quality isn’t great. In GW2 specifically although I can run it with the highest graphics settings everything looks slightly fuzzy and I have to use the smallest interface size to stop the windows taking up the whole screen, but that makes the text a bit too small to read easily. (I don’t think it helps that I have to use the VGA connection rather than DVI because the DVI port stopped working at some point and I’ve not been able to fix it.)

I’m mainly concerned about using it for games. I don’t watch movies on the PC and whilst I do occasional image editing it’s nothing remotely advanced enough to worry about.

Danikat.8537:

(I don’t think it helps that I have to use the VGA connection rather than DVI because the DVI port stopped working at some point and I’ve not been able to fix it.)

This part is your real problem. VGA is an analog connection and much worse than DVI (or just about any other connector) would be. So, changing the monitor most likely won’t remove the problems with resolution and fuzziness you are having. For that you need to get the monitor, any monitor, connected with something else than VGA.

That’s true Znake, but that Acer monitor only has DVI and VGA, so a new monitor will be mandatory for a different connector type. Most modern monitors have HDMI or DP (which are available on the 280x) so there shouldn’t be a problem with connectivity.

OP, before you spend money on a new monitor, have a look at your graphics setting, some can actually cause blurriness:

Resolution: it’s always best to have this match your monitor’s resolution (in your case 1920×1080)
Antialiasing: “FXAA” can cause smeared edges, turn AA off and see if it helps.
Render sampling: “Sub-sampling” will make things look awful. See if “native” or “super-sampling” gives you a better picture.
Post-processing: Not sure if it’ll make much difference, try changing it and see if it does.
Depth blur: Just like post-processing, may nor may not improve your image.

And in answer to the monitor question itself:

Panel type: TN vs IPS (AHVA and PLS are different versions of IPS)
TN panels are cheaper, faster refresh rate (easily up to 144hz). They suffer from reduced viewing angles, poorer colour reproduction.
IPS panels are more expensive, have wider viewing angles and better colour reproduction. They tend to be slower (usually up to 60hz) and have a “IPS glow” which can be distracting.
That said, advancements in both panel type have meant although the differences still exist, they have become less significant i.e. you can find TNs with pretty good colour, and find IPS panels at 100+hz. Generally, if you do colour critical work (photo editing, graphics design) you should go IPS. Hardcore FPS players will benefit from 144hz, but GW2 and other less fast paced games won’t benefit to the same degree, if at all.

Resolution and aspect ratio
1080p 16:9 (your monitor) is still the most common. 1440p and 4K the next steps up. Be aware, these higher resolutions can make text look very small. Your GPU should be able to drive 1440p, but will struggle at 4K.
In the last couple of years, ultrawide monitors have become more popular (21:9). These come in 2560×1080 or 3440×1440. The lesser resolution isn’t too hard on your GPU or your wallet, but the higher one is taxing on both.

Adaptive sync
This is the future of gaming monitors. Eliminates tearing/stutters. It’s an effect you have to see in person to believe… difficult to capture that effect in graphs or videos. Unfortunately your GPU (280x) does not support it, so you won’t benefit from it immediately, but any future upgrades will. Also be aware AMD and nVidia have competing solutions (FreeSync vs G-Sync). They perform similarly, but AMD’s is open source and incorporated into the latest Display Port standard (with a HDMI version planned). nVidia’s is proprietary and costs more than a similar FreeSync monitor. It’s open to debate, but FreeSync will probably be the de facto, due to the cost advantage and incorporation into the industry standards.

Generally, the larger, higher end gaming monitors cost hugely, but there are ones are within your budget. E.g. http://www.amazon.co.uk/AOC-G2460PF-24-Inch-Gaming-Monitor/dp/B013YIRF4S/ref=sr_1_2?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1456630745&sr=1-2&keywords=freesync+monitor or http://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-25UM65-P-25-21-Ultrawide/dp/B00I3GJ8RY/ref=sr_1_5?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1456631246&sr=1-5&keywords=lg+ultrawide+monitor (I don’t think the LG one has FreeSync)

Have a look at http://tftcentral.co.uk/ It’s got lots of in-depth reviews on a variety of monitors… if nothing else, I’ll give you an idea of the new tech.

Thanks for all that, it’s really helpful.

I’m still not entirely decided, but it’s given me a lot to consider at least.

onevstheworld.2419:

Render sampling: “Sub-sampling” will make things look awful. See if “native” or “super-sampling” gives you a better picture.

I wouldn’t use Super Sampling on an R9 280 or at all, it will (on a 1080 resolution) basically put the GPU rendering each frame at about 2880×1620 then downscale it to 1920×1080 before sending it to the monitor.

Does it look better than Native Sampling? Yes.
Much better? No.
Will you feel a drop in frame rate? Most definitely.
Is it worth it? You can surely live without it.

To OP, I think your biggest dilemma will be, 1080p or 4K monitor?
With your GPU I’d go with a 1080p, even if you’re thinking about upgrading your GPU, I’ll still go with the extra frames rather than the extra pixels.

I know someone will come down on me for this, but in my opinion 3K, 4K, 8K are just stunts from the manufacturers to sell units, at a normal viewing distance 1080p will be enough to be comfortable for your eyes, and be light enough on the GPU to keep the frames nice and high.

The benefit of supersampling is that it makes the game less blurry (which is a huge problem, the game is pretty bad normally) but you can correct that for a much smaller performance hit with sweetfx pretty easily

I’m experimenting with a television set. So far my experience has been favorable. I turned on the options to cap at 60Hz and to enlarge the UI. Text looks pretty good, even using a VGA connection (HDMI cables in the mail), since I use max settings on anti-aliasing.

You can get a decent TV for your budget.