Advice for purchasing a new PC monitor

Oh really? Well it looks like a pretty great monitor…

After doing a bit of research, I decided to get this instead. It uses the same panel as the Predator X34P. If I have a problem, I’d much rather deal with Dell’s support than with Acer’s.

My gosh. That looks amazing. Now you got me thinking about getting that. And $600 off?!

$600 off a “retail” price that no one has charged for a long time, if ever. It’s the same price at Amazon, and $50 cheaper at Microcenter.

Seems to have an additional 10% coupon at Newegg. I’ll be waiting for HDR to bed down I think.

Yeah, Newegg likes to jack up the regular price on a item right before a sale to make the discount look bigger than it really is. Still a good price with the promo code.

Does anyone here on Qt3 have HDR for their PC monitor? I can’t have both, so I’m really debating what do give up in my ultrawide display: Gsync or HDR?

I have Gsync so I’m familiar with what I’d be losing there, but I don’t have anything with HDR so I’m not sure how that pans out on the desktop.

Most of the time HDR for monitors only means “HDR compatible” rather than TV quality HDR, though i don’t follow this closely and things change quickly in tech.

I have the LG 27 HDR with FreeSync and it’s… not close to the Sony HDR TV. Miles apart.

Also compatibility is an issue - the Sony sees HDR games, but the LG doesn’t pick up on the signal. It could be something to do with an old HDMI port on a couple year old computer?

Thanks! I’ve been desperately wanting some firsthand PC HDR experience. Maybe I should lean harder towards keeping my beloved GSync and save HDR for another few years down the line.

PC monitors are stagnant compared to TV, but most tech reviewers are twits because all they do is run DOOM and then laugh and say “who wants 4K now?!” When 4K is awesome for strategy games (if properly supported anyway). HDR otoh is irrelevant for strategy gaming (for the moment) and is best on console-centered multiplatform games.

I wouldn’t get into HDR PC gaming without either using a TV instead of a monitor or a lot of research.

Alright, I’m on the prowl for Alienware widescreen linked above by @J_Thomas. If anyone sees a Black Friday sale, I’d be grateful if you can give a shout out in this thread. :)

EDIT: Speak of the devil, just saw this on the Newegg Ebay store, which is somehow at another $200 discount from their regular store.

Anything I should be aware of about ordering something from Newegg’s ebay store versus their main website?

Wow, I wasn’t expecting the price to drop any lower. Think $800 was the historical low when I looked around. If I’d known, I would have waited.

Looks like the return policy is the same on Ebay as on Newegg’s website, so I don’t see any real difference. The monitor shows sold out on Newegg’s site but available on Ebay, which seems odd.

edit: Gonna see how well Newegg’s price-matching policy works. Just submitted a request.

I want this:

That would be cool at an office, but I’m not sure how good it would be for gaming. I imagine you’d have to play most games in a window as they wouldn’t be able to support 32:9 aspect ratios?

I do love the idea of a QLED display though for a monitor. OLED is great, but I’m not on board with it’s many drawbacks (especially burn in, and especially when I’d have a Windows task bar/icons on display a large chunk of the time). But QLED, while maybe not quite the looker OLED is, is still gorgeous and as far as I’ve been able to find out, doesn’t have any drawbacks (other that cost, which OLED also has).

https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/samsung/chg70

https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/asus/rog-swift-pg279q

Here we go, a 27" QLED display that does 144hz and is 1440p and features HDR.

Fuck, I almost want to get that fucking thing. I bet it’s amazing looking.

EDIT: The rtings page for the C27HG70 sounds like it’s about on par with my Acer PG279Q but it lacks GSync while providing HDR. It has worse viewing angles (not a problem for me) as well. But it produces an amazing image on par with the Acer, while being quite a bit cheaper (I think I paid about $300 more for my Gsync Acer). If I didn’t care about Gsync (like, if I had an AMD card) this 27" Samsung would be my go-to display.

Scott, why cheap out? Go for the 32" one!

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LOL I saw that - wtf?

Honestly I decided to skip it - I was looking at it and it reviews very well, often getting “best ultrawide” for example, but when I look at “best overall” I already have that one, the PG279Q. Seems silly to replace an amazing display with an equally amazing display. Just throwing money away unless I can move one of them.

The other issue I have with ultrawide (especially curved, actually) is I don’t know how to fit my second 27" dell Ultrasharp on my desk along side it, and I don’t want to give up a second, independent display. I suppose with an ultra wide you can play a game in a window and put it on one side and then have a video or e-book open on the other side of the same display and it would work out okay, but I like having two separate displays for fullscreen content. Maybe something I’ll revisit in a few years.

I will quite probably get the Samsung monstrosity linked to earlier, once Christmas etc is done and I have some spare cash.

I’d get it now but the car is being repaired.

To fit it in nicely I’ll get a small and cheap Ikea desk and put that behind my current desk, effectively making it a deep desk.

it’s going to be awesome!

my office is quite small by the way…going to look ridiculous.

I got to a point where my own desk was too small, but I think a better option than a second desk put behind your first desk (what?) would be to get a bigger desk and replace the original?

Here is what I grabbed:

Worth every penny.

So you can pick up a 2080 Zotac for $700 now, which is enough to get me thinking about it (also comes with Battlefield but eh, couldn’t care less).

Which means I would need a new monitor as well because my current aging triple Dell u2410 setup is just 1200p and the bezels are too thick really for nvidia surround.

I am thinking about replacing just the center monitor, and the decision is either 4k (???), 27" 1440p ( ASUS ROG PG279Q and Acer, etc variants), and now I am looking at the AW3418DW Ultra wide.

How is an ultra wide for day to day to work? I like to just maximize my windows to each monitor but that doesn’t work with these. I saw @habibi mentioned https://mizage.com/windivvy/ which looks pretty cool, even for my 3x1200p setup.

For gaming I understand if it doesn’t support ultrawide it can just use the normal 1440p resolution with black borders on the side and it should be ‘pixel close/perfect’?

My ultrawide is on its way, but I plan to just use Win+Left and Win+Right to split my work into the two halves of the display to mimic running maximized on two separate monitors like you mentioned.