Navigating the Monitor Maze - which one to pick?

Hi guys

I am having considerable issues in selecting the right monitor for my needs and would need your help. Thanks for reading the wall of text, I would hope that the detail laid out here together with your answers will help others make a good decision in the future.

My problem boils down to this: I know what monitor size (27”) and therefore optimal resolution (1440p) I want to get which seemed the two easiest criteria to establish for my monitor. But beyond that, I am quite unsure as to what my priorities should be for multi-boxing wow in terms of the other key criteria:

- A) Refresh rate
- B) IPS/TN panel
- C) G-Sync

I should mention that I have an i7-6700K and a Gigabyte GTX 1070 8GB G1 and would love to play my main at highest settings but am not too concerned about the slaves, and would ideally like to see all 5 chars on a tiled screen with the 4 slaves beneath the main.

Let me elaborate based on a lot of reading on the net as well as some benchmark videos.

- Size: I am looking for a 27” because my desk is quite small and not very deep, ie I am sitting quite close to the monitor, so larger does not seem to be an option

- Resolution: I am focussing on 1440p which is what most people recommend for 27”. The majority recommends 4K above 34” only and 1080p for monitors up to 25”

The other criteria:

- A) Refresh rate: It seems to be a fact that wow by design dips below 60fps regularly (server-side, raids, cities…) no matter what hardware you have. Because of that, a number of players appear to favour resolution over refresh rate, ie. 4K @60Hz over 1440p @144Hz. However, once you take 4K out of the equation (remember my 27”), how much of a quality of life improvement would it be to have a refresh rate higher than 60Hz? I notice that despite the fps-dip issues, a lot of players still say that it is night and day between 60fps and 100fps when you get them (often enough they claim). Also, as games evolve over the next few years, I might not benefit from a 144Hz monitor in the medium term if my GPU/CPU can't deliver >60Hz anymore

- B) IPS/TN panel: While FPS (first person shooter) players favour TN panels due to low response rates and less motion blur, most other users favour IPS due to colour quality and viewing angles as long as response times are within acceptable levels and BLB (back light bleed) is not too high. I only use productivity software and the internet and I play wow. And since I am sitting directly in front of my monitor I am not too concerned with viewing angles either. Do you still think I should get an IPS?

- C) G-sync: Now this one is really a difficult one. Given the fps-dips below the 60Hz mark in wow, I was under the impression that G-Sync could be quite an important feature to have, whether I go with a monitor of 60Hz or 144Hz. Do you have real world experience with this and what do you think? And just to be sure, G-Sync works while multi-boxing correct?

Now it is important to understand that (at least here in the UK) there are some very distinct buckets of monitor options on the market:

- Bucket 1: 1440p at 60Hz: the cost is roughly £350 for an IPS panel with 5-8ms response times (eg Dell U2715H, Asus PB278QR, Acer K272HUL). There is no single monitor @60Hz that comes with G-Sync and the TN panels are slightly cheaper. Again no G-Sync.

- Bucket 2: 1440p at 144Hz and TN: the cost is roughly £500-600 for TN panels with 1ms response time, dark blacks and no BLB (eg Dell 2716DG for £500 or the old Asus ROG PG278Q for £600)

- Bucket 3: 1440p at 144Hz and IPS: the cost is roughly £750 for IPS panels with 4ms response time. There are 2 main brands available in this category (Asus ROG PG279Q and Acer Predator XB271HU)

As you can see, maximising all of the above key criteria is only possible with the most expensive monitors and I am not sure I want to spend that money. Also because the monitors in this category all seem to use the same panel producer and come with a lot of QC (quality control) issues such as dead pixels and a lot of BLB. So lottery.

I would have gone for the 1440p/60Hz category such as the Dell2715H for £380 but it does not have G-Sync and I am worried the refresh rate is too low as well. My next option is the Dell2716DG for £500 which comes with 144Hz and G-Sync but is a TN panel and I quite like that but everybody says IPS is a must. Then we are at the £750 options and I don’t want to spend that money.

So, which of the criteria do you think is more important to consider given my use for the monitor? Should I ignore G-Sync and the high refresh rates and stick with the cheap option (Dell2715H), or live with a TN panel but get higher refresh rates and G-Sync (Dell2716DG)?

I am also questioning whether getting a mid-range monitor and a 1070 makes sense in terms of upgrade path later, instead of maybe maxing out on one for now. For example, buy a cheaper monitor but trade the 1070 for a 1080 and then later upgrade to a Widescreen or 4K (I understand the 1070 will struggle to drive a 4K/40" at max settings and also game development over the next few years will increase requirements on GPU). Questions, questions, questions...

Thanks so much for your help guys!

PS: if you are thinking of purchasing a new monitor, here is some background reading that might be helpful:
- 144hz/1440p or 60Hz/4K for wow?
- Good monitor database & reviews
- IPS vs 144Hz TN
- WoW forum views on 4k vs 1440p vs 1080p
- Dualboxing Forum Post on 4K panels from August 2015
- Dualboxing Forum Post on 144/1440p panels from June 2015
- Dualboxing Forum Post on monitors from November 2014
- Dualboxing Forum Post on monitors from April 2014
- Dualboxing Forum Post on widescreens etc from May 2014

I've had mixed results of late. I had a doublesight 26" IPS that was excellent until the flourescent backlighting started bleeding through blacks.

The one I had a bit ago was the best I've had for black-levels and long gaming sessions re: eye strain, though it didn't have G-Sync. It was an Asus PB278Q. I've seen mixed reviews on Amazon, which seem to indicate there are different models of it that they ship, some better than others.

As for FPS, I can attest to how much smoother removing the maxfps option in WoW is and letting it get up over 100 even though my PB328Q's I got for Christmas only do 60Hz. They are OK for black levels, and I needed a bigger monitor as my eyesight has started to suffer the slings and arrows of 20 years behind a monitor. Having had them for a few months, I can say the next monitors I get will need to have G-Sync capability; I'll admit to not having used any of those but if I'm reading things right, that will fix the tearing problems I see on these. I can live with it, but it would be nice not to have to. ;)

At one point, I'd have said the Dell UltraSharp IPS panels were probably the best visual quality going for general purpose use. Honestly, though, I haven't done a bunch of research lately as what I have are good enough. The last big monitor thread that got me some really good buys was over on Anandtech. That thread is pretty obsolete now, but I'm sure they'll have some good info. https://forums.anandtech.com/forums/displays.72/

My 2 copper, anyways. ;) Good luck!

I guess I'll chime in, but I don't know anything about having more than a 60Hz refresh rate on my displays.

I've heard that using displays with 120/144Hz is much smoother, even if you can't steadily achieve that FPS while in game. To me, coming from someone who hasn't used anything more than 60Hz, this sounds odd because I've been taught that if you can't reach the display's refresh rate, then what's on the screen isn't going to be smooth and you will see tearing.

Obviously, this is where GSync can come into play, but I also don't have any experience with that, so... /shrug :)

Now, as for whether hardware is capable of keeping a constant 60 FPS in crowded areas, I'd say that the answer to this depends, and there are a lot of people on other forums just repeating things from years past. When playing solo and cruising through Dalaran—even though it's phased into shards to keep from overcrowding—I'm able to ride laps around in circles and regularly get 90-100 FPS, and with VSync enabled that turns into a nice smooth 60 FPS experience for me in Windowed (Fullscreen)*. In true Fullscreen, which we obviously don't multibox with, I'm able to achieve the same smooth 60 FPS in raids, like the hectic Withered J'im fight. I'm not saying there wouldn't be some dips here and there during large fights, because that screenshot was taken some time ago and I honestly don't remember. However, I'm not so sure about not being able to achieve a good framerate when in a crowded area, and, to be fair, I would need to test this out myself, with my hardware, while multiboxing in Legion (perhaps, someday).

* 3840x2160 | Preset 8/10 (SSAO—Disabled, Liquid Detail—Low, MSAA—4x, Shadows—Ultra High)


I was an early adopter to 4K and I'm stuck here—not that I mind it, but it does have its drawbacks. I'd like to move to a higher refresh rate when it's available, and Asus is already gearing up to bring us 4K@144Hz later this year which means 4K@120Hz probably isn't too far off either. For me, this means I'd need to upgrade my GPUs, which I'm not ready to do just yet, so I'm probably looking at an upgrade to all of that come 2018 sometime. I think 1440 is in a good place now with the options that are available—both screen size and technology—so, I personally can't recommend 4K to people who aren't ready to put a lot of hardware behind the amount of pixels that 3840x2160 requires to run at very nice settings, especially when multiboxing.

I know this is a rather late reply but i didnt see this mentioned.

I have a 27" 1440p korean monitor (believe its called QNIX) which as i hear it is the same panel/quality that is used in the other much more expensive monitors just that its housed in some cheaper made housing so you dont get the extra buttons and menu functions. But it works just fine.

Its also a 60hz panel but if you get the right ones (if i rememember right its the panels that only have 1 display port that can be overclocked) they can be overclocked. I believe essentially all of them (the ones that can be overclocked at least) achieve 96hz and if you're lucky some can reach 120hz.

Thing is they only cost $200. At least thats what i paid for mine a year or 2 ago.