Oh Joy! Choosing a new monitor..... now choosen ....
glaseye
Posts: 1,311
After more then 13 years of faithfull and intensive service (and outliving several system), my good old LG Flatron W2452T, serving my game/render system, went into a coma yesterday. So I'm afraid I do have to look for a replacement. As a temporary substitute, my old Samsung SyncMaster is now in use, but that's not ideal.
Still got an other, slightly newer and smaller LG screen in use (which also performs well) and so looking for a replacement I do have a preference for LG............. I think......... I had already been thinking for some time about getting a 27" QHD screen..
Oh boy, looking at all the info and reviews I begin to wonder if there are any usable monitors within in my budget (meaning cheap, real cheap, as even cheap means quite inflated prices here in The Netherlands). Even though I suspect alot of the negative reviews are very biased due to the reviewers personal bad experiences, it is still difficult to make a choice. Been looking at several monitors:
LG Flatron 27GP850P-B and AOC Q27G2S/EU, very similar with the LG having slightly better specs, but also in several reviews a quite noticable IPS glow is mentioned (and yes, AFAIK, IPS glow is present in just about every IPS monitor...). not much usable info found (by me) about the AOC.
Also been looking at the Gigabyte M27Q, Iiyama G-MASTER GB2770QSU-B5 and ASUS TUF Gaming VG27AQZ, but I must admit, it begins to dazzle now......
So what's your experience with (affordable) monitors for rendering and gaming use?
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Comments
One option is to take it to a repair shop.
I had one of my three HP LA2405's fixed when it went black, and while the cheapest ones with the same size and resolution (1920x1200) cost upwards from 250eur, I got it fixed at less than 100eur and didn't have to break the matching set
Yep, I have been thinking about that, but not many of those around in my 'neighbourhood'. And given that I was already looking for a replacement, repairing would take away budget for replacing......
I've had a couple of AOC monitors and was happy with them, especially considering they were reasonably priced.
I once saw a guy who reviews monitors say on a forum that most modern monitors are good enough for most people.
Have you seen hardware unboxed monitor roundups on youtube? They cover all sizes and price points with the odd TV thrown in as well.
Thanks for the hardware unboxed reminder.... I forgot about them (had watched a few way back then...). More info to process....
Hardware Unboxed actually has a sub channel now called....Monitors Unboxed, lol. I don't know if they moved all their monitor content there, but Tim knows his stuff. They also don't often review the cheapest stuff, so you may not find a replacement there. However, you can still watch a couple to get up to speed on the new tech. They have a few videos that discuss what to look for on the specs.
One thing to consider is if you want to lean on gaming or content creation. Many monitors tend to focus on one or the other. A content focused monitor is geared for accuracy. A gaming monitor is usually geared for speed at the cost of accuracy, like high refresh rates and VRR. (I do think VRR is huge for gaming.) I don't know about your side of the globe, but cheap monitors are everywhere now. Monitor prices are currently on a downward trend, so at least your old one died at a decent time.
Given its age, I am not sure repair is ideal. After a period of time, it gets harder to obtain parts. One good thing about LG is that their parts tend to be easier to get for a long time, so that is good. It depends on what actually died, if the screen died, forget it. Given its age, I'd say the backlights died. That is also bad news, because it looks like it uses the old CFLs. You cannot get those anymore, unless a 3rd party is making them. They may not even be legal in your country anymore. This also means your lights contain a small amount of mercury, so you will need to dispose accordingly.
Honestly, since your old monitor is that old, almost any new monitor is going to feel like an improvement. Even most cheap screens are going to probably be better in multiple ways.
However there is one thing that might be a major unexpected issue, your old monitor has connectors that are no longer used! So you may need an adapter to use a new monitor depending on what GPU you currently have. You need to check and see. An adapter would also invalidate some of the perks a new monitor might offer, like VRR.
QHD is a great upgrade, a very sensible resolution. At 27'' it will look very sharp. Don't pay much attention to backlight dimming zones, you may be different, but to me a handful of dimming zones actually makes the image look far worse than if it lacked any local dimming at all. You'll know when you see it. You either go big on dimming or not at all, but lots of dimming zones means pricey. It would be better to get a screen that has a naturally good contrast without relying too much on local dimming. Your eyes will interpret the darks as blacks. With local dimming, you will likely see the brighter areas standing out from the darker areas, and it will just look awful. At least it does to me, especially if it is edge lit (the LEDs are on one side, usually the bottom). That means you have big wall of light around anything that is bright, while the rest of the screen is darker. I find that revolting.
Like this test on an edge lit screen:
To me, this is ridiculous, and I do not see any point to using local dimming at all with edge lighting. Without the "local" dimming, the entire screen might be greyish, but at least it is uniform and not so gross looking. A full array can do better, but usually at a price. This next image is from a display that has 384 dimming zones. That sounds like a like a lot, but well:
Even here you still have a very strong halo around the lit areas. So just imagine this happening across your screen in all content. I just have to say, screw that. It does get better as you get more dimming zones, but again you probably have to pay for that. A half decent screen can block enough light on its own to keep the image looking even, if not quite as dark as dimming the light can do. You can disable local dimming, but if it isn't needed, you don't need to pay for it, right?
In a lot of monitors, gaming modes may disable or reduce local dimming. It depends on the model, but regardless I am just not a fan of local dimming on most screens. I happen to have a LG monitor, it was $300 roughly 4 years ago. I do like it. It is more a gaming screen, 1440p with 144hz and VRR and fairly good response times. It has no local dimming. It gets dark enough in general, but it is noticeable in some content. So when I want to watch a movie or something at its best I switch to OLED. Some day I will get an OLED monitor.
I can hardly believec my 2006 24" Acer LED 1080P HDMI monitor is still working. It cost $150 at Office Depot (since then they actually went out of business locally during covid-19) here. I got a 27" Sceptre HDMI LED monitor last year for also $150 but I still want a matching 27" Sceptre 4K HDMI/DPT monitor. Those cost $200. Maybe in the next year. Not the biggest tech need though.
@nonesuch00, I've still got a working Acer AL1714 from 2004 (I think); it's connected to a, by now, antique system. The monitor works fine, the system is.... temperamental at best
.
@outrider42, thank you for the extensive info and samples. Right now, I don't think OLED is an option for me, pricewise. The broken LG is a TN type monitor, so most likely an IPS monitor will have better colours. I'm not sure if IPS is better with contrast, though I hope/suspect that a modern IPS will still be better than an old TN screen in that regard.... A VA screen? I don't know...
The old LG was connected to my 2080ti card, which required a new cable, as the 2080ti doesn't have a DVI connector and the LG doesn't have a HDMI connector, I do suspect that the power switch is defect. As I said the system went into a coma. Pressing the on/off switch gives a light flickering of the power-led, but no other response whatsoever. And indeed given it's age, and my limited budget which is needed for the already planned replacement, repair is not really a viable option.
The LG 27GP850P-B still has alot of appeal to me, but given some of the (biased?) user reviews, it seems as if it is a bit of a lottery if the screen you get works fine or not.. (As a side note, I did get the impression that some of those 'reviewers' expected 900euro quality for a 300euro pricetag.)
Ah, well, don't have to decide right away, the search goes on
What's affordable? Sub 1k$ or sub 0.5k$ or sub 0.3k$, ...?
At sub 1k$ i would throw in: what with color space representation and more bits (10 per, HDR, something)? Any rendering-specific recommendations (other than for HDR-people)?
My 2 cents. And to trouble you more, there is also the option of getting an ultra-wide monitor. The 21:9 proportion is really good for 3D applications, Daz and Blender for example. The extra space for lateral panels is awesome. If you are doing animations or video editing, that extra space is a must.
For gaming that proportion is also very good. Some old games will struggle with the proportion, but any modern game has no trouble.
A 29-inch ultra-wide monitor has more or less a height of 16:9 24" and a 34" more or less one of 27".
My primary monitor is one LG of 29" which is very good, and I have a full HD 27" Benq as a secondary one that is normally "off" because the extra space on the 29 is enough most of the time. I do not recommend the cheaper versions of Benq, it has no blacks...
My recommendation, if your main goal is the production of images, is that you get one that states the % of sRGB, Adobe, or REC 709 color space. Look on the web pages under the classification for graphic design.
Ah, yes, affordable, different for every person (in my case would be less than E400 totall).
Gaming/rendering time is about 50/50. I'm not looking into curved or ultra-wide ('height is no problem, but 'width' is somewhat limited in/on my worksapce...). And, well, my 2080ti is already beginning to show it's age (as in not up to the task for the modern games), 2560x1440 will (have to) be good enough for me.....
You had a good run with that monitor!
As a professionnal graphic designer since 30 yeas now, I would definitly always go for IIYAMA, they're professionnal screens in terms of colour management.
Here's the model that I have x3 : https://iiyama.com/gb_en/products/prolite-xb3270qs-b5/
Can I suggest to have a good color calibration as well, it really change everything ! ( screens out of the box are way too blue )
For your color calibration, I would recommend this ( easy to use and mega efficient....beware of the surprise once calibrated, you will need to get used to the new colors...but they are true colors ! ) : https://www.datacolor.com/spyder/
These are US prices but should still be in your ballpark for the NL.
Amazon.com: Sceptre 30-inch Curved Gaming Monitor 21:9 2560x1080 Ultra Wide/ Slim HDMI DisplayPort up to 200Hz Build-in Speakers, Metal Black (C305B-200UN1) : Electronics
Amazon.com: Sceptre 4K IPS 27" 3840 x 2160 UHD Monitor up to 70Hz DisplayPort HDMI 99% sRGB Build-in Speakers, Black 2021 (U275W-UPT) : Electronics
Amazon.com: Sceptre IPS 27" 4K UHD LED Monitor up to 75Hz DIsplayPort HDMI DVI Build-in Speakers, Frameless Machine Black 2020 (U279W-4000R) : Electronics
And LG FHD or better monitor at $200 or less USD is not happening.
Well, been sifting through all the info, and thanks to everyone for their input. The monitor unboxing youtube channel has certainly been a great source of info. But still no definitive choice made. At this moment, it goes between the LG 27GP850P-B and the Gigabyte M27Q. They are both well received in the tests, and are available here in The Netherlands. None is 'the best budget monitor' as they both have their strong points and weaknesses. Spec-wise, and by personal good experience, I do like/prefer LG, but it appears that this peticular model is a bit of a lottery quality wise. The Gigabyte is said to have a little better contrast. As for the colour representation, they appear not to be that far apart (with the Gigabyte slightly better). At the moment of my typing however, the LG has the better pricing over here (and budget counts alot). Decisions, decisions, got to have a good night's rest on this one...
Ok, so I got the LG 27GP850P-B..... It arrived now 8 hours ago.... Coming from a 13+ year old 60hz screen to this, the 1st impression is WoW!. Crisp and clear, but a tad bright..
So now I'll guess I'll be spending the next few days fine tuning the settings for the various programs/games I use. But the extra work space is already much appreciated in DAZ Studio!
So far I haven't noticed any defects, dead pixels, noticeable IPS glow or lightbleeding, so that's good..... But of course to early to conclude anything definitive yet..
Congrats on your new monitor. It sounds like it will work well for you.
Looks like a solid choice, the increase in smoothness over the 60hz screen will be very noticable in games. If you have Win 11 and want to give the HDR a try in games Microsoft have a free HDR calibration app in the windows store.
Glaseye
Check your PMs!
@Chumly, checked
@oddbob, win10pro here. It's not really a HDR screen, more like HDR compatible.... So far only tried Fallout 4 and The Witcher 3 (V4.03 DX11 - running the 'hyped' DX12 version is just too much for my poor 2080ti
). Fallout 4 is locked at 60fps, as I understand higher FPS could give problems (the game mechanics are made for a max of 60fps). The Witcher 3 at max, ultra+ settings and 2560x1440 res runs at 80-100fps. But that also makes the GPU's fans go wild.... For now W3 is also locked at 60fps. I'll experiment more with the game settings later...