Upgrade from Dell S2719DGF

Relentless81 · 11 Jan 2021 at 18:37

Hi,

I'm selling my monitor to my brother because I'm having some work done to my house of which will mean my pc needs to be packed away for a while and he's after a 1440p 144hz so makes sense, I've also been pondering an upgrade.

Problem is, I don't know which direction to go, Ultra Wide or 4k 32"

Also gsync and Freesync, I currently have a Vega 56 and have been trying to upgrade to a 6800 but they are impossible to get hold of, obviously my Vega 56 will struggle with the new monitor so I might be tempted to go Nvidia this time around

The monitor needs to be used for work too, only IT support so nothing fancy but it will need DP for gaming PC and HDMI for laptop

I mostly play FPS and want to keep the FPS above 60 too so a higher refresh rate would be good

I'm way out of touch with the options so need some help finding something that will suit and any opinions on UW Vs 4K IE easier to drive etc ..

With all that said can anyone suggest anything? Budget £500 would be nice but happy to go North of that for a screen that'll last me for a few years

Thanks

thenewoc · 12 Jan 2021 at 14:09

Hi

Budget aside I would say currently the ultimate ultrawide (QHD+) would be the LG 38WN95C as it ticks most of the boxes in terms of resolution, refresh rate, IPS, Thunderbolt3/USB-C but it's shortcomings are not being value for money in comparison to a 34" 3440 x 1440, mediocre HDR 600, no KVM.

As for 4k it's only just started to acquire 144Hz in the 27" screens so anything larger than this will be crazy money when they eventually show up. If you really want 27" 4K then the best value option for that would be an EVE Spectrum 4K 144Hz as it has HDMI2.1, USB-C with 100W Power Delivery, whereas the LG 27" 27GN950-B using the same LG panel doesn't and costs more. Also, LG 27GP950 has just been announced at CES which adds HDMI 2.1. The issue with 4K is it's a hell of a lot of pixels to push so not only will the screen cost a lot but you'll need a top tier graphics card to get high FPS for FPS type games which may mean you need to drop graphics quality to maintain high FPS which to me seems to begin to defeat the point of having 4K. I think this size & resolution is suited more to having a single window open such as gaming but not so much for multitasking.

That really brings me to the same conclusion I drew in the other thread that the 34" 3440 x 1440 is the best all round winner in terms of being a step up from QHD as the additional resolution brings the extra productivity use to the table and at up to a quarter of the price of the LG 38WN95C. So in other words it would cost up to 4 times more for the LG 38WN95C to get only ~24% more pixels. The real value is still therefore the flat 34" Iiyama G-MASTER GB3461WQSU-B1 currently @ £339.95 however since the IT you mentioned wasn't design work you might also want to consider a curved version. If you have just a PC & laptop then pair this with a USB, 2 in 4 out switch to share peripherals between both systems. If you want to make the laptop quicker to detach then also consider a dock.

Of course the following will also be mediocre in terms of HDR or even more so but this is really about the smart choice value wise for the present tech, a stop gap solution to better things such as OLED and more integrated features to marry a gaming spec with a business spec monitor which may come at a later date.

In current price order, I stopped at the £500 mark:

Iiyama G-MASTER GB3461WQSU-B1 https://www.overclockers.co.uk/iiya...esync-ultrawide-gaming-monitor-mo-13j-iy.html
AOC CU34G2/BK https://www.overclockers.co.uk/aoc-...een-led-backlit-gaming-monitor-mo-05a-ao.html
Gigabyte G34WQC-EK https://www.overclockers.co.uk/giga...le-curved-led-backlit-ultrawid-mo-00b-gi.html
MSI OPTIX MAG341CQ https://www.overclockers.co.uk/msi-...rved-widescreen-gaming-monitor-mo-00d-ms.html
Iiyama G-MASTER GB3466WQSU-B1 https://www.overclockers.co.uk/iiya...ium-curved-ultra-wide-gaming-m-mo-13k-iy.html
LG 35WN65C https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lg-3...cklit-ultrawide-gaming-monitor-mo-15s-lg.html
AOC CU34G2X/BK https://www.overclockers.co.uk/aoc-...een-led-backlit-gaming-monitor-mo-059-ao.html
LG 35WN75C https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lg-3...cklit-ultrawide-gaming-monitor-mo-15t-lg.html
Samsung LC34G55TWWUXEN https://www.overclockers.co.uk/sams...rved-widescreen-gaming-monitor-mo-24a-sa.html

Pixels to push
1920 x 1080 (FHD) = 2,073,600
2560 x 1440 (QHD) = 3,686,400 ~78% more pixels than FHD
3440 x 1440 (WQHD) = 4,953,600 ~34% more pixels than QHD
3840 x 1600 (QHD+) = 6,144,000 ~24% more pixels than WQHD
3840 x 2160 (4K) = 8,294,400 35% more pixels than QHD+

Relentless81 · 12 Jan 2021 at 18:54

@thenewoc

Awesome post very helpful and thanks very much for taking the time to write it out and explain everything

I think I will go UW 3440x1440 just not sure on the model yet, I don't want to pay crazy money but also want to avoid monitor issue lottery's and I might be wrong but the liyama has a thread on here where quite a few issues have been reported especially with flickering, I've also had to return an liyama in the best due to a cluster of red pixels slap bang in the middle of the screen

If I was to pay a bit more is there a stand out monitor that's better than the liyama but not crazy money knowing that I'm now focussing on UW?

Thanks again

Edit, I'm liking the look of the Samsung Odyssey at £500, its the only one that seems to upgrade everything from what I have now Inc refresh rate. I'll look into that one some more

thenewoc · 12 Jan 2021 at 20:46

@Relentless81

No worries.

To be honest I think all monitors are a lottery so I personally would chance the flat Iiyama as it's an IPS monitor too vs the others being VA. I'm not sure that the issues weren't early firmware and/or cheap DP cable related. The money I saved I'd invest into a laptop dock since this has more features such as supporting multiple displays and Ethernet or to soften the cost of a new graphics card.

If I really had to choose something else it would be between the Gigabyte G34WQC-EK since it's the next cheapest without compromising on the 144Hz or if I was prepared to drop to 100Hz then the LG 35WN75C since it has USB-C and 94W Power Delivery. Therefore if your laptop has USB-C with DP Alt Mode and Power Delivery charging @94W or under then it's a neat solution to hooking up the laptop for charging and display output with a single cable. I'm not sure how the USB hub works on this LG though so you'd either have to use the keyboard & touch pad on the laptop or connect the laptop and desktop PC to a USB switch or use wireless/bluetooth peripherals that are capable of switching between more than one device.

I believe both Iiyama and Gigabyte have 3 year warranties, 2 years on the LG & Samsung.

Relentless81 · 12 Jan 2021 at 21:20

thenewoc said:
@Relentless81

No worries.

To be honest I think all monitors are a lottery so I personally would chance the flat Iiyama as it's an IPS monitor too vs the others being VA. I'm not sure that the issues weren't early firmware and/or cheap DP cable related. The money I saved I'd invest into a laptop dock since this has more features such as supporting multiple displays and Ethernet or to soften the cost of a new graphics card.

If I really had to choose something else it would be between the Gigabyte G34WQC-EK since it's the next cheapest without compromising on the 144Hz or if I was prepared to drop to 100Hz then the LG 35WN75C since it has USB-C and 94W Power Delivery. Therefore if your laptop has USB-C with DP Alt Mode and Power Delivery charging @94W or under then it's a neat solution to hooking up the laptop for charging and display output with a single cable. I'm not sure how the USB hub works on this LG though so you'd either have to use the keyboard & touch pad on the laptop or connect the laptop and desktop PC to a USB switch or use wireless/bluetooth peripherals that are capable of switching between more than one device.

I believe both Iiyama and Gigabyte have 3 year warranties, 2 years on the LG & Samsung.

Thanks again, I've got a dock and a USB switch for my existing setup so that's all fine. Maybe I'll take a punt at the Iiyama then and see what happens, if its duff I can return it and go for another, I have a 1080P monitor to get me by so its not all bad

Cheers