Need 24-27" Gaming Monitor Advice

[SKYMTL]

Honestly, there's no need to play at ultra high settings. At this resolution, MSAA isn't even really needed. I would say that your GTX 570 is fine.....provided you stick to medium to medium-high presets.

[Skippman]

Wish I could get some frame rate ideas. Right now my primary game is BF3, but I have Aliens: Colonial Marine and X-Com: Enemy Unknown (bout time!) both on pre-order.

[SKYMTL]

Oh, X-Com won't be an issue. Colonial Marines on the other hand will probably eat your GTX 570 for lunch. If you are going to play that game at high detail settings, it's time for an upgrade methinks, even on a 1080P monitor and provided none of the DX11 features they talked about are cut.

[GT7R]

IMO get the Asus VG278H, not for 3D but for it's 120Hz capability. As a FPS gamer the 60Hz cap on my U2711 hurts me a lot and I am willing to replace it with a 120Hz monitor and swallow the lower IQ and color reproduction compared to what I have now (still torn apart between the Asus and the BenQ XL2420T).

[AkG]

If 2D is all the OP cares about....why get the 3D 'H' version. Go for 144Hz with the (cheaper) HE version. ;)

Edit:
Personally 1440p > 1080p for gaming...and IPS > TN for everything. Id get the U2713 and "live with" a mere 60fps. :P

[Skippman]

Dang. Ok, so maybe add in another GTX 570 here by spring. Think that'll cut it?

My budget is bascially going to be about $1000 max. And lets say I can't afford the Dell U2713 due to my budget being diverted to covering the cost of an additional card. What would be your second choice? Something in a 24" like the Dell U2410? You seem to have given that pretty high marks and it looks to be the direct replacement for my Dell 2405FPW.

[GT7R]

Originally Posted by AkG

If 2D is all the OP cares about....why get the 3D 'H' version. Go for 144Hz with the (cheaper) HE version. ;)

Wow, thanks for enlightning me! Had no idea about the presence of that model!

[AkG]

First choice....U2713 w/ the 570...now. Later either drop a second 570 in there...or move to the 6 series.

Second choice. Honestly I love my U2410. But its not as slick for gaming. Its more a professional monitor. For the price of it...Id get a pair of U2312s (they go on sale for about 2bills). Or get a U2412 and bank the rest. Or get any number of 24" TN 120hz monitors out there. But honestly, once you game on a 27" and USE a 27" for day to work...you really will never want to go back to smaller monitors. The only way I would be tempted is via say THREE 23" beasts in surround. THAT would be one killer setup. :)

YMMV but spend the money on the monitor now....and then save up for more GPU horsepower.

[SKYMTL]

Originally Posted by Skippman

Dang. Ok, so maybe add in another GTX 570 here by spring. Think that'll cut it?

My budget is bascially going to be about $1000 max. And lets say I can't afford the Dell U2713 due to my budget being diverted to covering the cost of an additional card. What would be your second choice? Something in a 24" like the Dell U2410? You seem to have given that pretty high marks and it looks to be the direct replacement for my Dell 2405FPW.

Don't bother with SLI in this case. The GTX 570's memory bandwidth with still be a limitation in 2560 scenarios.

Rather, buy the U2713 when it is on sale (give it a month or two)

Sell the the 570 for about $200ish RIGHT NOW as it is still a great card for 1080P gamers. Put than money +$200 on a GTX 670.

That way, you'll have a great setup for when Colonial Marines lands and you can buy pretty much any monitor you want without worrying about not having enough horsepower.

[Skippman]

Thanks for the advice guys. You're one of the few hardware review websites I've been to that actually tests monitors. With so many offerings out there, and in some cases from the same vendors, it's hard to tell what's worth buying. Couple that with the fact there's no way to replicate what you're seeing on the monitor you're testing on my monitor and it clouds things even more. I hope MicroCenter gets some of these Dells in so I can see it in person.

I can't sell my GPU right now as that would make the machine completely useless as I sold off my other 3D GPU's when I bought it. But the idea is good on paper.

My only complaint about the Dell other than sticker shock is that they didn't include the media card reader in this version as they have in about 2/3rds of their other monitors, but that's a minor consideration at best.