Suggestions for a new monitor please?

[JohnJSal]

Hi all. Looks like my current monitor is dying, so I'm hoping to replace it soon, but I don't want to rush this process. Except I also hate shopping for monitors because they just seem so hit-or-miss, even the exact same model!

Anyway, if anyone is willing to suggest some specific ones for me, I would greatly appreciate it. I will use it mostly for simple daily activity, some YouTube watching, and gaming. But so far I've never seen the need for a super expensive "gaming" monitor, as long as it can play most fairly new games well.

Frankly, I'm happy with what I've got (Asus VH236H), which isn't much, so replacing it with something similar would work. It's just a Full HD (1920x1080) screen, not really sure about the response time but most likely I chose 5ms or less. I think I use 60 Hz refresh rate, so again I don't know if I need anything like some of these 75, 120, or 144 ones that I see.

The only real sticking point would be the size, since it has to fit into a premade section of my desk. The full horizontal width of the monitor can't be more than 22", so that tends to be screen sizes of 23-24".

Thanks!

Edit: Just for some reference, I've been looking at a few Dell, HP, and Asus ones. I also saw a few BenQ ones that might work, but I've never heard of this brand before, despite it seeming to be popular now. These were some I saw: Dell S2421NX, Dell S2522HG, ASUS VP249QGR, BenQ MOBIUZ EX2510S, BenQ Zowie XL2411K, and a few others of different brands.

 

[johnb35]

I tend to only buy Asus monitors anymore for myself, never an issue. Acer is okay, used to buy nothing but them years ago. I bought 1 BenQ for a client of mine and it didn't even last a year before it died. I stay away from anything HP, Dell might be okay.

 

[JohnJSal]

I tend to only buy Asus monitors anymore for myself, never an issue. Acer is okay, used to buy nothing but them years ago. I bought 1 BenQ for a client of mine and it didn't even last a year before it died. I stay away from anything HP, Dell might be okay.

Thanks! I like what I have, which is Asus, so I'm not exactly opposed to getting another Asus, but it just seems a bit weird to go back to the brand that just died on me. Not sure if I should feel that way though...

 

[Intel_man]

144 is really smooth. It's nice to have, but not necessarily required. If you do get a high refresh rate one, I'd look into getting one that's G-Sync Compatible rated since you have a Nvidia GPU. You could opt for one with the g-sync module (G-Sync Ultimate) but they tend to be quite pricey and probably not worth it for your use case.

 

[Darren]

I don't have much brand loyalty with monitors, there's only a handful of actual manufacturers of the LCDs and many models are just rebrands of the same internal panel. I generally dislike HP but wouldn't think twice about getting a monitor of theirs if the price and features are right. I'm currently running Lenovos but have had Acer, HP, and ASUS, all of them good.

Really you're looking for something pretty basic it sounds like. IPS will have better color/image quality at the cost of response time. Decide what feature set you want then find the monitor to match it. I'd probably look for 144hz if you can, and will always endorse Ultrawide but that sounds not feasible with your desk setup. 1440p might not be a bad idea if you can find one at that size.

 

[JohnJSal]

Ok, I've decided! I'm ordering the ASUS VP249QGR. It seems to have all the necessary stuff for me, plus a few extras like the 144Hz refresh rate, Adaptive Sync/Free Sync which I assume is the Nvidia thing? Maybe?

It's only $199 but seems like what I want and need, so I'm just going for it. I could easily turn this into a week-long and rather painful shopping experience, but I don't want to stress about it. If it sucks, I'll just send it back!

Thank you all for the feedback! I considered it all before making the final decision!

 

[Darren]

It has FreeSync, which is AMD's technology that has the same functionality as GSync. I think but don't know for sure that GSync generally will work on a FreeSync compatible monitor just by enabling it, even if it's not officially supported for GSync. That used to not be the case but more recently I think something changed and you usually can just turn it on and it works. That's how my Lenovos are.

As an aside, make sure you pick up a quality DP cable, as higher refresh rates get picky with the connection. Might come with one but if you have any issues, start with a fresh one of those.

 

[JohnJSal]

It has FreeSync, which is AMD's technology that has the same functionality as GSync. I think but don't know for sure that GSync generally will work on a FreeSync compatible monitor just by enabling it, even if it's not officially supported for GSync. That used to not be the case but more recently I think something changed and you usually can just turn it on and it works. That's how my Lenovos are.

As an aside, make sure you pick up a quality DP cable, as higher refresh rates get picky with the connection. Might come with one but if you have any issues, start with a fresh one of those.

Ah, you read my mind about the cable! I wasn't sure if I should stick with my HDMI or switch to DP!

As far as the FreeSync and all that, it says it supports "AdaptiveSync (FreeSync)", and then another very similar model says this:

Supports both Adaptive-Sync with NVIDIA GeForce* graphics cards and FreeSync with AMD Radeon graphics cards *Compatible with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 10 series, GTX 16 series, RTX 20 series and newer graphics cards

So I THINK the one I got supports both as well, because it sounds like they are calling Nvidia's side "Adaptive Sync."

 

[Darren]

I think there's some legal stuff with using the term GSync without the module in the monitor but yeah I bet it works.

 

[JohnJSal]

I think there's some legal stuff with using the term GSync without the module in the monitor but yeah I bet it works.

I did a bit more research. Sounds like "Adaptive Sync" is the generic term for the technology that basically replaced VSync, and "Free Sync" and "GSync" are the specific versions of Adaptive Sync developed by AMD and Nvidia, respectively.

Like you said, AMD is more open and easier to include in any monitor, whereas GSync is proprietary. So I don't think my monitor has GSync, but I'm sure Adaptive Sync in general will do the job. I've been doing fine with just plain old VSync so far, so I don't want to be a snob about it now! ;-)

 

[Intel_man]

You can enable G-Sync through the Nvidia Control Panel even if it doesn't bear the "G-Sync Compatible" nomenclature. It just means that the experience is not tested by Nvidia to meet their standard, so your mileage may vary. It could work perfectly fine (i.e. no screen tearing at a certain range of refresh rate), or it won't work well at all.

G-Sync Ultimate is proprietary. G-Sync Compatible is just Nvidia supporting AMD Free Sync and has been tested to run well on their drivers.