Spec Opinions

[Scott]

I think the 2060 would need some sort of syncing at 1440p with any niceties turned on. 144hz would be pointless unless dropping all of the eye candy for more professional gaming.

Is 27" a bad choice btw? More often 28" the standard?

Surely AMD will be offering the same sort of cross compatibility with G-Sync? Would be nice to be able to buy a monitor based on feature preference rather than limitations.

 

[Oussebon]

gsync is proprietary so Nvidia won't let AMD offer freesync on gsync monitors I should think - since the gsync module is involved. It may not even be possible(?) if it needs to be supported on the GPU hardware side rather than just drivers.

All nvidia has done by 'extending' gsync is letting their GPUs use adaptive sync which is an open standard. And for users' convenience (lol?) they have listed 12 out of 400 monitors that they think are ok to do that with... I suppose from a marketing POV they couldn't say they were supporting adaptive sync without something to claim that gsync is special and you should still aim for official gsync stuff. Hence the special display booth they had set up at CES showcasing some of the horrors of non-gsync certified monitors...

Note that with the Element monitor, you can use adaptive sync with Nvidia GPUs (well, from tomorrow with the driver update on Pascal and Turing GPUs iirc). It's just nvidia haven't certified it as 'gsync compatible'. You'll be able to use adaptive sync with nvidia GPUs on any adaptive sync monitor.

Also you can turn quite a lot of niceties up on an RTX 2060 at 1440p in most titles.
https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/NVIDIA/GeForce_RTX_2060_Founders_Edition/15.html
e.g. ACO, FC5. Obviously less so in monsters like AC:OD and Ghost Recon Wildlands, but that's because they're monsters.

I think 27" is quite usual for 1440p. it's also popular at 1080p, but some people find the pixel density a bit thin so I usually suggest 24", though that's personal taste ofc. Still, if someone is spending £300 on a monitor, I'd err against them gambling that they are one of those who are not bothered by the lower pixel density.

 

[Greyham]

Thanks for the advice,

Will the fact that the Element monitor doesn't support Gsync cause any issues?

 

[Oussebon]

None that wouldn't be present on any other non-gsync monitor (which is nearly all monitors of any kind) i.e. you could get tearing or stutter depending on your framerate. If you've ever played games on PC or watched someone else play, you probably already know what these are.

You can still get some 'stuttery' gaming on gsync monitors (e.g. very uneven frametimes will still make gameplay feel uneven or stuttery)

But if you want a gsync monitor for a 2060 I really would recommend extending your budget and getting a 1440p 144hz gsync monitor like the Dell S2716DG (£430, which is lower than usual) or its littler brother in 23.8", the S2417DG (£400). I'd go with the 27" one for that price difference. This way you get the high refresh, the higher res, and the gsync.

 

[Greyham]

Hmmm, I might just have to up the budget then.

Thanks again. Just need to wait for the 2060 to come in stock and then all good to go.

I really do appreciate all of the help with sorting this out. Cheers.

Graham,

 

[DST23]

9

I think we need to wait for more details before shopping off that Nvidia monitor list. It's possible many more monitors work fine with adaptive sync and nvidia GPU, but just don't meet the technical gsync criteria. Also some monitors have slightly different regional naming (same monitors but different names depending on the country they're being sold in). So will be interesting to see whether that effectively opens up more models.

Absolutely. My fault for not being clear - the reason I pointed to Nvidia's "generosity" whistling was for the potential of getting a decent monitor with functional adaptive sync for a lower price.

 

[Oussebon]

I agree entirely.

Unfortunately I think we do need a bit more info and testing before that's really possible.

For instance the list mentions the AOC G2590FX. As far as I know that's just a cheaper version of the G2590PX with some of the features like height adjustable stand and USB 3.0 cut off. But if it's the same panel, presumably adaptive sync will work just as well with it? The issue is that the PX is a lot more easily available than the FX, in the UK anyhow. PCS sell the PX iirc.

And that Asus one mentioned above is ~£300 for which you can just buy an actual gsync monitor.

I've not looked into this in detail yet, but I think gsync compatible isn't the same as 'regular' gsync in terms of features/spec. I think they specify 2.4x (so the adaptive refresh window is at least 2.4x the lower refresh.. ). If so, that would mean you could have a monitor with 40-144hz passing gsync compatible, whereas I think gsync usually goes down to 30fps. Such that there'd be an extra 10fps margin before you start using the gsync equivalent of LFC. So where pricing is similar, gsync compatible may still not be preferable to gsync.

This is what we need:

Update: Users over at the NVIDIA subreddit have created a public Google Sheet to track their reports and experiences with various FreeSync monitors. Check it out to see how others are faring with your preferred monitor.

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https://www.pcper.com/news/Graphics-Cards/GeForce-Driver-41771-G-SYNC-Compatibility-FreeSync