Grimezy
Prolific Poster
I know these threads pop up all the time about "what's the best monitor?" blah blah but I feel I'm in quite a unique setup and not really sure about the best route to take.
As you can see from my sig, my rig is an i5 supported by the GTX670. I don't monitor my FPS often while playing but when I have done I've seen some pretty impressive figures come up into triple figures. My problem is I'm currently gaming on a 32 inch Hitachi LCD and as good as it is for watching Sky, Xbox, etc it seems to be lacking performance when it comes to my pc. When I turn onto my HDMI channel, the info box displays as 1920x1080i and 60hz. However, when I go onto my pc resolution settings on the desktop, I need my settings at 1768x992 to fit the screen on and for some reason the refresh rate is only 30hz which makes me think my gaming visuals are being seriously crippled (from what I understand, if I'm only gaming at 30hz then I'm only seeing 30fps right? Makes me wish I'd just stuck with my xbox).
Firstly, can anyone explain the current issues I'm having and if there's a way to change it. I can't understand why the info box on my tv would say one thing but my desktop says another. Am I doing something wrong or is the tv just very low quality? It was a very cheap one to replace my old hitachi which I'm thinking about swapping back as for some reason this new one only has 1 hdmi port compared to my old one having 2 (which makes me think it could be lower quality performance wise).
Secondly, I'm thinking about just scrapping the whole 32inch LCD route and buying something new now that Christmas is done and gone. The problem is I sit about 6-7feet away from my tv which is currently only the wall so I need something big enough that still allows me to read everything clearly without straining but also something that's good enough to 'wow' me. From what I've seen from monitors, the biggest sizes tend to be 27inch and if I go for a decent one, I could be looking at spending £300 for one of those which makes me think if I go any bigger I'm going to be bankrupt. Also, I assume it's best to go for 120hz over 60hz but my question is if I'm only averageing at just over 60fps while playing intense games, am I really going to be seeing the benefits from getting a 120hz monitor? I'd love to go for the 120 but if it's going to look choppy because my fps isn't high enough then I'm not sure what to do. Then again, after spending £1000 on a desktop I'd expect to need a pretty top spec monitor either way.
Am I best looking at 27 inch monitors or should I be going for a bigger HDTV with better specs? My hitachi was pretty cheap and nasty. Or perhaps I should be looking at HD projectors to fill my wall? Could I mount a normal monitor onto my existing tv bracket? Would a 27 inch monitor even be big enough from 6 feet away. I know it'll be clearer but from that distance will I even be able to notice? I'm not a massive graphics geek but I would like to justify why I spent so much money on a thing that currently seems to be running on a par graphics wise with my 5 year old xbox.
Thanks guys, I know it's a lot of questions but I'm genuinely lost in what to do. I don't really have a budget as I can save pretty quickly but if I wanted to buy it in the next month or two I'd probably be looking in the £300-£400 area. Obviously if you can suggest something that would be worth saving for I'd do that. I did just order a 2m HDMI cable in hope to hook my rig up to my dad's brand new 42 inch panasonic tv which was about £750 so hopefully when that arrives I'll see some improvements to motivate me to save up for something decent.
Cheers
Just to add, I mainly game using a xbox controller at the moment as I'm playing alot of single-player fps's but I also dabble into MMO's like GW2 so I'd like something that would display nicely on both.
As you can see from my sig, my rig is an i5 supported by the GTX670. I don't monitor my FPS often while playing but when I have done I've seen some pretty impressive figures come up into triple figures. My problem is I'm currently gaming on a 32 inch Hitachi LCD and as good as it is for watching Sky, Xbox, etc it seems to be lacking performance when it comes to my pc. When I turn onto my HDMI channel, the info box displays as 1920x1080i and 60hz. However, when I go onto my pc resolution settings on the desktop, I need my settings at 1768x992 to fit the screen on and for some reason the refresh rate is only 30hz which makes me think my gaming visuals are being seriously crippled (from what I understand, if I'm only gaming at 30hz then I'm only seeing 30fps right? Makes me wish I'd just stuck with my xbox).
Firstly, can anyone explain the current issues I'm having and if there's a way to change it. I can't understand why the info box on my tv would say one thing but my desktop says another. Am I doing something wrong or is the tv just very low quality? It was a very cheap one to replace my old hitachi which I'm thinking about swapping back as for some reason this new one only has 1 hdmi port compared to my old one having 2 (which makes me think it could be lower quality performance wise).
Secondly, I'm thinking about just scrapping the whole 32inch LCD route and buying something new now that Christmas is done and gone. The problem is I sit about 6-7feet away from my tv which is currently only the wall so I need something big enough that still allows me to read everything clearly without straining but also something that's good enough to 'wow' me. From what I've seen from monitors, the biggest sizes tend to be 27inch and if I go for a decent one, I could be looking at spending £300 for one of those which makes me think if I go any bigger I'm going to be bankrupt. Also, I assume it's best to go for 120hz over 60hz but my question is if I'm only averageing at just over 60fps while playing intense games, am I really going to be seeing the benefits from getting a 120hz monitor? I'd love to go for the 120 but if it's going to look choppy because my fps isn't high enough then I'm not sure what to do. Then again, after spending £1000 on a desktop I'd expect to need a pretty top spec monitor either way.
Am I best looking at 27 inch monitors or should I be going for a bigger HDTV with better specs? My hitachi was pretty cheap and nasty. Or perhaps I should be looking at HD projectors to fill my wall? Could I mount a normal monitor onto my existing tv bracket? Would a 27 inch monitor even be big enough from 6 feet away. I know it'll be clearer but from that distance will I even be able to notice? I'm not a massive graphics geek but I would like to justify why I spent so much money on a thing that currently seems to be running on a par graphics wise with my 5 year old xbox.
Thanks guys, I know it's a lot of questions but I'm genuinely lost in what to do. I don't really have a budget as I can save pretty quickly but if I wanted to buy it in the next month or two I'd probably be looking in the £300-£400 area. Obviously if you can suggest something that would be worth saving for I'd do that. I did just order a 2m HDMI cable in hope to hook my rig up to my dad's brand new 42 inch panasonic tv which was about £750 so hopefully when that arrives I'll see some improvements to motivate me to save up for something decent.
Cheers
Just to add, I mainly game using a xbox controller at the moment as I'm playing alot of single-player fps's but I also dabble into MMO's like GW2 so I'd like something that would display nicely on both.
