A new PC monitor - what should I look for?

I'm thinking of buying a new monitor for my desktop PC. It's been years since I last bought one and I have no clue as to what to look for these days in terms of a monitor for gaming (including Trainz) and 3D model creation.

At the moment I have a >10 year old Samsung 60cm (24 inch) HDTV monitor with 1920x1080 resolution. That's all I know about it.

Money is not such a concern. I'm mainly interested in what technical features/specs I should aim for and any recommendations as to brands/models that meet those requirements.

~ Deane
 
1920 by 1080 I think is the size. Anything bigger and you need a liquid nitrogen cooled RTX 2080TI.

I picked up a Dell 22 Monitor: SE2219HX more because it was on sale and I was after something for a secondary computer but I was actually very impressed with it and it has displaced my ASUS monitor as my main display. It comes in different sizes so you may want a different size.

https://www.dell.com/en-au/shop/accessories/apd/210-aqxv

HDR isn't really there yet.

Cheerio John
 
I've always liked the NEC professional monitors for their image clarity, but then I've never bought a new one and I get them ex-lease from computer recyclers/refinishers.
 
I have a 32 inch (I think) Asus and I love it. Got it from either Best Buy or Office Max/Depot. It can go up to 2560 x 1640.
 
For working, I use a common $89 to $129 low end "On Sale" monitor from a BigBox office supply store.
 
I have two monitors: an older 24' Benq and a newer Samsung 27". Both are limited to 1920 * 1080 and when I buy another I'd prefer a higher resolution. The Samsung is slightly curved which takes a little time to get used to but I quite like it.

If possible, try and view a program on your new monitor with the sort of fonts you might use for content creation. I upped the resolution in Blender to 1.2 and that makes the wording a bit easier to read.

Having two monitors is great for me as I tend to have a lot of programs open when making stuff.
 
As I know you are a creator, I'll throw in a suggestion. Asus' ProArt monitors, the colour profile on them is quite good (100% sRGB, and 99% Adobe RGB), and with minimal change seen when I've calibrated using a Spider4.

I currently use an Asus ProArt PA279Q (2560x1440), and find it a really nice monitor to use. The difference with my second screen (an older AOC) is astounding, the AOC is much more washed out (to give an idea, the blue band at the top of Chrome is a nice mid blue on the Asus, and a very pale 'baby blue' on the AOC).

And one feature I do like with it is that there's a button on the side that enables a 'grid' move that overlays a grid on the screen (ie 1cm squares, 1inch squares, third lines, an a couple of others). Really handy for lining stuff up in photoshop or 3DSMax, I find I use it a lot for aligning parts in 3DSMax.

There's a few other brands of 'budget' artist/pro monitors around these days. I remember looking at them when I needed to replace my last ProArt monitor (screen got damaged); but the Asus one out for me at the time.

I will touch on the colour profile side of things. As a creator, IMO this is important, as it helps ensure that you are using 'correct' colours. Although colour is subjective, when it comes to what our monitor gives us, it's important that it is fairly accurate so that our subjective choice then matches what we put into the computer. The first is colour range; 100% sRGB is going to be the important one for Trainz, since Trainz textures are sRGB. By being a 100% sRGB screen, every pixel is going to show the actual colour that the image has. A screen that isn't 100% sRGB is going to 'lose' colour information (ie it will change the colour to a 'nearest match'; or potentially clip down on the brighter/darker ends of the colours), which means that potentially you might get a brighter/darker/different look to what you intended on screens with better colour ranges.

The other part is the calibration from stock, especially if you don't have equipment or software to help calibrate it. You don't really want to make the texture 'dark blue' when you have an overly light screen, and then find it actually comes out a very dark 'midnight' blue/black colour for many other users.

This happened to me the other day, when I had a 'preview' window open on my second screen whilst texturing a wagon; it looked really pale on the screen so I darkened it up to look right, then put it on my Asus screen and it was waaaaay too dark (went from an oxide red, to a dark brown-red). Was a good reminder to me that my other screen is not for working on textures on (when I'm trying to work out colours)!

Regards
 
As I know you are a creator, I'll throw in a suggestion. Asus' ProArt monitors, the colour profile on them is quite good (100% sRGB, and 99% Adobe RGB), and with minimal change seen when I've calibrated using a Spider4.

I currently use an Asus ProArt PA279Q (2560x1440), and find it a really nice monitor to use...

Firstly thanks to all those who have replied.

Zec, thank you for the very pertinent technical points. Which stores sell Asus ProArt monitors and roughly how much are they?
 
Love my ASUS monitors for their colour-fidelity, excellent contrast & brightness dynamic-range and gaming-friendly refresh-rates, but there are other excellent brands available in Australia that are also worth considering:
e.g. AOC, ACER, DELL, ViewSonic, BenQ, Phillips, LG and Samsung.
Concur with Zec's observation about how valuable properly-calibrated Professional sRGB Display monitors can be for content creators like yourself in terms of output fidelity.
Look for small dot-pitch, high resolution combined with both greyscale and colour accuracy.
With your current GTX 980Ti card, I wouldn't recommend 4k for now, but should certainly consider 2560 by 1440 resolution in sizes 27" and above...
 
... Which stores sell Asus ProArt monitors and roughly how much are they?

A search on Google revealed some suppliers in OZ. Normal price seems to be a bit over $1000 although one had a special for quite a bit less. I hadn't heard of the retailer but it has an 02 number so it would be in NSW. My preferred PC parts supplier doesn't have that monitor.

I did spot a couple of monitors that claim 99% sRGB if that is important. Size is important for me as I can't fit anything over 27" on my desk.
 
Why would you spend thousands on a high end monitor, or a use a 2080 video card, for working, in GMax, and when building routes in "Surveyor" ? Isn't that like driving a Porsche, to deliver pizza's in inner city, rush hour, traffic jams ?

For "Work" while building routes in surveyor, and GMax, you would use a low end PC, and a low end monitor.
 
Why would you spend thousands on a high end monitor, or a use a 2080 video card, for working, in GMax, and when building routes in "Surveyor" ? Isn't that like driving a Porsche, to deliver pizza's in inner city, rush hour, traffic jams ?

For "Work" while building routes in surveyor, and GMax, you would use a low end PC, and a low end monitor.

I disagree. Those content creators making model assets working with PBR materials and using products such as Substance Painter need a decent video card. Producing textures from multiple layers is a lot of number crunching.

The 3D program while making meshes doesn't need much power but if you are real time rendering in that program uses some significant CPU and GPU horsepower.
 
As I know you are a creator, I'll throw in a suggestion. Asus' ProArt monitors, the colour profile on them is quite good (100% sRGB, and 99% Adobe RGB), and with minimal change seen when I've calibrated using a Spider4.

I currently use an Asus ProArt PA279Q (2560x1440), and find it a really nice monitor to use. The difference with my second screen (an older AOC) is astounding, the AOC is much more washed out (to give an idea, the blue band at the top of Chrome is a nice mid blue on the Asus, and a very pale 'baby blue' on the AOC).

And one feature I do like with it is that there's a button on the side that enables a 'grid' move that overlays a grid on the screen (ie 1cm squares, 1inch squares, third lines, an a couple of others). Really handy for lining stuff up in photoshop or 3DSMax, I find I use it a lot for aligning parts in 3DSMax.

There's a few other brands of 'budget' artist/pro monitors around these days. I remember looking at them when I needed to replace my last ProArt monitor (screen got damaged); but the Asus one out for me at the time.

I will touch on the colour profile side of things. As a creator, IMO this is important, as it helps ensure that you are using 'correct' colours. Although colour is subjective, when it comes to what our monitor gives us, it's important that it is fairly accurate so that our subjective choice then matches what we put into the computer. The first is colour range; 100% sRGB is going to be the important one for Trainz, since Trainz textures are sRGB. By being a 100% sRGB screen, every pixel is going to show the actual colour that the image has. A screen that isn't 100% sRGB is going to 'lose' colour information (ie it will change the colour to a 'nearest match'; or potentially clip down on the brighter/darker ends of the colours), which means that potentially you might get a brighter/darker/different look to what you intended on screens with better colour ranges.

The other part is the calibration from stock, especially if you don't have equipment or software to help calibrate it. You don't really want to make the texture 'dark blue' when you have an overly light screen, and then find it actually comes out a very dark 'midnight' blue/black colour for many other users.

This happened to me the other day, when I had a 'preview' window open on my second screen whilst texturing a wagon; it looked really pale on the screen so I darkened it up to look right, then put it on my Asus screen and it was waaaaay too dark (went from an oxide red, to a dark brown-red). Was a good reminder to me that my other screen is not for working on textures on (when I'm trying to work out colours)!

Regards

The only comment I'd make is for TS19 and TANE 2560x1440 is a lot more pixels to drive.

Cheerio John
 
Bringing up as a point to discuss as I am not a "PC" guy (I mainly use Macs) - I built a PC just for Trainz. Wanted a lower end G-Sync monitor and I got an Asus VP247. Though the monitor has G-sync my NVIDIA Control Panel says that the monitor is "not validated as G-Sync compatible."

Should monitor be purchased in consideration of GPU???
 
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NEC is top but not focusing on gaming. I prefer native PC resolutions, so I can’t comment G-sync valuability (which available for cinema resolutions only). I use and like BenQs much. Don’t go for TN display, if not limited by price.
 
Bringing up as a point to discuss as I am not a "PC" guy (I mainly use Macs) - I built a PC just for Trainz. Wanted a lower end G-Sync monitor and I got an Asus VP247. Though the monitor has G-sync my NVIDIA Control Panel says that the monitor is "not validated as G-Sync compatible."

Should monitor be purchased in consideration of GPU???

There seem to be several versions of the VP247, one has Free-Sync / variable sync can't find one with G-Sync though.... yet and it's not on the Asus list for G-Sync compatible monitors? https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/products/g-sync-monitors/specs/
If it's actually Free sync (AMD feature), some will work with G-Sync but not very many of them. If the G-sync option is showing but not validated try ticking G-sync in the Nvidia Control Panel and see what happens but at your own risk as may or may not have stability issues.

At a guess some suppliers are not realising there is a difference between Free Sync and G-Sync?

Edit: Nvidia are not officially supporting free Sync however are probably as it's Open Source it is rumoured they may be including the ability to use it for G-Sync. AMD can't use Gsync yet? as its Nvidia's copyright.
 
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I have the [h=1]ASUS VP247QG 24" (Actual size 23.6") Full HD 1920x1080 1ms DP HDMI VGA Adaptive Sync/FreeSync Eye Care Monitor
- I'm quite happy with it for the money. [/h]
Did not intend to steal the thread topic... I just wondered if G-sync/Freesync needed discussion for the OP. I now move on.....
 
Did not intend to steal the thread topic... I just wondered if G-sync/Freesync needed discussion for the OP. I now move on.....

That's OK, but I personally have no idea what G-Sync and Freesync are, what they do, or whether I need them. Also to JAGG, I don't know what "TN display" is.

So much unexplained jargon!
 
That's OK, but I personally have no idea what G-Sync and Freesync are, what they do, or whether I need them. Also to JAGG, I don't know what "TN display" is.

So much unexplained jargon!

You are going to wish you hadn't asked!
TN = twisted nematic it's a sort of LED display.
They are the most commonly used displays as cheaper albeit not the best quality, most people probably wouldn't notice any difference.

Best to go check out monitors in a local store if you can rather than buy blindly and get something with poor viewing angles or a bad contrast ratio.
 
That's OK, but I personally have no idea what G-Sync and Freesync are, what they do, or whether I need them. Also to JAGG, I don't know what "TN display" is.

So much unexplained jargon!

IPS monitors are generally accepted as being a better image than a TN monitor. Some monitors are factory-certified calibration colour typically they cost a few hundred dollars more. Toms reviews

https://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/monitor-buying-guide,5699.html gives some background.

ASUS, Dell, Viewsonic are all well respected. Apple have good monitors but you are paying a very high price for the name. LG is often underestimated, they make most of the panels the other companies use so they offer excellent value for money.

I have a cheap LG, a fairly expensive ASUS but it is about ten years old, and a Dell which is about a year old. On paper they all have exactly the same specs, ips 22 inch, 1920 x 1080. In practice I prefer the Dell image quality but the LG has quite a respectable image. Major differences are the connectors and buttons on the bottom to press. The LG has a sort of wiggle stick. The Dell and ASUS reasonable buttons. HDMI has evolved over the last few years and is now my connector of choice. I needed HDMI for a raspberry pi which is why I brought the LG which happened to be the cheapest 1920 by 1080 with HDMI I could find.

Cheerio John

In a store they often turn the brightness up to attract your attention which makes it more difficult to compare them.

Cheerio John
 
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