leemccarthyn wrote:1.) blur
2.) too high resolution (2560x1600) for my budget gfx card, which requires me to play at 1920x1080 non-native (!) resolution, which isn't a problem lag-wise, because there is no complex scaler built in AFAIK (if at all), but it certainly does not improve the picture quality.
3.) non-variable frame rate that possibly makes games look choppier than needed when the 60 fps cannot be reached.
4.) tends to give me quite a bit of eye strain.
Why not replace your primary with one that "can do it all" -- almost the same size, almost the same resolution?
I highly recommend the 27"
1440p IPS G-SYNC monitors for you, or if you want bigger/FreeSync, get the beautiful
Samsung CHG70 FreeSync monitor. These are the ones with great blur reduction abilities that I know of for the respective technologies.
1) Blur can be solved with high-Hz (about half to one third blur) and/or getting ULMB (90% reduction in blur). You can get both!
Also GtG pixel response is faster now, and helps slightly with blur (until GtG falls well below half-a-refresh-cycle), then sample-hold blur is the dominating factor and generally follows Blur Busters Law of "1ms of frame visibility time translates to 1 pixel of motion blur per 1000 pixels/second". Which means doubling Hz (& framerate to match) will halve motion blur on all non-impulse-based display technologies, including LCD, OLED, etc.
2) Scalers are much better. But you can now stay at 2560x1440 but with G-SYNC stutters are not as annoying. Playing 45fps-75fps fluctuating is as pleasant on G-SYNC as playing fixed-framerate 60fps on a fixed-Hz monitor, because the visibility of framerate fluctuations are quite absorbed well by the G-SYNC. This is clearly demonstrated at
http://www.testufo.com/gsync (use a stutterfree GPU-accelerated browser for an accurate simulation) -- try selecting the "Struggle at Max" as an example -- single-refresh framedrops are often completely invisible on G-SYNC!
3) The great thing about VRR (G-SYNC and FreeSync) is if your game is at 51fps, your monitor is in sync with it....51Hz. 51fps@51Hz looks nearly identical to 60fps@60Hz, just a smidgen blurrier. And if you're running 70fps@70Hz, it's same perfect smoothness, just a smidgen less blurrier. And if your framerate slowly ramps up to 120fps@120Hz as you go to less busy areas of the game, your motion blur falls to half as 60fps@60Hz.
4) There are many causes of eyestrain. Blue light, PWM dimming, excess motion blur, excess size, wrong brightness. I can't help you diagnose which one, but the great thing about newer monitors is they provide a buffet of choices to help. Optional low-blue-light toggles, monitors are now generally PWM-free, high Hz and/or blur reduction modes gives you the option of less motion blur, wide brightness adjustment ranges.
You're replacing the GPU, so you will almost certainly be able to do 1440p at framerates higher than what you could do at 1080p. And G-SYNC can make lower framerates much better looking than your current monitor too. Talk about hitting multiple birds with one stone!!
And if your budget can afford it, consider the
4K 144Hz HDR monitors which can also become excellent monitors for general-purpose Windows work too. They are the
Acer Predator X27 and the
ASUS ROG PG27UQ
Now you say you may prefer a budget 1080p, so here goes:
leemccarthyn wrote:For those reasons I consider buying a second monitor for gaming.
Are there 27" 1080p FreeSync/G-Sync budget monitors that are considerably better for gaming, esp regarding the points listed? i.e. was someone able to compare them personally or even side by side? 25" or even 24" would, maybe, still be acceptable, tho I'd prefer to stay at 27".
I've seen how huge the motion blur is on the 30" displays, and you will be surprised how much less blur that current gaming monitors have. That's why I suggest a replacement if you can tolerate a slight reduction in vertical resolution.
Imagine being able to scroll while still reading text rather than seeing it go into blursoup. Or dragging a window while still reading details in it. You now can!
leemccarthyn wrote:I currently have an nVidia gfx card, but it's unstable and I'm gonna upgrade the PSU next to check if I need to replace the card. For that reason I don't know yet whether it has to be a G-Sync monitor or a FreeSync one. If I have to buy a new gfx card, it will be a decision based on prices, and it seems AMD/FreeSync currently has an edge there.
Correct, FreeSync is cheaper. If you go FreeSync, remember that your options for motion blur reduction is more limited because you said blur is important. Motion blur reduction features tend to be more common on G-SYNC monitors.
See
Motion blur reduction FAQ. A motion blur reduction mode can make an LCD match or outperform a CRT (imagine superfast panning motion exactly as sharp as static images) in terms of motion clarity, which is something amazing to behold for an LCD for people who has never dreamed LCD could match CRT.
The great news is that the Samsung CFG73 (1080p) and CHG70 series (1440p) have excellent blur reduction modes in a FreeSync 2 HDR monitor. Excellent FreeSync and excellent blur reduction. While keeping the majority of the color quality you're so accustomed to (with the exception of a bit of ghosting in dark greys, but not too bad on the Samsungs). They are VA panels, so they don't blur-reduce as perfectly (more strobe crosstalk especially in dungeon games where the dark greys are ghosting) but you keep the excellent brillantly bright colors of your 30" monitor if you are balking at the TN-color possible-downgrade from your 30" monitor (which is often wide-gamit)
As a rule of thumb:
1. 60fps@60Hz 1ms TN (blur is refresh cycle duration) will have roughly 2/3rds the motion blur of 60fps@60Hz 8ms IPS (refresh cycle + 1/2 refresh cycle more). So your sample-hold 16.7ms blur is added to 8.3ms GtG blur, for a total of roughly 25ms of motion blurring combined (25 pixels of motion blur trail behind the UFO during 60fps at
http://www.testufo.com ...)
2. 120fps@120Hz TN will have half the motion blur of 60fps@60Hz TN
3. Now, combined, 120fps@120Hz 1ms TN will have roughly one-third the motion blur of 60fps@60Hz 8ms IPS
4. If you use a strobed mode (e.g. ULMB), this is all bypassed and you can have CRT clarity. It can help you stay IPS or VA, which while still more motionblurry than TN, will be much sharper than your current monitor, and you get the optional strobe mode to get the extra blur-elimination edge whenever you need it. The main disadvantage is darker images (on some models except the brightly voltage-boosted strobe modes, like in 240Hz GSYNC monitors) and strobe crosstalk (moreso on IPS/VA and on some less-calibrated strobe implementations). And with blur reduction (ULMB), it now automatically becomes mandatory to have framerates matching refreshrates to get the CRT clarity sweetness (half framerates generate double images like 30fps@60Hz and that still occurs with 60fps@120Hz strobed so you want stroberate matching framerate). And VRR doesn't work at the same time as blur reduction mode. So that's why people turn on/off the blur reduction mode. Strobed 120Hz does kind of make it flicker like a ~100-120Hz CRT but at that refreshrate it's not bad for those times you want zero motion blur with perfectly readable text during superfast scrolling. Strobed modes can be turned ON/OFF on a per-game basis too. So you have the VRR mode and the strobed/impulse mode.
Without further ado, check out the monitor lists links below for other ideas...
