New monitor/potential upgrade advice

[nosbusch2005]

I've recently been in the market for a new monitor. I'd like to use it for my PC and for my PS4 Pro. Since I have read that PS4 doesn't really look that great on a 1440p monitor and for future proofing I have been looking at 4k monitors. The problem is my PC currently has a GTX 960 which I'm assuming won't handle 4k gaming very well if at all. I don't usually play the newest or most demanding games but 4k is a lot of pixels. Would games look okay at 1080p on the 4k monitor?

I do have room in my budget for a video card upgrade if necessary so that is an option if it's needed. Currently I have an i5 4960k and 8GB of RAM to go along with my 960. If I upgraded my video card would those specs hold me back at all? Looking at an RX vega 64 or a 2070 being about my price range if I go that route.

Most of the affordable 4k monitors I have seen have freesync. If I were to get a new video card would there be a benefit to getting an AMD card over an nvidia card for this reason?

And lastly I have some monitors I have my eye on as possibilities but maybe I am missing some that I should be looking at. Or maybe the ones I'm looking at are garbage and I should look elsewhere. Looking in the 27"-32" size range.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078HWBGH...C51DWZB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&pldnSite=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01A0ZRQT...C51DWZB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&pldnSite=1
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B078GRM2M...C51DWZB&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it&pldnSite=1
I very nearly ordered the BenQ yesterday when it was on sale, hopefully I can find another deal soon.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Edit: Or I just saw this monitor is on sale at Best Buy.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/lg-27u...nc-monitor-gray-white/6204328.p?skuId=6204328

 

[PP Mguire]

Since I have read that PS4 doesn't really look that great on a 1440p monitor and for future proofing I have been looking at 4k monitors.

I play both my Xbox One X and PS4 Pro on my 1440p monitor, looks fine. I actually prefer to play 1080p on the 1440p monitor with the PS4 Pro because I don't really like the fake upscaled checkerboard 4k the PS4 Pro uses and it doesn't support 1440p yet.

The problem is my PC currently has a GTX 960 which I'm assuming won't handle 4k gaming very well if at all. I don't usually play the newest or most demanding games but 4k is a lot of pixels. Would games look okay at 1080p on the 4k monitor?

The 960 was only ok for 1080p gaming, so yea higher res is out of the question. Whether 1080p looks good or not on the 4k monitor depends entirely on the scaler and there isn't a ton of people/reviewers that go that deep into the monitors. So it'll be lottery there for you.

I do have room in my budget for a video card upgrade if necessary so that is an option if it's needed. Currently I have an i5 4960k and 8GB of RAM to go along with my 960. If I upgraded my video card would those specs hold me back at all? Looking at an RX vega 64 or a 2070 being about my price range if I go that route.

I put a 1080 in my roomies machine with the exact same processor and it's perfectly fine. I think with a small RAM upgrade to 16GB you'd be pretty golden for a bit.
As to the GPUs, definitely a solid negative on Vega, and I reeeeeaaaallly can't recommend the 2070 either. Pascal sales have dropped tremendously so we're more than likely (rather I'm damn positive) that we will see a good holiday sale on 1080 and 1080ti's. If I had to pick a 400 or 500 dollar 1080ti over a 2080 I'd do it in a heartbeat.

Most of the affordable 4k monitors I have seen have freesync.

Both my 4k and 1440p monitors are Freesync. Gsync monitors are overpriced and I personally don't like VRR much if at all. Consoles, that's a different story. My One X does 1440p, HDR, and Freesync to my 1440p monitor and it's glorious. PS4 is capable, but Sony has to stop being dumb and release it in an update. Something to think about there if VRR is something you might want.

So all of the monitors linked will give you the same give or take picture quality. The LG and BenQ being the best out of the 3. The LG is 10 bit (8bit + FRC) so you'll have to choose between 4K 60 4:4:4 (no HDR) = 17.82Gbps, 4K 30 4:4:4 10b-HDR (no 60fps) = 11.14Gbps, or 4K 60 4:2:2 10b-HDR (no 4:4:4) = 17.82Gbps. The BenQ is 10bit with a DP1.4 port so no bandwidth limitations. The LG has a brightness of 350 vs the BenQ having 300 so that'll affect the HDR effect comparing those two. The contrast is also higher on the LG.

The Viewsonic being the cheaper solution is also DP1.2a with 10bit (8bit + FRC) so same selections apply to it as the LG. It will also have worse color accuracy compared to the other two while the LG will have the best from the factory.

The LG linked from Best Buy is the older model of the first one, so reduced features compared to what I previously talked about.

Edit: If you want my honest opinion, I'd go with the BenQ off Amazon and see how you like it with both PC and consoles while waiting to see if Pascal GPUs go further on sale next month.

 

[nosbusch2005]

Thanks for the thorough answer. Curious on the RAM upgrade you mentioned. How closely does it have to match the RAM I currently have?

I'm kicking myself for not jumping on the sale on that BenQ monitor yesterday.

 

[PP Mguire]

Same speed and voltage should be fine. If it doesn't boot take new RAM back out then change timings to the loosest between the two sets.