Monitor/GPU opinions

[Tyrannosaur]

Last month I was going to buy a R9 380 gpu (thanks to the advice on here) to upgrade from the current graphics of my AMD A8 APU. Then my monitor started to fail before I hit the buy button. So I've been looking around at my options to replace my old 22" lcd. Looking at 27" cause when not doing normal computery stuff - web, email, bit of photo editing etc I use it to watch tv/films and sit across the room when I do, so the 22" monitor is looking a bit on the small side.

With a budget of around £300 I first looked at getting an R9 380 along with a 27" 16:9 1080p VA or IPS, which I think would give me a good all round system, with possible gaming if I ever wanted to.

Then I thought would spending the £300 on a 27" 16:9 1440p monitor be a better idea, giving me a crisper/clearer display. My motherboard has a dual dvi ouput so it is compatible. But would have to do without the GPU card.

Seen a few youtube videos that compare 1080 and 1440 side by side and can see the benefits of more pixels, but still a bit undecided.

Just wondering what your opinions are.

Thanks.

[scaryjim]

How much gaming do you do? How much do you *care* about gaming?

If you're a fairly casual gamer, then one option would be getting the 1440p screen but setting the resolution in your games to 720p (1280x720). That's a direct 2:1 pixel mapping (well, 4:1 technically, but you know what I mean ) and would probably look OK, plus your APU graphics will be able to drive that easily and handle some anti-aliasing.

If you're serious about your gaming, then there's no substitute for a discrete GPU, and I think the 1080p monitor plus GPU is a better compromise.

[Tyrannosaur]

At the moment no gaming at all. But if I did get back into gaming then it would be "casual" at best.

I wanted a GPU to hopefully smooth out some graphics issues I've had that can buffer and slow when I have a few programs open, especially any 1080p video which gets very choppy when the CPU wants to do something else.

[Bonebreaker777]

A fullHD video playback choppy? I hardly think a discreet GPU would sort it out. Maybe not enough RAM>pagefile bottleneck?
I found recently a 'very' good 27" for a competitive price (AOC Q2778VQE for £220-230, review).

[Tyrannosaur]

I found recently a 'very' good 27" for a competitive price (AOC Q2778VQE for £220-230, review).

Thanks, been researching IPS and VA type displays so I must have overlooked this because it uses a TN panel, but the review seems to suggest it's a great all round monitor.

[scaryjim]

1080p video playback should barely be touching the CPU - it should all be running through the dedicated decode hardware in the IGP.

What's the full spec of the machine? What programs/sites are causing problems? Are your drivers and software all up to date?

Chances are your APU has exactly the same video decode block as the R9 280, so the dGPU wouldn't actually improve that situation. Time to start diagnosing the real cause of the problem

[Tyrannosaur]

So can I ask, does a GPU card do much with day to day tasks like video playback, viewing photo's etc? Or is it all about the gaming?

[kalniel]

So can I ask, does a GPU card do much with day to day tasks like video playback, viewing photo's etc? Or is it all about the gaming?

Yes it helps out with all those things and more, but even a basic GPU will be enough to accelerate those. Buying a discrete GPU shouldn't improve on what you have already.

[Tyrannosaur]

Clear and precise, thanks.

[Bonebreaker777]

Wonder what is taxing your CPU that heavily...

[Tyrannosaur]

My thinking behind getting a GPU was to let the cards power free up the main CPU and RAM.

They are only minor issues I have and thinking about it could be more a HDD (Sata 2) limitation. Programs are run from an SSD but files stored and accessed on the HDD. So if a couple of programs are accessing the HD at the same time, reading and writing, it could cause the choppy pixelation in video playback.

But it's not just video, photo's and pdf's can display slowly at times, especially if I want to skip through to a certain image or page.

Like I say it's not a major issue but it seems I was a bit naive in my thinking.

[kalniel]

Not at all naive. Just so happens there is a GPU built into your CPU that is already doing this. What *can* bottleneck that is the fact they both share RAM, so making sure your RAM is running correctly - dual channel, and maybe optimise the timings etc. - will help make sure that's no the problem.

But if it's things like PDFs displaying slowly, that's general IO, and much more likely to be HDD limitations.. or software - antivirus etc. can get in the way.

[Bonebreaker777]

Not at all naive. Just so happens there is a GPU built into your CPU that is already doing this. What *can* bottleneck that is the fact they both share RAM, so making sure your RAM is running correctly - dual channel, and maybe optimise the timings etc. - will help make sure that's no the problem.

But if it's things like PDFs displaying slowly, that's general IO, and much more likely to be HDD limitations.. or software - antivirus etc. can get in the way.

Agree, looks like the I/O limit is the issue. A pagefile on a slow HDD requiring frequent access will further slow down any operations required.

How about a nice SSD?

[kalniel]

Agree, looks like the I/O limit is the issue. A pagefile on a slow HDD requiring frequent access will further slow down any operations required.

How about a nice SSD?

Well as he states, he has one already. Just not for all files. I agree the pagefile ought to be on the SSD though.

[Tyrannosaur]

pagefile is on the SSD.

Just had a look at the Virtual Memory and everything is set to automatic with the C: SSD - System Managed and None on all other drives. But at the bottom it says:
Currently Allocated: 2304MB
Recommended: 5528MB

If it recommends that why has it not done it automatically? Should I set it to the recommended manually?

Oh and thanks Bonebreaker777 for pointing it out and Hexus for the review, bought the AOC Q2778VQE for £215 a few days ago. I'm now seeing colours and details I've never seen before.