Monitor and Graphics Card suggestions
Finally getting round to upgrading my ancient rig (A quad-core Q6600 :surprised:) Probably won't happen until Q3 2019, but already started day-dreaming!
But I need some help from you wonderful people :iloveyou:. I got most of the rest of my kit figured out (I have some weird requirements, but nothing which affects this part), but just can't get settled on the monitor and graphics cards. GTX, RTX, some-other-bizarre-acronym-X? I just don't know. Want as future-proof as possible (Who doesn't?) but a little uncertain on what the general feeling of nVidia's tech is like (Personally, not a fan of their proprietary approach to things, much prefer AMDs open-tech). It's good (If bloody expensive), but is it any use? Physx fizzled out pretty rapidly, will this be the same? Is Intel doing the same. I (We?) just don't know.
For the monitor, I really want to get into editing my photos, so colour accuracy is a must. I'm thinking 4K might also be good for that but I don't have much space, a slim 27" is probably going to be as big as I can get without my wife handing me an eviction notice! (I currently have a 24" but the bezels on it are enormous!) Speakers in the monitor would be a plus, but I'm not expecting anything audiophile grade. Just the generic dings and pops from the OS, maybe the odd video clip. I got some nice headphones for better listening. Is 4K suitable? Would a 1440p be 'better'?
As for the graphics card, well it has to drive the monitor obviously. I'm not the worlds biggest gamer. I like driving games and FPSes, more in the style of Portal/Half Life (Any suggestions for new games, seems a bit desolate in the single player space) so it will need to push the games at a fair clip. Not a big fan of twitchy/multiplayer shooters ala Fortnite, Destiny, Halo, etc. Generally like to play and explore on my lonesome, in my own time. Not getting yelled at by some Lucozade scozzled teenager!
So, hopefully very do-able. Price has an absolute limit of £700.
PS: I'm not the most active user of forums (Lonesome player remember?) but I will pay attention to what you guys suggest, even though I might not say much.
Re: Monitor and Graphics Card suggestions
If you're interested in a monitor primarily for photo editing, an IPS panel is probably your best bet. True 'professional' colour-accurate monitors tend to be extremely expensive, but there are some cheaper options out there. As far as 4K is concerned, I'm not sure that using such a resolution on a 27" monitor is really ideal, due to the issues of scaling. I've not got a 4K monitor myself, and although Windows 10 has gotten a bit better with its scaling options, I think there are some programs that don't behave well where scaling is concerned.
I found this monitor on Amazon that might suit your needs, it's 4K and IPS, and offers Freesync too, which can now be used by Nvidia graphics cards too...
https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-27UK650-...ag=amazondn-21
As for graphics cards, it's fair to say that any GPU in your price range is going to struggle to run games at 4K resolution and at higher frame rates. Depending on the graphical fidelity you desire, your options would be to lower the graphics settings in game, or run the game at a lower resolution. Some games can be set to render the game at a lower resolution, but then 'upscale' the output to 4K, which is one solution. It all depends on the games you play, and the image quality and frame-rates you're happy with.
In terms of your budget, this graphics card might be the best compromise between cost and performance:
https://www.scan.co.uk/products/msi-...-1830mhz-boost
Re: Monitor and Graphics Card suggestions
I forgot to mention that the above LG monitor doesn't have internal speakers. However, every monitor I've ever owned that's had internal speakers has just had horrible audio quality. Pretty much any external speaker system will be a big improvement.
I also found a review of the monitor which gave link to a calibrated ICC profile, which might be useful if you don't have access to a colorimiter to do your own calibration:
http://i.rtings.com/images/reviews/m...cc-profile.icm