24" or 27" Monitor and which one for RTWII?

**Frost, colonel** · August 19, 2013, 07:37 AM

Greetings,

My current monitor is a 22" Samsung SyncMaster 226BW, res 1650x1050.
Just spent alot on a new PC for RTWII and was hoping to get a better and bigger Monitor to get the best out of the game because I am a fussy git.

Reviews for best gaming Monitors seem only to cover FPS games, not RTS games and I am finding it very hard to choose.

To start with the size, I sit 3ft from the screen, looking straight at it(so viewing angles are irrelavant), so is a 27" to big? Also relevent to this is the resolution size. I presume any Monitor you buy works better at it's native res, so what is better for this games detail without making the soldiers too small, a 24"@1920x1080 or a 27"@1920x1080? Although one of the 24" screens with a very good image is 1920x1200.

I can't really go for higher res than 1920x1200 as it will impact FPS to much. Example my GPU runs STWII Ultra settings at 36FPS@2560x1440 and 58FPS@1920x1080. RTWII will also eat more FPS than STWII.

I don't play FPS games, so what response times and refresh rates are ideal for RTWII? The Asus PA248Q 24" is an IPS panel, very good screen, needs no calibration out of the box, 60Hz, 6ms, res 1920x1200. Is this for example a poor choice, I presume mainly because of the higher res making detail too small???

So hoping others have gone before me, what are my best choices in the 24"-27" range? I prefer slim Bezels but may have to compromise on this to get the best overall display for this game?
Budget max is around £350.

Thanks for any help.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · August 19, 2013, 10:32 AM

24 inch 1920 x 1080 is the better trade off pixels are denser thus image is clearer

IPS is also a solid bet

Best monitor period for the price tends to be Dells Ultrasharp line the U2412M is a solid choice that offer excellent image quality resolution size and an exceptional warranty aka if bought through dell you get a 0 dead pixel warranty if it does get a single dead pixel during its warranty period Dell will replace it next business day.

Anything under 8-10ms is fine

I dont notice ghosting untill I cross 8ms in FPS game and its barely noticeable for Total War and the like or gaming in general just stay below 8ms.

**Frost, colonel** · August 19, 2013, 11:48 AM

Thanks for the heads up, it reviews well. Nearly everyone says the 8ms is fine for gaming partic non FPS, including 1 reviewer who upgraded from the 226BW I still run.

This Monitor has no HDMI socket, yet my GPU does. Would I see any noticible difference on a reasonable Monitor like this, between DVI and HDMI connections?
The difference between a console plugging into a decent TV via HDMI and it's very basic connectors is noticible, I don't know what it means between HDMI and DVI though.

**Colossus** · August 19, 2013, 12:39 PM

Originally Posted by Frost, colonel

This Monitor has no HDMI socket, yet my GPU does. Would I see any noticible difference on a reasonable Monitor like this, between DVI and HDMI connections?

No, both are digital connections and there is no difference in quality. The only difference is that DVI does not carry audio, whereas HDMI does. However, in your case, this is not an issue, as the monitor does not have speakers, plus the sound will go straight out of your pc to the speakers anyway.

Originally Posted by Frost, colonel

The difference between a console plugging into a decent TV via HDMI and it's very basic connectors is noticible

RCA cables (the red, yellow and white ones) are typically for standard def, which is essentially what a PS2 is for example. Recent consoles which use 720p or above obviously need more than this to see the advantages, hence why HDMI looks better.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · August 19, 2013, 12:44 PM

Actually

DVI tends to have less issues than HDMI for whatever reason many HDMI monitors dont scale right in windows causing some headaches. Using DVI solves it altho if your GPU has a Displayport Connector its best to use that

Displayport is pretty much superior to HDMI its also free to include in monitors while HDMI costs money.

I prefer DVI over HDMI any day.
Displayport is superior to both. the Dell ultrasharp supports all 3. If your GPU supports Displayport use that instead and buy a cable for it.

**Frost, colonel** · August 19, 2013, 03:59 PM

Thankyou very much gentlemen, you are a wealth of Knowledge to my ignorance.

I just looked up my GPU, an Asus OC'd GTX670 and it has a Displayport. I had not heard of it, saw it and didn't have a clue what it was.
Just need to get me a cable from somewhere and that Dell Ultrasharp U2412M you suggested.

Cheers.

Edit, just out of interest, I looked into Displayport on tomshardware regarding this Monitor and a problem someone was having with using Displayport, but the end of his answer was:

"Still: Displayport over DVI gives you:
- the ability to pass audio (but no speakers on those screens, so irrelevant to you)
- support for daisy chained displays (not supported on the U2412Ms - or really any screens at the moment!)
- support for 4K displays (but yours are 1200p - so irrelevant to you)
- 3+ monitor support on AMD graphics cards.
Otherwise, DVI or displayport doesn't matter. If you don't care about any of those things, there's no reason to go with displayport over DVI".

Again thanks for the help.

**Crazyeyesreaper** · August 20, 2013, 09:48 AM

Originally Posted by Frost, colonel

Thankyou very much gentlemen, you are a wealth of Knowledge to my ignorance.

I just looked up my GPU, an Asus OC'd GTX670 and it has a Displayport. I had not heard of it, saw it and didn't have a clue what it was.
Just need to get me a cable from somewhere and that Dell Ultrasharp U2412M you suggested.

Cheers.

Edit, just out of interest, I looked into Displayport on tomshardware regarding this Monitor and a problem someone was having with using Displayport, but the end of his answer was:

"Still: Displayport over DVI gives you:
- the ability to pass audio (but no speakers on those screens, so irrelevant to you)
- support for daisy chained displays (not supported on the U2412Ms - or really any screens at the moment!)
- support for 4K displays (but yours are 1200p - so irrelevant to you)
- 3+ monitor support on AMD graphics cards.
Otherwise, DVI or displayport doesn't matter. If you don't care about any of those things, there's no reason to go with displayport over DVI".

Again thanks for the help.

Essentially this true

However much like VGA has been dead for years but still gets included DVI is not considered a dead interface few TVs support it in stead they use VGA many monitors are moving to HDMI which has issues with pixel mapping in windows Displayports essentially a PC first interface thus superior. If you card has DVI port then that works fine as well regardless I am not seeing what issue that person had looks to me like most of the features it offered didnt appeal to him. However what interface you use doesnt matter much just dont use VGA anymore its image quality. DVI / HDMI / Displayport = same image quality the difference is the focus behind their development

DVI was to big and to bulky for Home Televisions and media equipment thus HDMI was developed but it has issues all its own and isnt well suited to the PC space.; where as Displayport is the opposite it features many things HDMI does and more but scales properly with displays. In the end it doesnt matter right I just greatly dislike HDMI has 3 PC monitors I have all had issues with 1:1 pixel mapping with HDMI so the image was blurry. When HDMI isnt configured properly for a monitor it can actually have worse image quality than VGA. But again doesn't matter much.

**Frost, colonel** · August 20, 2013, 03:21 PM

Originally Posted by Crazyeyesreaper

Essentially this true

However much like VGA has been dead for years but still gets included DVI is not considered a dead interface few TVs support it in stead they use VGA many monitors are moving to HDMI which has issues with pixel mapping in windows Displayports essentially a PC first interface thus superior. If you card has DVI port then that works fine as well regardless I am not seeing what issue that person had looks to me like most of the features it offered didnt appeal to him.

The issue he had was the Displayport connection wasn't working.

On a different subject whilst the Dell U2412Ms is the Monitor I am interested in, I remember my old 20" CRT cad monitor(weighed a tonne) and it's gloss screen.
When I first got a LCD monitor(which is a good one) I wasn't that happy with the matt/satin screen.

My study has heavy curtins so reflections aren't really an issue, but I am asking myself would I be happier going back to a gloss screen?
Whilst I try and figure this out does anyone know which are the best Gloss screen 24" 1920x1020 monitors.