So I finally bit the bullet and got a modern monitor. I’d been using an LG 37" 1920x1080p TV since, like, 2008 or something. It had actually been really good, and looked great but over the years I’d become increasingly suspicious that even with everything turned off, it had some kind of significant lag. I couldn’t prove it because it was too old by the time I started thinking about this (like 2014) to have any detailed stats on the internet (and the manual was long since lost).
Anyway, I kept using it, but it finally died, 5 years after its extended warranty did, which is pretty good for a TV (started getting constant horizontal flicker lines whenever it was in 1920x1080p), and I decided to get a monitor for gaming instead of hogging the new TV.
I got an Acer Nitro 27", 144hz, 1920x1080p again (I have yet to see the point in 4K when pushing half-decent settings at 4K means spending incredible money and it really doesn’t look that great on a small monitor), and notably it’s an IPS panel, rather than TN, and has a 1ms response.
I expected this thing to be “serviceable”, like, maybe as good as what I had but smaller, but it’s actually been an amazing upgrade. First off, my old TV definitely had a ton of lag, because I’m suddenly noticeably better at games which require really quick reactions to what’s happening on-screen, so basically all action games. Going from whatever I had to 1ms is a big deal. Second off, 144hz allowed me to just turn off Vsync. Before, if I turned it off, I’d get noticeable tearing, even if I was usually above 60 FPS. Now, with it off, I haven’t even seen any tearing yet. And I can get better max framerates, and none of the framerate loss Vsync can easily equate to. Also for some reason I don’t fully understand, the colours pop slightly more at 144hz (why the heck would that be? It’s quite noticeable though - maybe a peculiarity of the monitor). And talking of colours, wow, the IPS panel is fantastic-looking. I imagine all IPS panels probably are, but I never had one before (my wife did, which is part of why I got this, she just chose hers for being cheap, but the colours were noticeably vibrant). Here the colour reproduction is amazing compared to pretty much all the monitors I’ve used or seen in person (I’ve seen better TVs, but even a lot of those aren’t, though part of that is idiots adjusting them - this is without adjusting this even though).
I didn’t realize how big a deal with would be, I have to say, so I’m posting this in case other people are languishing with older monitors/TVs. I’d strongly recommend 144hz, 1ms (or so) response, and IPS rather than TN.
