Tiger Direct has the new 28" Acer G-Sync monitors in stock and I've had my eye on the 1920 x 1080 144hz one for $599 hoping it would go on sale. But it didn't. Instead, it's big brother, the 4k version dropped from $799 down to $679 ($120 savings). For a mere $79 more than the monitor I wanted, they offered a 3840 x 2160 resolution and LED (instead of LCD) with all the same 1,000:1 contrast ratio, 1ms response time, etc.

If you are in the market for a new monitor and specifically would like a g-sync enabled one, now might be the best time to pick up a 4k version relatively cheap.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=9178269&CatId=5469

I guess that is the way to go with my next monitor purchase.

I suppose you also need a HAL-9000 to play anything smoothly using that resolution on such a high tech screen?

I'm hoping my EVGA 780 TI Superclocked will handle it. I may need to get a second one and put them in an SLI configuration, but I'll wait and see.

So you think one powerful video card is not enough for that?

I'm just considering options for my next rig.

It probably wants a 980, but I'll just see how far I get with my current card. My biggest concern is the mere 3GB RAM on the card, even if it is GDD5. But WOFF - as beautiful as it is - isn't Crysis or BF4 in terms of graphics engine requirements so I'm hoping it will be okay. Besides, even if the FPS drops to 30 or so, that's the beauty of G-sync. It will still run smooth as glass because the monitor gets it's refresh rate from the GPU. No more stutters or screen tears.

Gents, if I may, wait till Q1 2015 for the new r9 390x, it's made in mind to handle 4k gaming. Reports are saying it's 50% faster than gtx 980.

I'm not personally an AMD guy but more importantly, G-Sync is designed to work specifically for Nvidia cards, so I wouldn't get the refresh technology benefit on an AMD card, which is the main reason I wanted to upgrade anyway. I'm sure AMD will come out with an answer for G-Sync at some point though.

For those who aren't familiar with it, here is an excerpt from an article explaining what G-Sync does for your gaming experience and how it works.

"Nvidia is releasing G-Sync. Now as I explained the graphics card is running dynamic Hz, the monitor is static Hz, these two don't really match together. G-Sync is both a software and a hardware solution that will solve screen tearing and stuttering. With G-Sync the monitor will become a slave to your graphics card as the its refresh rate in Hz becomes dynamic. Yes, it is no longer static. So each time your graphics card has rendered one frame that frame is aligned up with the monitor refresh rate. So the refresh rate of the monitor will become dynamic. With both the graphics card and monitor both dynamically in sync with each other you have eliminated stutter and screen tearing completely.

It gets even better, without stutter and screen tearing on an nice IPS LCD panel even at 30+ Hz you'd be having an incredibly good gaming experience (visually)."

That's the prob Hellshade, i'd have to buy a new monitor :P

The answer from AMD is Freesync.

Yep. Freesync compatible monitors using the 1.2a Displayport standard should be out in Q1 of 2015. Just a few more months.

Your Graphics card will handle that resolution just fine. I have a 780TI and can run 60FPS at 5120 x 2880. WoFF 2.0 may be different, but we will soon find out. Enjoy the new monitor.

Good to know Fudge. Thanks! I'm not too worried about normal flying in WOFF, but I do wonder how it will handle 4X and 8X time compression. I will find out sometime early next week.

Just ordered a 10' gold plated Displayport cable. One of the few complaints about the monitor is that the cable that ships with it is a bit short.

BTW, nice screenshot!

Is Displayport the successor to DVI and HDMI ports? What's the compelling reason to use that as opposed to DVI?

I'll let someone smarter than me (which isn't hard to find) answer that question Slick.

DisplayPort

A digital display interface developed by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA), DisplayPort isn’t an option for consumer-level HDTV use (unless you plan on owning Panasonic’s top-of-the-line 4K TV, which is the only consumer television we are aware of that supports DisplayPort). However, DisplayPort is a perfectly capable option (some would say preferred) for connecting your PC to a computer monitor. With all of the necessary hardware add-ons and software updates, DisplayPort version 1.2 offers a maximum resolution of 3,840×2,160 at 60 FPS, which makes it ready to tackle 4K/Ultra HD content, and passes digital audio as well – just like HDMI. Despite HDMI’s prevalence today, DisplayPort boasts a couple of features that position it as a direct alternative – one that has earned its own cult of enthusiasts that swear by the connection type.

DisplayPortChief among them is DisplayPort’s multi-monitor capabilities, which make the format an excellent choice for graphic designers, programmers, and anyone else working with computers all day. Users can daisy-chain up to five monitors together in order to better streamline their working habits. There are many applications for such a setup – perhaps the most obvious and useful is the ability to reference material on one screen while typing on another, eliminating the constant alt-tab madness.

While the current version of DisplayPort is 1.2, VESA recently announced plans to issues 1.2a, which is meant to tackle graphical tearing and stuttering problems by integrating something called Adaptive-Sync. The new technology will attempt to eliminate the problem by aligning a computer’s hardware to match up the system’s GPU with the monitor’s refresh rate. Adaptive-Sync is also rumored to be able to draw down refresh rates for less demanding tasks, possibly resulting in decreased power consumption.

Hellshade asked me a question via PM about AA, but though it best to give my opinion here as can add some reference pics and may help others.

To be honest I rarely use AA in games as I tend not to notice the jaggies anyway, when I do I don't find them too distracting. My monitor is (only) 2560 x 1440 (with Nvidea you can run games at higher resolution than the monitor can display, hence the screenshot and the benchmark). I only really notice them when I am actually looking for them and stare at an object.

For reference setting the resolution to native (2560 x 1440) and AA to the lowest (X2) on my monitor (27") I can't see any jaggies myself. I am one Yoke distance away from the monitor, about 18-24" away, though even when I move my head in really close to the monitor I can't notice them.

I've got trackIR and my head is never still, since the cockpit is always moving for me it's harder to focus on one area for too long and spot them during play.

So it will be down to personal preference in the end. In that screenshot I posted earlier I did have 4x AA set in WoFF and still get the 60FPS. I tend to fly in real time, x4 is the maximum I go to (no autopilot for me). No issues so far. At 4K resolution on a slightly larger monitor I don't think you will need AA, but again personal preference.

Just noticed that SimHQ resizes the screenshots down so I've also uploaded some of the shots for comparison to dropbox here https://www.dropbox.com/sh/pe2yz9eeb4jgg9d/AADHKeF12GHI83NCCoNUiND6a?dl=0

Thanks Fudge! I've been reading around and the common theme on 28" monitors at 4K is FXAA alone is enough to handle it for most people unless you have exceptionally good (20/10) vision. I will definitely posts some screenies and let everyone know what I ultimately end up with for a setup. Thank goodness I'm not using FRAPS to record videos anymore. Hurray for Shadowplay! Otherwise 4K would crush the hard drive and just kill frame rates. lol

Awesome pics there Fudge! Thanks for sharing.

What I wouldn't give to be able to do this on my office workstation! I currently use 3 monitors, but my el-cheapo workstation has only one DVI and one VGA connector. So, I have one monitor that looks good(using the DVI connector), one monitor that looks "meh"(using the VGA connector) and one using a USB-to-DVI adapter. And, I'm pretty sure the USB-to-DVI adapter is responsible for my PC locking up on me every three days or so...sometimes when I'm right in the middle of something very important!

It says it's shipped. Hopefully have it sometime early next week. Hurray for early Christmas!

I'm interested in this....running 3 24" monitors at the moment (specs in my sig).
I dont really know any real advantage of the 4k monitors over my current monitor setup (with gfx card)....
I dont get any tearing at all, and fps are superb, always.

thanks for the post HS and for the pics Fudge.