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.

I saw a 4k widescreen TV,, maybe a 55", at a "major electronics chain" last week.
The picture was absolutely amazing. I was quite impressed.
In chatting with the clerk it would appear there is not a lot of programs/movies that support this format and he stated that next year home entertainment compatable stuff will start trickling out. The problem being, except for some ball games , I don't watch TV.
But yea, looking at that baby, I was wondering at its computer monitor possibilities.

Wow guys, 4K screens, 28+ inches, multimonitors this is getting very hardcore!! To think that I am still flying with a single cheap 22 inch monitor.... Maybe time for a Christmas present here too? Something on the 300-400 euros range? I don´t want to lose performance with my Nvidia GTX760...Any ideas?

By the way, congrats for your new home cinemas Hellshade

I don't know as much about monitors as I do about other hardware, but to my knowledge an IPS display produces superior color accuracy compared to a TN. I had a 1080 TN and now a 1440 IPS and it sounds funny, but the blacks are darker and colors are more vibrant on an IPS.

Also, be careful when choosing a 4k display as same amount of pixels are used on a 50" display as a 30". So, you can pratically count the number of pixels on a large display while you'll need a microscope to see the pixels on a 30".

And for cables, if you're going for anything above a 1080, then go with DVI or display port as HDMI can't do it.

Not crazy at all. TNs are not as good at wide viewing angles, etc, however most 4K monitors are being built with TN now to keep the price lower. On a TV set the viewing angle could clearly matter but for my monitor, I'm viewing it from head on 99% of the time.

G-Sync monitors only use Displayport. No other connections on it, so that makes that easy. I have a 10' Displayport cable on order too.

The pixel pitch on Hellshade's new monitor is only 0.16mm, which is half that of most 1920x1080 monitors. That should keep any notice of individual pixels to a minimum.

Even though it's shipping Ground, UPS has it scheduled for delivery by sometime tomorrow night. Same with the Displayport cable. If it all actually works, it might be a really, really good few days off. I wasn't expecting it until next week just because it was going Ground. Whoot!

It would be nice if I could test it with WOFF V2.0! Come on e-tailer! Get your tail in gear! lol

It's actually there already. Check the Buy Now section!!!!

Yep. Already purchased and downloaded to the thumb drive to take home. lol 715MB

And so now you'll have to downsample back to 1080p for the rest of us to see your (expected to be wonderful) WOFF 2.0 videos on YooooooTube!

I think so. Youtube won't capture it in that resolution, but at least I can do screenshots!

Interested here as well. Fudge, I am also running at 2560 x 1440 resolution with 8AA and GTX 780 TI card. I still get jaggies and it is bothersome as I like it seamless Also, take a FPS hit. Average is around 45 FPS. Can I ask you to share your graphic settings to compare?

Thanks for pics as well!

It has arrived and I have it all set up. Runs great and G-Sync is awesome! Merry Early Christmas (especially for the credit card company).

I highly recommend the monitor (especially when it's on sale!)

is that a screen shot desktop background or are you playing woff in a windowed mode?

Screenshot from WOFF.

Great. Thanks a lot, Hellshade. There goes another $600, as I MUST HAVE IT!

It's pretty nice. G-Sync is amazing. Especially in games like Skyrim where everything runs liquid smooth. No stutters or problems normally associated with v-sync.

So how is it working with the 780Ti card, can it push the pixels fast enough ???

Do you use any AA now ???

And if you do not use any AA, do you have "terrain crawl" when you look across the terrain at low altitude ???

I run a compromise. I do 2560 x 1440 with 8x AA and things run pretty smooth and look very nice up through 4x time compression. It can push 4k resolution with 4x AA fine but time compression really hammers it.

Besides, I'm running Windows 7 which doesn't properly support UI scaling at 4k resolutions, so it's best just to run WOOF at the same resolution as my desktop, otherwise the text under the icons and such are just too small to read.

I'm skipping Windows 8.1 though so I'll just have to wait and see what Windows 9 brings. Also, this is my "future proof" monitor. I plan on buying a new generation of video card when Nvidia comes out with one that will push 4k at 60FPS under even very rigorous conditions. I'm still getting the benefit of G-Sync, crystal clear LED display (man the whites are PURE white!) and high resolution that I was before with a much faster 1ms refresh.

60FPS at 4K with time compression would require SLI to be consistent with the 780 TI SC series.

This is why I'm looking at the Asus 2560 x 1440 G-sync monitor (once the prices come back to MSRP).

I suspected that the 4k G-sync was just a little to GPU taxing for the next year or so with a single video card (tried SLI/Crossfire in the past and most older games don't like dual cards).

Look forward to your screenshots and videos with your new monitor.

I was looking at the Asus monitor also. But when this one went on sale for just $79 more than that one, I figured the fact that it is LED alone would make it worth it. Plus, as I say...future proofing. I'll still have it 2 years from now and then it's just a matter of buying the card.

Sorry for the delay in replay. Been trying to avoid WoFF till Christmas, it's not been working too well though

If you haven't already take a look at my screenshots in dropbox (rarther than on SimHQ), the ones at 2560 x 1400. I don't have any sweetFX installed or the like. If you notice the jaggies in my pictures then it's just my eyes are not as good as they should be If you don't notice them however is where things may be interesting. Could try the reverse and you post a few screenies from your set up.

Setting attached





For reference the rest of my hardware setup
I5 2500K @ 4.2GHz
GTX 780TI Gigabyte windforce or something similar
16GB RAM
Windows 7
Crucible 256GB SSD with WoFF installed onto

Some reviews said it depends on the game. For today's first person shooters with lots of explosions and action (the latest Call of Duty or Battlefield title) you better have hi-powered cards in SLI or a dual GPU card. Even the new 980s are said to have problems with 4K rez with those types of games. On the other hand, for other types of games (flight sims???) a single 780 Ti can do the trick. That's what I've read.

Skyrim, Guild Wars 2, Rift all ran flawlessly at 4K. WOFF ran fine as long as I didn't cmpress time past 4x. My problem with WOFF is it really wanted to run at the same resolution as the desktop. That's why I set it to 2560 x 1440.

I've been watching that same ACER G-Sync 4K monitor myself. One major negative is the only connection is Displayport. That's it. But the price keeps fluctuating. Last week it dropped from $799 to $719 on Amazon. Post Turkey Day it was back up to $789. I have no idea where it's at now---on Amazon. Thanks for alerting us to the price on Tiger Direct.

Hate to tell you this, HEllshade, but I think you have your monitors mixed up. The Acer 4K with G-Sync is the XB280HK. That' model does not exist on Tiger Direct's site. I just checked. If it was old out, wouldn't it say "out of stock" or something similar? It isn't there at all.

Probably because it was on sale at $120 off the normal price in an attempt to sell them out. I posted a picture of the monitor box and the monitor itself installed on my system. Felling pretty confident that I'm not mixed up on anything.



This what you were looking for?

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

How did you find that? I typed in the precise model name and number into the search bar. It came back with "no such item' or words to that effect. You were already my idol because of your incredible videos and screenshots. Now you're godlike.

Just to chime in, the higher the resolution of your monitor, then the stronger video card you'll need. It varies from one game to the next, but almost all current games will need a strong video card to play at high settings or more. For example, if you can play your game at max settings on a 1080p with a 680gtx 2gb, then you'll reduce your settings once you upgrade to a 1440p. Or worse, if you upgrade to an IPS or 30" monitor, then forget even playing at medium settings with a 680gtx.

Ideal situation would be to upgrade your monitor at about the same time as a video card upgrade to take advantage of the better resolution and not suffer from poor performance issues.

Some questions from a non-technical geezer:

I'm going to switch over to a G-sync monitor. It will be the Acer XB270 (the 1920 x 1080 one mentioned above). It will be matched up with a GTX 980 card.

I don't have much of an understanding of what the various Nvidia 3d settings actually control. I've just followed the advice that I've seen and used those settings.

So my question is - when I change over to a G-sync monitor what do I need to do with the Nvidia settings that I've been using for the past few years? For example, should vertical sync still be set to "on"? What about the other settings?

What Nvidia settings do you use with your G-sync monitor?

Also, SLI should still be disabled when using WOFF, correct?

Thanks

When you pick your game in the nVidia control setting, you pick G-Sync versus V-Sync and that is it.

and G-Sync is turned automatically turned On in the Global settings once you connect the G-Sync monitor to your G-Sync capable Nvidia card.

So I'll have G-Sync enabled (instead of vertical sync) in Nvidia settings. And that's all there is to it? Everything else (antialiasing, texture filtering, etc.) should stay the same as what I've been using?

At one point, quite a while ago, I heard that (for WOFF) it was better to use Nvidia global settings instead of specific program settings. Is that true? If not, and I decide to use the program setting, it should refer to cfs3.exe instead of a woff file, correct?

What about WOFF workshop setting - should VSync be force on, force off, or driver setting?

Thanks Fudge much appreciated! I am not a tech type and need all the help I can to dial in the best possible settings for my rig setup. Between you and Hellshade I have a similar setup other than the new 4k monitor. Cannot get WOFF settings quite right over a few months of tweaking. Will give yours a try on an NVidia 780 Ti card.

Yes.

Yes.

Not 100% sure, but I've never read anything saying that that is recommended. At any rate, using the WOFF program profile works fine for me.

You are correct, sir.

I would leave it to driver setting. Basically, you want your driver to tell your video card what to do, not the application(WOFF).

Thanks for the replies, Slick Wilhelm, Hellshade, and Panama Red. I appreciate it.