The Best 1440p Gaming Monitors: The Sweet Spot for Performance and Price

[Scorpus]

That dream 1440p display for fast-paced PC gaming has become the new normal. Prices have dropped, performance has surged, and for most, 1440p now hits the sweet spot between value and performance.

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The Best 1440p Gaming Monitors: The Sweet Spot for Performance and Price

 

[brucek]

Thanks for these guides, they continue to be my go-to reference when I need a new monitor.

After many years of selecting 1440p by default, I'm now wondering when to make the jump to 4K. The primary reason I wouldn't consider 4K in the past was concern my GPU wouldn't keep up. But getting completely hosed on that seems less likely these days with DLSS and FSR offering respectable upscaling (and console games designed to look good at "4K" output which is likely also upscaled.)

 

[brucek]

Streaming platforms default to it.

Maybe this is a regional issue (I'm US), but Windows requires very specific conditions to go over 1080p when playing videos with Widevine DRM, which is what most of the major streamers use. I believe the requirements to go over 1080p are 1) Edge browser only, 2) HDMI cable only, or at least monitor was at one point connected via HDMI, and 3) supported CPU, which is probably most recent CPUs but may be an issue on older machines. Many windows users will run afoul of #1 and/or #2 since Edge is less commonly used than Chrome, and many users may have selected a DisplayPort cable. Making it even harder is that generally the platforms will not disclose when you've been capped to 1080p nor specify the reason why, making it very easy to gimp yourself in this way.

Now that I think about it this might make for a nice TechSpot article that could help a lot of people out and maybe nudge the industry towards a more user friendly approach.

 

[Jarenien]

32" 1440p gaming monitors are the sweet spot. 27" is too small. With 32" you still can't even see individual pixels if you're an inch from the screen, so do yourself a favor and get the larger screen, because it is just awesome.

 

[bviktor]

32" 1440p gaming monitors are the sweet spot. 27" is too small. With 32" you still can't even see individual pixels if you're an inch from the screen, so do yourself a favor and get the larger screen, because it is just awesome.

The whole point of higher resolutions is to NOT see individual pixels lol

 

[bviktor]

Maybe this is a regional issue (I'm US), but Windows requires very specific conditions to go over 1080p when playing videos with Widevine DRM, which is what most of the major streamers use. I believe the requirements to go over 1080p are 1) Edge browser only, 2) HDMI cable only, or at least monitor was at one point connected via HDMI, and 3) supported CPU, which is probably most recent CPUs but may be an issue on older machines. Many windows users will run afoul of #1 and/or #2 since Edge is less commonly used than Chrome, and many users may have selected a DisplayPort cable. Making it even harder is that generally the platforms will not disclose when you've been capped to 1080p nor specify the reason why, making it very easy to gimp yourself in this way.

Now that I think about it this might make for a nice TechSpot article that could help a lot of people out and maybe nudge the industry towards a more user friendly approach.

This is the first time I ever hear about Widevine, but a quick google refutes even the first statement you made:

"The answer to these challenges is a digital rights management (DRM) solution. One of the most popular DRM solution to protect HD content is Google’s Widevine, which can be implemented on Chrome and Firefox web browsers, Android OS on mobile devices and smart TVs among others."

I couldn't find any mention of 4K restrictions or the mention of Edge anywhere.

 

[MarcusNumb]

Changing to the Alienware 2725df from an LG 1080p 144hz was my best buying decision lately, literally it's another world. I'm saving and waiting for my last upgrade cause my 3600x and 3070ti rig is showing more stuttering and Blue screens lately.

 

[brucek]

This is the first time I ever hear about Widevine, but a quick google refutes even the first statement you made:

"The answer to these challenges is a digital rights management (DRM) solution. One of the most popular DRM solution to protect HD content is Google’s Widevine, which can be implemented on Chrome and Firefox web browsers, Android OS on mobile devices and smart TVs among others."

I couldn't find any mention of 4K restrictions or the mention of Edge anywhere.

That quote is a nice bit of work from the marketing department, which neglects to mention that the supported resolutions are dependent on the device's approved Widevine security level. There's Widevine L1, L2, and L3. Only L1 supports resolutions over 1080p. So yes, you can view Netflix and other major streamer content on all those platforms. But on some it will be limited to 1080p or even less.

re: your last sentence, I agree that is surprisingly hard to find straight talk about what the golden scenarios to activate L1 on Windows PCs are. Every time I've checked a streamer they are very vague about it. I think there must be a license provision where Widevine restricts their clients from advertising what DRM restrictions have been imposed and exactly why. But if you do just a little more digging in the types of forums that cater to people interested in such topics, you will see this has been going on for years.

No need for for you to take my word about any of this though -- try it for yourself if you have a subscription to any of the major hollywood studio type streaming platforms. See what conditions if any you can get a 1440p or 4K stream. If you didn't already know, you can pull up the Netflix stream debug data with ctrl-shift-alt-D (start it on windowed mode.) btw I believe this is all even harder under linux - last time I checked there is no widevine L1 support on any open Linux platform.

 

[Johnnyblaze1957]

I play on an ultra wide 34inch screen I could never go back to 27inch as these monitors are I love it.

 

[RaXelliX]

Good suggestions. I bought LG UltraGear 27GS85Q-B a few weeks back because my old ASUS PG279Q finally decided it had enough after 9 years. The LG is 1440p IPS (Quantum Dot) @ 200Hz. It cost me 220€. About the max im willing to spend on an LCD these days.
Hope this gets reviewed at some point...

 

[Athlonite69]

Q27G3XMN would have been better if it was an IPS panel and not VA I really don't want to go backwards in panel tech as the 24G2 I have has really nice picture compared to the ViewSonic VA panel monitor I had before