IPS Monitors and Space Games

[Twyst]

I'm looking to upgrade my monitor from an ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q to a LG 34GK950F. Will sell the ROG eventually.

My question is how do space games such as Elite Dangerous and Star Citizen fare on IPS with the infamous IPS Glow and relatively poor black/contrast levels compared to VA panels?
Does anyone game on an IPS screen and have any input here?

[Chaosphere]

What do you have against VA? I have one of these -

Samsung LC34F791WQUXEN 34" UWQHD Curved LED Gaming Monitor w/Speakers https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01L98A326/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_QS01Bb1CBMYBA

This is a VA panel, rather than IPS, and is a top notch screen. VA and IPS essentially trade blows at this point. I have been delighted with its responsiveness, colour, contrast, and complete lack of bleed. Could not recommend it more. Comparing it to the IPS ultrawides at the recent LAN, I remained delighted with my choice. Compared to most it looked near enough identical, and to some it just seemed to look 'better', but there's definitely a subjective element to all of this.

I think for the most part, you should get the panel with the best offer at the time.  Any recent ultrawide costing £500+ is going to be a top performing panel, and I don't think you'd  end up disappointed either way. There's argument that the higher contrast and deeper inky blacks of a VA will suit you better, if space is your thing, but really I'd just go for whatever you can find at a competitive price and enjoy the joys of 21:9 gaming.

[Twyst]

The main reason for the  34GK950F is that it does FreeSync 2 @ 144Hz whereas the CF791 I think is 75Hz. I know it can do 100Hz overclocked, but there are Freesync issues?
I think "black crush" would offend me more than "IPS Glow".
But I've not actually seen any IPS or VA panels "in the flesh" so to speak so this is entirely based on what I've read on the net and you tube videos that I've seen - admitedly on my TN panel so probably not the best idea!

[Chaosphere]

The CF791 has a native 100Hz refresh rate. There are no issues with running this one at 100Hz.

Until recently, you could only get 100Hz 21:9 ultrawides. Some of these 100Hz panels are native 100Hz, and others are 75Hz panels that have been factory overclocked. There are now a few 120Hz variants too, but these are always Overclocked 100Hz panels.

The LG 34GK950F is one of the first 1440p 21:9 144hz IPS screens, which I believe does natively run at its advertised refresh rate, but it will carry a heavy price premium as a result of being 'first'. Expect it to be well over £1,000.

There are also some 200Hz 1440p 21:9 VA panels coming, that are likely going to come first in GSync flavour. I expect these will cost roughly 1.5 kidneys on release. Bound to be gorgeous though.

I'll make an additional note here that I game on the Samsung with a 1080Ti and although most games will run at the 100 FPS needed to get the most out of the monitor, not all new titles consistently achieve this. Depending on the games you play, going above 100Hz in 1440p can start to get difficult.

Really, it comes down to how long you want to wait and how much you are willing to spend. Personally I don't think the difference from 100Hz to 144Hz is worth the extra wait or cash to me, but you may have a different experience and find it worth every penny. I am happy with my 100Hz for now, having sold my cheapo 144Hz TN panel as I just stopped used it when I got the Samsung. The extra frames were not worth the hassle of switching from one monitor to another for certain games.

Eventually there will be 5040x2160 ('4K') 21:9 100+Hz panels, and graphics cards the size of small cars to power them, but this Samsung will hopefully do until then...

[albert]

I have a 4K IPS Acer Predator (60Hz) and a 1440P IPS ASUS ROG P279Q (144Hz o/c 165Hz).

I always (without exception) calibrate the monitor to minimize brightness and maximize blackness. The Acer 4K is amazing, for Elite since it runs so well there is no issue with FPS staying high and v-sync is rock solid at 4K 60Hz. It is a dark as a coalmine and the bleed is hardly even noticeable.

The ASUS ROG is a very blue and bright monitor and I had to work harder to get that calibrated to an acceptable level. For Elite no issue. For SC, if you can even get to 90FPS on 1440P then you're lucky.

That's you're biggest problem, one game that runs on anything but another that will not run over 1440P. The pixel density of the 4K makes space games look amazing. I can give more feedback on SC in 4K once 3.3 is finalized. I'm done testing it for now, due to crashes.

[Twyst]

I've been running my 34GK950F for a few weeks now. Took me a while to solve the IPS glow issue using Luminoodle 6500k bias lighting.
Now I couldn't be happier
Been playing a lot of Elite Dangerous and it's just a whole new way of gaming now.
Every game I have just looks so much better thanks to TN -> IPS and Wide -> UltraWide.

[TeaLeaf]

I've been running my 34GK950F for a few weeks now. Took me a while to solve the IPS glow issue using Luminoodle 6500k bias lighting.
Now I couldn't be happier

Bias lighting makes such a big difference.   I run some dark red LEDs behind my monitor and it makes heaps of difference to how nice the picture seems and how tired your eyes can get.

[albert]

Just the white version, or the other colours?

[TeaLeaf]

Was that question for me?  If it was:

Any bias lighting is better than none.
Some colours work better than others depending on the scheme being displayed on the screen.
Smart lighting are currently working on trying to sync changing colour bias lighting and room lighting to fit the picture on screen (imagine colours and levels of lighting changing as the picture on screen changes to enhance your immersion in the picture).
In reality, most people have one colour bias lighting for simplicity.  
I went with red simply as it seems to already be in use (e.g. in war rooms) and as my PC has a red lighting theme too.   A very scientific rationale, I know!

Side note:
I am itching to refresh my monitor and graphics card for SC, but am desperately holding off until SC reaches a more playable level.  Plus, even with my 16GB RAM I still get 'you have less than 8GB available and SC needs 8GB' warnings to contend with, so I might upgrade the RAM to 32GB if it does not sort itself out in patches.  Then again my current CPU could then bottleneck the gfx upgrade, so I might need a new CPU too.  And upgrading the RAM would mean DDR4 instead of my current DDR3, so I might need to get a new motherboard too.   Oh I love this logic, it feels like time for a total upgrade!

[albert]

Was that question for me?  If it was:

Any bias lighting is better than none.
Some colours work better than others depending on the scheme being displayed on the screen.
Smart lighting are currently working on trying to sync changing colour bias lighting and room lighting to fit the picture on screen (imagine colours and levels of lighting changing as the picture on screen changes to enhance your immersion in the picture).
In reality, most people have one colour bias lighting for simplicity.  
I went with red simply as it seems to already be in use (e.g. in war rooms) and as my PC has a red lighting theme too.   A very scientific rationale, I know!

Side note:
I am itching to refresh my monitor and graphics card for SC, but am desperately holding off until SC reaches a more playable level.  Plus, even with my 16GB RAM I still get 'you have less than 8GB available and SC needs 8GB' warnings to contend with, so I might upgrade the RAM to 32GB if it does not sort itself out in patches.  Then again my current CPU could then bottleneck the gfx upgrade, so I might need a new CPU too.  And upgrading the RAM would mean DDR4 instead of my current DDR3, so I might need to get a new motherboard too.   Oh I love this logic, it feels like time for a total upgrade!

It was an open question to both you and Twyst. I ordered the white 6500K because the reviews were very positive, it actually arrived today.

I recently upgraded because a number of my favourite games were struggling with my older CPU. It made no difference with SC. I think until they actually optimise even amazing systems (like way better than mine) will struggle to make the experience a lot better.

[Jamoe]

I've been looking at something like https://www.dreamscreentv.com still looking at how well they work with PCs.

[Twyst]

Just the white version, or the other colours?

I went wtih the white one for two reasons:
  1) Game studios develop their colour maps to 6500k lighting.
  2) My gaming area has pristine white plain walls.

I was sorely tempted by the RGB variant, but I have enough of that in my case
And it's probably more distracting than white.

[albert]

I went wtih the white one for two reasons:
  1) Game studios develop their colour maps to 6500k lighting.
  2) My gaming area has pristine white plain walls.

I was sorely tempted by the RGB variant, but I have enough of that in my case
And it's probably more distracting than white.

I went for 6500K M 2m length. They sent 6000K. It's very bright and I think having the 6000 with a little less blue in the colour is fine for me.

Then my graphics card broke so I'm playing Elite via on board Intel 630 graphics at 1080p so it's a little tricky to compare.

Still, getting 23mill CR per trip from your passenger mission share mate, more than doubled my funds in a few days.