Computer Monitor for Gaming
1080P – 2k and 4k
Computer Monitor for Flight Simulation
A quality gaming monitor for our flight simulator is what we look to for to create the immersion with crisp smooth graphics. What are the most important factors when choosing a new gaming monitor?
The important basics of a gaming monitor are the colors depth and vibrancy plus the refresh rate and response times. Choosing a new monitor with these features will make a great deal of difference. Great refresh rates make fluid realistic movement which tricks the brain to forgetting its not real. When flying in a flight simulator your roll and pitch movements need to be fluid motion.
Lets look at the qualities of a great gaming monitors by breaking down the specifications in easy to understand bites then some new technologies that are available that enhase our game play.
Gaming Monitor Resolutions
In 2021 the latest gaming monitor resolutions are just jaw dropping with a number of companies producing 8K display panels for gaming but by far 1080P remains the gaming resolution of the majority of gamers.
The best performance for games is the 1080P where most hardware will deliver the best FPS. If your looking for a balance between performance and quality then you can step up to 1440P. This is growing in popularity as graphics cards are able to deliver high graphics quality as well as Nvidia’s real time ray tracing making scenes more realistic and react to lighting in real time.
If your expecting great performance and high visual quality as well as features like ray tracing then your going to need to warm up the credit card to make this a realistic reality.
Common Resolutions for Gaming Monitors
Gaming Resolutions
Gaming Monitors
720P = 1280*720
1080P = 1920*1080
1440P = 2560*1440
4K = 3820 * 2160
8K = 7680*4320
Gaming monitor Aspect Ratio
Monitor aspect rations are something to be aware of if your new to PC gaming but not spoken about as much in recent times. Aspect ratios are the way the monitor displays your gaming vista on the screen. It is a ratio of height to width of the display.
The most common aspect ratios are 16:9 being the most common but with wide screen monitors comes some more options to be aware of like 16:10 and moving wider there is 21:9 and 32:9 ratios in the widest of available monitors.
Gaming Monitor Options – Curved or Straight
There are so many gaming monitor options in today’s gaming market. The shelves are full of curved wide screens in HD, UHD, QHD, FUHD screens with wide and ultra wide options available. Where should you start?
Wide screen monitors are said to have a number of advantages to gamers and productivity workers as well. Lets look at a few points that you can consider when looking at a monitor choice. Lets look at a few general advantages of widescreen PC monitors below.
Advantages of Curved Gaming Monitors
- The curved widescreen monitors are said to bring the immersion level up with everything in direct view of the user.
- The reduced edge distortion when reading is said to be better and less tiring on the eyes of the user.
- The curved screen because it wraps around the user and enables the viewer to see the whole screen without having issues with focusing on the edges because they are actually a different distance than the center of the screen.
- Samsung claim that users reading from flat and curved screens found the curved ones 24% more effective when tested.
- Pixel refresh rates – Reduced reflection – Brighter colors – Faster Refresh rates are also factors companies like Samsung claim the curved monitor is the way to go in todays gaming world.
Gaming Refresh Rates
The refresh rate as we have mentioned previously determines the smoothness of our gaming experience again providing we have the horsepower to run it.
If your lucky enough to have an RTX 3080 or a RX 6900 graphics card coupled with a 11th or maybe 12 gen CPU or the top of the range Ryzen 3000 series CPU to power the graphics higher resolutions available and the higher refresh rates available.
It is expected the higher the resolution the better the experience but if your system isn’t up to it stuttering and screen tearing can become an issue. You also have to select a gaming monitor that has a higher refresh rate then select the settings in Nvidia Control panel or AMD Radeon equivalent. They don’t always auto select so If your paying for 144 or s40 Hz make sure its enabled. See below on how it can be done.
Changing Refresh Rates
If your an Nvidia user then here is how it is done. Please remember if your gaming monitor does not support a higher frequency or refresh rate then it will not appear.
My current settings are using DSR or Dynamic Super Resolution so there are resolution choices. More on DSR soon. You can see my TV (Monitor is only a 60 Hz unit) so I cant select 144 or higher. If your monitor is able to display a higher refresh rate you can select it here and your personal refresh rates will be available.
Response Time & Input Lag
Response times for gaming monitors are measured in milliseconds or MS. As a rule a 1ms response time is very good and average is about the 5ms mark. You will find a range from 1 to 6ms but for most gamers you wont see a problem with any of these. Its said that out to 20ms you wont notice any real issues but the input lag is where it may prove to be an issue.
Input lag is a separate issue and relates to the time the panel takes to refresh the screen once you or your opponent has moved in game. The screen needs to be refreshed to present the next frame so you can duck or fire at your opponent where they are now and not where they were a frame or two ago. Pretty important isn’t it.
Gaming Panel Types
Modern monitors now come with a lot more options and the types of panels and the delivery of contrast and color is a complicated subject for the novice.
TN panels are the supreme panels generally offering a 1ms response time as well as being able to achieve 240Hz. Very quick in both response time and input lag. TN panels take the least time to process an input from the three main types of gaming monitors.
Gaming monitor TFT Panel
TFT or Thin Film Transistor panels which is a variant on a liquid crystal display that have the ability to change only those pixels that require a change and leaves the others constant. If your in a large landscape and the view isn’t changing except for some tanks or people moving then its more economical just to change the required areas. They are referred to as active matrix LCD’s.
These are great where maximum color accuracy is not the prime function and viewing angles do have some limitation. If you move off to one side the color of the picture will lose its accuracy. You can see the comparison below in the example screens.
In general day to day use the TFT will perform very well and regardless of its negative points will still serve you very well. Its response and power usage are also very good.
Gaming Monitor IPS Panels
IPS or In Plane Switching panels have many advantages and are the choice of hi end applications with better quality color response and wider viewing angles without loss of clarity. IPS panels are faster in response times generally as well as giving a fuller color pallet if you doing professional color work lets say as a creator/movie maker where color accuracy is paramount.
1080P Gaming – The most popular resolution
If your a 1080P player, which is certainly still the bulk of gamers then the CPU is where your going to make up the performance. Here the single and multi core performance seems to outstrip the outright GPU performance. At this resolution the GPU does not get to do a great deal and the speed of your CPU is going to be paramount as you can see below.
Gaming FPS Benchmarks 1080P MSFS 2020
In the graph from MSFS 2020 Forum the CPU performance of the latest CPU’s is shown. I hope this will give you a head start on your CPU choices if your considering an upgrade or a new system. More GPU benchmarks below.
1440 & 4k Gaming
Today 1440P as well as 4k gaming has started to be more possible at good refresh rates with the latest generations of graphics cards from AMD Radeon and Nvidia RTX offerings.
In this graph by Bjorns3D shows a typical FPS breakdown as we move from 1080P to 1440p and then 4K resolution. The game here is Shadow of the Tomb Raider but it is very representative of what we see over all games and resolutions.
Again at 1080P the processor makes a great deal of difference but as we jump to the higher resolutions like 1440 and 4k the GPU becomes the overriding factor. Yes bigger is definitely better!
Is it possible to game in 8K Yet?
The new player immerging on the gaming landscape is 8K. Who would even have imagined it even possible but yes its a thing now! NVIDIA with its RTX 3090 have plastered all over their site the how and why you can and I am sure AMD Radeon with their top dog the Radeon 6900 will be doing the same. The truth for most of the worlds average gamers and flight sim enthusiasts is probably not going tot be a thing for a while without a large investment by you the consumer.
There are certainly a few games out there capable if you have the hardware as you can see this graph from NVIDIA.com. What is making this even me realistic is the new AI technologies we are seeing emerge from the top dogs in graphics. DLSS as well as Real Time Ray tracing has become a real thing and has been improving in its performance.
DLSS – Deep Learning Super Sampling.
Deep learning super sampling is a new toy on the block from NVIDIA. This uses the power or neural networks and its tensor cores to upscale intelligently an image from a lower resolution to something much higher.
This technology brings with it increased performance in more FPS as well as greater clarity in the scene. It can even take a lower resolution and take it to 8K with reasonable FPS as you can see in the examples from Nvidia.com
Gaming Monitor or VR? What should I buy?
VR or virtual reality is a passion of many including myself so do you still need a top end monitor. In 2021 Its the choice of many to play exclusively in VR. So is it needed to also have a high end monitor as well.
This will be a practical choice for most. Those that are YouTube creators or do work requiring typing and office work as well as gaming then you will still need some good monitor space ahead of you. If your not gaming on the monitor and your not a creator or movie maker or even into photography then a more basic setup is more likely going to do the job.
Its still pretty hard to do emails and other work in VR so it depends on the overall picture of what you do personally. If your still enjoying many games that don’t offer VR then you can then get that big widescreen high performance monitor. Its only a personal choice I would say!
New Gaming Technologies
There are some older and new gaming technologies that we can utilize to give us better graphics quality without losing performance as well as creating better performance with AI technologies.
Nvidia DSR or Dynamic Super Resolution is something many gamers have missed out on as far as benefits. Lets talk briefly abut DSR and the latest technologies like DLSS and Ray tracing for a moment.
Nvidia DSR – Pseudo 4k
Nvidia DSR is a technology that has been around since the 10 Series Nvidia cards. I have found it very useful for giving me much higher quality picture in both 2D and Virtual reality over the last few years.
How to use DSR
NVIDIA DSR or Dynamic Super Resolution can take a 1080P resolution for example and Upscale it to 4K then reduce it to 1080P giving you a pseudo 4k Picture with not a lot of performance loss. There is a smoothing option as well as multiplier factors in the Nvidia Control panel 3D settings where you can enable DSR. In a 1080P monitor 2X to 4x which relates to resolution it displays.
On a 1080P monitor 1.5X 1080P =1440P & 4X 1080P=4k.
In game simply look at the resolution options and select 1440 or 4k even if your on a 1080P monitor and it will take effect. Unlike some other new technologies it will work natively with any game. Give it a try and enjoy the results.
AMD – Virtual Super Resolution
AMD has its Virtual Super Resolution which is its equivalent of NVIDIAs DSR. They may very well have different paths to the same goal but the effect is certainly about the same. Crisper sharper images and really a minimal performance loss for the gain in quality. If your on the Red team then you do not miss out on this great piece of technology.
Nvidia DLSS Deep Learning Super Sampling
NVIDIA has introduced a new AI controlled super sampling option but it has to be supported by the game your playing. This new technology being delivered by Nvidia uses its tensor cores that utilize a neural network to improver performance and visual quality by taking a lower quality image and upscaling it to crisp 4k or even 8K.
The FPS is able to improve allowing the possibility of having real time ray tracing enabled for even more amazing graphics. Available on RTX graphics cards with program support only.
NVIDIA.com Performance DLSS on/off
NVIDIA.com DLSS in operation.
Nvidia & AMD Radeon Real Time Ray Tracing
Real Time Ray Tracing brings the light in your game scene to life. Giving real time lighting and shadows as objects and your viewpoint change within and in real-time. This feature is available from AMD Radeon cards in their latest series as well as Nvidia RTX GPU’s.
Computer Monitor – 1080P – 4K – 8K Monitors
The option of 4 K monitors in gaming has made some games amazing with the new RTX cards from NVIDIA as well as the New AMD Radeon cards allowing many games to run smoothly in 4k. Ensuring you have a computer monitor for your flight simulator with enough grunt to power in the upper end specs.
A great CPU and the newer generation of GPU ill be required at 4 K & beyond to really enjoy the high quality picture. Its important to make sure you can run this level so check your desk top specs before buying.
The choice is yours!
The computer monitors available are constantly being refreshed so I hope to show you what are the most popular ones available and updated so you can keep right on top of the latest tech. Check that out right here with Amazon.com.
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