Big TV as a monitor for gaming?

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Talkiet

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#304699 29-May-2023 13:26

I want huge triple monitors for my simracing rig and the only way to go huge without completely breaking the bank is TVs instead of monitors. I have looked at spec lists but there seem to be so many asterisks and special cases that I wonder if anyone has already done the work and knows of a specific brand/model or hooks to look out for...

What I want

Triple 4k screens
50" or 55". Bigger is a problem to physically fit, smaller doesn't feel worth the upgrade
at least 120 Hz support at 4k
Resistance to burn in/persistance so I don't think OLED is an option
Colour accuracy is not important
Contrast is reasonably important
Tiny bezels on the side is very important. Many TVs have tiny physical bezels (3-4mm) and then have another 7-8mm of black space before the pixels start
Freesync premium or Gsync probably necessary
Absolutely no need for Smart TV functionality

Will the TVs accept a 1440p signal and upscale internally? (Yes I know there are mechanisms to do this in SW)

Budget? As little as possible to satisfy the requirements . I suspect about $1500 is the lowest I could expect. Image quality isn't that important (although panel speed/ghosting is one thing I do want to be decent) so I hope that drives the price down.

I also believe that I could drive an HDMI 2.1 port on a TV with a relatively cheap cable from a recent 40 series Nvidia card Displayport output?

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

SpartanVXL

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#3080893 29-May-2023 14:58

So quick recommendation for that budget is the Hisense U8H. If you have a bigger budget then Samsung QN90b. Otherwise get a LG OLED C series

Some things to be aware of if you aren’t already:

1. You’ll need displayport1.4a to hdmi2.1 adapters (if using nvidia). This will not let you use VRR/freesync/gsync as there is no adapster on market that will translate the protocol.
2. If using said adapters if you go higher than 4k 120Hz 8bit then you will engage DSC which is fine but will use two internal displayport heads. Since you are planning on multi-display be aware some ports will disable if you engage DSC.
3. While you've mentioned you don’t want burn in, OLED does tick the boxes for three other things (colour, contrast, blur/ghosting). LCD’s are still okay on those fronts especially brightness.

There are ‘monitors’ that use the OLED panels from LG and have native displayport support if you really need VRR. Asus pg48uq, LG’s ultragear series, gigabyte aorus FO48U.

On AMD’s side there are reports that displayport2.1 to hdmi2.1 does work with VRR.

Edit: yes most have good upscalers for non-native content. If you are close enough you will still see it though. I haven’t checked the reviews aside from the LG C series but if you enable game mode for low latency you may disable some of the processing for upscaling on some models.

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Talkiet

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#3080898 29-May-2023 15:06

1. You’ll need displayport1.4a to hdmi2.1 adapters (if using nvidia). This will not let you use VRR/freesync/gsync as there is no adapster on market that will translate the protocol.

I was NOT aware of that - thanks for the heads up. Time to read

2. If using said adapters if you go higher than 4k 120Hz 8bit then you will engage DSC which is fine but will use two internal displayport heads. Since you are planning on multi-display be aware some ports will disable if you engage DSC.

No intention to go higher than 4k/120... As mentioned this is triple screen so I am not even sure I'll get acceptable framerates with triple 4K at all(!)

3. While you've mentioned you don’t want burn in, OLED does tick the boxes for three other things (colour, contrast, blur/ghosting). LCD’s are still okay on those fronts especially brightness.

There are ‘monitors’ that use the OLED panels from LG and have native displayport support if you really need VRR. Asus pg48uq, LG’s ultragear series, gigabyte aorus FO48U.

On AMD’s side there are reports that displayport2.1 to hdmi2.1 does work with VRR.

Just checking the first of those monitors shows $3-$3.5k for a single monitor(!) I didn't really fancy spending over $10k on new screens :-)

Thanks for the response - very helpful. I will check out the Hisense and endeavour to understand the DP1.4 -> HSMI 2.1 limitations around VRR.

Cheers - N

ps How annoying is "your post has too many quotes" when I edited this to have answers after each section?? Ugh. I removed all quotes to make is less understandable but compliant with the forums.

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.

richms

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#3080918 29-May-2023 15:51

Things which suck for TVs as monitors:

Picture modes that add lag - need to hunt out game mode and then the images are not as nice. They seem to revert to other modes at their leisure making your gaming suck till you figure out whats happened.

TV doesnt power on with a signal like a monitor. You have to manually power them on. Will often trigger windows to shift things around the screen when you do that. They will also not power off with power saving, they will show no signal for ages then power off, at which time the computer determines they are unplugged and mess up your window and desktop icons.

For multiple displays, the remote will control them all, so you have to aim them carefully and possibly tape over the remote sensors to reduce sensitivity of them.

Limited modes they say to the computer they support - often no 1440p modes, frequently advertise as limtied colour space even when you have been into the menu and set them to ful range RGB, so windows will treat them as a TV and you get bad blacks and limited whites - less of an issue with HDR as that has its own range rather than 0-255 but I have still seen windows mess it up because of what the TV reports in its edid and what you actually want to send it.

Richard rich.ms

Handle9

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#3088028 9-Jun-2023 20:11

SpartanVXL: So quick recommendation for that budget is the Hisense U8H. If you have a bigger budget then Samsung QN90b. Otherwise get a LG OLED C series

I'm not sure of the specs of the NZ variants but the Hisense U7H is also a good option. It's a 120Hz VA panel rather than mini LED in the U8 but it's a bit cheaper as well. I've just bought one for a bedroom TV. For the money it's really quite excellent and it supports Freesync and ALL.

Talkiet

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#3088047 9-Jun-2023 21:09

Yep - that looked like the TV I would be interested in however as pointed out above, if I wanted VRR/Freesync/Gsync, then displayport to HDMI just won't work. I need to run triples so I don't have a videocard capable of driving three x HDMI 2.1 connections to give Freesync.

At the moment I am just having to hold off and wait for the big big monitor situation to mature.

Cheers - N

Please note all comments are the product of my own brain and don't necessarily represent the position or opinions of my employer, previous employers, colleagues, friends or pets.