1080 or 1440 Displays

I am planning to purchase 3 new 32" displays.

This is my system: Photo Editing / Sim Workstation
  • i7-8700K
  • RTX2070
  • 32GB Ram
I would greatly appreciate help / advice on the following questions:
  • If I buy 1440 native displays and run at 1080, is the image quality significantly different than running 1080 on native 1080 displays?
  • Would my computer run smoothly with 3 displays at 1440? (iRacing, ACC, all the usual sims)
  • What displays would you recommend? (I am interested in flat screens) - Seems many are out of stock currently.
Thank you.

- Bill

PS. I am a motorsport photographer. This is my portfolio if you would like to view it. Photo Portfolio
 
I just ordered 3 x LG GL850 27" 1440p 144hz after a shitton ( like really alot ! ) of research.

27 seems sweet spot, 32 would be nice but no decent monitors available YET.

For me personal I decided that I want best bang for buck high quality 1440p flat monitors. Might have to tone down the settings in ACC ( iracing less demanding ) for now but come new GPU's more fps will be achieved. Currently running X34P and the LG is on par as for quallity. No 32' IPS panels out there that give what I want as I use the monitors ( or a single one ) for other games 2.

As for the downscaling, no experience with it but most people complain that it looks like crap, with a 1080ti or the 2070 don't think it will be needed and 1440p will run synced over 60fps which will do for now :)
 
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This is my system: Photo Editing / Sim Workstation
  • i7-8700K
  • RTX2070
  • 32GB Ram

Your needs, as a photographer, are at least 1440p and probably 4k. Your GPU, however, is only suitable for triple 1080p when it comes to simracing, particularly if you play ACC. If photography is paying the bills, then get triple 1440p and suffer the scaling. If you can upgrade the GPU to a RTX 2080ti, then triple 1440p monitors are a suitable simracing choice.

A different thought is to get triple 4k monitors. The photography needs are met and the simracing can be run at 1080p. This is what I've committed to and the monitors are on their way to me right now, so I can't comment on how well (or not) the scaling works. I've chosen to go big, with 43" monitors, but the downside is I'm stuck at 60 Hz refresh because "bang for buck".

One thing to check before purchasing 32" monitors over 27" monitors for a simrig is how close you can get them to your eyes at the correct height, with your eyes in the center. The eye distance determines correct FOV and a wider/taller FOV is usually considered better, so a 32" monitor at the same distance as a 27" monitor provides a useful bump in FOV. A 27" monitor hovers nicely above the steering wheel motor; a 32" monitor may require you to move it behind the steering wheel motor, in which case the FOV might remain the same despite the larger monitor! This is why I've jumped to 43" monitors.
 
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Thanks for the useful information Emery. I have a separate system for photo editing. I use a BenQ SW320 4K as the primary display for photo editing.

Before I make a purchase I will take a close look at where the displays will be relative to my eye and wheel positions.

I am not surprised my system is not capable of 1440p sim racing. My though was to get 1440p displays now but run them at 1080p for proper frame rates. Maybe a year down the road I will upgrade by computer to support 1440p. I guess I can test on one of the 2K displays that are connected to my photo editing computer. I can run it at 1440p and 1080p to compare the image quality results.
 
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Actually, there's lots of good 32" monitors available. Look at the large number of MSI models. Most have 1500R curvature (the "curviest" 32" currently made), and resolutions from 1080p to 4K. They have an ultra-thin bezel model that has 1440p resolution, 1500R curvature, HDR support, and is 144hz (the Optix MAG321CQR). It's a standard VESA mount (essential for simracing). The only downside to this monitor is it's out of stock basically everywhere at the moment.

I just upgraded to triples, and went with the MSIOPTIX MAG321CURV.. This is a 4K, 60Hz monitor, 1500R, HDR. I can run this at 1080p using integral interpolation (no fuzziness at all with the perfect 4:1 pixel mapping), and have the option for higher resolutions as video cards improve. Rumor is the next-gen nVidia Ampere cards will boost 4K frame rates by almost 50%. If so, then 4K triples in sims will be practical at 60Hz.
 
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If you are set on a 32" display, I would go with 1440p if I were you. I recently just picked up 3 x 32" LG ones (32GK650F-B). You can always just turn down the graphics quality if your card can't keep up for the time being, as the new NVidia Ampere based cards are coming out later this year and supposedly are a big improvement over the 20x series cards. I was in your same position, but figured I would spend a little more on the monitors now as graphics cards constantly improve, and I did not want to be upgrading my monitors in a year.
 
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Actually, there's lots of good 32" monitors available. Look at the large number of MSI models. Most have 1500R curvature (the "curviest" 32" currently made), and resolutions from 1080p to 4K. They have an ultra-thin bezel model that has 1440p resolution, 1500R curvature, HDR support, and is 144hz (the Optix MAG321CQR). It's a standard VESA mount (essential for simracing). The only downside to this monitor is it's out of stock basically everywhere at the moment.

I just upgraded to triples, and went with the MSIOPTIX MAG321CURV.. This is a 4K, 60Hz monitor, 1500R, HDR. I can run this at 1080p using integral interpolation (no fuzziness at all with the perfect 4:1 pixel mapping), and have the option for higher resolutions as video cards improve. Rumor is the next-gen nVidia Ampere cards will boost 4K frame rates by almost 50%. If so, then 4K triples in sims will be practical at 60Hz.
Thanks. The 4K displays you have look interesting. I have no experience with displays with higher than 60 Hz refresh rates. Are you concerned about not having higher refresh rates? The MAG321CQR also looks great.
 
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If you are set on a 32" display, I would go with 1440p if I were you. I recently just picked up 3 x 32" LG ones (32GK650F-B). You can always just turn down the graphics quality if your card can't keep up for the time being, as the new NVidia Ampere based cards are coming out later this year and supposedly are a big improvement over the 20x series cards. I was in your same position, but figured I would spend a little more on the monitors now as graphics cards constantly improve, and I did not want to be upgrading my monitors in a year.
The 32GK650F-B looks very good. Looks like you can buy directly from LG for $400 each. Have you run these at 1080p? If so, how do they look?
 
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I just gave them a try at 1080p. They definitely loose a bit of sharpness, really only noticeable when reading small text. I assume that will likely be the case when using any monitor not running at their native resolution. The good news is that using the Nvidia control panel I was able to keep the 144Hz refresh rate even at 1080p.
 
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I think I'm in the minority that really cant' tell or feel the difference in refresh rates above 60Hz. My last monitor was an ultra-wide Samsung, 1080p, that did 144Hz. Honestly, it didn't appear really any different than my prior monitors at 60Hz. Perhaps I'm just too old to tell the difference.
 
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I am planning to purchase 3 new 32" displays.

This is my system: Photo Editing / Sim Workstation
  • i7-8700K
  • RTX2070
  • 32GB Ram
I would greatly appreciate help / advice on the following questions:
  • If I buy 1440 native displays and run at 1080, is the image quality significantly different than running 1080 on native 1080 displays?
  • Would my computer run smoothly with 3 displays at 1440? (iRacing, ACC, all the usual sims)
  • What displays would you recommend? (I am interested in flat screens) - Seems many are out of stock currently.
Thank you.

- Bill

PS. I am a motorsport photographer. This is my portfolio if you would like to view it. Photo Portfolio
Great photog work, Bill!
 
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I run 3 Acer Predator 32" Monitors at 144hz @7680x1440 I really like how they look and perform. My video card is a Aorus 2080 TI Extreme, so I know that is really helping to push what I have going on.
 
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I run 3 Acer Predator 32" Monitors at 144hz @7680x1440 I really like how they look and perform. My video card is a Aorus 2080 TI Extreme, so I know that is really helping to push what I have going on.
If you look your NVIDIA Surround how does the HZ look ? all my screens are 144hz also but inside my surround its always resetting back to 60hz although it shows 144 as an option @7680x1440 also with a 2080 TI
 
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Anyways looks like with these new cables now it stays at 144hz really odd the behavior you get from different cables connected between the PC/Screens/
 
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