4k or 144hz monitor for eso?

IndianaJames7

I'm upgrading my gaming laptop to a solid desktop gaming pc and was wondering which type of monitor would be better for my main screen regarding ESO specifically. Should I get 4k at 60hz or would 144hz be better even if graphics ends up being lower? Most of what I would use this monitor for is ESO... I don't play any first person shooters, but do occasionally play other single player games and stream video so my instinct tells me I'm better off with 4k... unless eso is something that you really want 144hz for. Curious what people think.

ArchMikem

Definately 144hz

From what i remember watching Linus Tech Tips, a 144hz monitor at 1080p was far better than a 4k screen at 60hz. My take is smoother frames are better than frames with more pixels. I'd go with a 144hz at 1440p for optimal visuals.

Siohwenoeht

Other

Well, not exactly the same, but I have an up-converting 4k tv that really makes ESO pop, but I'm on xb1 so not sure how it would compare.

I see screenshots on the forums where the armor even when colored is quite dull, while mine shines and glistens, follows the changes in light etc.

Banana

Other

If your computers got some big nuts and your wallet is full you can get 4K 144hz monitors. Best of both worlds.

Septimus_Magna

Matter of preference, both will work very well for ESO

I havent tried 144Hz but 4K at 60 fps looks pretty good in my opinion.
With current gen PCs its relatively easy to get a stable 60 fps, I dont know if thats the case for 144Hz at 1440p.

votan73

Other

I would not play without G-Sync anymore. Playing tear-free rules higher resolution. If you wallet allows both, go for it. If not, smooth frames are more worth, than high resolution.

daemonios

144hz preferably but ESO will still run great on 4k

If you were a movie buff I'd say a 4k/HDR solution for sure. The resolution bump is nice, but HDR makes a huge difference for most content, especially movies that have been mastered for it. But since you say you mostly play ESO, I can't say 4k resolution is a must. I play on a 4k TV at max settings and love it, but don't PvP much. If you do, the max settings are probably going to get you lower fps and possibly put you at a disadvantage. For twitchy-actiony gameplay I'd say a high refresh rate monitor paired with a solid GPU would be preferable.

Curious_Death

Matter of preference, both will work very well for ESO

for only PVE - 4k (depends on GPU/CPU)
for mixed gameplay (PVE/P) 144

Tommy_The_Gun

Tbh not only for eso, but for ANY game, I don't see the reason to use 4K monitor / screen - unless of course you have 30+ inch screen. 27 - 28 inch can get away without 4k.

Pixel response time & refresh rate (120hz minimum) is far more important for gameing.

4K will be imho only important if you are content creator and you edit large photos or movies. Also colour coretion is pretty much only important if you are 2d / 3d artist / creator.

Note: there is also one important thing to consider. Make sure that your motherboard bios or gpu bios supports 4K. If it does not, you wont be able to see anything on 4K screen if for example you would want / have to enter bios to change something. In that case, the 1st thing your monitor will show is windows loading - and not the bios / pc boot screen with manufacter's logo.

(In short - your 4k screen wont work during pc boot and will start to work during windows boot).

Hamish999

Other

I would suggest a third option. Ultra wide.
One of the best things I ever did was get a 34" LG ultra wide monitor (21:9, 2560x1080) when I upgraded my monitor a year ago.
The expanded screen real estate and field of view make the world more immersive IMO.

dem0n1k

Definately 144hz

my 144hz 2k 27" ASUS RoQ monitor

Alcast

4k can help run your game with better performance because the GPU will actually have to do some work.

144hz is nice but most of the times you drop in frames below 60 anyway so no point.

rumple9

Definately 4k

The eye cant see beyond 60fps, it's just a marketing trick to get people to upgrade to new hardware

Trancestor

Definately 4k

144hz is great for fps games where you can actually get a constant average fps above at least 100. ESO, unless you for some reason play it in first person, is a 3rd person game where your fps will constantly drop way below 100, no matter how good your pc is your fps will drop below 60 in Trials, Cyrodil and most cities, and 60- fps looks worse on a 144hz monitor than on a 60hz monitor, because you get too used to the smoothness of 144 fps.
I'd get a 4k monitor if you dont play fps games and you have a really good PC to push that 4k.

Nemesis7884

Definately 4k

this isnt an fps and 144hz dont matter much with lag...but the game looks much more beatiful on a large 4k screen

dan958

Definately 4k

If you were playing competetive shooters, I'd say go for 144hz. For ESO though? 4k.

Irfind

Other

2k 144hz ^^

Uvi_AUT

Definately 144hz

A 144Hz-Monitor is far superior to a 4k. In fact its far superior to pretty much any other Device.
If you have a NVIDIA-Card try using a 144Hz-Monitor with G-Sync. Trust me, thats a revelation. I would never ever buy anything else.

Ascarl

Definately 4k

On a 32" or above screen anyone can see the difference between FHD and 4K.
Only owners of 144 Hz screens can see the difference between 60 and 144Hz on the other side.

Brandathorbel

do what i do, i have a 1440p monitor and play at 4k using the nvidia cards down scaling feature. On a monitor its hard to tell the difference between that and actual 4k. Then you can buy a 144hz montior and still play at 4k.

Trancestor

Definately 4k

Ascarl wrote: »

On a 32" or above screen anyone can see the difference between FHD and 4K.
Only owners of 144 Hz screens can see the difference between 60 and 144Hz on the other side.

Wat

Reverb

Definately 144hz

Higher refresh rate is a much better experience than higher resolution.

nafensoriel

TLDR=
It doesn't matter. It really doesn't.


ESO is not a maximum fidelity title. Scaling to 4k will look just about as good as using whatever form of "super-resolution" your GPU has on a 1080p monitor. A title doesn't really look "different" in 4k if it isn't actually made with 4k in mind.

As to hertz it really doesn't matter. ESO isn't going to give you enough FPS to make it truly twitch. There is no "sniper moment" where seeing perfect movement will be an advantage. There will always be enough latency that even should you see such a moment you won't be able to take advantage of it.

4k at 100+hz will look better to most people's eyes. If you can afford the hardware(it is massive) to run it well go for it. If you can't or don't want to drop grands for barely any improvement you can save yourself some significant money.

Noggin_the_Nog

144hz preferably but ESO will still run great on 4k

IndianaJames7 wrote: »

I'm upgrading my gaming laptop to a solid desktop gaming pc and was wondering which type of monitor would be better for my main screen regarding ESO specifically. Should I get 4k at 60hz or would 144hz be better.

Hello
You missed two key factors in your question - what size monitor and what graphics card?
Of secondary importance what CPU and memory?
And of course budget.

ESO currently 'performs' best on a CPU high clock speed/single threaded. The next patch is supposed to enable multithreaded support. So, that suggests an Intel i7 overclocked. For memory I'd go for 16Mb minimum.

For the last month I have been deciding between a 32" 60Hz 4K 3840x2160 monitor, a 38" G-Sync widescreen 3840x1600 144Hz, and a 34" G-Sync widescreen 3440x1440 120Hz - all IPS. Bought the 120Hz one last week. But can your new 'solid desktop gaming pc' run such screens? For example my current PC has -
Intel Core i9 9900K Unlocked 9th Gen Desktop Processor overclocked to 5.0
Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB 3200 MHz DDR
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB BLACK Graphics Card
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 1TB M.2
It could run all of my monitor options very well.

Widescreen - 3440x1440 - is taking some time for me to adjust to the size. It still feels like looking through a letterbox. But my last monitor was 16:10 2560x1600 30". What surprised me was how much G-Sync improved everything. Even my desktop at 120Hz is smoother.

Personally I would not bother with a 4k monitor less than 32"

Finally try to balance all the parts of your system, and bear in mind monitors should last 5 years - probably two desktop systems.

Good luck.

JanTanhide

Definately 144hz

4K is not worth it in my opinion. I highly suggest getting a 35 inch Ultrawide in 3440x1440 with a refresh rate of 100 Hz or higher.

The game is amazing on an ultrawide monitor.

Komputerheld

Other

You want a monitor that can compensate the lags

MincVinyl

Definately 144hz

@IndianaJames7
The best option would be to go 2k with 144hz

4k is great for having alot of screen clutter, but unless you have a really really beefy computer you most likely will have your settings on minimum anyways since the game hasn't really been optimized well. (currently they are working on this, but we will see). Text is really easy to see, but with a lower refresh rate moving things or your screen will cause objects in the world to be blurry.

resolution is what makes non moving entities on your screen to look pretty and clear

refresh rate is what makes moving entities on your screen look pretty and clear
(think of it like lower refresh rate is like having motion blur on)

---

If you were to quest neither choice really matters, maybe higher res since you wont be doing anything intense. For pvp and late game pve I would choose the higher refresh rate.

Kiralyn2000

Matter of preference, both will work very well for ESO

(/thinks about my 9-year-old 1080p monitor that rarely even gets up to 60fps)


Sure! Right! Definitely the <insert choice here>, dude! /thumbsup

belial5221_ESO

Other

Higher refresh rate improve responsiveness to games,so 144z.If you can find monitor that can use higher refresh at lower res,but still do 4k@60hz for other stuff would be a better compromise if you need both.If you got alot of cash ($1500 or so) get Acer Predator x27 for 4k@120hz,overclockable to 144hz.

IndianaJames7

Noggin_the_Nog wrote: »

IndianaJames7 wrote: »

I'm upgrading my gaming laptop to a solid desktop gaming pc and was wondering which type of monitor would be better for my main screen regarding ESO specifically. Should I get 4k at 60hz or would 144hz be better.

Hello
You missed two key factors in your question - what size monitor and what graphics card?
Of secondary importance what CPU and memory?
And of course budget.

ESO currently 'performs' best on a CPU high clock speed/single threaded. The next patch is supposed to enable multithreaded support. So, that suggests an Intel i7 overclocked. For memory I'd go for 16Mb minimum.

For the last month I have been deciding between a 32" 60Hz 4K 3840x2160 monitor, a 38" G-Sync widescreen 3840x1600 144Hz, and a 34" G-Sync widescreen 3440x1440 120Hz - all IPS. Bought the 120Hz one last week. But can your new 'solid desktop gaming pc' run such screens? For example my current PC has -
Intel Core i9 9900K Unlocked 9th Gen Desktop Processor overclocked to 5.0
Corsair Vengeance RGB PRO Black 32GB 3200 MHz DDR
EVGA NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 Ti 11GB BLACK Graphics Card
Samsung 970 EVO PLUS 1TB M.2
It could run all of my monitor options very well.

Widescreen - 3440x1440 - is taking some time for me to adjust to the size. It still feels like looking through a letterbox. But my last monitor was 16:10 2560x1600 30". What surprised me was how much G-Sync improved everything. Even my desktop at 120Hz is smoother.

Personally I would not bother with a 4k monitor less than 32"

Finally try to balance all the parts of your system, and bear in mind monitors should last 5 years - probably two desktop systems.

Good luck.

Wanting a 32’ screen

Gpu is 2080 super
CPU is Ryzen 3900x
32 gig ram

Based on the budget I had initially set for the whole setup, around $700 CAD left for monitor... so getting a monitor that has both 4K and 144hz is likely out of the question.

Noggin_the_Nog

144hz preferably but ESO will still run great on 4k

[/quote] Wanting a 32’ screen
Gpu is 2080 super
CPU is Ryzen 3900x
32 gig ram
Based on the budget I had initially set for the whole setup, around $700 CAD left for monitor... so getting a monitor that has both 4K and 144hz is likely out of the question.[/quote]

Ryzen 3900x - Zen2/turbo boost 4.6 - is good performance and will be better if ESO soon supports multithreading.

RTX 2080 super - again good performance, but you may have to turn down some settings for 4K. Some 1080s are used at 4K but settings are restricted to gain reasonable performance.

On my PC ESO sits at 100FPS most of the time, using the in-game monitor - and yes all my monitor/GPU settings are 120Hz. Very high or Ultra settings, optimised with GeForce Experience. Occasionally, say during the last weeks' Mayhem, my ping goes into the red, and FPS drops. Very rarely I've seen 60FPS. But that's ESO.

Personally I like IPS monitors, but there may be some VA/TN ones with 32" and G-sync? I really like G-Sync now.

With your budget have a look at the Dell AW3420W. Their January sale is still on and with discounts you may find it for less than 900? It's the one I bought and can recommend. 34" G-Sync widescreen 3440x1440 120Hz IPS - not so demanding as 4K.

Good luck.