Best Monitor for portrait play

[francis247uk]

Hi all,

I'm in the market for a good monitor, mainly for portrait play of Pinball Arcade and the soon to be released Stern Pinball Arcade.

I didn't realise that there seems to be an awful lot of choice on the market and so many factors to think about when buying a monitor:

Screen type
Response time
Refresh rate
Screen size
3D?
G-SYnc / Freesync
HDMI 1.4/2.0/Displayport Input
Swivel base (To play in portrait)

So after doing a bit of research, I think in an ideal world I would need:

IPS Screen (Better then TN Type?)
2ms or less response time (So lag isn't noticeable - essential for TPA)
60hz refersh rate minimum (what TPA physics are based off?) - although all high end ones seem to be 144hz and above?
4k (Future proof, but not sure if required for TPA? Are the TPA assets even scanned at 4k? What about Stern Pinball Arcade - might also be good in the future for Xbox Scorpio/PS4 Pro)
27 inch minimum (to get the benefit of 4k, also the bigger the better for seeing the playfield)
HDMI 2.0 and display port included in order to play 4k at 60hz?
Pivot base (to play in landscape without buying a separate accessory)
Not bothered about Gsync/Freesync - (have an ATI card)
3D - Have a 3D TV already and 3D seems to be now going to VR instead of 3D displays so not bothered


The problem is, I don't think there is a screen that matches those exact specs on the market currently - the Asus PG27AQ seems to be close, but at £680 / $813 it seems to be very expensive!

I'm also not a professional gamer and have only ever bought a couple of monitors before, so whilst those specs would be ideal, there are probably areas I could cut back on.

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Many thanks in advance

 

[EldarOfSuburbia]

The ASUS is probably a good choice. Currently I have a VG248QE which is excellent but obviously only 24" so a bit on the small side. But it's 1ms and that really is a difference maker.

 

[relaxation]

->G-SYnc / Freesync / Refresh rate
I dont think variable refresh helps this game because it's tied to a physics engine that slows down if fps drops

->3D?
That only works in landscape

->HDMI/Displayport
HDMI is AV arena, Displayport is Computer arena.. choose what goes with your gear.

->Pivot base
helps to not have to buy one

->Screen type / Response time / Input Lag
IPS has matured, so some models have gotten their Response Time and Input Lag down, Haven't checked in awhile but I believe VA panels were still doing as bad as TN panels with contrast shifting in portrait.

->Screen size
This depends on the person: How far away you sit, how okay you are with vertical eye movement (locked camera) or how okay you are with a camera that follows the ball(unlocked camera). Personally I hate the camera follows the ball option.. I like a full view of the table at all times but can get tired of following the ball from the flippers to the top of the table.

->Resolution
TPA playfield textures are 2048 by 4096, these days, half that before S3.

 

[Dizzer2012]

I like a monitor with aspect ratio 5:4 the best. Better then 16:9 Depending on how far away from the screen u are, i'm very close, so i like my little old 1280x1024 monitor better then the big TV with a 16:9 ratio. Don't know good how to explain it bit it gives a better view.

 

[frostyarcade]

Unless you're a fan of letterboxing, don't stray from the standard 16x9 ratios. In dx11, TPA is locked at that ratio.

 

[neurokinetik]

I recently purchased an LG 27UD88. It ticks most of the boxes you are looking for:

27", 4k, IPS, excellent input lag, HDMI 2.0, DP, stand has height adjustment and portrait rotation

It is quite pricey, at $650, but the 27UD68 is the same screen without the factory color calibration for $527.

I bought it primarily for fighting games, so the low input lag was very important. I have a Bodnar lag tester, and I measured it at 10.7ms in game mode, which is right in line with the reference monitor they use in fighting game tournaments. I used the same testing methodology they use at http://www.displaylag.com/display-database/.

One other bonus with this monitor is the bezel width is very small. Which brings me to the one bad point: I now want to replace my other monitors with these, as they are so much better than my older screens that have twice the lag, less resolution, chunky bezels, and generate quite a bit of heat.

 

[francis247uk]

That looks great neurokinetik, is it the same as: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01D7OZR2G/ref=pd_aw_sbs_147_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=45GMY084P27S4RC20PQW with a silver stand?

The only potential downsides I can see is that it's Freesync instead of G-Sync (Nvidia seem to make the best graphics cards) but I've got an old ATI one anyway so that's not a problem.
Also no HDR but apparently no monitors have that technology yet, is it worth waiting till next year do you think? (Will Pinball Arcade/Stern Pinball Arcade ever even use HDR)

 

[neurokinetik]

That looks great neurokinetik, is it the same as: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B01D7OZR2G/ref=pd_aw_sbs_147_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&refRID=45GMY084P27S4RC20PQW with a silver stand?

The only potential downsides I can see is that it's Freesync instead of G-Sync (Nvidia seem to make the best graphics cards) but I've got an old ATI one anyway so that's not a problem.
Also no HDR but apparently no monitors have that technology yet, is it worth waiting till next year do you think? (Will Pinball Arcade/Stern Pinball Arcade ever even use HDR)

Yes, they sell versions with slightly different case/stand colors. The one you linked is the "platinum" colored one. "W" is "white".

Yes, it is freesync, which is a minor downside for me, as I am an nvidia only guy, but the problem with G-sync is that you end up with a monitor that only supports DP input, and I wanted to use this monitor with my PS4 as well. 1080P on this screen actually looks better than on a dedicated 1080P display due to the tiny pixel sizes used, and you don't get any additional lag when running this display in 1080P mode (You do need to use both game mode, and set scaling to "wide" for best results, as I found out with lots of trial and error - really glad I bought that lag tester!)

Actually looking closer, you might want clarification on whether or not that one has the pivot stand. I think only the "W" version has it, and that is why it costs slightly more than the "P"

 

[lio]

TN panels do funky stuff to colors if you look at them at a 90° angle.
So if portrait mode is important to you stay away from TN panel screens - which then leaves you with IPS/PLS etc. and unless you are willing to spend extra with 60hz.
Portrait mode played a big part in my decision which screen to buy as well but now I'm not nearly using portrait mode as much as I thought I would - but If I do I'm still amazed by the experience
4K on 27" is not without problems... be prepared to enable scaling in Windows. Scaling is working better and better but you might still come across occasional problems - mainly with older software that does not properly support high dpi screens (scaling works best in Windows 10 - so if you are still using Windows 7 and don't want to switch keep that in mind).

TPA is probably going to stay a 60hz game forever, so there's no benefit from getting a 144+ hz screen (and usually those still come with a TN panel so they are no good for portrait mode anyway).
For Pro Pinball, Visual Pinball, Pinball FX 2 etc. that's a different story... and I've heard really good things about the increased refresh rate when it comes to these games (as long as your graphics card can deliver high enough framerates). Also I still remember how off-putting 60hz was to me all those years ago when I swapped my dying 120+ hz CRT screen for my first LCD monitor (which was one of the better ones for gaming you could get back in the day... Samsung Syncmaster 254B if I remember correctly) - but eventually we all got used to (lowered our standards) 60hz even if that is not ideal.

I treated myself to an LG-27MU67-B a while ago and I am really happy with it (had a DELL Ultrasharp 24" 16:10 with 1920x1200 resolution before) - found it for 399€ including a code for Tom Clancy's "The Division".
This model has been discontinued but you might still be able to find it for a good price (the successor 27UD68 uses the same panel by the way).
It may not win any style awards and does not have the slimest bezel but then I like my screens clean and simple and prefer understatement to "uber-gamer" esthetics.

It has all the ergonimic features you could ask for (even though the monitor stand is not as sturdy as it was on my DELL) and pivots nicely (be aware that 27" in pivot mode is already quite large if you sit infront of it).
The 4K Panel looks great and input lag and reaction times are low - also the internal scaling / interpolation is really good (if you need to run somthing at a resolution lower than 4K).
It supports Free-Sync but I'm in the nvidia camp so that's useless to me.

It's really a tough decision... sometimes I could see myself being better off with a 27" WQHD screen that supports 120/144hz (more and more of these are available with IPS panels now - some games would benefit from the higher reresh rate and I could go back to 100% scaling in Windows), other times I'm perfectly happy with 4K at 60hz on 27".
(DELL recently presented a 32" 4K 120hz OLED screen with like 0,1ms response time... when screens like that come down from currently 5000$ to 500$ it will be a dream come true...)

 

[francis247uk]

Thanks for the detailed response lio, I'm not sure whether to take the plunge now or wait for all the main manufacturers new lines of monitors next year. It seems there is a lot of talk about HDR now, with the new Xbox One S and PS4 Plus supporting it, also until Stern Pinball Arcade comes out its difficult to know if they'll even support it.

 

[lettuce]

I sure hope they update the engine to allow it to use higher fps in the future rather than been limited to 60fps

 

[Alex Atkin UK]

I think its pretty unlikely TPA will support HDR or higher than 60Hz.

HDR, how would that even work? The tables scans aren't HDR, so the only real use would be to make flashers look brighter and quite frankly, I think they look bright enough already.

As for 60Hz, that would require a complete rewrite of the whole engine and then tweaking the physics again for every table.

Considering they still don't even have optimal textures for 4K, I can't see them doing either of the above which are far more labour intensive.