Is it worth it getting a 4k monitor for WoW?
Currently playing on 1080p with high framerate but wondering if the game looks a lot better with a 4k?
If so, would this one be any good: SAMSUNG LU28E590DS 4K Ultra HD 28" LED Monitor
What monitor & graphics card are you currently using?
A 4K/60hz monitor; no… I certainly wouldn’t have got mine had I realise the limitations of 60hz. I’d suggest you save up a bit more & get a 1440p monitor with a better refresh rate.
Bear in mind too, that your graphics card will be required to do (up to) 4x the work to get the image on the screen.
There may be games that would benefit more notably from higher resolutions than WoW will (many people feel “comic” art-styles do not gain as much from it as “photorealistic” styles do) but especially zones with wide, sweeping vistas are without a doubt absolutely glorious in 4K.
That said, Eighjan raises very valid points here - having a higher refresh rate can be a lot more pleasant to the human eye than just a more crisp picture (thanks to more pixels). The available GPU will ultimately be the limiting factor, budget considerations aside… even top-end video cards often struggle to push high framerates on 4K, because that will be a lot of pixels that need to be delivered. 
Currently I have the below monitor and a RTX 2060 graphics card.
- HP 22f Ultraslim Full HD Monitor (1920 x 1080) 21.5 Inch (1 HDMI, 1 VGA) - Silver / Black.
I have a friend with a spare BenQ monitor (below) that he can sell me for less than retail, which is 60hz:
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- BenQ EW3270U 32 Inch 4K HDR Video Enjoyment Monitor, Eye-Care, UHD, VA, 95 Percent DCI-P3, B.I. Plus Sensor - Metallic Grey
Do you think the below monitor would be noticably better?
- Acer Nitro VG271UPbmiipx 27 inch WQHD Gaming Monitor - (IPS Panel, FreeSync, 144Hz, 1ms, HDR 400, ZeroFrame, DP, HDMI, Black)
That one is 144hz but would cost me a little more. Is the difference between 60hz and 144hz that noticable for WoW?
4K can be bit to much for RTX2060. Also look at the display diagonal. Small 4K display isn’t the best solution. For WoW and some other games ultrawide instead of 4K display could also produce better immersion. (I use 3440x1440).
Oh really? What if it’s 4k capped at 60fps? Just looked up 3440x1440 monitors and seem preeeetty pricey to be honest.
I won’t be updating my RTX2060 any time soon.
I’d say get the Acer… easier to drive & 144Hz will give you smoother game play than 60Hz
So worth the extra money? Will it definitely be a better display than the BenQ?
Yes; WoW doesn’t really need more than 1080p, but because card that can do 1440p are so mainstream, it’s a nice ‘boost’. 4K at any refresh rate just doesn’t justify buying a card that is needed mainly for the game resolution.
Remember; all your frames are generated by the CPU - NOT the GPU - so unless you’re running a supercharged, turbocharged i9-9900KS you aren’t gonna get the same smoothness in 4K that you will with 1440p.
4K is nice, but most of WoW was designed/developed when 4K was used for nothing but elite-level cinema.
Wow hasn’t the graphics for 4K so would look a bit ugly and wouldn’t actually benefit from it, not without say AI upscaling and sharpening things up here and there.
1440 monitors are better, even 1080 ones that have variable refresh rates that match the frames per second in the game. Freesync and G-Sync being the main two.
More you pay on those though means the more range you can expect those monitors to go. Especially on AMD side of things. G-Sync is expensive but has larger range from the start considering it’s a hardware chip sync’d to the GPU.
World of Warcraft would need a complete overhaul to be able to take advantage of 4K properly, from game engine upwards and a new graphical UI and 3D models all over for a start.
Higher graphics go, the more development costs come in so it might now be worthwhile for a game to move towards that.
I recently upgraded from 1440P/60Hz to 1440P/144Hz with gsync and the difference is insane if your system can deliver on those high fps needed.
What is your CPU? The 2060 should be good enough for WoW at least, not talking about modern AAA games.
Either you worded it wrong or it just makes no sense.
Because if he is CPU-limited the resolution does not matter.
Or say his CPU can prepare 60 FPS for the GPU, than he can get 60FPS in 4K if his GPU is fast enough.
Need? Well… what game does need higher res? I mean, of course it will look better. You can also clearly notice more fine details in WoW at 1440P than at 1080P. 4K even more so.
But it does not give you any advantage.
144Hz over 60Hz does. People forget that there is also temporal resolution, meaning you can see more details when moving.
That is just not true.
Of course WoW does look alot better in 4K than in 1080P.
If you haven’t compared it for yourself than don’t comment, sry.
Also the UI in WoW does scale with resolution.
The only thing that would make an improvement are higher resolution textures.
Thanks for this.
Can you recommend any monitors between £300-400 that would provide 1440p at 144hz that would be more suitable than the BenQ one I linked above?
Do you think the Acer would be better because of this?
This is the one i am using:
https://www.overclockers.co.uk/lg-27gl850-b-27-2560x1440-nano-ips-144hz-1ms-freesync-g-sync-compatible-widescreen-led-gaming-monit-mo-155-lg.html
It is quite expensive, but worth the money imho.
You can check https://www.rtings.com/monitor/reviews/best/1440p-144hz for alternatives.
So do you think the likes of this monitor would be significantly better for performance? Is it just that frames will look smoother for WoW? I think I do notice jitters on my current monitor as I normally run WoW over 100fps. I’m assuming movies would look better on the 4K?
BenQ PD2700Q 27 Inch 1440p QHD Monitor for Graphic Design, IPS, 100% Rec. 709, sRGB, 10 bit, Eye-Care, Anti-Glare, Flicker-Free, Height Adjustable, HDMI, DP, Black
If you have a 4K blue ray movie.
Quite often WoW will dip below 100 FPS no matter the hardware. Also if your current display is 60Hz then it doesn’t matter. For faster panels FreeSync or GSync can help with tearing which is likely what you see when FPS is below monitor refresh rate,
Do you like the bezels, is the size ok for you? No FreeSync, no GSync, 60Hz.
I use LG 34UC88 which is a 75 Hz curved ultrawide 3440x1440 panel with FreeSync. There is a lot of such displays, even more for normal 1440p with FreeSync/GSync at higher refresh rates.
https://geizhals.eu/?cat=monlcd19wide&v=e&hloc=uk&bl1_id=30&xf=11984_100~11992_Adaptive+Sync~14591_25601440~14591_34401440&sort=p#productlist
Please, Kiyuki… take my comments in the context I wrote them, not just the bits you want, in isolation. No game needs to be played at ungodly resolutions; that they can is a bonus.
Yes I did get the part about the CPU ‘drawing’ the frames for the graphics card to output; a 9900KS can throw out more than enough 1080p frames than most modern graphics cards can handle, but try doing that with the hardware the other way round & yes; you will run into a bottleneck.
4K is not the be all and end all of PC gaming; it’s pretty, but it isn’t very practical for even the highest end hardware ‘whales’.
1440p is where the best ‘bang-for-buck’ experience can be had, with decent resolutions & very fast refresh rates… however; it will require decently priced hardware to achieve.
As far as a monitor for 1440p & good refresh rates, my sights are set on this:
https:// www.msi. com/Monitor/Optix-MAG271CQR; UK pricing is ~£320-350.
It will not only look smoother, it will FEEL smoother, that is the point.
But you will also need gsync or freesync because WoW will dip below 60 sometimes, like in raids.
You mean tearing? That can be fixed if you enable Vsync or play in Window(fullscreen) mode. Also you can limit the FPS ingame to 60 if you don’t want the higher inputlag with Vsync.
Real 4K material will look best on a 4K panel of course, but most movies are NOT shot at full 4K res.
You can check on this website if your favorite movies are real 4k:
https://4kmedia.org/real-or-fake-4k/
Has neither G-Sync nor Freesync, so would not recommend for gaming.
Also seems like 60Hz and might have a slow response time.
Well it even says it is for graphics design 
Btw you still have not said which CPU you are using 
It doesn’t seem to make a difference to the jittery screen (not sure if it’s tearing as it doesn’t look like the screen is being cut or anything) if I limit WoW to 60fps in advanced settings on my current monitor.
I have a Ryzen 7 2700X. Seem to be consistently over 100fps in cities on ultra, although sometimes drop below.
Did you try Vsync?
Are you playing in fullscreen or windowed?
Do you have more than one display?
I have a bog standard HP office desktop at the moment. It has Freesync on, whatever that is. I play fullscreen.
Just the one display. Going to try my mate’s BenQ later today and see if it’s any improvement before I buy it!
Edit:
Turns out my mate also has the below monitor used that he’d sell for only 50 bucks. Would this be good? Fairly cheaper than the 4k BenQ…