Monitor Upgrade From BenQ 4K Warranted???

I’m in the process of upgrading my flightsim rig pre retirement this year. Some guys buy high end golf clubs, I’m buying a nice high end flightsim rig.

The new rig will sport an 11GB RTX 2080 Ti.

My current monitor is a BennQ 3200U, 3840x2160, 60hz freesync monitor.

I have an opportunity to recoop a good deal of the cost to a friend who does graphic design work. He would buy it.

If I do so, I would of course still have to rub my neck and write a check for the difference for a new monitor with higher refresh rates.

I’m spending considerable time learning DCS modules, specifically the C-101EB and the A10C. I own many more, but those were purchases for the future and to support DCS and 3rd party developers. So many awesome modules, so little time.

There is a high degree of likelihood I will do some WW2 warbird flying, but it will be down the road.

So….I’m looking for informed opinions about whether or not I would see enough of a visible difference in eye candy and most important, the ability to more clearly see other aircraft in the air if I were to sell the BenQ and buy another monitor with higher refresh rates. Would most likely stay with the same screen size.

And… I’m 100% blind in my left eye and my good eye is 65 years old and getting weaker as the months roll by. Without good glasses it just ain’t happening anymore. (Enjoy your youth!)

Thanks for any thoughts. I appreciate them.

I have a monitor with the same panel (with addition of G-Sync) so I'm kind of in the same spot. There are still no 120Hz 32" 4K monitors, unfortunately. The new panels should enter production some time this year supposedly, but they have been delayed already several times over the years.

If you like the 4K resolution, you could perhaps consider one of these new 120/144Hz 43" monitors (Acer and Asus make them). They are much bigger, so it's only an option if you could push them back somewhat I guess. They also have a VA panel though, which is slower than IPS in some situations (e.g. dark objects on light backgrounds).

Another option would be one of these 38" (well, actually 37.5") monitors. It's roughly an ultrawide version of the 32" 16:9 panel, so it would have the same height as your monitor, but it would be wider which should be a plus in simulation games. On the other hand, it has a lower resolution than your 32" (3840*1600 vs 3840*2160) so it would be less sharp, but I guess that might also make it slightly better with the dodgy DCS spotting?

Even with a 2080 Ti it's hard to push 60+ fps at 4K with all the eye candy turned up. If you use TrackIR to change your views it doesn't work very well in the 60-120 fps range even with Gsync/Freesync. It tends to stutter as you pan around the cockpit. You have to lock it at 60 or 120 to keep the animation smooth. So it might be worth it to keep your current monitor until something new and shiny comes out. With a new gen of graphics cards we might be able to hit 120+ fps consistently at 4K on a single card.

Even with a 2080 Ti it's hard to push 60+ fps at 4K with all the eye candy turned up. If you use TrackIR to change your views it doesn't work very well in the 60-120 fps range even with Gsync/Freesync. It tends to stutter as you pan around the cockpit. You have to lock it at 60 or 120 to keep the animation smooth. So it might be worth it to keep your current monitor until something new and shiny comes out. With a new gen of graphics cards we might be able to hit 120+ fps consistently at 4K on a single card.

I fear we have to wait for a 4080ti to double the power, like a 7nm++ variant.

Even Nvidia can't do magic, but I hope to be proven wrong with this.

That's why I stay with my 1080ti and 1440p, it's a sweetspot and I can hold about 60fps with most turned to max, shadows need to suffer a little but I can live with that.

Speaking about my 1080ti...took it apart as it hit 65°C under water, thought the TIM was bad...grrhh, with new Th.Krizzly paste and a now broken fan blade as well I still run hot and cant even employ the fans to assist the Asus Poseidon waterblock part.

Time to get a EKWB dedicated wb and backplate I guess.

It now runs towards 70°C without assisting fans ( due to the broken fan blade ).

I hope to get it as cool as my CPU which is just above ambient and not over 35°C under full load ( for the GPU ).

How hot does yours get Sn8ke_iis ? Mine used to go 48-49°C with DCS until it's block went bad.

The kind and make/layout of the Poseidon blocks wont allow me to clean it's interior.

Never again a Poseidon or Ready-2Go waterblock makeshift thing. This is sad for a 1k€ card.

I had to look up your card real quick as I wasn't familiar with it. That's a really cool hybrid design. I put a hybrid kit on my Titan but it was an AIO.

This time of year my ambient room temps are about 19 C. And the GPU starts out at about 30 C at idle and gets up to maybe 50-55 C after a long gaming session.

My CPU and GPU are on the same loop though. For DCS I usually play with my CPU OC'd to 5.1 on 2 cores and it hits about 1.3 V in CPU-Z stress tests. That can easily hit 60 C. And the GPU seems to lag about 10 C behind it. I can't recall what it hits after a long VR session in DCS.

I've only used EK blocks and fittings but they make great stuff. I use their thickest 360mm rad too for the extra surface area and water volume. Been very happy with it so far. It's not cheap but if you can sell the waterblock whenever you upgrade it's mainly a one time cost so I think it's worth it.

Thanks Sna8ke_iis,

I actually never managed to crack the 60°C under full stress test with that card before "something" made it go haywire.

First, I assumed my Balsa Support Stick was off, I need that support to lift the card as it is so heavy it bends under it's own weight, resulting in 10°C higher than what it is if standing upright or supported at the outer edge. This has been brought up by a fellow Pilot in here and also on Asus ROG Forum, a known issue but not acknowledged by Asus till today. So I checked my Balsa Stick, no luck, that wasn't it.

My next step was Google again and I found another thread on ROG forum. He suggested to loosen the 4 screws for the cooler ( it's actually many more for this cooler despite it is the same layout as a pure ROG Strix 1080ti card ) and put a washer or retaining ring under those 4 screws to pull the block with more force towards the card. I did that with 4 retaining rings and it got maybe 1-2°C better, but that is within the margin of error and test fluctuations, also no real solution.

I then thought..maybe it's the TIM from Asus. So I took the card apart, unfortunately broke a fan blade off, cleaned and redid the TIm with Thermal Krizzly's best stuff..and now it's even worse as above 50 or 55°C ( dont remember ) the fans kick in as well, regardless if you have set them to 0 in the control app. Well, with 1 blade off I thought, I better dont reconnect the blades to save the card from vibration and further long term damage, well, not good, I have 1st time ever seen 73°C on that card when flying DCS for 30min+ in a cold room and real good ventilation inside the case ( Corsair Carbide 500r ).

I now have to bite the bitter sweet fruit and buy a dedicated, REAL, waterblock + backplate.

Unfortunately, watercool.de does not have a block for the Strix/Poseidon 1080ti, only Founders edition. Those blocks won each and every test vs. all others and I can only recommend their blocks for outstanding quality and craftsmanship, finish and last but not least best performance. The only block I found is the company I want the very least, EKWB, well, nothing I can do, they have the sole block for Asus 1080ti Strix Poseidon 2nd layout version. The layout was changed from Asus during Production and they have the right one for about the same as a watercool block would cost.

Check out their stuff, it's among the very best money can buy and they havent failed in any test, from 115x, 2011 to AM4 and sTR40 blocks.

If you like extra radiator volume, check the Mo-Ra3 360 or 420 edition, external, fat, thick, nice looking and a very good passiv cooler too if you just browse the net or light tasks. Keeps the inside cleaner and less mess if you refill or work inside.

need to plunder the hobby cash pig and order. DONT TELL DA WIFE !!! :music_whistling:

https://shop.watercool.de/epages/WatercooleK.sf/en_GB/?ViewObjectPath=%2FShops%2FWatercooleK

I also want a new pump and Res for my MoRa-3, this what it will look like: https://shop.watercool.de/epages/WatercooleK.sf/en_GB/?ObjectPath=/Shops/WatercooleK/Products/30235

Radial,

I'm not sure how big you want to go (40 inches?) but if you do have the itch to get a new toy there are gaming "TVs". Most of the latest TVs can display at 120 Hz and are either OLED, VA, or IPS panels and essentially just big mass produced monitors. I'm not aware of any with display port connections but they are limited by the bandwidth of the current HDMI connections to 60 Hz @ 4K. I think some of the new ones coming out for 2020 might be using the new HDMI standard with increased bandwidth.

They might be limited to 60 Hz native input but they can do a neat trick called frame interpolation which can take a 4K signal and calculate an in between frame to make it appear to your eye as 120 Hz without any extra use of your PC's GPU. They have their own chip in the TV that does it. It works really well on my Samsung and keeps TrackIR smooth with no noticeable increase in input lag. It's just a few milliseconds.

You can check out this website: https://www.rtings.com/

They tell you more than you ever wanted to know about your TV or monitor and they do the most thorough impartial tests that I'm aware of.

They test specifically for input lag on the gaming settings and with frame interpolation on and off. Perhaps a bigger size might make it easier to see?