u/n988

Hey, recently got my first ever 1440p monitor based on good reviews for the budget (AOC Q27G3XMN) and I'm enjoying the higher fidelity and refresh rate and would hate to go back to my 1080p60 monitor at this point.

I'm curious though, is there anything I should know about playing on this resolution? Namely about refresh rates, FPS and VRR.

I've only ever played at 60hz and any frame drop below that resulted in a lagging feel, is this still present in higher refresh rates if my FPS dips below the monitor's refresh rate? For instance if my monitor is 170hz, would dropping down to 110-120 make it feel sluggish?

As for VRR, I've noticed quite a bit of VRR flickering in games such as GTA 5. I've read that this is due to unstable framerate/frame timing, so does this essentially mean I have to drop my graphics settings or disable VRR despite not having any noticeable lag?

If it helps, my 1440p display is paired with a RX 7700XT GPU.

I built my PC last year just around when the AMD 9000 series GPUs were releasing and were quite expensive, so I went with the RX 7700XT. I know everyone recommended the 7800XT, but it was simply a tad bit too expensive and I needed to build a PC at that very moment, so I couldn't wait. I'm on 1080p60hz right now and the 7700XT is performing amazingly well in any games I want to play, zero complaints at all.

Though there is a problem - I want to upgrade to a 1440p monitor for the first time ever, but I hear mixed opinions about the 7700XT's performance at that resolution. Some say it's alright, some say you'll pretty much have to run newer games at medium settings to have a smooth experience. Speaking of games, I hardly ever play AAA titles as I find most of them simply not interesting, my main game for the foreseeable future is going to be Forza Horizon 6.

I don't have a problem with lowering settings as I do so even with my current 1080p setup to keep temperatures down, but is there really a point in upgrading to 1440p if I will have to run games at worse settings?

Should I just full send it and get a 1440p monitor now and a better GPU such as a 9060 XT or 9070 (non-XT, XT is super expensive) later, or is it simply not worth it for me at the moment?

Hey, I've been using the same 1080p60hz monitor for over a decade by now, and I'm really starting to notice the lack of fidelity in more recent games, probably because there's only so much an old 1080p monitor can show.

Problem is, I'm not sure if my hardware can handle such a resolution jump, can you guys help me out judging this? To give more information, I hardly ever play games at their maxed out settings and my main game for the foreseeable future is going to be Forza Horizon 6 which judging by the previous games, should be pretty well optimized.

Here's what I have:

CPU: Ryzen 5 7600

GPU: RX 7700XT

RAM: 32GB

I know I should've gotten the 7800XT, but it was a tiny bit too expensive and I needed a new PC at that very moment and couldn't save money for any longer, so I'm stuck with the 7700XT for the time being.

Also, I'd like any recommendations you guys could throw at me for new monitors, preferably nothing too expensive, up to around 200EUR if possible 😄