I recently gave my old PC to my girlfriend after building a new system. It has a Ryzen 5 2600X, MSI B450 Gaming Plus motherboard, 16GB of DDR4-3000 memory, a reference RX 5700, a 500W Be Quiet! Pure Power 11 CM power supply, and a Meshify C case with plenty of airflow. The target is around 60 FPS, with higher frame rates preferred for competitive games.
I'm deciding between buying an affordable 24-inch 1080p monitor now and replacing it when the PC is upgraded in roughly two or three years, or buying a better 27-inch 1440p monitor now and keeping it through the next upgrade. The future system will probably use something like a Ryzen 7 5800X3D and a midrange graphics card from that generation.
The games will include The Sims 4, Overwatch, Minecraft, Roblox, Marvel Rivals, Valorant, The Last of Us Part I, Resident Evil Village, GTA V, Forza Horizon 6, Silent Hill, Jurassic World Evolution, Cities: Skylines II, Until Dawn, The Evil Within, and some Nintendo Switch emulation. Most of the lighter games should run comfortably, but newer titles such as Marvel Rivals and The Last of Us may be demanding.
Would a 27-inch 1440p display still be worthwhile if some games have to be played at reduced settings or 1080p, or would a 24-inch 1080p monitor provide a noticeably better experience with this hardware? I'm also unsure whether IPS or VA would be the better panel type. The price difference between a decent 24-inch 1080p monitor and a good 27-inch 1440p model is only around €30–40.
3 Answers
Since the price gap is small, I’d probably buy the better 27-inch 1440p display if you’re comfortable lowering settings for now. Most of the listed games should be manageable, and competitive titles can be run at lower settings for higher frame rates. Just don’t count on demanding releases maintaining 60 FPS at native 1440p without compromises.
For the panel, a decent IPS is generally the safer choice for motion clarity, colors, and viewing angles. A good VA can offer better contrast, especially for horror games, but some VA panels have dark-level smearing. Reviews matter more than the panel label alone.
A 27-inch 1440p monitor gives you more longevity, since you can always lower the game resolution or use upscaling until the rest of the PC is upgraded. It won’t look as sharp as native 1440p, but the monitor itself won’t need replacing later. For easier games and esports titles, the RX 5700 should still be capable of taking advantage of 1440p or higher refresh rates with sensible settings.
I’d lean toward 24-inch 1080p for this particular system. The RX 5700 is still usable, but demanding games will be much easier to run at 1080p, and 1080p on a 24-inch screen looks reasonably sharp. Playing 1080p on a 1440p monitor usually looks noticeably blurry because the pixels don’t scale evenly, so it isn’t an ideal fallback resolution.
If the upgrade is genuinely still two or three years away, buying the monitor that matches the current hardware is the safer choice. You could replace it alongside the GPU later, when 1440p performance becomes a bigger priority.
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