TV for PC Gaming instead of monitor? Thoughts?

[gdourado]

Hello, how are you?

I am looking for some opinions and insight about this matter.

Basically, I am looking into using a big screen TV as a display for PC gaming.

I am not talking about using the computer to browse the web, do productivity on office apps or other kind of work.

Just plain simple gaming.

I am thinking about this because a good PC 4K monitor costs around 500-600 and it tops out at around 32 inches.

There are some 40 inch screens by phillips and Ilyama, but they are expensive and much like a tv.

There are several Samsung 4k TV's at 40, 43 and 49 inches that can be had on sale for really good prices.



But I have some doubts, namely:



1- From what I gather, those TV's usually do 4:2:2 or 4:2:0 Chroma in game mode and not 4:4:4.

Outside productivity work and desktop usage, how big of an issue is this?

In gaming, is there a noticiable image quality difference?

Are all computer gaming monitors 4:4:4? Even the cheaper 1080p TN models?



2- The best TV's have around 20-25 miliseconds of input lag in game mode.

I don't know about PC monitors. I know most TN models have 1ms response time and most IPS have around 6ms.

But that is grey to grey pixel response time. I have no idea about input lag on computer monitors.

Is it much less than these 20-25ms of the tv?

Outside competitive CS gaming, is it noticiable in real life?



3- To use at a desk, does a 40 inch TV give good immersion and gameplay experience? Or is it just to big?

Is it good to also play games with the keyboard and mouse?



4- For AAA titles where the GPU cannot do 60 fps at 4K, how is the image quality if I use the TV at 1080p?

As 1080p is not the native resolution, is there a big drop in image quality?



So, there are basically my questions.

Hope you can all help me out to clear these issues to come to a conclusion about this idea.



Thank you.

Best wishes.

 

[bcham]

i tried my 43 inch lg 4k tv as a monitor. playing most games xcom 2, tomb raider. ect, with a 980ti was getting lowish frames, but i tried a custom resolution of 2000x1600 and the game played fine and looked nearly as good as 4k. 1080p res looked awful. but to me the tv was too big. so im awaiting my 34 inch acer widescreen curved,monitor

 

[geok1ng]

best source for info on using TVs as a PC monitor or HDR gaming is Rtings.
Best source for info on PC monitors is TFT Central

using a 4k Tv at 1080p, there should be no image quality degradation and the gaming experience actually improves in models that can display a 1080p 120Hz signal, like the Sony 830C and the old Seiki 39".

40" is quite big for mouse and keyboard gaming. both desk and chair should have height adjustment if the TV is gonna be used by people with different heights. i had neck pain with my Seiki, which is one of the reasons why i now use a U2515H. 40" gaming is definitively possible, but as in every ergonomically challenged activity, the longer you stay at it, the more attention you should give to your health.

 

[kasakka]

I own both a 27" 1440p, 144 Hz G-Sync display as well as a Samsung KS7005 (Nordic KS8000) 65" 4K @ 60 Hz TV, the model you mention. I am perfectly happy gaming with either and I haven't really noticed any issue with the higher input lag on the TV compared to the super low input lag on my 27" display.

In your post you are confusing response times and input lag. Response time (which is usually reported as gray to gray or black to white values) is the time it takes for the display pixels to shift to a different color. Faster the response time, the less motion blur (but even then the sample-and-hold effect will cause perceived motion blur). Input lag is the lag that occurs between pressing a button on your keyboard/mouse/controller and it registering on the screen. Too much input lag and you will react to things on the screen with delay which you will notice in getting hit more often or missing more shots.

Playing on the TV, both 1080p and 1440p look ok to me. However it is best to let the TV do the upscaling because at least Nvidia's GPU scaling is just plain shit. It will always be blurry even with resolutions like 1080p that could be upscaled with pixel doubling because Nvidia just hasn't bothered to implement better algorithms for scaling. One drawback of the Samsung I have is that despite having a 120 Hz panel, it cannot accept higher than 60 Hz input.

I do feel 40" would be too big for gaming with a keyboard and mouse or at least the TV should be further back than a typical desktop monitor is.

 

[MaZa]

1. For gaming, not a big issue. But often PC mode offers low enough lag for everything but competitive gaming so its better to use that unless you are going to do some online shooter. Every computer monitor is 4:4:4. They cannot be anything else since they use strictly RGB signal and not Ycbcr which allows some bandwidth saving methods like 4:2:2 chroma subsampling.

2. Dont confuse pixel response times with input lag. Pixel response times is how fast the pixels reach to changes (ie how much they blur as they change from color to another). Input lag is how much late the screen is showing what is happening in your computer. IE an enemy throws a punch at you, you see it happen in your TV and press block button but its too late because in reality the punch has already hitted you in the computer. This would be the case with TVs with very, very bad input lag. Both are important for gaming but I think input lag is the more important one. You can learn to not see the blurring but high input lag is always there hindering your reaction times and there is nothing you can do about it.

3. That depends on how close you are. If you have a deep desk (IE you can sit about 1.5 meters away from the TV then no, 40" is not too big. If the only option is to have the screen right on your face (less than meter away) like a typical computer monitor then yes, 40" is way too big.

4. If the TV supports 1080p scaled only with only pixel doubling and no interpolation then that is the sharpest (and therefore the best many consider) resolution to use when 4K is simply too much for your rig. BUT the majority of televisions do interpolation anyway which results in slight blurring. In this case its better to use as high resolution as your GPU allows and often TV's do accept almost any 16:9 resolution you can make a Custom Resolution for. I play many games in 2880x1620 resolution and the picture is simply gorgeus and detailed, much better than 1080p is with the same TV. The closer you can get to the 4K resolution the smaller individual pixels are and therefore less apparent the blurry interpolated pixels become.