No matter what everyone says: Sometimes it really does come down to size. With monitors, for example, especially when used for gaming or movies, every additional inch can help. New to the market are curved monitors, screens with a slight curvature – this not only enhances immersion but also reduces eye strain.
The Acer XZ321Q offers exactly these features and adds an interesting 144 Hz refresh rate for fast gaming. Since the frames per second can often vary significantly in games, the monitor is compatible with AMD’s FreeSync technology. This adapts the refresh rate to the achieved FPS, ensuring a more pleasant gaming experience. However, a current AMD graphics card is needed for this. The monitor’s resolution is 1,920×1,080 pixels, which is not particularly impressive but does not overly tax the graphics card, allowing for higher frame rates. The picture-in-picture function is practical, allowing the content of two computers to be displayed side by side.
Acer XZ321Q 31.5 inch FHD monitor 144Hz AMD FreeSync for 499€
If you lack the right graphics card for a new monitor or current top games like Battlefield 1, investing under €250 is currently sufficient. The Sapphire RX 480 with 8 GB GDDR5 VRAM offers a lot of performance for current and upcoming games and excels especially under the new DirectX12 and Vulkan, even surpassing Nvidia’s competitor GTX 1060 in some cases. Quite drastically, as the recent Doom demonstrates. The card also boasts a modern selection of interfaces: DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 (with support for the HDCP2.2 copy protection) can also drive 4K displays with high refresh rates, plus there is a video engine that handles high-resolution H.265 films with low processor load.
