Wow thank you so much for spending time on such a thorough explanation there really seem to be so many factors that go into getting things to go as smoothly as possible, I had to read your message a few times to try and grasp it all completely.. That's really too bad that a lot of those things are unavoidable no matter what kind of setup you have :/ with that better hardware that you mentioned, do you think the improvement would be quite significant? I'm just trying to wrap my head around some of the technicalities you mentioned and what it would all mean in the end. I could definitely live with a little buffering here and there so to speak but it would definitely be a bit of a shame to get all sorts of new gadgets for all the lag & waiting time to only decrease a tiny bit, I guess I'm just wondering if the partial insulation from the issues would be noticeable enough to be worth it in your opinion?
I had no idea that my monitor had anything to do with game performance that's really interesting.. Are you saying that if I were to go ahead and also get a better monitor it would contribute to some of those things going smoother as well? Sorry I feel like you've already answered all the questions I'm sort of re-asking it’s just quite a bit to digest for a non-tech savvy bean 😅 after doing a little research it looks like my monitor is nowhere near as groovy as I thought it was. Compared to the specs of what some of the other ones out there have going on I think mine is pretty much just your average block with lights :P The resolution is 1920 x 1200, and the refresh rate is 60 Hz
@xxonlywunxx Your monitor doesn't affect game performance at all, at least not directly. What it does is set parameters for what kind of performance your system needs to achieve. The floor is that rendering a specific number of pixels at a specific fps takes a certain level of power; the ceiling is that the monitor can't display performance above a certain level, so the extra power above that level is wasted.
For example, with Sims 4 on a 1920x1200 monitor, an Nvidia 3060 ti could drive fps up to 200 in most situations. But if your monitor can only display 60 fps, you wouldn't get to see those extra frames: 95% of the time, you'd get exactly the same experience running the game on a card that can only hit ~70 fps. The other 5%, the fps drops would be somewhat noticeable on the slower card, and maybe you wouldn't be able to see them at all on the 3060 ti.
Something else to consider is whether you're happy with your current monitor. If you are, great, that makes things easy. If you want to see what's out there, I'd suggest going to a Best Buy and asking to look at IPS (the highest quality panel) monitors with a QHD (2560x1440) and 4k (3840x2160) resolution. Someone can play you a test video so you see what the screen can do.
It's also worth looking at 144 Hz monitors, but there, the easier test is to open a window and drag it around the screen. If it looks about as smooth as you're used to, you're one of the many people who can't tell the difference between 60 fps and higher, and buying a 144 Hz monitor or the card to drive it would be a waste. If it feels significantly better AND the difference matters to you, then it may be worth spending some of your budget on a nicer monitor. And just to be clear, this would not be a massive expense compared to the computer: you could probably find a 144 Hz IPS monitor for $300, although I haven't checked prices in a couple months.
Once you know whether you're keeping this monitor or, if not, what specs your new one will have, the rest becomes a lot simpler.
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