Hardware Buy monitor before RX 480 (Nitro), or vice versa?

[DiscostewSM]

So I've just about dedicated myself to getting a Sapphire RX 480 Nitro, yet for the past couple of months, one of my monitors has been having problems. On boot, it would take some time before the monitor would actually turn on. It used to be a fairly short wait, but now, it's been taking upwards of 20 minutes for it to activate and display anything.

So what I was thinking was to also get a new monitor to replace this other one. One that would take advantage of what the video card offers. My current "going-out" monitor is a ViewSonic VP2030b (my other working one is a Samsung SyncMaster 943bwx, which my PC and Wii U are connected to). This is what I was thinking of replacing the bad monitor with.

https://www.amazon.com/AOC-G2460PF-24-Inch-Gaming-Monitor/dp/B01BV1XBEI (currently $210).

Now, I won't go into too many details on how I plan to buy them, but it's basically "beermoney" that I make at home after work, as my work pay goes into bills and necessities. This "beermoney" was initially going towards a Nintendo NX, but with that being roughly 8 months away, and I've begun making more beermoney than I initially started, I'd figure I do some upgrading of my PC that I started back in 2013 (plus the monitor would benefit gaming on either PC or console). Right now I don't have enough to get even 2 of the 3, so I have to decide what to get first. Not too far off though from getting 2 of 3.

My current video card is an EVGA GTX 560 Ti (bought at the end of 2011). It works, but it's not exactly a card for modern PC gaming, and runs quite hot when under load. Was thinking if I were to get the monitor first (assuming that's a good one to get), then I'd see about reseating the heatsink on my video card with new thermal paste to hopefully bring the temperature down when under load. Then in time, I'd get the video card, then much later, the NX. Figured that waiting on the video card would be good thing, so AMD/Sapphire can work out the kinks. Of course, if there was an easy fix for my monitor, then I'd hold onto it for a while longer.

Thoughts?

 

[mgrev]

card first, monitor later

 

[raystriker]

^whatever he said.

 

[Boogieboo6]

I think that if you have the money for a new monitor, you have nothing to lose by opening up the monitor and poking around inside. Try researching what's wrong with it and see if anything comes up. Also, wouldn't you get more out of your graphics card if you had two working monitors to use it on?

 

[Deleted User]

I think that if you have the money for a new monitor, you have nothing to lose by opening up the monitor and poking around inside. Try researching what's wrong with it and see if anything comes up. Also, wouldn't you get more out of your graphics card if you had two working monitors to use it on?

i think you would get less.. because it's already going through the burden of outputting to two monitors... and the rx 480 has 3 display ports, unless what he means by (nitro) is one of the custom versions

EDIT: don't mind me.. i'm tired, i manage to forget a lot of things, and for one was to read the OP

 

[sj33]

I recently bought a Sapphire RX 480 8GB (reference) despite probably needing a new monitor first. I'm actually using a 32" Sharp HDTV with 1366x768 resolution! Reluctant to change it because the speakers are excellent, and I love the framerates that I get at native resolution!

Buying PC components is more fun than buying a new monitor in my eyes, though the latter is more of a long term purchase.

I'd say you should get a new card first, looking at the card you have. No point getting a new higher resolution monitor with that video card.

 

[DiscostewSM]

Well, I'll try to see if there's a solution for my existing monitor.

I think that if you have the money for a new monitor, you have nothing to lose by opening up the monitor and poking around inside. Try researching what's wrong with it and see if anything comes up. Also, wouldn't you get more out of your graphics card if you had two working monitors to use it on?

I went online to check about the issue, and someone with a similar problem to my own suggests doing a factory reset on it, unlocked by a button combination. Because the issue seems to happen from not being powered on for a while, I'm gonna do a factory reset, then leave my monitor off for a bit while I do other things. If it continues to have an issue afterwards, then I'll see about opening it up and finding a problem, like bulging capacitors. I can build my own computer, swap out components, and determine the kind of stuff it needs to run, but I have never touched soldering and replacing parts at this scale, so it's a bit scary for me. I still have an old Turtle Beach X12 headset that needs a solder job because some wires seemed to be broken.

We'll see what happens. I certainly would prefer not to have to buy a new monitor, not at this time anyways.

 

[grossaffe]

Soldering's not too bad. Actually the 19" TV I'm currently using as a second monitor was a reclamation project where the power board had a bunch of plagued capacitors that I had to replace. TV stopped turning on, so my brother gave it to me, and I had the sucker up and running before his replacement arrived.

 

[samiam144]

I was in a very similar situation as you and @sj33 . I have a 1360x768 HDTV and it would take about 10 minutes to start up. I have a 750Ti, so I asked the same question you are asking now. I ended up getting a 1080p ultra wide monitor and man am I happy. My card still manages to run most games at 40+ fps (40 to 60 in GTA V!) so I'm not regretting it.
But, that was before the RX480 was out. If your current monitor is 1080p, I'd probably opt for the GPU first.

 

[DiscostewSM]

I was in a very similar situation as you and @sj33 . I have a 1360x768 HDTV and it would take about 10 minutes to start up. I have a 750Ti, so I asked the same question you are asking now. I ended up getting a 1080p ultra wide monitor and man am I happy. My card still manages to run most games at 40+ fps (40 to 60 in GTA V!) so I'm not regretting it.
But, that was before the RX480 was out. If your current monitor is 1080p, I'd probably opt for the GPU first.

Nah, the resolution of the one that's having issues is 1600x1200, and the other is a 1440x900, the latter I use for my consoles.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Ugh, tried the factory reset and waited for a bit, but now when trying to turn it back on, the green LED lit up for a second, then turns off, and the monitor is currently just sitting there, like it would before for a long time before it "wakes" up.

Guess I'm gonna have to open it up and see what's wrong.

 

[samiam144]

@DiscostewSM Ah, then I'd lean towards getting the GPU; that is, if you don't mind the issue with your monitor.
The one I have issues with always shows a white screen that slowly fills the screen from right to left. I have to keep it turned on with that screen for 5 to sometimes 10 minutes, then I power it off. I wait another minute or two and it works fine when I turn it back on again. I keep it as a secondary monitor, mostly because "why not" and also the speakers are pretty good!

 

[DiscostewSM]

Opened up the monitor and took a look at the boards. Out of the 4 boards (power, inverter, display, USB), the only two boards that had bulging capacitors were the inverter (all 3), and the display (8 bulging altogether). Recorded what each capacitor set was before putting it back together, so when I'm.

Inverter board
(3) 180 uF - 35v - 105°C - radial
Video board
(2) 1000 uF - 6.3v - 105°C - radial
(6) 100 uF - 25v - 105°C - radial

Unfortunately, something seems to have gone screwy after reassembling it. It still takes a while for it to show anything, but when it does, the "on" light starts as green as it tries to find a signal on DVI-D, showing that message at a 90 degree angle, but a bout 2 seconds later, the message disappears, and the light turns orange. I can't use the power button to turn it off. Using the power switch or disconnecting the power causes the long "wake up" scenario again when trying to turn it back on, which just goes through what I mentioned. Granted, I'm now connecting through the VGA port because I'm using a different computer (not at home) that doesn't have a DVI-D port, and I don't recall if the VGA port was working since I got it (it was used). I could take it home again and see if the DVI-D port is the one that works.

Anyways, I do have access to a smaller monitor than that one (SyncMaster 712n that I gave to my brother but he isn't using it anymore), so for the time being, that'll be my 2nd monitor. Good-bye 1600x1200, hello 1280x1024, my old friend.


Thinking maybe I should request that this particular post be moved into new thread, now that it's going off-topic, and into a subject about monitor repair/diagnostics.

edit:

One thing I have been able to check though is whether the computer I'm using can detect the monitor via VGA, and it seems to, recognizing that its recommended resolution is 1600x1200, and that it is a ViewSonic VP2030 series monitor.

edit2:

Put it completely back together (stand and all) so it'll be ready for me to take back home, but decided to try it once more. Same situation of not showing anything on VGA, solid orange light, etc, but now when the DVI-D message popped up, it wasn't rotated 90 degrees. Odd, I didn't recognize anything on the boards and such that would give the monitor the idea of whether it was rotated or not.

edit3:

Brought it home, plugged it in via DVI-D, and after the long wait, it woke up and works. So, perhaps the VGA doesn't work? However, there's a problem, and might have occurred during disassembly/reassembly. There's a set of 5 buttons on the monitor for menu settings, arranged (1 <menu/back>, Up, Down, 2 <enter/forward>, and Power). (2 and Power) do not seem to be responding to presses, essentially locking the monitor to whatever it's set to now. I can't even do a factory reset on it because it requires the (2 + Power) combination......

 

[DiscostewSM]

Well, I made a choice, but it wasn't the one I concluded with last week.

Prime Day led to a discount on this monitor, dropping the price from $220 to $150. Used my gift card balance and a Prime trial to get it for really cheap out of pocket. It may not have 1440p (max is 1080p), 144hz (75hz), or a large Freesync range like 30-144hz (47-75hz I think), but I think these are things I don't need to worry about, being on a budget and all, especially with the price I got it for. The thing that makes all this is that after this purchase, I believe I'll still be within budget to also get the Sapphire RX 480 Nitro when it releases, so to me, it feels like a double win scenario.

Still need to examine the out-of-order monitor I have though. Gonna wait on purchasing capacitors until after I figure out if the button panel in front can be fixed.