Downgrade Upgrade

For my birthday, I bought myself a new PC monitor (one of those fun rationalizations you can make as an adult). It’s a 27” Alienware 1440p OLED, and on paper it’s arguably a downgrade from my current monitor (a 28” 4K Samsung Odyssey G7). But the use case is more complicated and I’ve been craving a new monitor for many reasons, which I’ll share below.

Reason 1: I hate my monitor.

The picture on the Samsung is fine, good even, but everything else about it blows. It’s a “smart” monitor so it’s full of apps and ads and slow, cumbersome menus that annoy the hell out of me every time I need to go in and change a setting. Everything is controlled by a remote, which is another thing to keep charged, not lose, and take up space on my desk. The interface is gaudy and feels like something from a $99 TV, not a $600 premium computer monitor.

Reason 2: I like OLED.

My only experiences with OLED screens have been the original PS Vita, the Steam Deck OLED, and the OLED revision of the Nintendo Switch. Going from OLED to the LCD Switch 2 screen was a bit of a disappointment. The Switch 2 screen has some stuff going for it (size, speed), but I prefer the colors of an OLED. It’s about time I got an OLED screen for where I play games the most, my PC.

Reason 3: I’m stuck with these PC specs for the time being.

Because of the AI grift, memory and storage have shot up in price. GPU prices are still ridiculous due to the previous techbro grift, crypto. Tech grifters, manufacturers, and investors aren’t going to change, so it’s unlikely consumer prices will. That means I need to make my setup (32 GB RAM, AMD Ryzen 7800X3D 8-Core Processor, GeForce RTX 4080 Super 16GB) last. I care more about frame rate and effects in games than pure resolution, so the drop from 4K to 1440p will take some load off my machine and help ensure that I can continue to play modern games at 120fps+ for the next few years.

Reason 4: I’ve always wanted an Alienware something.

This is a dumb reason, but it’s true. I know Dell-owned-Alienware isn’t exactly the cool premium brand I pined for in the early-2000s, but from reviews I’ve read of their modern products, it seems like the quality is still there. I’ll likely never be able to justify one of their bespoke PCs, but this monitor may scratch that Alien itch.

So that’s my rationale for the up/downgrade. I don’t really know how I’m going to feel about this change long term, but I’m excited to start testing. I’ll be posting periodic updates on how the change is going.

And at minimum, I’ll never have to see another ad for a Mr. Beast game show when I go in to change my picture settings.

I’m pretty stoked for that.