His "research" was a Twitter poll?
But I basically agree. I use a pair of 4K monitors and it works well. I run the UI at 150%.
Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
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Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#12It's frustrating that consumer Hi-DPI display development has completely stalled in the last five years.
As mentioned in the article, macOS works best using true 2x integer scaling. Using 2x scaling, a 4k monitor will result in an equivalent workspace to a 1080p display—unusable for productivity and development. A superior option is iMac/LG 5k display results which nets an equivalent workspace of 1440p.
The only options for greater-than-4k displays on the market currently are the 27" LG 5K ($1200, 2014) and the Dell 8k ($3500, 2017). I'm convinced this is due to the manufacturers focusing their attention on the high-margin gaming market which has no need for resolutions higher than 4k.
I'm holding onto my 30" 2560x1600 Apple Cinema Display until I can get something that offers me the equivalent amount of screen real estate at 2x retina scaling.
Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#13Good article.
Have to say though, taste is subjective, but good lord those monitors are about as elegantly designed as a Rockstar Energy drink.
Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#14Using 55" LG OLED @4k as my main display, nothing compares.
Have you experienced any of the reported OLED burn-in issues?
I would love to upgrade to an OLED but my screens are on at least 16 hours a day with semi-static content. That's a hefty price to take a chance on burn-in.
Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#15After going to 1440p, I cannot use 1080p monitors for programming as the text is too blurry. Honestly I don't see the need of 2160p on a monitor, it usually just causes display issues and it's a performance drain. For gaming/everyday use, 2k w/ a high refresh rate is the sweet spot imo.
Eventually I want to go to 4k but price was a non-starter for me. I wanted 3 monitors and I was able to grab 3x2k (1440p) screens on black Friday last year for around $200/ea. I have them arranged in a "Tie-fighter" orientation (1 horizontal in the middle and 2 vertical on the sides) with an older 1080p screen above the center monitor (it's just for security cams/monitoring).
I split the 2 vertical monitors into 3rds (top, middle, bottom) and I have keyboard shortcuts to move/resize windows as well as snap every window to it's designated space. I have been extremely happy with this setup so far.
Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#16I prefer real-estate to sharp fonts, so I run my 4K screens (24" and 27") with no scaling at all.
I find text very hard to read on a 27" 4K monitor with no scaling. Not sure if it has something to do with me getting older and wearing glasses.
Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#17Interesting info, but overly opinionated. I tried turning off font smoothing just now but the lack of boldness made everything appear dimmer, and I had to strain my eyes a bit when reading my code. Also I use my MacBook without a separate screen, with no scaling, so I really have to disagree with this:
> This will make everything on the screen slightly bigger, leaving you (slightly!) less screen estate. This is expected. My opinion is, a notebook is a constrained environment by definition. Extra 15% won’t magically turn it into a huge comfortable desktop
For me a notebook is not a constrained environment, and screen scaling very much makes the difference between "a huge comfortable desktop" and not.
Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#18For me, I find 1440p + high refresh rate as the true sweet spot, the "affordable" monitor listed in this post is $900.
That's not a bad deal for a 4k high refresh rate monitor, but if you play any games you would need at least a 2080 or 2080ti which is another 700-1200, 1440p high refresh monitors go for around $300-400.
Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#19Great theory. I'd definitely love to have 4k 120hz displays, but until I'm not broke, I'll stick with my old low-res monitors I picked up for $20 apiece. They suck, but not everyone has the money for $500 panels, let alone the insanely-priced four-figure ones the author recommends. I'll probably just suffer through another decade of garbage text until they get cheap.
Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor
#20After going to 1440p, I cannot use 1080p monitors for programming as the text is too blurry. Honestly I don't see the need of 2160p on a monitor, it usually just causes display issues and it's a performance drain. For gaming/everyday use, 2k w/ a high refresh rate is the sweet spot imo.
It has been years since I gamed regularly but my brother and I were probably some of the best at a particular FPS. It has to be about 15+ years ago. When we played in the physical presence of others we noticed that we were some of the only ones to turn the display settings way down while keeping resolution the maximum. Probably 800x600 or 1280x1024 in those days. The game ran smoother, and the less complex textures m…
People are playing CS:Global Offensive because its a smoother, less complex texture compared to other modern games (ie: Overwatch).
I'd dare say that the "serious" FPS players stick to Counterstrike, and other easier-to-render games with 200+ FPS. (even if the monitor doesn't support it, the higher FPS results in smoother gameplay and fewer hiccups).
There's of course a huge casual crowd playing Overwatch, PUBG and Fortnite. But CS tournaments remain a thing to this day.