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Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

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Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#41

Post by [deleted] »

dhosek wrote: post #29

I used to long for the days of 200dpi monitors when I was younger and we lived with 72dpi or less on-screen. Now, my vision has deteriorated to the point where I honestly can't see the difference despite being a type nerd. I'm increasingly using the zoom feature in MacOS to read smaller UI elements. I suspect my days of driving my MacBook display at "more space" (2048x1280) instead of "default" (1792x1120) are number…

[deleted]

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#43

Post by boromi »

vardump wrote: post #42
boromi wrote: post #23

What's the point of 120Hz if your just programming?

Can read the content clearly while smoothly 120 Hz scrolling or moving windows around.

Guess I never thought about that. Is the difference noticable. I always thought High refresh rate was for gaming.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#44

Post by adtac »

This is going to sound like I want to eat the cake and still have it, but I wish there was some sort of balance between real estate, sharpness, and affordability. A 24in 4K monitor without scaling makes text too small, but at 200%, it's no different from a 1080p monitor real estate-wise (even though text is much crisper). My current monitor, a 1440p 24in screen at 100%, serves all of my real estate needs, but leaves something to be desired in terms of sharpness, so a 5K screen at 200% and similar physical size would be perfect; alas, there aren't any general-purpose 5K monitors at an affordable price. 8K screens at 300% would offer similar, albeit slightly lower, real estate at even better text sharpness, but there's just one such monitor from Dell and it's ridiculously expensive.

I hope 5K monitors become as cheap as 4K monitors over the next few years.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#45

Post by aplummer »

mastercheif wrote: post #12

It'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 opti…

I use a Pro Display XDR for programming / design work, I think you forgot this one. It seems like it would fit your needs (with the obviously premium price) as it’s 32”.

It’s overkill for most, but still the best display I’ve ever used and I love it. I actually tried an Asus 4K 120hz for much less but the fan noise was a deal breaker even if the screen didn’t break on arrival (it did).

Disclosure: Apple employee

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#46

Post by kazinator »

vardump wrote: post #42
boromi wrote: post #23

What's the point of 120Hz if your just programming?

Can read the content clearly while smoothly 120 Hz scrolling or moving windows around.

You can do that just fine at 60 Hz, if there is no tearing (all screen updates appear during vertical sync).

You can read scrolling movie credits just fine at 24 FPS.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#47

Post by coreai »

After using a rMBP for 6 years, I realized that using a lower resolution and lower quality display makes absolutely no sense at all if both graphical power and budget is available (first 13' rMBP had some serious issue driving the display). Better quality image is better quality image. I think Apple's biggest selling point over any vendor right now, despite numerous issues with its hardware and software in the recent past, is absolutely top class input and output. It is such a simple concept. A great keyboard (seems to be fixed now) and absolutely incredible trackpad experience along with a display that basically is a huge step up from your past experience means that most users will prefer that setup even if they just use it for basic coding or web browsing. After looking at the first retina displays I realized that Apple didn't just change the displays but it changed how fonts behaved completely because the crisp and clear legibility was key to attract customers early on. I'd say even in 2020 most computers are struggling with good displays which can completely ruin the experience for someone using the product even if every other aspect of it was great.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#48

Post by h2odragon »

That's a lot of words to say that vector fonts suck for less than 24 px sizes. use bitmaps; there's lots of them to mitigate that problem. It was not that long ago that 640x480 was a screen and it sucked but things got done.

My last (almost) 2k CRT last just long enough that i could afford a 4k LCD when it died. I'm pleased with a pair of these but once MOAR PIXELS become affordable i'll buy them.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#49

Post by duncanawoods »

boromi wrote: post #23

What's the point of 120Hz if your just programming?

I notice that the main topic for > 100Hz monitor owners is how smooth it is to drag windows about. When they show off the monitor, they grab a window and wiggle it really fast. Given no-one has yet come up with a more meaningful demo I'm starting to think it's the only benefit!

There is probably a term for this type of performance chasing. It's like car owners bragging about their top speeds despite only ever driving on roads with speed limits.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#50

Post by gsich »

boromi wrote: post #23

What's the point of 120Hz if your just programming?

Luxury. Once you have gone so high you can't go back. I have a 144 Hz monitor now. Even when not playing games, scrolling, moving the mouse, moving windows. It's smooth and I never want to go lower again. Using the computer is fun again.
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