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Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

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Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#661

Post by Sephr »

quicklime wrote: post #522

The author says that you don't need to choose between 4K and 120Hz, because there are "reasonably priced" monitors on the market that have both. But their recommended monitor ($900) seems a lot more expensive than a 4K 60Hz monitor (which is around $300-$400 when I search on Amazon). The author also says (they think) that you need the discrete graphics card in a MacBook to take advantage of a 120 Hz display, and that…

The current Ice Lake MacBook Pro 13" supports DisplayPort 1.4, which can do 4K at 98Hz with HDR or 4K at 120Hz in SDR.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#662

Post by ogre_codes »

dpbriggs wrote: post #595
ogre_codes wrote: post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. No matter what operating system you're on, you'll eventually run into an application that doesn't render in high dpi mode You lost me right here on line 1. If there are apps on MacOS that can't handle high dpi mode, I haven't run into them as a developer (or doing photo editing, video editing, plus whatever other hobbies I do). Also, I don't have any trouble with plugging my highDPI MacBook into a crappy 1080p d…

There are platforms aside from MacOS, and developers need to use them. It's great that you can, but that's not everyone.

> There are platforms aside from MacOS

The post I quoted was: "No matter what operating system you're on". I quoted that particular bit for a reason.

The ergonomics of better screen resolution don't change just because your OS isn't good at dealing with high resolution.

When you pick an operating system (if you have the choice), there are a lot of factors, it's good to know what's important to you and choose appropriately.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#663

Post by Polylactic_acid »

ogre_codes wrote: post #654
Polylactic_acid wrote: post #593

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have been using a 4k monitor and 2 1080p monitors on linux for a while now. The current state of things is that hidpi works correctly on everything I have run including proprietary apps. I'm also surprised when my wine programs scale properly as well. What does not work perfect is mixing hidpi and lowdpi screens. On wayland with wayland compatible apps it works fine but on X11 or with xwayland apps like electron it…

> I have been using a 4k monitor and 2 1080p monitors on linux for a while now. The current state of things is that hidpi works correctly on everything I have run including proprietary apps. It's good to hear things aren't as bad as some have suggested.

I think it was bad since when I look through the issue trackers a lot of hidipi bugs were closed less than one year ago but I have not really noticed much other than what I noted about multi monitors.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#664

Post by mov_ »

This is a fantastic post, I just bought a 28", 158 dpi monitor recently and spent quite a bit of time figuring out how to maximize the font quality.

Since there weren't any suggestions for linux, this is what I did for Ubuntu 20:

    * 2x scaling
    * Downloaded libfreetype, enabled subpixel rendering option, replaced existing libfreetype.so
      (I think Ubuntu 20 might already have this enabled, but just to be safe I did it manually)
    * Turned off all hinting options in font configuration
    * Turn on lcddefault filtering
      (necessary if you have subpixel rendering enabled)
    * Specifically set 158 dpi in Alacritty terminal config
      (Not entirely sure that's necessary?)

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#665

Post by pao »

Those are the ugliest monitors I've ever seen. I thought all monitors were basically boring rectangles. No, apparently there are monitors with weird designs on them and shrouds.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#666

Post by mulmen »

keenmaster wrote: post #625
mulmen wrote: post #386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I recently upgraded to a 43” 4k monitor and use it the way you describe. I’m not sure I am happy with it. The real estate is nice but it might be too much. UI elements end up very far away. I rarely need all that space. I either need a bigger (deeper) desk to sit back farther or just a smaller monitor physically with the same resolution.

32” 4K is perfection, right in the sweet spot of size.

Agreed. My work monitor is a 32 or 34" ultrawide. It works well but I would really like more vertical real estate. I'm definitely shopping for 32-34" 4k displays right now.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#667

Post by the_af »

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #587
the_af wrote: post #76

The technical details are all right (or seem right to me, anyway), but this is too opinionated for my liking. No, you do not need a 4K monitor for software development. Some people might like them, some won't. [edit/clarification: someone rightfully pointed out that nobody will actively dislike a 4K monitor. I was unclear here: I meant "some people won't need them" more than "dislike them"] This sounds like when Jeff…

We could still be programming at 640x480 like we did back in the early 90s. Thankfully, technology marched on and we went to 1024x768 and then even better resolutions. One would think that technology would march forward until we had ink on paper-resolution displays, because why not? But of course, we could still make do with 640x480 like we did way back when. The bigger issue is that, like we've been doing for the la…

I get what you're saying. In general, though, I disagree with the notion that newer tech makes old tech automatically -- always -- not good enough. It's the mentality that makes a lot of people rush to buy the latest Kindle (or mobile phone, or whatever) when the one they own does everything they need.

More importantly, it's one thing to say "I prefer this new tech/resolution/gadget" and another to claim "how can you work like this?" (Where "this" can be "without a mac", "without a mechanical keyboard", "without a 4K monitor", "without three 4K monitors", etc).

Software is developed successfully without any of those. It's not only not an impediment, it's not like a sort of martyrdom either. So no, it's not time to upgrade that monitor.

Someone else in this thread commented that for many devs, their gadgets are a proxy for actual skill. It's easier to show you have a 5K monitor "like all hackers should" than to actually be a good developer.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#668

Post by lflux »

ogre_codes wrote: post #574
thomaslord wrote: post #239

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hello! Person who actively dislikes 4k here. In my experience: 1. No matter what operating system you're on, you'll eventually run into an application that doesn't render in high dpi mode. Depending on the OS that can mean it renders tiny, or that the whole things is super ugly and pixelated (WAY worse than on a native 1080p display) 2. If the 4k screen is on your laptop, good luck ever having a decent experience plu…

> 1. No matter what operating system you're on, you'll eventually run into an application that doesn't render in high dpi mode You lost me right here on line 1. If there are apps on MacOS that can't handle high dpi mode, I haven't run into them as a developer (or doing photo editing, video editing, plus whatever other hobbies I do). Also, I don't have any trouble with plugging my highDPI MacBook into a crappy 1080p d…

> If there are apps on MacOS that can't handle high dpi mode, I haven't run into them as a developer (or doing photo editing, video editing, plus whatever other hobbies I do). Also, I don't have any trouble with plugging my highDPI MacBook into a crappy 1080p display at work.

PyCharm had high CPU consumption issues with a Macbook connected to a 4k display running in a scaled resolution. Native 4k was fine, using the default resolution was fine but "more space" made it use tons of CPU since it had to rescale text and UI elements on the CPU.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#669

Post by kart23 »

sydd wrote: post #599
RHSeeger wrote: post #26

> A good monitor is essential for that. Not nice to have. A MUST. And in “good” I mean, as good as you can get. The whole discussion starts from a what I would say is an incorrect assertion, and then goes on to describe lots of ways that letters can be made better. If, in fact, you don't need better, then a lot of the points go away. 1. There is a point of diminishing returns, past which you are spending a lot more m…

While technically the article is correct, it feels very narrow-sighted to me by placing resolution/refresh rate above everything else. Some more things to consider: - Price. If you are not a programmer in a first world country working for a magic money startup/big 4 then you wont spend $1000+ on a single monitor. Mine was a better 27" 1920 one for $300 and I'm happy with it. I'm sure there are better ones, but I cant…

PWM and flicker need to die. I easily tell when a monitor is flickering and I'm convinced they're bad for long term eye health after using one for multiple years and not knowing why my eyes started hurting so often. Refresh rate is a nice-to-have in my book above 60fps. Size and resolution are much more important. Having a 32" over a 24" changed my life.

Affordable, large E-ink screens would be revolutionary for many occupations and I hope there's more investment in the space.

Re: Time to Upgrade Your Monitor

#670

Post by euske »

I turn off any font/scroll smoothing and animation whenever possible. I use a good bitmap font for coding. It's readable and snappy. No hinting BS. There's no need for animation in Emacs or tmux after all.
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