Benefits of resolutions beyond 1080p

This is a genuine question, so please don't do me like Vlad the Impaler. What is your opinion about the benefits of upgrading to displays beyond 1080p?

I have never watched a film or a video at 1080p and thought it needed to look better. When it comes to software, I feel like I would want a proportionally larger monitor to keep the same DPI PPI, otherwise older software might be a pain to use, and that maintained software UI won't necessarily benefit. However, that line of thinking is probably a niche concern of mine? I don't play first person shooters, so maybe that's another thing I don't get. I have read some people saying that text looks better, which I could buy I suppose?

I wouldn't say the same for 800x600, but maybe if I were a boomer I would have made that post, too. Is this something I would get over if I start using a modern display?

e: thanks to everyone for great responses! Based on the popular sentiment, I'm thinking I would take to 1440p just fine, presuming I get a screen ratio, DPI PPI, and screen size that suit my preferences. I am really relieved that I'm not super weird for being completely fine with my ancient monitors. :)

fushuan ,

on a similar topic, I recently upgraded my screen from two 24'' 1080x60 to 24'' 1080x144 & 27'' 1080x120. I barely tell the difference but my card sure does, I quickly limited the refresh rate of both to 60 because I it's pointless and I've read too many people saying that once you go 120+ it feels bad watching 60, and I really don't want to get used to something that just makes me spend more electricity for nothing.

If you enjoy stuff fine in FullHD, don't bother increasing the resolution. As others have explained, there are other things to upgrade before going for resolution that will have a bigger impact on the image. That said, purchasing a good screen that happens to have 2K or anything higher than 1080 is no big deal, just set your resolution to whatever you want from software and be done with it.

EddoWagt ,

That said, purchasing a good screen that happens to have 2K or anything higher than 1080 is no big deal, just set your resolution to whatever you want from software and be done with it.

That's awful advise, a 1440p monitor running at 1080p will look like a blurry mess

thelittleblackbird ,

Take a look onto he following image:
https://i0.wp.com/www.techjunkie.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/tv-size-distance-chart.png?ssl=1

There is always a subjective component in this kind of discussions but this image will help you to see if yiur setup will make sense based in the real perception of the human eye.

Fallenwout ,

Since you are convinced about the higher resolution, you really are going to enjoy it.

But let me urge you to also buy a higher refresh rate. The same discussion applies here.

Even if the human eye can't count the pixels or the frames, you WILL perceived it as more relaxing on the eye.

eestileib ,

I was a skeptic; "I can't see all the pixels unless I'm as close to the screen as the screen is wide, why bother?"

Then I went over to my friend's place and watched some stuff on his 4K OLED. Holy shit. So I can't see all the pixels, but turns out that only perceiving 2.5-3x the data is still a big improvement.

I'm still not gonna pay for one until they get a lot cheaper.

Moonrise2473 ,

On my 4k 32" usually I run 4 programs at the same time, one at each corner. It's like having 4 1080p screens (I keep scaling at 100%)

Crashumbc ,

Yeah, this has been huge for productivity for me. Or looking at huge spreadsheets.

brianorca , (edited )

I do a lot of code. That means I often deal with three or four programs at the same time, and perhaps 10 loaded throughout the day and I want to see them all. So I have two monitors that are each 27" and 4k.

This means I can see a web browser sized to a full 1080 size, next to a database query, and still see the code that I'm working on, and keep an eye on any new emails or text chats. Without needing to Alt-tab to switch windows. It's like spreading your work over a dining room table, instead of those little desks you got in high school.

Most apps don't need to be larger than 1080. But some can be taller to see more code (maybe 160 lines, for example) without scrolling too much. And I hardly ever deal with just one window at a time.

toastal ,

2.8k seems about the sweet spot on a laptop to be from your face & see no pixels or even have to think about font hinting & the like. The bigger wins are OLEDs for blacks & picking up something with 100% DCI-P3.

merthyr1831 ,

I moved from a 1080p monitor to a 1440p one for my main display and it's actually really worthwhile. Not only is your daily computing sharper, but multitasking becomes easier because smaller windows are still legible.

IMO it's a lot easier on the eyes when things are sharper, too.

1080p is still more than enough, but I think 1440p is worth it for a screen you're using for hours every day :)

shaytan ,
@shaytan@lemmy.dbzer0.com avatar

Reading 100% feels better, seeing tiny icons/logos without it being a pixelated mess is also good, and video looks much crisper, same goes for videogames, and the performance hit from 1080 to 1440 isn't bad at all.

GolfNovemberUniform ,

Higher resolutions are needed for larger displays (45'+) if you want to look at them closer. Other than that a higher resolution can look slightly better but the performance hit usually isn't worth it. Idk about professional use cases though. I'm not a designer. Btw I use a 35' 1366x768 (or something like that) monitor

independantiste ,
@independantiste@sh.itjust.works avatar

1080p is just fine, but it's not good and definitely not great. If you've tried a high DPI display like the ones on MacBooks, you'll know what I'm talking about. Using a computer at 200% scaling just makes everything so much more pleasing to look at, especially the text. The pixels are gone, so everything looks sharp and smooth. I really cannot wait for 5K 27" monitors with high refresh rates to come out. This will likely be an instant buy from me, except if it's like 2 grand.

General high DPI with the same relative UI scale as 24" 1080p, but with much sharper visuals:

24" 4k
27" 5k
32" 6k

And the good thing is you can always set your game to use half the resolution and it will look as if it was the lowdpi equivalent, because the pixels are simply grouped using 3 neighbors, no fractional scale BS.

My laptop has a 3072*1920 screen that I use at 200% scale on Linux, and I wouldn't buy anything that doesn't work well at 200%. Apple seem like the only ones who understood this with MacOS that is designed to be used at 200% on basically ALL their retina monitors. this is why they have weird definitions, because they need to hit 200%, and based on the size of the display, a standard resolution won't reach exactly 200% and the UI will be too small or too large.

cmnybo ,

4K is nice for a large computer monitor if you want to replace a multi monitor setup with a single monitor. It needs to be 40+ inches, unfortunately there are not many monitors like that available.

billbasher ,

The biggest thing is view distance vs size. Your eyes can only see up to a certain density.

https://www.rgb.com/display-size-resolution-and-ideal-viewing-distance

acosmichippo ,
@acosmichippo@lemmy.world avatar

also your personal subjective vision. some people legitimately can’t see the differences where others can.

brianorca ,

Some of that may not be subjective, even if it is a personal difference. Some need glasses, some don't get glasses because they just barely need them, and others have problems glasses can't fix, especially as we age. Some eyes are just different, and that's physical differences, not just a difference of preference.

JoMiran ,
@JoMiran@lemmy.ml avatar

27" 1440p capped at 120hz is my playground. I find myself missing the extra real estate at 1080p.

Note: I do more than gaming on my PC.

Amir ,
@Amir@lemmy.ml avatar

1440p at regular monitor size is probably all you'd need, but the annoying issue is that 1080p content looks worse on that than it does on a 1080p monitor

CalcProgrammer1 ,
@CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml avatar

I find 1080p to be too small these days. For desktop use I like 1440p or 2160p (4K). For video, I don't notice the difference between 1080 and 4K too much but for productivity it is a massive step up. My laptop is a 14" 1440p screen and I have an older laptop with a 13" 1440p screen. I use both with 100% scaling (no enlargement) and it's fine. I don't think it's hard to see and I love having the extra screen real estate for coding and multitasking. Being able to have 2 windows side by side and still have enough room on each for a decent length line of code is great. For my desktop, I used a 28" 4K for a long time and being able to have 4 1080p windows open is amazing. 28" 4K is the same PPI as 14" 1080p, and I am already comfortable with 14" 1440p so from a reasonable distance it's no problem. I went to a 27" 1440p for a while on my desktop after that because I upgraded to a 144Hz VRR display, but just last fall I again upgraded to a 32" 4K 144Hz VRR and it's great. No problem with reading text at 100% scaling from a normal distance and it's amazing for games. I do notice games being clearer at 4K but I mainly got the 4K monitor for productivity as I missed it and now that 144Hz 4K was available I wanted it back.

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