My work monitor is my old personal monitor that started to take a shit. Well now it's starting a double shit. I'm not sure if I want to replace it with a cheap VA monitor or buy a better monitor for myself and move my personal144Hz VA panel to the work side. And if I get one for myself, do I get a 4K or a good 1440p? 32" is the only option. Ah the decision is so hard. I'm not sure if I'd like a 4K monitor and if I got one I'd need to upgrade my GPU. A good triple fan 3070 is $550 right now.
4K sounds great in paper but it's just too hard to use in real world. I tried various sizes and just never found the sweet spot. I had high hopes for a 43" 4K which should've given me equivalent of 4x 1080 22" monitors. But too much neck pain and head tilting. Basically only used the dead center of the screen anyway... Part of it is I refuse to run non-native resolution or use software zooms because I paid for 8 million pixels. I think old age has caught up with me, and you're 40 years older so you'll have it worse for sure.
I think 1440p is the sweet spot right now. You can go for a 27" and go for pixel density, or go for 32" and go for screen real estate. 1440p is pretty easy to drive by today's standards. I'm using a 6 year old GTX 1070 and I can run most games on high or even ultra settings at 1440p. It's just a handful of newer and badly optimized games where I have to turn a few things down. Your average dudebrah running a 2060 or 3060 would have no trouble driving 1440p. 1440p monitors have also gotten cheap. You have a lot of options now for right around $300. The hardware to drive 4K in games just isn't there yet unless you want to spend a fortune on something like a 3080 or 3090, and even on huge screens you will probably still need to scale quite a bit.
I narrowed it down to an LG 32GP850-B or Gigabyte M32Q. Both are midrange 32" 1440P IPS gaming monitors. I was leaning towards the Gigabyte and waiting for a sale when the HP X32 (31.5" 2560x1440 QHD 165Hz 1ms IPS FreeSync) popped up on sale at Best Buy for $199. Very little info on that monitor, but it's suggested that it uses the same panel as the LG 32GP850-B. As far as I know there are only two panels made with these specs. An Innolux which the Gigabyte uses, and an LG that the LG uses. It's possible HP got b-stock LG panels but if there is an issue it should be easy to return to the store. Just got a call from BB. They said the store was out of stock and they will ship one to me. Hopefully this doesn't fall through. https://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-31-...-gaming-monitor-black/6483573.p?skuId=6483573
I have a 34" Ultrawide and really like it. Prices have come down and I was thinking about getting a 49" UW for about $700. But I'm once again caught up in the old 16:9 43-48" 4k at around the same priced dilemma. What's everyones perfered aspect ratio?
16:10, but apparently the new world order doesn't like it. I finally settled on the Gigabyte m32q for my second monitor. Once I got it calibrated it's almost impossible to tell the difference between this IPS monitor and the LG MVA monitor next to it. The only obvious difference is the MVA colors kind of dim at off angles and the IPS starts to fade to white at off angles. I had an HP X32 IPS next to it as well, and although it was a great value, the glow was a little worse. Bad IPS glow is the reason I've returned all my previous IPS monitors. The m32q has way less glow than most IPS monitors I've tried. It does however have a cluster of about 4 dead pixels in the upper left corner. I guess dead pixels is common for Gigabyte. I haven't decided if I want to deal with the hassle of a return and then maybe another if it happens again. They don't bother me, but I guess it's annoying to know they are there.
16:10 could have been great but it's not well supported by modern games. You either get black bars or a stretched image in most cases. There was a time in the late 2000s/early 2010s where 16:10 seemed like it might become the standard and then it just didn't happen.
I agree about 16:10... it's okay to not be supported by games. For me it means 1440 usable plus taskbar/dock/statusbar etc. I've been using my 43" 4k for a few weeks. I mounted it as close to the wall as possible so I'm about 27" inches from it. The extra distance makes it way more manageable but I still clutter all the windows close to the center, rather than use all the screen real estate. Maybe 43" 4k curved will be the sweet spot? I don't know how Linus uses his 48" 4k non-curved monitor as a daily driver... Also, I kinda had an ephiphany using this for 2 weeks. I've conclused that multiple monitors and bezels actually help organize your thoughts and tasks better. It just "separates" work more in tune with human behavior, in my opinion. I might full circle to stacking multiple monitors with fat bezels.
Yeah I can see the advantage of multiple monitors. I have a 32" with a laptop below it and I mentally divide up my windows between the two. Spreadsheets up top, email down below. Teams is usually down below so I can share the bigger screen and people don't see my alerts on the laptop. If I had a single 42" it'd probably be a mess with everything going full screen instead of utilizing the space efficiently. I wish I'd tried a curved 32" to see if I'd like it. I suspect I would, but there are usually quality trad-offs with uneven backlighting. I use an HDMI switch to extend the work 32" with my gaming 32" but, I rarely use both because the second screen, which touches the first, is still too far away to use without twisting my chair or neck.
I got a new laptop from work. The screen is 16:10. I loved that aspect ratio, but it feels so weird now.
Any new thoughts on the ideal productivity monitor? I am thinking 32" curved 4k or 1440p. I just can't take the 43" 4K anymore... it will have to be a secondary screen to stream video lol. I'm quite content with the 34" ultrawide on my personal PC and the rare gaming I do. I dunno, I feel like I'm more interested in simple than over the top shit nowadays.
I still haven't tried a curved monitor yet, but I've read they have more panel issues with color consistency and brightness. So not sure if that is a productivity killer.