5 ms·

I have a large 4K monitor when I'm my desk in the office, a smaller 1920x440 at home, and just the (Retina) laptop screen when I'm elsewhere. My sense is that

I have a large 4K monitor when I'm my desk in the office, a smaller 1920x440 at home, and just the (Retina) laptop screen when I'm elsewhere. My sense is that the 4K monitor is a bit nicer than the 1920x440, but nowhere near enough nicer for me to have ever felt motivated to replace the 10 year old monitor I already have at home. The real difference is between 2 monitors vs just the one. I also briefly had a 15" laptop with a 4K monitor, and UGH NO CRANK THAT RESOLUTION DOWN RIGHT NOW. My take-away: Ignore the marketing fluff that focuses overmuch on resolutions; the resolution is not an end in and of itself. Pick a screen size, and then pick a resolution that gives you an appropriate DPI for that size.

caymanjim 7y ago
Don't ever turn the resolution on a 4k monitor down, unless it's for performance reasons (e.g. gaming). Every OS has UI scaling built-in now. It works perfectly in Windows 10 and MacOS. It works pretty well in Linux, but given the mess that is Linux UI toolkits, not all applications will scale properly. Everything I use regularly looks fine, even in experimental non-standard scaling like 175%. Running a 4k monitor at 1920x1080 looks like crap. Running a 4k monitor with 200% UI scaling gets you the same dimensions but glorious smooth fonts.
- mumblemumble 7y ago
  > Don't ever turn the resolution on a 4k monitor down, unless it's for performance reasons ehhhhhh..... > It works pretty well in Linux, but given the mess that is Linux UI toolkits, not all applications will scale properly. Yep, exactly.
- thaumasiotes 7y ago
  > Don't ever turn the resolution on a 4k monitor down, unless it's for performance reasons (e.g. gaming). Every OS has UI scaling built-in now. So, I have a game I want to run hitting the following properties: - The game should only render 1920x1080. This keeps fps around 30. - The game should cover my whole screen. - Running the game should not resize all my other open windows. All of these seem like stupid-obvious goals, but there doesn't seem to be a way to get them all. The game itself offers fullscreen (which automatically resizes my other open windows, when the game resolution is lower than the desktop resolution -- I don't understand this ridiculous anti-feature, but it doesn't seem to be configurable), and windowed mode where the window occupies a range of pixels equal to the game resolution (which is a really small window, and really hurts enjoyment of the game). I've tried sending win32 messages [well, SetWindowLong; I think "messages" are something different] to a 1920x1080 game window to expand its rectangle, but the game just starts rendering higher-resolution images for the bigger window -- even though it's configured for 1920x1080 -- dropping the frame rate. Are you saying there's a way for me to scale this window to get the behavior I want? (Render a 1920x1080 image, then paint it over the 3840x2160 desktop.) What is it?
  - proverbialbunny 7y ago
    Yes, don't use Windows as your OS. You'll get a higher fps and a better response time running even an non native games outside of Windows.
  - brigade 7y ago
    If the game offers "borderless fullscreen" or "fullscreen windowed" then that's what you want. There are 3rd party utilities that can force it for games lacking the option, but I can't speak to how well they work.
    - thaumasiotes 7y ago
      Right, that's what I tried to do, but the game renders an image by referring to the window size rather than the graphics settings. (Or at least, when I force the window into borderless fullscreen, fps drops to the same rate at which it normally renders 3840x2160.)
      - iggldiggl 7y ago
        Maybe enabling GPU scaling in conjunction with the game's regular fullscreen mode set to 1920x1080 might do the trick? In that case, instead of physically changing your monitor's resolution when entering (true) fullscreen mode, the GPU should simply rescale the game output as required to match your regular resolution.
phonypc 7y ago
>1920x440 I'm so confused. Just missing a 1 and 1920x1440 is an actual monitor resolution I've never heard of? 1920x1080? 1920x1200? 2560x1440?
- mumblemumble 7y ago
  Some mix of the above. It's probably been a good half decade since I actually looked at the resolution setting for that monitor, and I'm definitely getting into the years where brains will fart.
akvadrako 7y ago
An appropriate DPI is at least 300 at laptop distances which is the point when you start to not need subpixel antialiasing and font hinting which sacrifices letter shape for sharpness. That means about 4K for 15 inches.
- wincy 7y ago
  Well luckily for the low low price of $4000, you can get a 32" 8k monitor, which hits that sweet spot. https://www.newegg.com/dell-up3218k-32/p/N82E16824260551 https://www.newegg.com/dell-up3218k-32/p/N82E16824260551
  - selectodude 7y ago
    Save a couple hundred bucks and buy it from Dell. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-ultrasharp-32-8k-monitor-up3218k/apd/210-alez/monitors-monitor-accessories https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-ultrasharp-32-8k-m...
  - nullc 7y ago
    These show up on ebay from time to time for significantly less. It's not a half bad monitor but it is a pain to drive.

caymanjim 7y ago

Don't ever turn the resolution on a 4k monitor down, unless it's for performance reasons (e.g. gaming). Every OS has UI scaling built-in now. It works perfectly in Windows 10 and MacOS. It works pretty well in Linux, but given the mess that is Linux UI toolkits, not all applications will scale properly. Everything I use regularly looks fine, even in experimental non-standard scaling like 175%. Running a 4k monitor at 1920x1080 looks like crap. Running a 4k monitor with 200% UI scaling gets you the same dimensions but glorious smooth fonts.

mumblemumble 7y ago
> Don't ever turn the resolution on a 4k monitor down, unless it's for performance reasons ehhhhhh..... > It works pretty well in Linux, but given the mess that is Linux UI toolkits, not all applications will scale properly. Yep, exactly.
thaumasiotes 7y ago
> Don't ever turn the resolution on a 4k monitor down, unless it's for performance reasons (e.g. gaming). Every OS has UI scaling built-in now. So, I have a game I want to run hitting the following properties: - The game should only render 1920x1080. This keeps fps around 30. - The game should cover my whole screen. - Running the game should not resize all my other open windows. All of these seem like stupid-obvious goals, but there doesn't seem to be a way to get them all. The game itself offers fullscreen (which automatically resizes my other open windows, when the game resolution is lower than the desktop resolution -- I don't understand this ridiculous anti-feature, but it doesn't seem to be configurable), and windowed mode where the window occupies a range of pixels equal to the game resolution (which is a really small window, and really hurts enjoyment of the game). I've tried sending win32 messages [well, SetWindowLong; I think "messages" are something different] to a 1920x1080 game window to expand its rectangle, but the game just starts rendering higher-resolution images for the bigger window -- even though it's configured for 1920x1080 -- dropping the frame rate. Are you saying there's a way for me to scale this window to get the behavior I want? (Render a 1920x1080 image, then paint it over the 3840x2160 desktop.) What is it?
- proverbialbunny 7y ago
  Yes, don't use Windows as your OS. You'll get a higher fps and a better response time running even an non native games outside of Windows.
- brigade 7y ago
  If the game offers "borderless fullscreen" or "fullscreen windowed" then that's what you want. There are 3rd party utilities that can force it for games lacking the option, but I can't speak to how well they work.
  - thaumasiotes 7y ago
    Right, that's what I tried to do, but the game renders an image by referring to the window size rather than the graphics settings. (Or at least, when I force the window into borderless fullscreen, fps drops to the same rate at which it normally renders 3840x2160.)
    - iggldiggl 7y ago
      Maybe enabling GPU scaling in conjunction with the game's regular fullscreen mode set to 1920x1080 might do the trick? In that case, instead of physically changing your monitor's resolution when entering (true) fullscreen mode, the GPU should simply rescale the game output as required to match your regular resolution.

phonypc 7y ago

>1920x440 I'm so confused. Just missing a 1 and 1920x1440 is an actual monitor resolution I've never heard of? 1920x1080? 1920x1200? 2560x1440?

mumblemumble 7y ago
Some mix of the above. It's probably been a good half decade since I actually looked at the resolution setting for that monitor, and I'm definitely getting into the years where brains will fart.

akvadrako 7y ago

An appropriate DPI is at least 300 at laptop distances which is the point when you start to not need subpixel antialiasing and font hinting which sacrifices letter shape for sharpness. That means about 4K for 15 inches.

wincy 7y ago
Well luckily for the low low price of $4000, you can get a 32" 8k monitor, which hits that sweet spot. https://www.newegg.com/dell-up3218k-32/p/N82E16824260551 https://www.newegg.com/dell-up3218k-32/p/N82E16824260551
- selectodude 7y ago
  Save a couple hundred bucks and buy it from Dell. https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-ultrasharp-32-8k-monitor-up3218k/apd/210-alez/monitors-monitor-accessories https://www.dell.com/en-us/work/shop/dell-ultrasharp-32-8k-m...
- nullc 7y ago
  These show up on ebay from time to time for significantly less. It's not a half bad monitor but it is a pain to drive.