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I had 4k for years (4x 22" displays in pivot mode). It really improves productivity on complex tasks such as debugging. Soon I will upgrade to 3x Dell P2815
by qwerta 13y ago
I had 4k for years (4x 22" displays in pivot mode). It really improves productivity on complex tasks such as debugging.
Soon I will upgrade to 3x Dell P2815Q with 6480x3840 resolution.
- pizza 13y agoThat's the same number of pixels as 12 1080p monitors. Isn't there some level of diminishing returns after about, say, half that resolution? Just curious.
- potatolicious 13y agoIn terms of sheer workspace? Probably, but then you can dedicate the excess pixels to increasing pixel density and making things easier to read. After getting used to the high-DPI displays in tablets and phones I have to admit, desktop text rendering has become very notably lacking.
- qwerta 13y agoI usually use one window per display. First display is for code navigation, 2nd and 3th for code windows and 4th for documentation and notes. Also decent window manager with hotkeys and scripting helps (KWin on Linux) I practically never use alt tab :-)
- XorNot 13y agoIt's not just that - you can read very small text on a high DPI display. I'm consistently amazed that I can basically read HN without zooming on my S4 despite it being tiny compared to my desktop (but the same resolution pixel wise). That's a big benefit for when you want to keep an eye on some debug output but not work on it directly, or quickly parse big sections of text.
- qwerta 13y agoMy current setup is 4x22" at 1050x1620. I originally started with two displays, but kept adding over years. I think each display increases productivity by half of previous (2nd display adds 50%, 3th adds 25% and 4th 12.5%). My secondary screens are slightly damaged (dead pixels, scratches...) so they cost peanuts. The real limit is electricity bill. Also with such large setup you need good light balance. I always use inverse color scheme (light on dark background). For example I even filter web page colors. I am upgrading because my laptop and phone has retina display and I love it. Also LED displays should have lower energy consumption compared to my ancient displays.
- sparkie 13y agoI personally think we ought to reconsider our whole desktop paradigms from scratch. Some of the ideas we're using were designed they way they are primarily because of display size constraints. For example, popup/tree navigation based application menus would probably seem silly when we could just dedicate a fraction of one side of your screen to always show the whole tree. I don't think we're anywhere close to the limit where something like Eagle Mode won't still benefit by adding more pixels (provided you can also supply the memory and processing capabilities for it to work responsively). The same kind of thing could apply to many tree structures, or graphs of complex relationships - being able to visualize large collections at once without the context-switch of scrolling is useful. Being able to view the whole source code of an application at once would be incredibly useful. Another example might be reading or writing some research paper. Frequently you end up scrolling back and forth through a paper to cite or connect the bits together, which is pretty cumbersome, particularly when "back" buttons don't always have the expected or desired behavior (e.g, many viewers are missing a "push my current scroll position onto a stack before navigating" feature). Being able to view a whole document at once would ease some of that. It'd be interesting to see some studies on the difference between the efficiency of using spatial layouts compared with sequential actions. It seems to me that spatial layouts quickly become rote actions that don't require much thought, but having to execute a set of commands is repetitive and error prone. (e.g, how many times have you clicked the wrong application in a task bar accidentally when you have a brain fart?). It seems the industry is obsessed with heading in the opposite direction. I find mobile platforms a pain to use and I generally avoid them. Things like Gnome Shell's task switcher are also a regression from task bars, as the sequence to switch an application now has extra steps.
- bhauer 13y agoI'd love three of those Dell monitors. But did you happen to see the update to that Forbes article [1] that suggests that the P2815Q will also be limited 30 Hz refresh? I'm enduring 30 Hz now obviously, so I know it can be done, but I'd like to see Dell up the ante a bit and make 60 Hz 4K happen. [1] http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/01/07/dell-wasnt-joking-about-that-28-inch-sub-1000-4k-monitor-its-only-699/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonevangelho/2014/01/07/dell-w...
- qwerta 13y ago30Hz is not really a problem for reading code. And it also makes things simpler for graphic cards.
- muro 13y agoIt's a TN screen :(