4k?

DutchTexan · September 7, 2016

Just now, Coombzy said:

If you're an audio dude at heart that sounds like a plan!

I’m really not, but I can surley appreciate it. I have a friend from work who has tens of thousands of dollars worth of music making. It’s kind of like 720p vs 1440p or membrane keyboard vs mechanical. You just can’t go back.

Mira Yurizaki · September 7, 2016

Here's my two cents if it matters.

A monitor is one of those things you rarely upgrade. If you're itching for a monitor upgrade, why not get a 4K now regardless of what your video card can handle? I got my first 1920x1200 monitor back when I was rocking an 8800 GT and that card could probably barely handle anything a few years older than 2009 at that resolution with everything turned up. A few years ago I got my first 2560x1440 monitor and I had a GTX 670 at the time. Imagine trying to play a decked out Skyrim at that resolution (spoilers: it was playable at best).

If this were a few years ago though I'd say stay away from 4K monitors. They were new tech, mostly TN displays with that funk two panels merged into one and using DP's MST functionality to use one cable (or you had to use two HDMI cables or something). But today? There's a few out there that can be considered great for general use cases, like the Dell P2715Q.

But consider other things though, a 27" 4K monitor practically requires 150% scaling, maybe 125%. It's not impossible to read at 100%, but things are pretty small, like everything's at 6pt font. If you like 100% scaling and want a 4K monitor for its real estate, you'd have to look elsewhere or get a TV. Otherwise, you can get a 27" 4K and enjoy the "retina" quality of the UI.

Also on a plus side, even if you can't run games at a satisfactory framerate, lowering the resolution of a 27" 4K monitor to 1440p doesn't really result in a noticeable drop in quality. Here's an example, can you tell which one is 4K and which one is 1440p?

Spoiler

But people here might go "but 144Hz is way better!"... I mean it's smoother, but it's not really a game changer for me. It's not going to increase my KD ratio or whatever. I play games that require tight reflexes on my 144Hz monitor as I do on my 60Hz monitor.

Ultimately though if you can, go find a brick and mortar store that has monitors on display and see what works best for you.