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4K monitor and real-world usability

Loa

Loa

macrumors 68000
Original poster
May 5, 2003
1,729
78
Québec
Hello,

I'm thinking about getting a bigger display (going to a 27 inch) and I'm considering the 4K options. Then again, I've read that a lot of users buy 4K displays only to use them on 1440p. Is it because the full 4K resolution isn't worth it on such a small display (compared to a 4K TV)?

Is it worth the extra cash to get a 27" 4K display vs a 1400p one?

Thanks.
 
Loa said:
Is it worth the extra cash to get a 27" 4K display vs a 1400p one?
Click to expand...
YES!

Note that with Apple OSX the 4K 27" is essentially a "retina" screen. I've purchased Dell 27" 4K monitors by the pallet load (literally), and our Apple folks set them to "retina" and are thrilled. (We even eWasted all of our Apple 27" T-bolt monitors and replaced them with Dells, since nobody who tried the Dell wanted to keep the T-bolt display.)
 
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AidenShaw said:
YES!

Note that with Apple OSX the 4K 27" is essentially a "retina" screen. I've purchased Dell 27" 4K monitors by the pallet load (literally), and our Apple folks set them to "retina" and are thrilled. (We even eWasted all of our Apple 27" T-bolt monitors and replaced them with Dells, since nobody who tried the Dell wanted to keep the T-bolt display.)
Click to expand...
@AidenShaw, Can you share some Dell model numbers that perform well?
 
I'm using a Dell P2715Q with my 4,1->5,1 and absolutely love it. I run it in 1440p HiDPI (i.e. Retina) most of the time and it is gorgeous. GPU is a GTX 980 that easily drives the monitor. The display was a huge upgrade from the 23" 1080p Cinema Display I had used for 7-ish years.
 
Blarnld said:
@AidenShaw, Can you share some Dell model numbers that perform well?
Click to expand...
cobracnvt said:
I'm interested in the Dell model numbers as well.
Click to expand...
They are all Dell P2715Q ($411 at https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-24-260-238).

The monitor has three inputs - DP, mDP and HDMI. There's also a DP output for daisy-chaining.

Only two issues with about 30 monitors over several years (no DOA).
  • Occasionally, the monitor won't wake from sleep. (And by "occasionally", I mean a couple of times per year.) Power switch isn't responsive - pulling the power cord for a few seconds brings it back. (We see this with Windows, Linux and Apple OSX.)
  • People often assume that both DP ports are inputs, and plug the cable into the daisy-chain output port. Black screen - user error.
One clever thing that Dell did was to ship an mDP to DP cable with the monitor. If you connect it to an Apple laptop or other mDP laptop, you plug the mDP into the laptop and the DP into the monitor. If you have a desktop with DP ports, plug the DP into the desktop and use the mDP input on the monitor.

This monitor gets 5 stars in my review. Not only have I bought dozens for work, but I have a pair for my home workstation and my husband has one on his workstation.

ps: I don't work for Dell, and I buy only HPE servers and Dell workstations.

pps: With Windows 10, I set the display to "150% magnification" to get things larger. Windows 10 has pretty good resolution-independent support - so most fonts and GUI objects are vector objects that scale perfectly.

Our Apple folks use either "retina" (200%) or 150%. Just from looking at how it displays, I believe that the 2715Q has image processing that reduces the jaggies for non-native resolutions. I have one older (Windows) laptop with integrated graphics that can't do 4K, so I set the display to 2560x1440 (150%). Surprisingly high quality for running an LCD at a non-native resolution. Not as good as 4K with 150% scaling, but not unpleasant.
 
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AidenShaw said:
They are all Dell P2715Q ($411 at https://www.neweggbusiness.com/product/product.aspx?item=9b-24-260-238).

The monitor has three inputs - DP, mDP and HDMI. There's also a DP output for daisy-chaining.

Only two issues with about 30 monitors over several years (no DOA).
  • Occasionally, the monitor won't wake from sleep. (And by "occasionally", I mean a couple of times per year.) Power switch isn't responsive - pulling the power cord for a few seconds brings it back.)
  • People often assume that both DP ports are inputs, and plug the cable into the daisy-chain output port. Black screen - user error.
One clever thing that Dell did was to ship an mDP to DP cable with the monitor. If you connect it to an Apple laptop or other mDP laptop, you plug the mDP into the laptop and the DP into the monitor. If you have a desktop with DP ports, plug the DP into the desktop and use the mDP input on the monitor.

This monitor gets 5 stars in my review. Not only have I bought dozens for work, but I have a pair for my home workstation and my husband has one on his workstation.

ps: I don't work for Dell, and I buy only HPE servers and Dell workstations.
Click to expand...
Thank you
 
Loa said:
Hello,

I'm thinking about getting a bigger display (going to a 27 inch) and I'm considering the 4K options. Then again, I've read that a lot of users buy 4K displays only to use them on 1440p. Is it because the full 4K resolution isn't worth it on such a small display (compared to a 4K TV)?

Is it worth the extra cash to get a 27" 4K display vs a 1400p one?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

4K is totally worth it on a 27" display. Don't let people try to convince you otherwise. Especially if you're working with high resolution images.

Why would anyone neuter their screen by dumbing it down to 1440p? Ugh that's a horrible idea.
 
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I've used a Dell P2715Q for about 2+ years, and set it most of the time to 1440p. Razor sharp, and makes the Dell 24 sitting next to it look very dull and muddy. I run it from a 15-MBP with GT750M. I occasionally switch to 4K when I need the pixels, but I like my monitors at arm's length, so this is not the usual setting for me. I recommended to a friend recently and he runs it at 1440p, too.
 
kohlson said:
I've used a Dell P2715Q for about 2+ years, and set it most of the time to 1440p. Razor sharp, and makes the Dell 24 sitting next to it look very dull and muddy. I run it from a 15-MBP with GT750M. I occasionally switch to 4K when I need the pixels, but I like my monitors at arm's length, so this is not the usual setting for me. I recommended to a friend recently and he runs it at 1440p, too.
Click to expand...

I replaced two aging 27" Apple Cinema Displays on my desk with dual 24" Dell P2415Q. The color accuracy is superb (99% sRGB) and the image quality is great. I don't miss the ACDs at all. I didn't want to bump up to 27" because I wanted to maintain the best image at Hi-DPI (retina), so my screens are set to 1920x1080x2 (HIDPI), or 2304x1296x2 (HI-DPI). I'm a big fan of the matte display coming from those glossy ACDs. Reminds me of a modern and less grainy version of the older Aluminum Cinema Display line that I loved so much back in the day. Dropping from 27" to 24" was no big deal to me, and they can be had for a steal for two online ($350/each USD!). Lots of connectivity to boot.
 
Loa said:
Hello,

I'm thinking about getting a bigger display (going to a 27 inch) and I'm considering the 4K options. Then again, I've read that a lot of users buy 4K displays only to use them on 1440p. Is it because the full 4K resolution isn't worth it on such a small display (compared to a 4K TV)?

Is it worth the extra cash to get a 27" 4K display vs a 1400p one?

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Be aware that 4K is essentially native retina 1080p.
I personally think that 1080p is not good enough in 2018, it just doesn’t offer enough real estate.
Sure, you can use scaling as others in this thread have alluded to but quality suffers to a degree.

If you want to use retina 1440p then 5K (5120x2880) is the only screen upgrade I’d consider, and here’s a good option:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B078WBRTPB

And yes, once you’ve used a Hi-DPI retina screen there is no going back. Everything else just looks muddy.
 
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Dell P2715Q, only negative thing is that sleep issue (mentioned earlier). It's not too bad at the moment (with Mac Pro 4,1, RX580 and latest Sierra), haven't happened for many weeks or for couple of months maybe. It might have been fixed with my recent cofiguration, I really don't know actually (yet another Mac Pro, a little bit better GPU, and a new cable if I recall it right).

I would agree with above comment of retina (Squuiid), it would be good to have 5K at 1440p with HidPI mode. That would be exactly 4 pixels to use for every interface pixel. It would make sense, and one could assume it should look better than "bastard" resolutions, where pixels are not quite mathematically uniformly combined to form one interface-scale pixel. I have to say I'm not sure if I could see the difference from 4K 1440p to 5K 1440p. At least not with this Dell. Maybe I'll have to test it sometimes.

But then again, with 5K thats some 6 million pixels more to drive for your graphics card than with 4K (5K is 1,77x 4K resolution). My iMac 5K (Radeon Pro580) does seem to have some slowness updating some heavy graphics at times, a little bit more than my Dell 4K (Radeon RX580). WQHD appears a lot faster with those exact same graphics.

I use my Dell at 1440p nevertheless, and it does look good - at least good enough. I don't have any problems using normal 1440p (or WQHD) monitors in my 3D workflows either. But with 2D graphics 4K and 5K excels all of them.
 
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Hello.

Ok, what would be a reason (use cases) to switch between 1400p to full 4K on the P2715Q? Photoshop? 4K video?
 
I can't speak of video use cases, I'm a 3D guy. For me there are close to none reasons for a 1:1 4K (3840x2160). Apps normally can use the fine grain of HidPI for making pictures look better, so normally there shouldn't be a reason to use 1:1. That seems to be the case with OpenGL 3D too. For example a dense 3D point cloud seems more fine grained with Dell 4K than with my HP Z27 WQHD (2560x1440). But I don't know whether it's the picture algorithms mentioned earlier or 1:1 representation inside HidPI, I have to study it further.
 
Loa said:
Photoshop? 4K video?
Click to expand...
For me, with a photo editor where I really care a detail touch up. Video, no use case yet. But when 4K editing (later this year) I felt it would be important to see the final output at full resolution.
 
kohlson said:
For me, with a photo editor where I really care a detail touch up. Video, no use case yet. But when 4K editing (later this year) I felt it would be important to see the final output at full resolution.
Click to expand...
Note that the monitor always runs in 4K native resolution. The scaling is done in the windowing and font management systems - not by running the monitor at non-native resolution.

4K.JPG​

Vector graphics and vector fonts can display at 4K resolution - but smoothly scaled up in size.

Applications can define areas of windows that aren't scaled - so a video player or image app could use native resolution as appropriate (although of course a 4K video could only display full screen (or clipped) without scaling).
 
I run the 32" 4K Dell UP3216Q at native res of 3,840 x 2,160. I love this display. I work with a lot of .PDF plans usually 24" x 36" or 30" x 42". Our office has a H.P. Plotter and we used to print all our plans in house. But since I got this display we no longer print on paper. I can see everything I need to on my display. We're saving a ton of money and saving trees to boot.
 
aaronhead14 said:
Why would anyone neuter their screen by dumbing it down to 1440p? Ugh that's a horrible idea.
Click to expand...

They would have been referring to running a 4k retina resolution, scaled in such a way that the available screen real estate would be the same as a 1440p monitor running in standard resolution.

This actually would produce the most optimal picture on a 27" monitor.
 
aaronhead14 said:
Why would anyone neuter their screen by dumbing it down to 1440p? Ugh that's a horrible idea.
Click to expand...
Unbelievably, not everyone's eyes/vision work the same. I have two good friends who prefer to have their keyboard in their lap, and the monitor on the close edge of their desk. I don't think there's 15 inches from eyeball to monitor. My monitors are perhaps 30 inches away, maybe more. And at 4K, small characters/elements get even smaller at that distance.
 
AidenShaw said:
Note that the monitor always runs in 4K native resolution. The scaling is done in the windowing and font management systems - not by running the monitor at non-native resolution.
Click to expand...

What happens when you plug a 1080p video source, like an xbox or similar, into one of these? does it scale inputs to fill screen, or do you get a little box of active content in the middle?
 
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