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Monitor advice

Andy_2341

Andy_2341

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 2, 2024
111
63
Southeastern US
I’ve realized that I might have to spend more than $100 to have a decent monitor, but I don’t want to spend a ton because I don’t plan for my future Mac Mini to be my main source of screen time. So, I’ve got three that I’m currently looking at. This Asus, this AOC or this LG. I’m also still kinda interested in this Samsung. Thoughts? I’m not doing anything that heavy but maybe some occasional light gaming. I just want it to look as good as my other apple devices.
 
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The LG that you included is the direction I would go. A 4k screen will be way more flexible and elements will look much better than they will on the 2560x1440 options you've included. Scaled resolutions work just fine in MacOS. They just don't look as good as the 220 pixel per inch Apple displays, but if you want the Apple display quality, you have to pay the Apple price. No one complained in the era when MacBooks used a fractional scaling as the default resolution even though it took a bit more GPU resources and likely had a marginal effect on battery life.

With a 27" display at 163 pixels per inch, the pixels are too small to use at full native 4k resolution, so you will be stuck in a scaled resolution. Things will look sharper than they do on a 110 pixel per inch 2560x1440 display because each pixel is smaller. You may find a resolution that sits between 3840x2160 and 2560x1440 that provides a nice balance between screen real estate and the size of onscreen elements.

That said, when I got my mini, I ended up going with a 32" 4k LG monitor. At 139 pixels per inch I still feel comfortable reading menus at full 3840x2160 resolution, although I do bump up default font sizes/zoom in text-heavy apps a bit to be a little more accommodating when I'm reading while leaned back in my chair. I find that pixel density provides a nice balance between being useful at full resolution or being able to run at a scaled resolution if I wish. 3008x1692 as a scaled resolution looks quite good, 2560x1440 isn't bad, but the pixel doubled 1920x1080 and lower resolutions just do not look good to me.

I highly recommend going for a 4k monitor whether it is 27" or 32" for your mini. I just got tired of looking at modern versions of MacOS on my 21" 1920x1080 110 pixel per inch displays and found and option where I could consolidate my day to day work onto a single screen instead of duals screens. For me, 32" @ 4k was the right choice. I would have been equally frustrated with a 27" 1440p display because it has the same pixel density as my old 21" monitors.
 
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Thank you for your reply. I don’t want a 32” monitor just for space reasons (every device I have is mini). So I’ll give the LG a shot.
 
Thanks to previous help from the forums, I have narrowed my monitor search down. I think I have settled on one of these 2 LG monitors for my Mac mini which I hope to get soon. It will also be the final monitor for my dying Windows PC (2011 HP Compaq 8200). Which one will be better in the long term? I can't tell a lot different besides port selection and price, but I don't know a ton about monitors. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 
You didn't really describe what kind of work you want to do on the new monitor. Also, consider the connectivity options.
 
namria said:
You didn't really describe what kind of work you want to do on the new monitor. Also, consider the connectivity options.
Click to expand...
I do general productivity, like making powerpoint presentations and typing papers. I also do light cloud gaming and basic browsing.
 
Did you buy anything yet?

I'd suggest a 27", 4k display.
Many choices available, at all price points.
 
What I got awhile back; Woot evidently has some more, but if you want one, act fast!

Clearance

Dell UltraSharp U2723QE 27" 4K UHD WLED LCD Monitor​

$311.79


Open Box: New-ish Boxes​

The units in this event are being sold as "open box" condition. That means that they have been opened due to being a photo sample, a tested working customer return or having damaged packaging. Some non-essential items may be missing from the box. That is the reason for the reduced sale price and the reduced warranty.
 
Personally my price point is $200 on whatever is on sale in store at Costco. I could give a rats [redacted] about color accuracy, frame rate, resolution, etc. All I need is enough for technical documents and day trading stocks.

19ab2d105c77f2f1aedb181b1705f2c7.jpg
 
When the hell is Apple going to release a new monitor? The current studio monitors are a joke for the price. They are basically just LG ultrafines from 2016, released over 9 years ago.

Outside of being 5k they don't even have good local dimming, mini-LED, etc. Such a rip off.
 
ls1dreams said:
When the hell is Apple going to release a new monitor? The current studio monitors are a joke for the price. They are basically just LG ultrafines from 2016, released over 9 years ago.

Outside of being 5k they don't even have good local dimming, mini-LED, etc. Such a rip off.
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Yep. It pains me to say it because everyone does, but, that’s Apple for you.
 
Quick new question.
I just noticed that QHD is half of 5k, which is what Mac is supposed to be on. Wouldn’t this make it possible to just scale by half, therefore making QHD better than 4k?
 
Just to be clear, you are asking if QHD will be better than 4K because it scales better?

The general answer is NO. People (including myself) were considering going for QHD because there were rumors that resolution scaling for 4k causes your mac to use a lot of computing power. However, the issue was blown out of proportion and was basically put to rest after some better testing. So, if you have a modern machine, there is no reason to worry about this at all.

You will get significantly better picture quality with 4K panel.
 
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namria said:
Just to be clear, you are asking if QHD will be better than 4K because it scales better?

The general answer is NO. People (including myself) were considering going for QHD because there were rumors that resolution scaling for 4k causes your mac to use a lot of computing power. However, the issue was blown out of proportion and was basically put to rest after some better testing. So, if you have a modern machine, there is no reason to worry about this at all.

You will get significantly better picture quality with 4K panel.
Click to expand...
Yes, that's what I was asking. Thank you.
 
I tried a 4K display at 1440p scaling, wouldn’t recommend it, because of the lower DPI as the optimal DPI is 218 DPI. This article explains it all:
bjango.com

Mac external displays for designers and developers, part 2

Since writing about Mac external displays in 2016, not much has changed. LG, Dell, Samsung, and other display makers have either never catered for the specs many Mac designers and developers want, or they’ve reluctantly produced products that have been short-lived or compromised.
bjango.com bjango.com

There are cheaper 5K options out now, such as the Samsung Viewfinity S9, which often goes on sale for 50% around $799 or even less and the Asus Proart 5K display. They both use the same panel, but of course it won’t be as good as the Studio Display one, but it’s way better than any 4k display on a Mac. While it costs a bit more, it’s cheaper than a Studio Display and be worth it since you can use it on a new Mac and you don’t have to deal with the downsides of 4K on macOS, they are just not designed for macOS, especially above 21 inches. This is why the Apple Silicon iMac is 24.5 inches so it can have the 218 dpi.

I recently got a Viewfinity S9 since it was a little cheaper than the ProArt 5K, and it’s an improvement over 1440p Dell I have. However, there is no Truetone, which the LG Ultrafine 5k that is hooked up to the Mac Studio has.
 
chikorita157 said:
I tried a 4K display at 1440p scaling, wouldn’t recommend it, because of the lower DPI as the optimal DPI is 218 DPI. This article explains it all:
Click to expand...
This is the maddening part of monitor shopping for Macs; there are people like you who assert that 27" (I'm guessing is the size you were referring to) 4K monitors have noticeably inferior sharpness to 27" 5K displays, and people like me who've looked at both (27" 5K 2017 iMac vs. Dell 27" 4K U2723QE) and report not seeing much difference (especially when you adjust brightness and look at different content, since color and contrast can also affect perception). Add to that many people don't have the option to observe them side-by-side driven by Macs.

And ironically, many people use 32" 4K displays. I still haven't had a good chance to examine that option up close. Stretching 4K over that large an area sounded like a 'bridge too far' for my risk tolerance, so I didn't go that route, though I still hope to see for myself eventually.

I was gradually steeling myself to cough up $800 for the Asus ProArt 5K 27" before I stumbled across a great deal on the Dell from Woot!.

I keep hoping 6K 32" monitors catch on and go more mainstream.
 
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drrich2 said:
This is the maddening part of monitor shopping for Macs
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I completely agree. All this story about bad sharpness on 4K displays costed me a ton of time. I've ended up purchasing a 4K 27" and I am really happy with the picture quality. And I work with small objects and typography every day - things that require precision and serious attention to detail. Everything is sharp at the normal working distances.

Another known issue is that some monitor models don't work properly with Apple Silicons macs. One of the issues that people encounter is blurry image, but it's not related to 4K. I had massive sharpness issues on a 2k 27" monitor that I've ordered initially and had to return because of that.
 
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Another known issue is that some monitor models don't work properly with Apple Silicons macs. One of the issues that people encounter is blurry image, but it's not related to 4K. I had massive sharpness issues on a 2k 27" monitor that I've ordered initially and had to return because of that.
Click to expand...

They all work properly. The blurriness is a result of MacOS ignoring non-HiDPI monitors for the last few versions. In other words, any non-HiDPI monitor will work with any Mac but the native resolution will be blurry, due to the way text anti-aliasing works on recent MacOS. That's why your 2K 27" was blurry - you used non-HiDPI monitor with its native resolution of 2560x1440.

Using Hi-DPI monitor (4K, 5K, 6K, 5K2K and 8K2K) with its native resolution (for example 4K at 3840x2160 pixels) will also result in blurry text. Only using Hi-DPI monitor in one of available Retina resolutions will result in sharp text and user interface.
 
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