Currently using a 1600p - upgrade to 4k?

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pzalesky

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Hello,

I've been toying this upgrade for a while. I'm currently using a Dell U3011 (2560x1600, 30") at about 30" view distance.

I've been looking at a XB321HK for a nice IPS 4k panel upgrade, but I was looking at this spreadsheet that says at my current view distance, 4k will be indistinguishable from my 1600p.



I don't competitive game, and only play RPG type games like WoW and the Witcher 3. Would upgrading to a 32" 4k IPS panel be worth it?

My GPU is a 2080 ti.
 
Yes, it is absolutely worth it. I made the jump in 2014 and used to have a Dell 3007wfp-hc. The pixel density gives great clarity and gaming is much sharper. At 32" when I tried it, I only needed 125pct scaling. I now use a smaller one with 150pct.
 
Just remember your ability to see pixels doesn't necessarily equal your ability to determine the difference in clarity. Great examples are phones. Iphone has a ~320ppi requirement for their phones to be 'retina', determining from a certain distance you can't make out individual pixels. However take the same size screen/distance, and make the ppi say 500. You can (in most cases for most people) absolutely tell the difference in clarity. Just like we cannot 'see' 'x' hz refresh rate, but you can definitely 'feel' or 'sense' it.

I say upgrade!
 
With 4K monitors you will pretty much always be using scaling on the desktop or everything is too tiny. The increased resolution when combined with scaling results in text that looks more like reading a paper book and for games it means everything just looks sharper.

If you are not in need of immediate updates, I would wait until later in the year when larger high refresh rate 4K displays come to market.
 
That's the thing.. I don't need to upgrade. I am perfectly happy with my 1600p, but I have a PC capable of 4k at 60, so I thought I would try it out, but then I found that spreadsheet and started to have second thoughts.

I don't think I'll be in the market for a 4k 144hz monitor in the near future though.. don't really foresee spending $1800 on a monitor.

Thanks for the replies.
 
If you’re perfectly happy, stick with the1600P. I bought a 28 inch 4k monitor a few years ago. Happy with it for what I specifically bought it for (Instructor station for flightsim) but for everything else I had to scale up the desktop because It was too small to read. 2560x1600 on a thirty inch monitor is pretty much perfect for most uses. I’ve got a bunch of hp zr30w’s still being used in several systems. Great colors, decent rez without the pixel tax that comes with 4k. I run my main-screen on a curved 55 inch 4k tv, that works because the screen is so much bigger.
 
Okay, so next question - I'm looking at a BenQ PD3200U. I can get a manufactured refurbished one for $450... I'm a bit leery about refurbished monitors, but that price is pretty good to try it out and see if I notice a difference vs my Dell U3011.

I am very impressed with the quality of the PD3200U and think it would be a great upgrade over the U3011.

Any major red flags that I should just not bother with the manufacture refurb in general? It comes with a 1 year warranty vs the 3 year if I bought new ($700).
 
I used to have a Dell u3011 (amazing monitor) for 10 years. Loved that thing. When I did upgrade, I tried 4k (this was about 2years ago) and 1440p 32 inch monitors, and I found I actually preferred the 1440p more. I do miss 16:10, but i've been happiest with my 32" 16:9 1440p ips the most over the several 4k monitors I tried.

If I could pin it on a reason, it might be age. I've gotten older, and my eyes seem to have less strain from 10+ hour usage on the 1440p monitor compared to the 4k.
 
pzalesky said:
I've been looking at a XB321HK for a nice IPS 4k panel upgrade, but I was looking at this spreadsheet that says at my current view distance, 4k will be indistinguishable from my 1600p.
Click to expand...
Whoa there. You left the screen size at 15.6". At your viewing distance it says you can see 191ppi. For the proper monitor sizes, 30" and 32", those would be 101ppi and 138ppi for their respective resolutions. Both are way less sharp than your vision, so you'd see an significant increase in sharpness going to a 32" 4K.

You say you don't game much, but have a 2080ti. If you're mostly into games, the DPI doesn't really matter much, because games tend to have scalable interfaces. How much time do you spend with stuff like the Windows interface? At 138ppi, those aren't going to scale very cleanly, so you'd have to figure out how to deal with it. (i.e. whether to let UI elements be really small or deal with application incompatibility).
 
BearOso said:
Whoa there. You left the screen size at 15.6". At your viewing distance it says you can see 191ppi. For the proper monitor sizes, 30" and 32", those would be 101ppi and 138ppi for their respective resolutions. Both are way less sharp than your vision, so you'd see an significant increase in sharpness going to a 32" 4K.

You say you don't game much, but have a 2080ti. If you're mostly into games, the DPI doesn't really matter much, because games tend to have scalable interfaces. How much time do you spend with stuff like the Windows interface? At 138ppi, those aren't going to scale very cleanly, so you'd have to figure out how to deal with it. (i.e. whether to let UI elements be really small or deal with application incompatibility).
Click to expand...

Yeah - I just meant to link to the spreadsheet, but it inserted itself into the post. I sit about 30" away. I do game quite often, but I only play slower paced games (WoW, Witcher 3, will be getting Cyberpunk 2077) so I am fine with a 60Hz monitor. I think I am going to try that BenQ out and see how I like it - do a side by side with my U3011. They have a nice return policy.

Edit: I won't really be doing much with Windows on the 4k monitor - I typically use a 24" 1920x1200 monitor for anything windows/browsing related. The 4k (and my current U3011) are only used for gaming.
 
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I went from a 30" 2560x1600 to a 32" 4k as my primary screen about a year ago at about the same viewing distance you're at. I ran the former at 1:1, the latter at 125% scaling (I could do normal sized text at native; but any time a web page went with small print i'd need to lean in to read it X| ). I can't see pixels on either display; but text on the new one is noticeably sharper and more crisp the 99% of time that DPI scaling is working (and actually I'm not sure when the last time I had a failure was).

The only thing I need to do now is to get a bigger desk while I still have a DVI graphics card to see if swapping one of my 20" 1200x1600 side screens with the 30 would work or not. (If so, my long term solution would probably be a monoprice 4k; the suitable DVI-DP adapters are both flaky and too expensive to justify on a decade old monitor).
 
funny thing about displays viewing distance and scale of monitor greatly affects dpi. i rly think 1440p is great, you dont suffer to much over hardware requirements and u get good pixel density at 27" what i got.
 
I hooked up the BenQ PD3200U that just arrived today and I was immediately blown away at the difference. Easily worth it! Thanks for all of the recommendations! I think I will either give my U3011 to a friend or try and sell it locally - my 1920x1200 works perfectly as a 2nd monitor.
 
pzalesky said:
I hooked up the BenQ PD3200U that just arrived today and I was immediately blown away at the difference. Easily worth it! Thanks for all of the recommendations! I think I will either give my U3011 to a friend or try and sell it locally - my 1920x1200 works perfectly as a 2nd monitor.
Click to expand...
Glad you like it!
 
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