In the past two years, however, several models have been officially released that push that ceiling as high as 144Hz. I have both a 4k 32" monitor and a 27" 1440p. Meanwhile, IPS panels offer better blacks and viewing angles, while VAs offer the best color reproduction and contrast ratios at the expense of input lag. Most people don’t consider the pixels-per-inch (PPI) when looking at a monitor. In general, we also recommend getting a 4k TV since 1080p choices have become quite limited and lack modern features such as HDR. You can see how it scales here at each common resolution... Lucky for us, we don't have to do any of the hard math on our own. The resolving power of the human eye is such that the distance between one blade of grass and the next is too small to be visible at across-the-street distances. 39 inches (3.28 feet) 55 inch. Rtings.com. The screen size, at a 4K resolution, calculates out to a certain number of ppi, in essence the pixel density of the screen. Also in that illustrious company are the HP Omen X65 Emperium (the first Nvidia "Big Format Gaming Display," or BFGD), and the Asus PG27UQ. Overall, Acer has created the best 32” monitor for 4k gaming here, including the technology that the smaller displays have, as well as a color-rich IPS display that really makes those gaming hues pop. (4k is sometimes called 2160p, and is also known as QFHD – Q… In other words, the higher the resolution, the shorter is the viewing distance. Keep an eye on your inbox! Maximum pupil dilation in the dark also varies with age, reaching a peak when a person is in their 20’s and steadily declining thereafter. The same issues apply to monitors, just across a larger viewing distance than inches from your eyes. If your viewing room is arranged so it’s difficult to move closer to the screen, find the distance between your eyes and the screen on the vertical axis of the graph, and read across until you move into the blue area. Of course, you could relegate that stuff to a second monitor if you need the space, but a 4K panel can enable single-display workflows that were not possible or simply were more awkward before. They achieve this by aligning the refresh rate of the monitor on the fly with the frame-rate output of the video card, only drawing a frame when a full one is delivered, rather than at a fixed rate. The above graph from Rtings.com shows the sweet spot for a range of screen sizes and resolutions. The solid lines are the sweet spots for different resolutions. I used to game on the 4k monitor, but now that I have the 1440p one, I use it for gaming. Of course, less scientifically, you can also look at 4K panels of various screen sizes in a local store to see if you can tell the difference. Viewing distance range (approx.) If you are sitting at the optimal 1080p distance or further from the screen, your eyes will not be able to resolve the additional detail that is present in a 4K picture. You can then try different numbers and see how the output changes, helping you figure out if a certain screen size or viewing distance makes more or less sense. The stand's allowable adjustability might seem trivial, but it can affect your comfort, depending on where and how you use your panel. If that feels too close for you, back off until you are comfortable but stay in the blue zone. To help simplify your workflow even more, some 4K monitors, such as the business-centric Dell U3219Q pictured above, come with built-in features like an automatic window-sizing tool. The BenQ PD3200U is a well-equipped 32-inch display that delivers very good color, grayscale, and viewing-angle performance, as well as a highly detailed UHD picture. Does not include the CalMAN software it integrates with, Low brightness for a professional monitor, Tested contrast ratio considerably lower than its rating. The formula to calculate the PPI of a given m… © 2020 Forbes Media LLC. Additionally, Acer has included its Flicker-less technology, reducing eye strain when viewing the monitor for long periods. Where’s the sweet spot for a 4K TV? Here’s how to make sure that doesn't happen. In broad strokes, input lag is measured as the amount of time it takes for your monitor to display an external action. If a TV or an Nvidia BFGD is too big for your gaming, but a regular monitor is too small, the 43-inch Asus ROG Strix XG438Q is a lustworthy alternative for serious players. In those areas, having more pixels to work with gives you a greater level of accuracy, whether you're drawing angel wings on an image of a model, creating vector art, mastering a movie, or doing anything that requires zooming in and retaining as much visual fidelity as possible. With a technique called "chroma subsampling," which you can read more about in our breakdown of the challenges and pitfalls of gaming at 4K and 144Hz. 43 inch. This increases the size of all rendered elements on the screen by that percentage. But you'll want to observe the same screen image, scaled the same amount, to see a meaningful comparison, and that may not always be practical. With four windows, one per corner of the screen? The Z27 is usually a little cheaper than the Dell U2720Q, but it’s not quite as good. The tradeoffs with TN, however? Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I’m a cognitive scientist, retired professor, musician, gamer, and avid cyclist with a B.A in History, an M.S. Notes: The audience should sit at least this distance from the screen.This is the Shortest Recommended Viewing Distance based on Field-of-View being too wide: This distance is calculated on the peripheral vision field of view of the human eye. If you click an affiliate link and buy a product or service, we may be paid a fee by that merchant. Back off slowly until the pixels disappear. The UHD resolutions are multiples of this base 1080p resolution.4k resolution is named for the approximately 4,000 (4k) pixels that make up the horizontal resolution across the image. Here's What You Need To See All That 4K Goodness"]. Depending on what you do most with your monitor, and where you'll place it, the extra money you'd pay versus a lower-resolution display may not be necessary. The different resolution has different viewing distance as well. Here's everything you need to know about the benefits (and possible pitfalls) of getting a new 4K panel today. In his free time, you’ll find him shredding the local mountain on his snowboard, or using his now-defunct culinary degree to whip up a dish in the kitchen for friends. But although 4K OLED panels have been all the rage for several years now in the TV market (and are starting to make their way into laptop displays), we haven't seen a single OLED desktop computer monitor released outside of the professional-level Asus ProArt PQ22UC, a 21.6-inch 4K panel at $3,999, and the Alienware 55 OLED. The human eye can’t resolve the detail in a 4K image if the viewer is too far away. IPS panels are common in the world of 4K displays. A good example of the pixel-pitch problem arises in VR headsets, with an issue known as the "screen door" effect. in History and Philosophy of Science, and a Ph.D. in Cognitive Psychology. Why the detail in a 4K image may not be visible. our breakdown of the challenges and pitfalls of gaming at 4K and 144Hz. Others are designed for graphics pros, with extreme color accuracy and support for wide color ranges in mind. There are more than three times as many pixels on a 4K screen (3840 x 2160 resolution) than there are on a 1080p screen (1920 x 1080). With 4K monitors becoming more and more affordable, it appears the the long-standing reign of 1080p may finally be coming to a close. But before we get too deep into the topic, we should first help you answer a key question: Is a 4K monitor right for you in the first place? This TV Viewing Distance Calculator will assist you in discovering the perfect distance from which to view your TV in accordance with THX, SMPTE, and Visual Acuity standards. (If you're turning down the detail settings in a game to make it run better in 4K, that defeats much of the point of 4K in the first place.) We've tested a host of 4K monitors out there and pulled out a selection of the very best that represents all the main usage classes: business-facing monitors, gaming ones, and creative/professional panels. However, the science behind what we know about the resolving power of the human eye can be used to calculate the optimal distance between your eyes and the screen so you can see all the detail that’s present in a 4K picture. BGR profile might make text a little fuzzy. INPUT LAG. Nvidia G-Sync, AMD FreeSync, and AMD FreeSync2 are all flavors of what are known as "adaptive sync" technologies. Some are built to deliver speedy refresh rates to benefit PC gamers. If one of those scenarios fits your needs, though, the next step is to figure out whether or not a 4K monitor is right for you for different reasons: your desk configuration, and your eyesight.