Decent monitor

[Lost ranger]

Looking to upgrade my current £100 21 inch monitor for something bigger and preferably with a better display. Primarily for coding and having multiple Eclipse windows open with text large enough for my ageing eyes, but I can't help thinking that a decent one might also be good for when I get around to installing Flight Simulator. Looking to spend maybe £500 to £1000. Maybe a touch more for something really good for both.

Is a so called 'gaming monitor' also good for just reading text? Or is there a difference between a monitor optimised for games with good colours, fast refresh ETC and one ideal for making multiple windows of Java code easily readable?

[xeny]

Remember you'll need a good GPU to game on a large screen at an acceptable frame rate.

With that kind of budget I'd be looking very hard at something like https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/alienware-34-curv...

However, if you're saying aging eyes do you have an understanding of resolution vs physical size determining pixel density, and thus text size if you work at 100% scaling? You may find a 32"m wide rather than ultrawide 2560 x 1440 , so less resolution but larger text by default than the link above is a better fit.

In general, displaying text is less challenging for a monitor than gaming - you're not trying to get really fast pixel update times for a line of text copy/pasted from github :-) in the way that you are for a flight simulator.

[Mr Penguin]

My monitor is less money than that and isn't a dedicated gaming monitor, but is a 34" 1440x3440 ultra-wide which works really well for programming. I can split it into two 4:3 screens, which is a better view for most things, and games look a lot better with the full width of the screen giving more peripheral vision.

[Teddy Lop]

xeny said:

Remember you'll need a good GPU to game on a large screen at an acceptable frame rate.

With that kind of budget I'd be looking very hard at something like https://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/alienware-34-curv...

However, if you're saying aging eyes do you have an understanding of resolution vs physical size determining pixel density, and thus text size if you work at 100% scaling? You may find a 32"m wide rather than ultrawide 2560 x 1440 , so less resolution but larger text by default than the link above is a better fit.

In general, displaying text is less challenging for a monitor than gaming - you're not trying to get really fast pixel update times for a line of text copy/pasted from github :-) in the way that you are for a flight simulator.

If he's got multiple windows open won't be want more resolution?

I've just picked up the 32" 4k Lenovo that effectively gives you 2 HD screens next to each other (or 4 if you like) as while it's colossal overkill/indulgence for what I do there are tasks it's is useful to have multiple windows open, and wasn't even that expensive. I don't think gaming monitors offer anything useful do they?

[xeny]

Teddy Lop said:

If he's got multiple windows open won't be want more resolution?

I've just picked up the 32" 4k Lenovo that effectively gives you 2 HD screens next to each other (or 4 if you like) as while it's colossal overkill/indulgence for what I do there are tasks it's is useful to have multiple windows open, and wasn't even that expensive. I don't think gaming monitors offer anything useful do they?

He definitely wants a physically larger screen. If he's having trouble reading what I admittedly assume is 1920 x 1080 on the current screen, larger and with a higher pixel density will just mean scaling, so you are paying for more resolution than you need. That's why I asked the question about understanding pixel density.

I'm thinking the gaming monitor may be nice for Flight Simulator, and for the monitor I linked, I think OLED contrast levels will be nice for reading text.

[towser]

Teddy Lop said:

If he's got multiple windows open won't be want more resolution?

I've just picked up the 32" 4k Lenovo that effectively gives you 2 HD screens next to each other (or 4 if you like) as while it's colossal overkill/indulgence for what I do there are tasks it's is useful to have multiple windows open, and wasn't even that expensive. I don't think gaming monitors offer anything useful do they?

Gaming monitors usually have high refresh rates (144 Hz and greater), high pixel response time and adaptive vsynch (e.g. Nvidia’s G-Synch).

[Teddy Lop]

xeny said:

He definitely wants a physically larger screen. If he's having trouble reading what I admittedly assume is 1920 x 1080 on the current screen, larger and with a higher pixel density will just mean scaling, so you are paying for more resolution than you need. That's why I asked the question about understanding pixel density.

I'm thinking the gaming monitor may be nice for Flight Simulator, and for the monitor I linked, I think OLED contrast levels will be nice for reading text.

I get you, the lower res/bigger dots is a simple way to make things big but you can increase text size on a high Res and the lower res may not lend itself to multiple open windows . For OP to call really.

towser said:

Gaming monitors usually have high refresh rates (144 Hz and greater), high pixel response time and adaptive vsynch (e.g. Nvidia’s G-Synch).

Yes there are differences, its whether they are of any use to the OP was more my point.

[xeny]

Teddy Lop said:

I get you, the lower res/bigger dots is a simple way to make things big but you can increase text size on a high Res and the lower res may not lend itself to multiple open windows . For OP to call really.

I kind of feel if you're increasing the text size to offset the higher resolution you're defeating the benefit of the higher resolution and yet still paying the extra for it.

[mmm-five]

xeny said:

I'm thinking the gaming monitor may be nice for Flight Simulator, and for the monitor I linked, I think OLED contrast levels will be nice for reading text.

But most of the current range of OLED monitors have weird sub-pixel arrangement that don't work well with the default rendering schemes in Windows...and so text doesn't look as clear as it does on a decent IPS monitor.

I am using the Alienware AW3423DW OLED as my gaming monitor, but a 27" LG 27GL850 1440p IPS monitor for PC work, and a 27" Mac Studio 5k display for my Mac work.

[Teddy Lop]

xeny said:

I kind of feel if you're increasing the text size to offset the higher resolution you're defeating the benefit of the higher resolution and yet still paying the extra for it.

It'll look crisper no? I just paid three-fiddeh for a 4kx2k so it's not like you're paying more per se.

[xeny]

Teddy Lop said:

It'll look crisper no? I just paid three-fiddeh for a 4kx2k so it's not like you're paying more per se.

I don't know for certain, but I'd have thought if you start having things like character strokes that are 1.2 pixels wide they're going to look anything but crisper?

[Teddy Lop]

xeny said:

Teddy Lop said:

It'll look crisper no? I just paid three-fiddeh for a 4kx2k so it's not like you're paying more per se.

I don't know for certain, but I'd have thought if you start having things like character strokes that are 1.2 pixels wide they're going to look anything but crisper?

Isn't that more a thing when the computers firing out the wrong resolution? LCDs are terrible if fed a non-native res.

[biggiles]

Teddy Lop said:

xeny said:

Teddy Lop said:

It'll look crisper no? I just paid three-fiddeh for a 4kx2k so it's not like you're paying more per se.

I don't know for certain, but I'd have thought if you start having things like character strokes that are 1.2 pixels wide they're going to look anything but crisper?

Isn't that more a thing when the computers firing out the wrong resolution? LCDs are terrible if fed a non-native res.

Sub-pixel anti-aliasing has been around for a long time - wasn't it Acorn's, in the 90s?

OP, a 34" widescreen is great, but unless you really want a "gaming" screen or a colour-calibrated photography screen, you may struggle to spend the £1k! Is this a company perk? Perhaps consider 2/3 screens instead, can be much more useful. You may even get 3x widescreens, which would be good for Excel and amazing for a flight sim.