What is the ideal monitor size for text-based work and casual gaming?

Lumen

Rather than polluting the ultrawide thread with more of my nonsense I thought I'd start a new thread.

Warning: This post will be quite boring and personal.

As I've been working from home for a few years now, I've steadily optimised my working environment in terms of hardware, software and lighting. I'm possibly borderline obsessive tbh.

I used to work on a 2017 27" iMac with glossy Retina screen at 5120‑by‑2880 resolution. This is still my gold-standard for text clarity, but I now use a 32" LG at 4k (3840 x 2160). Why? Because I'm now on Linux (specifically popos, an Ubuntu variant), and although I can run Linux on the iMac it won't drive the display to full resolution, and the desktop PC I run is faster.

Linux has decent scaling options now, and I tend to run 150% scaling to keep everything a comfortable size. I've experimented with no scaling (100%) and increasing font sizes in applications, but it doesn't produce as good results as scaling the whole OS.

My viewing distance is about 70cm, which coincidentally is the width of my 32" screen.

I've experimented with my LG C2 55", and that works OK at ~120cm viewing distance. So I'm pretty sure that viewing distance = horizontal screen dimension is a good rule of thumb. Any closer than that (on either the 32" or 55") and regardless of OS scaling or font sizes, I feel myself moving away so I can see the edges of the screen without excessive head/eyeball movement.

Does refresh rate matter? Not much, to me, for work purposes anyway. I can detect smoother scrolling on the TV at 120Hz vs the monitor at 60Hz, but text is still largely unreadable during scrolling. I'm not in the Matrix and have no need to read moving text. I do enjoy gaming at 120fps/hz though.

Is 32" better than 27"? Yes, slightly. For a while I switched back and forth between the 32" LG monitor and my 27" iMac, and preferred the LG even though it has a matte finish. I think because it's slightly further away I can move around in my seat without my field of view changing as much.

Would 42" be better than 32"? I don't know. It would give even more stable field of view (like 27->32"), but maybe there's a limit to that. Sometimes it's nice to lean to zoom.

How about OLED vs LED/LCD? I still reckon that OLED text clarity is slightly inferior to IPS. It's really difficult to put a finger on during use, but when I switch back from the TV to the monitor there's a sense of "ah, that's better". If I didn't have the TV for sofa gaming, I'd be sorely tempted to pick up a 42" LG C2 and use that for work and desk gaming. 

Would ultrawide be even better? There are loads of gaming ultrawides now but they're all 1440p, and I would miss the pixel density of 4k. There's an LG 40WP95C-W ultrawide 5k2k available which goes to 72Hz, that has the same PPI as my 32" 4k. Do I really need more width? I think it would take careful window management, and possibly it's more convenient to just run a cheapo second monitor for secondary apps.

So that's my conclusion: 32" 4k IPS or 42" 4k OLED, take your pick. But 27" is also fine, just a few cm closer.

IMO we have pretty much reached the limit of monitor technology for productivity purposes, but not yet gaming where people will be fretting over OLED vs LED/LCD, 16:9 vs ultrawide and 1440p vs 2160p for a while longer.

What do you reckon? Has anyone switched from 27 or 32" to 42" (4k 16:9 in both cases) and noticed an improvement or worsening for text-based work?

K.O.Kiki

I use a 38" UW (3840x1600, 111ppi) and found it perfect for working with docs.

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120322085#Comment_120322085

Ah, that's very interesting, I'd forgotten about the 1600p monitors. How do you find the contrast and backlighting?

According to RTINGS there are/were four that have refresh over 100hz, a Dell and 3 LGs.

Dell Alienware AW3821DW, 144Hz, 2020

LG 38GL950G-B 175Hz, 2019

LG 38GN950-B, 160Hz, 2020

LG 38WN95C-W 144Hz, 2020

These monitor codes make my brain hurt. RTINGS says

Although the LG 38GN950-B and the LG 38WN95C-W are very different in their outer design, they're actually quite similar. The main difference is that the 38GN950-B's 144Hz refresh rate can be overclocked up to 160Hz. The 38GN950-B has a better HDR color gamut and volume, and it gets a bit brighter overall. The 38WN95C-W has a few more features, like a USB-C port with Thunderbolt 3 support and built-in speakers.

amazon.co.uk has the LG 38WN95C-W but that's €1745.

The LG UK site lists only the 38GL950G which has no BFI but it's listed at £800. Not sure what the refresh rate is with 10-bit color. edit: LG site says HDMI: 2560 x 1440 8bit @ 144Hz, DisplayPort: 2560 x 1440 10bit @ 144Hz. That makes no sense.

It's a shame there isn't more choice at this resolution.

Lumen

Hmmm, there's also the Acer Predator X38, but reviews have pointed out some panel issues and fan noise. Plus it's like nearly €2k.

Interesting that the 38" (37.5") 3840x1600, 111ppi is very close to the 42" 4k of the LG C2.

Maybe that's why 1600p is a bit dead, it's cheaper to produce an OLED with more height, better contrast and response time albeit with concerns about subpixel structure, burn-in and lower brightness.

Grassey

I'm following this as somewhat in same boat needing to upgrade from a single 27". Was in HarveyNorman over lunch for a browse. My heart says Odyssey G9... But my head says maybe just a little too big 🤣

K.O.Kiki

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120323664#Comment_120323664

AW3821DW which I haggled down to by talking to chat. 144 Hz refresh but limited to 120 Hz at 10-bit.

Contrast is good. There is some backlight / edge-lit bleeding as in any IPS panel. And it's decent for HDR content.