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01-05-2015, 03:53 PM - 1 Like   #1
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Beware of 4K Monitors!

Ok, maybe the title is a little misleading, but I wanted to open a thread to discuss your experience and tips for 4k monitors.

I purchased an AOC 28" 4K monitor as a Xmas present to myself and have been using it now for about a week. I will say it took some adjustments to make it workable and I wanted to pass on my thoughts as I researched what to buy.

#1 first and foremost - Be aware that MOST 4k monitors operate at 30 Hz right now, which means there is serious mouse lag/response. My monitor is full 60 Hz but I used a DVI connection to "fake" 30 Hz and was definitely not happy with a "trailing" cursor. I would not keep the monitor if I had to live in a 30 Hz world.

#2 - Be aware of your connection options. Right now, only DisplayPort connections support 4K at 60 Hz. There is HDMI 2.0 (I think that's what it's called) coming soon that will support 60 Hz, but your current HDMI will only do 30 Hz. This is also true for DVI and USB. Reading reviews, this seemed to be the biggest complaint of "uninformed" consumers. From what I can tell, DP is not a standard output on a "standard" computer, so even if you bought a true 60 Hz 4K monitor, you may not have the right connections available.

#3 - Make sure your video card can handle 4K. That's a lot of pixels to refresh and many video cards just don't have the horsepower. Many won't even operate in 4K.

With those warnings out the way, 4K is a whole new world. Many of my images look BETTER at 100% than they did at 50% on a 1080 screen! However, many of my images look much worse. It is really brutal on ANY image noise. My iso 800+ images were really scary. I actually had to print a couple just to reassure myself that even 300ppi printer output is more forgiving. So, like the K3 revealed bad images with greater authority, so does a 4K monitor. And pixel peepers, be wary... I find myself now going to 2 and 300% zoom because I can

The other area of concern is text display. Explorer and Icons can be adjusted in windows, but your programs won't change. My tools and menus in Photoshop are 4x SMALLER because everything is 4X bigger in the 4K world. If you don't like fine print, maybe stay away from 4K.....lol. Fortunately, I do most of my photo editing using keyboard shortcuts and presets, so the small Menu and Toolbars haven't affected me that much.

In summary, I'm actually rather happy with my 4K monitor. It allows me to be that much more precise with my photo editing and output. It makes the good better and the bad worse, so I think it will be much easier to weed through a session's results. (Being closer in resolution to what the sensor puts out can't be bad!) I recommend THE RIGHT 4K monitor to anyone who is thinking about getting one. Just be very careful about what you are buying and whether you have the hardware to support it.

PS - The right video games in 4K are just surreal! I'm playing DAI and Far Cry 4 and the graphics are just,,, wow!


Last edited by nomadkng; 01-06-2015 at 08:28 AM.
01-05-2015, 04:18 PM   #2
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Thanks for the warning! I was going to replace my current monitor with a 4K but I think I'll hold off a little longer.


obin
01-05-2015, 04:33 PM   #3
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Most 4k monitors *do* operate at 60Hz. Currently you generally need to use Displayport (as you said) for 4k/60Hz. HDMI 1.2 is about a decade old and does not support 4k. HDMI 2.0 has been out for about a year and does, although there's a bit of weirdness to it and the proper cable needs to be used - some less-than-scrupulous manufacturers have fudged the numbers. You'd want to have a modern video card that has at least a 2GB frame buffer to comfortably display 4k/60Hz, although I guess that's not a concern for you as you're playing FC4 at 4k.
01-06-2015, 03:57 PM   #4
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Excuse my ignorance, I am by no means a TV/Monitor expert...but with Apple coming out with 5K displays, are these 4K screens going to be dead on arrival?

01-06-2015, 08:04 PM   #5
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QuoteOriginally posted by cali92rs Quote
Excuse my ignorance, I am by no means a TV/Monitor expert...but with Apple coming out with 5K displays, are these 4K screens going to be dead on arrival?
Not really. Apples display uses a non standard interface. Here's a short review of Apples new display and it has it's share of problems too.
Yes, the 5K Retina iMac?s screen runs at 60Hz at 5K resolution | Ars Technica
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