24" or 27" IPS monitor?

[Soap MacTavish]

Hey guys, I'm in the market for a second monitor for my setup; however I already have a 24" gaming monitor. I want my second monitor to have an IPS panel with a 2560x1440 resolution. My question is, which size is better, does the picture quality look better on the 24" version? Also will it look weird to have a 24" and 27" side by side?

[Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism]

Why would 24" look better?
Reminds me of an old review of one of the early 32" 4K TVs for ~$600 which was IPS but had a low refresh rate and how someone considered that the perfect developer screen because of the amount of room on the screen.

Maybe there are no decent priced 4K TVs yet but if you don't care about refresh rates and input lag and such maybe having a 4K display could be one idea too?

[Soap MacTavish]

Yeah I've just looked at some 24" 4K monitors and I think that's going to be my choice now, thanks for the comment :)

[Hun]

can't comment on side-by-side but recently upgraded to an Acer Predator G-Sync 27" w/ 1440p - it's amazing.

[Aliquis Freedom & Ethnopluralism]

Some people dislike same resolution on a larger screen but like for me I still have a fat CRT TV and just have a 22" monitor and sometimes I turn on a YouTube clip or whatever and sit down on the couch/sofa and the screen become very small. At such times I would had wanted a larger one.

Also I think one just adjust the distance to the screen from the eyes anyway to take in about the same size image (at-least if it become too large.)

For a 4K say 32" screen maybe you'd sit so close you can't take it all in but then again whatever you can take it may be WQHD 24 or 27" sized part of that screen, the rest is just additional realastate or whatever it's called for other stuff.

The advantage for those who previously used multiple monitors such as developers or brokers or whatever is that they can juggle around various windows and content within the same screen. They don't really need to "see" the whole surface at once, but there's room left for stuff you may want to have easy access to in the periphi (whatever.)

I have no idea what the prices are, but if you have one screen for gaming and one for other stuff then you don't have to do compromises on the same screen (as in "can I render in this resolution? Is it fast? What are the frame-rate? Does it display good color? What are the resolution?")

I think the 21:9 35" 3440x1440 monitors are the most interesting ones for just having one but say a cheap 24" TN FreeSync 144 Hz and a 32"/40" 4K IPS/OLED TV can likely do its things nicely too.

Only OLED monitor I know about is the very expensive Dell one but I assume OLED monitors will be a thing soon too. AMD seem to want to go 10 bit high-dynamic range graphics and I guess there's a reason for that.

[Revelene]

Technically, 24inch would potentially be the better screen with a higher DPI... but realistically, not really. You are only looking at a difference between 125 DPI and 110 DPI.

With the average desktop viewing distance and the DPI already that high... 27 inch would be the better choice.

4K is not viable for gaming. Even running a crazy multi-GPU setup would require sacrifice in frame rate and settings... just not a good resolution with current generation hardware, unless you don't mind low settings and/or low frame rates.

4K is great for productivity use, though.

If you have not used either resolution, which is what this sounds like, then I would suggest looking at them in-store. The jump from FullHD to QuadHD is a huge leap... and you will notice... but the leap from QuadHD to UltraHD is not as big of an impact.

While pixel density is good, do note that after a certain point... the pixels are just wasted. You need to account for every aspect, not just DPI.

I would be more bothered about having a different resolution screen beside it... rather than the screen size.

[Soap MacTavish]

I'll give myself more time to research. A 24" 4K monitor is appealing. I don't mind the lower frames and higher input lag etc because I already have a gaming monitor, for a secondary however this seems to be a good choice. The reason I don't want a 27" is because I'm not a big fan of unequal monitors on the same desk. I'll also go instore and see how they look in reality, thanks for the comments.

[[☥] - CJ -]

If you dont have the hardware to support it 4K isnt a viable option.

[Soap MacTavish]

I have a GTX 970 and like I said previously I'm not using it to play games on.

[[☥] - CJ -]

gotcha

[Joki the Disco Bandit]

I use a 27" Asus MG279. It's quite nice. The only sort of odd thing about it is that the entire square base swivels on a round platform hidden underneath it. Kind of a strange design choice, but aside from the it's been fantastic.

https://www.asus.com/us/Monitors/MG279Q/

[Chompman]

How close are the monitors to where you sit?

If they are right in front of you then getting much bigger then a 24 inch could be a issue but if you have them at a distance, such as a wall mount, and have the desk between you and the monitor going bigger could be better.

[Soap MacTavish]

I sit pretty close to my monitors, its like 1-2 feet away from my face

[Joki the Disco Bandit]

Escrito originalmente por colgate:

I sit pretty close to my monitors, its like 1-2 feet away from my face

Mine would be roughly 2 feet in general, as well. Center of the monitor at eye height.

[Azza ☠]

Retina viewing

Retina - A word "Apple" uses and loves a lot too.

A Calculation between: Resolution <> Screen Size <> Viewing Distance

It is when the pixels on a viewing screen can no longer be counted by the human eye at an optimal viewing distance. Your eyes therefore consider it razor sharp and easy to read.

The viewing distance for a computer is normally around 3 feet sitting distance, hense the higher resolutions to keep the quality perfect for the eyes.

---

24 inches @ 1080p resolution (1920x1080)
Calculated would have a display pixel density of 91.79 PPI
Becoming Retina at 37 inches (3 feet) viewing distance.

Therefore at the standard 3 foot optimal viewing distance of a PC...
Between 19 - 24 inch monitor size is most optimal with a 1080p resolution.

At 27 - 37 inches, you would want to go into the 1440p resolution (2560×1440)
Calculated for 27 inches would have a display pixel density of 108.79 PPI
Becoming Retina at 32 inches (2.6 feet) viewing distance.

Then when you get larger than 37 inch monitors, you would want UltraHD 4K, if you want to keep the viewing distance similar.

---

Short answer...

For a 2-3 foot viewing distance:
24 inch monitor - 1080p resolution
27 inch monitor - 1440p resolution

[rotNdude]

A nice 1440p monitor will be better at 27".