Advice on new monitor (Specs etc)

Alloneword

Alloneword

Alloneword

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My current monitor is a Benq G2420HDBL ( http://benq.co.uk/product/monitor/g2420hdbl/specifications ) 24" full HD,

I've had this monitor for a few years and as a rule it's been great the trouble is my eye sight has got worse so i'm thinking about upgrading to something between 27" to 30".

The trouble is i'm a little confused on the specs they list nowadays, my current monitor specs are

1920x1080 Resolution,
20,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio,
300cd/m² Brightness,
4ms Response

In a nutshell i'd like to make things larger for me to see better (yes i have had my eyes tested), i know i can just just adjust the resolution on my current screen but i loose a fair bit of the screen footprint (if you get my drift), is it just a simple case of buying a larger screen, I have found another Benq that has the following specs

2560x1440 Resolution,
20,000,000:1 Contrast Ratio,
300cd/m² Brightness,
4ms Response Time

As you can see they are the same except the resolution, to get what I need is it a simple case of looking for highest resolution?

Something i think i should mention is i plan to run monitor of my i7-4770k with 1GB set aside in the bios for video, is this going to cause me a problem or should i buy video card, if i have to buy card it will some kind of fanless setup and noise is a bug bear of mine.



All1
 
Getting a higher resolution in its own right will actually compound your problem as this will make text smaller. However you can then use Windows DPI scaling to make text larger.

Having said that, I currently have a dual setup with a Samsung 2560x1440 and one of the LG super wides - the 2560x1080 one which is the lower resolution.
I find the LG almost easier to use in certain situations as my eyesight isn't exactly 100% and I tend to find myself squinting on the Samsung.
 
Higher resolution in the same screen size = more screen "space" but everything is smaller.

What you want to look at is "pixel pitch" which essentially is the size of the individual pixels, or DPI which is the number of pixels per square inch.

A higher number for pixel pitch means bigger pixels, which means everything on screen will be bigger, but the individual pixels will be more visible.

Higher DPI means more pixels in the same area, so the screen will be sharper, but everything will be smaller.

If you have a 24" and a 27" monitor with the same resolution, the pixel pitch will be higher, and the DPI lower on the 27", meaning you have the same screen "space" but everything will be bigger.

If you have a 1920x1080 24" and a 2560x1440 27", the pixel pitch is actually slightly lower on the 27" (0.233mm) than on the 24" (0.276mm), so you'll have more screen "space" but everything will be a little bit smaller.

However as GMac has said, you can use DPI scaling to make everything larger, but then that sort of defeats the purpose of getting the higher res screen in the first place.

A higher resolution also means you will need more GPU power to render, so if you're using just onboard graphics you might have some performance issues (this isn't really an issue if you don't play games though).

A 27" screen with the same resolution as your current one will have exactly the same performance.

To be honest, it sounds like you'd be better off with the same resolution on a larger screen - no performance hit, same screen area, and cheaper :)
 
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look for the pixel pitch spec as that will give you an idea of the font sizes you can expect with a given monitor. I guess you want to look for a screen with a bigger pixel pitch than your current model which is 0.27 mm. If you went to a 27" 2560 x 1440 res monitor it would actually be smaller, at 0.2335mm.

your best bet would probably be to look for a 27" model with the same 1920 x 1080 resolution (0.3113 mm). If youve been happy with your BenQ screen then they have plenty of other models like the GW2760HM for instance that fit the size/resolution you're after :)
 
As a rule i have been very happy with my BenQ the only downside seems to be i can't move it from landscape to portrait and this can be handy sometimes, I have had a quick look at BenQ and I will be going through the other manfs sites later today.
I will pay special attention to pixel pitch so thanks Baddass.

All1
 
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