Dell Or LG

cakelover · 28 Feb 2021 at 17:50

Hi,
not sure if to go for the Dell AW2721D or the new LG 27GP950 once released. Any thoughts?

PT

EsaT · 28 Feb 2021 at 21:18

For start they're quite different monitors with Dell being standard 2560x1440 monitor and LG 3840x2160 monitor.

In general higher 4K resolution enables sharper image.
But because of smaller pixels you need to use higher scaling in Windows, or text can be really small.
Obviously it can also show 4K content 1:1 without any downscaling needed by 2560x1440 monitor.
(1080p content scales up without any sharpness loss using pixel doubling)

In gaming that higher pixel count needs more power from GPU per frame for native resolution.
Though that small pixel size should also help when upscaling from below native resolution like that 2560x1440 or something between.
Also for gaming Dell comes with ball and chain for marriage to being Jensen's wallet, while LG works with any graphics card supporting VESA standard AdaptiveSync (usually called as FreeSync) including Nvidias.

fez · 1 Mar 2021 at 21:04

I've always wondered what scale people are running their 4K monitors at because anything other than native scaling is a bit pants for serious work and native scaling 2x gives you a high quality 1080p screen which is not great space wise. 1440p is a nice resolution and I really wish there were more 5K monitors.

MissChief · 1 Mar 2021 at 21:12

Dell warranty will be miles better usually with a swap on site by courier rather than LG who will likely want to take your monitor away for repair.

LiE · 2 Mar 2021 at 16:50

fez said:
I've always wondered what scale people are running their 4K monitors at because anything other than native scaling is a bit pants for serious work and native scaling 2x gives you a high quality 1080p screen which is not great space wise. 1440p is a nice resolution and I really wish there were more 5K monitors.

150% scaling giving the equivalent of 1440p on 27”, but much sharper.

fez · 2 Mar 2021 at 17:51

LiE said:
150% scaling giving the equivalent of 1440p on 27”, but much sharper.

Its not accurate though. The only resolutions that are accurate are even number devisions of the displays full resolution. Scaling 3820x2160 to 2560x1440 you end up with a scale of 1.5:1 which means your GPU is doing a lot of guessing and calculation of where those half pixels should fall.

Depends on what you are using it for I guess. Thats why I want more 5K options. Scale that at 2:1 and you get a nice 1440p resolution with great sharpness.

LiE · 2 Mar 2021 at 18:00

fez said:
Its not accurate though.

But it looks good. Compared to native 1440p on 27”. Also at normal viewing distance it becomes harder to see a discernible difference. I’ve used 27” 5K iMac and they do look really good, but that doesn’t take away from how good a 4K 27” scaled to 150% looks, in Windows.

EsaT · 2 Mar 2021 at 19:00

fez said:
Its not accurate though. The only resolutions that are accurate are even number devisions of the displays full resolution. Scaling 3820x2160 to 2560x1440 you end up with a scale of 1.5:1 which means your GPU is doing a lot of guessing and calculation of where those half pixels should fall.

While bitmap image scaling needs mathematical guesstimating, vector content like fonts scale perfectly.

LiE · 3 Mar 2021 at 14:36

LiE said:
But it looks good. Compared to native 1440p on 27”. Also at normal viewing distance it becomes harder to see a discernible difference. I’ve used 27” 5K iMac and they do look really good, but that doesn’t take away from how good a 4K 27” scaled to 150% looks, in Windows.

@fez I wanted to follow up on this as I've been testing the LG 27GN950 (4K 144hz 27" nano IPS) over the past few days. Having used a vast number of monitors over the past couple years trying to find the perfect one I feel in a unique position to comment on some aspects. I said above that 4K 150% scaled on 27" looks crisper than native 1440p on 27" and it does, to a degree. The rendering is just off enough to cause a bit of eye strain for me. It's as though everything is a touch out of focus. So it goes back to what you were saying about non-integer scaling, for me it either has to be 1:1 or 2:1.

fez · 3 Mar 2021 at 14:41

LiE said:
@fez I wanted to follow up on this as I've been testing the LG 27GN950 (4K 144hz 27" nano IPS) over the past few days. Having used a vast number of monitors over the past couple years trying to find the perfect one I feel in a unique position to comment on some aspects. I said above that 4K 150% scaled on 27" looks crisper than native 1440p on 27" and it does, to a degree. The rendering is just off enough to cause a bit of eye strain for me. It's as though everything is a touch out of focus. So it goes back to what you were saying about non-integer scaling, for me it either has to be 1:1 or 2:1.

Its a hard one because some people have no issue and others really struggle. Personally I really don't get along with moving my head too much when I'm working. I have 2 21.5" 4K screens running at 2x and thats quite a nice amount of space. They are the LG USBC ultrafines which have a slightly higher than standard resolution so at 2x scaling they are a little better than 1080p.

I am just trying out 2 25" 1440p screens from Dell to see if I can put up with the lower pixel density because the M1 macbook only drives one display natively so you have to faff with displaylink and adaptors which the LGs don't play nicely with.

Just give us more 5K monitors!