How big of a display do I need to be able to see the text in 4K gaming?

cageymaru

cageymaru

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Anyone know what size display that I would need to make the text legible at 4K resolutions when gaming? Many older titles will allow me to VSR them to almost 4K resolutions, but I can't read the in game text at all. It's so tiny that I would need a magnifying glass to see it. And not even going to go into Steam messages looking like a 1/2' x 1/2' box on my screen.

So in 2015 I want to start looking for a 4K TV / monitor, but I would like to know what size I would need to have legible text in games that do not scale the UI. I'm sure that someone else has run into this problem before. VSR makes older games look amazing. :)
 
Well, unless you have the screen like 1-2 ft away from your face, I'd say most people will need a 40"
 
What games are you talking about?

Every game I've played so far scales text fine, and I'm on a 32" 4k. No problems.
 
SWTOR is one game off the top of my head that the text is completely illegible. Steam messages that pop up on my screen while playing a game @4K are completely illegible. I literally have to click on each one and drag it to my other monitor to to read them. I completely gave up on Steam announcements. Some older games don't scale the UI at all. It is just miniscule on my 27' screen.

I sit 5 -6 feet from my monitor. So it seems that 40' might be the sweet spot for me. Thanks everyone!
 
cageymaru said:
SWTOR is one game off the top of my head that the text is completely illegible. Steam messages that pop up on my screen while playing a game @4K are completely illegible. I literally have to click on each one and drag it to my other monitor to to read them. I completely gave up on Steam announcements. Some older games don't scale the UI at all. It is just miniscule on my 27' screen.

I sit 5 -6 feet from my monitor. So it seems that 40' might be the sweet spot for me. Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...

Yeah dude, Steam doesn't scale if you raise DPI -- I use 125%. I was pretty surprised. I use the PixelVision skin and set the font to +3 in the settings file. It's better looking than the base skin and easy to use.

I am surprised SWTOR doesn't scale. WoW and FF14 work very well. WoW is just fine with scaling turned off, but the scaling slider works and fonts can be adjusted individually. Fonts in FF14 scale great automatically.
 
cageymaru said:
SWTOR is one game off the top of my head that the text is completely illegible. Steam messages that pop up on my screen while playing a game @4K are completely illegible. I literally have to click on each one and drag it to my other monitor to to read them. I completely gave up on Steam announcements. Some older games don't scale the UI at all. It is just miniscule on my 27' screen.

I sit 5 -6 feet from my monitor. So it seems that 40' might be the sweet spot for me. Thanks everyone!
Click to expand...



27 foot screen :eek:
 
Philips BDM4065UC - 40" 4K 60Hz monitor thread
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1838713

ps: even 32" are too small... polices under windows will be too small... pitch too small. except maybe if you are at 50cm from the screen... ( attention to DPI with eye distance... )

This 40" philips has the same scale as the 27", 34" 1440P !! That is why so many people are following this screen.
 
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That is a problem I think when more 1440P monitors come out at maybe 25" 27" you have to keep getting bigger with 4K which is a problem.
 
The answer to this question is very dependent on what you consider 'readable' and how good your vision is.


I have no problems with even 3840x2400 on a 22 inch display on an old game like quake 3 where the text does not scale (on the older versions) even though it was very small but this might not be readable to others. I have good (20/15) vision.

It sounds like maybe the op doesn't have such good vision so probably best off getting a 39 or 40 inch 4k display for gaming to have a simialr dot pitch as a 27 inch 1440p display. People who say 1440p @ 27 inch is barely readable is a joke to me when I am fine with 4k @ 22 inches so it just depends greatly from person to person. To me a 27 inch 1440p display is barely differen't from a regular 100 PPI display...

I have no problems reading 10 point font sizes on a 39 inch seiki from 6 feet away... On my OS (linux) I actually run at 75 DPI to make the fonts smaller than what now-days is the default setting (100 DPI). The first machine I have ever used where I actually would run at 100 DPI on linux was a 3840x2160 15.4 inch laptop display. Even then I was confortable with font sizes at 96 DPI or windows default sizes.

Anyone who really just has average vision who doesn't need correction should have no problem with sizes on a 32 inch 4k display IMHO. The problem is many people do not have 20/20 vision as they really need a slight amount of correction but because the amount is slight they just won't get glasses to have corrected vision. I would expect anyone who wears glasses (near sighted) with the correct amount of correction should not have an issue IMHO.
 
houkouonchi said:
The answer to this question is very dependent on what you consider 'readable' and how good your vision is.


I have no problems with even 3840x2400 on a 22 inch display on an old game like quake 3 where the text does not scale (on the older versions) even though it was very small but this might not be readable to others. I have good (20/15) vision.

It sounds like maybe the op doesn't have such good vision so probably best off getting a 39 or 40 inch 4k display for gaming to have a simialr dot pitch as a 27 inch 1440p display. People who say 1440p @ 27 inch is barely readable is a joke to me when I am fine with 4k @ 22 inches so it just depends greatly from person to person. To me a 27 inch 1440p display is barely differen't from a regular 100 PPI display...

I have no problems reading 10 point font sizes on a 39 inch seiki from 6 feet away... On my OS (linux) I actually run at 75 DPI to make the fonts smaller than what now-days is the default setting (100 DPI). The first machine I have ever used where I actually would run at 100 DPI on linux was a 3840x2160 15.4 inch laptop display. Even then I was confortable with font sizes at 96 DPI or windows default sizes.

Anyone who really just has average vision who doesn't need correction should have no problem with sizes on a 32 inch 4k display IMHO. The problem is many people do not have 20/20 vision as they really need a slight amount of correction but because the amount is slight they just won't get glasses to have corrected vision. I would expect anyone who wears glasses (near sighted) with the correct amount of correction should not have an issue IMHO.
Click to expand...

I can barely read 1440p text with VSR on my 27" Samsung 1080p monitor or my Acer 27" 1080p monitor from 5 feet away. If I have to I can. I'm waiting for the 40" monitors to come out; and if they have FreeSync that would be a plus. I'm glad that you have great eyesight my friend and I hope you keep it throughout your lifespan.

:)
 
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