3 1440 monitors or 1 4k tv for productivity/coding/general use?

T

thegreywizard

Limp Gawd
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Dec 5, 2015
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So I originally had 3 1080p monitors & I absolutely loved the setup for productivity, coding & general use.

I don't game on my computer, I just game on PS4 - so I'm not really considering this setup for gaming - however if I do go with a 4k tv, I would hook my PS4 up to it and use it for that as well.

I recently upgraded to a Dell 34" curved monitors & while I do love it, I'm stilling missing that 3rd panel for additional real estate for productivity.

I've realized that the 34" is great as a replacement for a dual monitor setup, but falls short of a 3 monitor setup & the 34" acting as a single monitor is kind of overkill in a lot of instances leaving too much dead space on the ends. . And yes I know there is know a 38" curved, but it's still not the same amount of real estate as 3 full monitors.

I am considering adding 2 additional 27" dell 1440 monitors to my 34" setup to give me my triple setup I need/want/used to. But the 34" still is kind of overkill for a single use monitor when not using it for multiple programs/windows.

So I'm highly considering moving over to a curved Samsung 60" 4k tv

But I do code, not a lot, but enough that I need to make sure my setup allows for it.

Isn't 4k bad for coding because of how small the resolution is? Or is that problem being fixed with upscaling/new software to help this issue?

Also if I would go with a 4k tv, I would want to be able to partition the screen so that I can run multiple programs across the desktop for productivity - is this even possible?

I currently have a EVGA 970, but would upgrade to a 1080 card if I go the 4k route.

Thoughts?
 
I think based on the available options of what I want in size, curve & price, it's going to be the Samsung 65" KS8500 SUHD Quantum Dot for $1900
 
I have a 48" 4k explicitly for productivity/coding. Gaming on it is pretty sweet tho. It should be pretty obvious that this size and res is identical to 4 bezel-less 24" 1080 monitors. There are plenty of calc's you can google up to check out DPI of what monitors you've used and compare to what you're looking at having. IMHO a 60" desktop screen is way too big. If I ended up in the market for a new screen I'd be wishing they had ~52" 4k and looking at 55"s and without having done this think I'd be leaning toward 48" again. (more edits...) I don't scale at all.

Edit - just back from double checking: DisplayFusion allows you to do geometric row/column splits of the monitor for window management. I only use Windows for games tho, so not familiar with how well it works. And for what gaming I do my 970 works just fine, Borderlands 2 is probably the most demanding game I play so far tho, unless the Lego games are heavier and I just don't know it ;)

Oh yeah, and just to make you boggle, my integrated Intel HD drives the monitor for productivity in Linux and the 970 is dedicated to a Windows VM driving it for games.
 
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i use the 49" JS9000 samsung, and do alot coding. its great, but i also have used 2 of the 3 27" ASUS PQ278 (2560x1440) monitors in a P-L-P setup, so i can have web browsers, discord, skype, and a video player open to distract me from work on those outter monitors.

3mwWGA8.jpg
 
4k 40" + with virtual monitor/desktops so its easy to manage shit on the screen.
 
I always prefer to have a single large display rather than multiple smaller displays.
Even if the multi-monitor setup might technically give you more workspace, I usually find a single large display to be more productive for what I do.

I don't know that I would pick either of the options you've provided.
UHD at 60" has quite a low pixel density at only 73 pixels per inch. Text is going to look pretty big and low resolution at that size.
I don't think it's unusable, as you will have to sit further back from a 60" display (which may also be an issue depending on whether you're going to wall mount it, and how deep your desk is) but it's something to be aware of.
Your current 34" 3440x1440 display, and most typical PC monitors, will have a pixel density of around 110 PPI.

For use as a standard DPI display (no DPI scaling) I'd recommend something in the range of 96-110 PPI, which would be a 40-46" UHD display.
A UHD display much smaller than that (24/27/32") is designed to be used with DPI scaling, which improves text quality but reduces your workspace (1080p/1440p/1728p) and has potential problems with applications that don't support DPI scaling well.
Any larger than 46" and I'd really want a higher resolution display. (I can't wait for 8K to get here)

I can't say that I like the other option of adding two 2560x1440 displays to the sides of your existing 3440x1440 display either.
Going by the numbers, you would have a lot of workspace: 12.3 megapixels vs 8.3 megapixels on a UHD display, but it would be very wide.
Something like that might be cool for a surround gaming setup which covers a lot of your peripheral vision, but I don't know how productive it would be.

I'd probably suggest either buying a smaller UHD display in the 40-46" range - which would be my preference - or adding another 34" 3440x1440 display on top of your existing one. That still gives you more total workspace than a single UHD display (3440x2880) - though not significantly more.

While you do gain quite a lot more workspace with these multi-monitor options compared to a single UHD display, I can't say that I like the bezels involved in multi-screen setups, and I tend to find them less productive unless your work simply requires you to have lots of documents open simultaneously so that you can refer back to them, rather than actually "working" on the side monitors. It really depends what you're trying to do.

Something like that PLP setup above is pretty nice, where you have a lot of workspace on your main UHD display, but also have a monitor or two on the side for peripheral applications or documents that you're referring to while doing work on the main display.
 
I was doing some research and saw that the 39-43" tvs won't have an issue with scaling, where as the 65" would?

Is this the DPI scaling you're referring to? And this can lead to problems with some programs right?

With the 43" I would work up close like a normal monitor setup, but with the 65" I would sit several feet back - is this a bad idea for productivity/coding etc?

That would probably be the determining factor in what I get.

I would either do a triple monitor LLL setup or a single large display. I wouldn't do a PLP with the large display.

I kind of like bezels because I'm so used to them to easily snap programs into their respective monitor, but I'm sure I'd get used to a single large display with no bezels pretty quick.

Also, what is DisplayFusion, is it a program within windows that works with TVs? (I will dual boot ubuntu and win7, preferring Ubuntu in the end hopefully)

Would going with the Samsung SUHD Quantum Dot tv be better for scaling over their UHD?

I'm more concerned with productivity on my computer than I am gaming. If I want to game with my PS4 Pro I'll for sure get the 65" SUHD eventually. But that display can and would be independent of my computer setup.
 
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IMO scaling on a big screen and sitting back a ways is just a waste of real estate. If you want to treat the display as if it were multiple monitors it's best to position yourself just as tho it really is multiple monitors. Figure out what DPI suits you using your exposure to your current monitors and try to get that DPI in a 4k screen. If you just want HiDPI then you're back to multiple monitors for more real estate and the DPI is just for smooth fonts. What's good or bad for productivity is truly up to the individual.

DisplayFusion is a monitor management program originally meant for multi monitor setups. They've added some features for large screens as well like the screen partitioning that you asked about. It can manage multi-mon taskbars, wallpaper, screen savers and my purpose for it is that many of the functions can be set to hotkeys.

As for which display tech, pixels is pixels. As long as they are in an arrangement that ClearType can handle it should matter. I don't know about their SUHD arrangement, but the Samsung UHD screens are BRG whereas current typical PC monitors are RGB. ClearType can handle any of the typical arrangements, it's when you get into the unusual like adding in a white or yellow sub-pixel that things won't work out too well.
 
Bezels do work great to snap windows and toolboxes to other windows especially for multitasking. Apps like displayfusion pro add a lot of multi monitor functionality to that type of setup in windows. A 4k has a ton of desktop space though. If you scale text larger that would essentially shrink the usable desktop space however, as alaricljs indicated. Coding might benefit from the height of 2560 x 1440 27" sideways more than a giant monitor it probably comes down to preference and what apps you use.

I would be wary of using anything much over 32" 16:9's height at at normal desk distances because they grow too tall from the desk surface being the lower limit which keeps your eyes too low and reaching further for the upper areas and upper corners than if they were centered on the middle of the monitor.

Here is a graphic I made showing the desktop real-estate differences of single monitors which might help.

4k_21x9_2560x-27in-and-30in_1080p_same-ppi.jpg


In the future we should have 120hz 4k monitors, 165- 200hz 35" 3440 x 1440 monitors. We should get HDR monitors eventually too, and oled might become more ubiquitous and adoptable. The HDR premium standard/label specifies P3 color which is a few % greater than adobe RGB. The black depth for LCD has to be .05 nit for and > 1000nit peak brightness so hopefully that standard will push some desktop LCD (most likely VA) monitors to match it. For coding you might actually be better off with storing a lower brightness/contrast level custom preset to prevent eye fatigue.
 
48" 4k user here and wouldn't trade it for anything. Used a friend's 34" ultrawide and was not impressed.
 
Get the $400 40 inch Samsung and call it a day. Coding is incredible on on it. On the 1080p Monitors at school I can see 42 lines of code in Visual Studio and on my 4k at home I can see 109 lines at once.
 
In the graphic I posted I think the 4k equates to 40.3" to be at 108.8 ppi so that samsung Nick mentioned would be similar in comparison to the 27" 2560 x1440 108.8 part that the graphic is based on. So the ppi would be equivalent to a 27" 2560 x 1440 or 34" 3440 x 1440 which is perfect for most people without scaling.
 
So I was in bestbuy for over an hour today going over every detail and size of what I want in a new 4k tv setup.

I was considering a Samsung 8500 curved tv which at it smallest, only comes in 55" and the biggest I would get/can afford is the 65"

There was an LG rep and also a Samsung rep in BB and I talked with both of them extensively.

As I've originally stated my MAIN purpose is for a larger 4k display for productivity & as a secondary I will play PS4.

Now when it comes to computer monitors I've always had an IPS display because I am a web designer with usually 3 displays for a large viewing area and always wanted my colors to look correct from any angle. So IPS's capability is very important to me.

Well apparently Samsung doesn't use IPS panels in any of their tvs but LG does in their's and I would specifically get the 60UH7700 based on price and quality - it's $1100 and is IPS

But when viewing the Samsungs from the angles, it doesn't even seem like their non-IPS panels were an issue when it comes to shadowing & viewing angles.

So is this not an issue with TVs like it is on monitors when viewing them from the side and therefore requiring an IPS panel?

And when it comes to size I want at least a 48" tv, Samsung makes one in 49" the next step up is obviously 55"

Is there really an issue with 4k scaling text and stuff at 55" compared to 48" Mind you I run my 3440x1440 monitor at 2560x1080 because the font is just too small unless I sit 12-18" away at that resolution - I like to be around 36-40" away from the screen in general it seems - doesn't hurt my eyes for all the hours I sit in front of the screen.

48-55" seems like a sweet spot, I'm just wondering if I can go to the 65" and get the biggest bang for my buck - but I'm worried about the 4k scaling at that large of a screen.

So I guess my main questions are:

1) How bad do I really want the curve, because the LG doesn't come in curved

2) Do I really require an IPS panel considering how good Samsung panels seem to be at angles

3) And do I want to stay capped at 49-55" or go all the way to 65" and not have scaling issues since I"ll run it at slightly large resolution so I can read text easier.
 
I've come to the conclusion that I will indeed need to sit closer to the display than far away, so the biggest I want to go is the 49"

My only real dilemma right now is if I want to go with a curved Samsung or an IPS LG

I would prefer a curve, but worried I'll have shadowing because it's not an IPS.
 
I might be going about this all the wrong way.

I have my 3440x1440 monitor set to 2560x1080

This resolution allows me to comfortably see the font/text at both 18" & 36" - sometimes I like to be closer to the monitors, sometimes I like to move back and be in a more relaxed position and have less eye strain.

But at either distance 2560x1080 resolution works and works well.

The 3440x1440 works great at 18" - but when I move back to the 36" area, the font becomes too small that I then have to magnify the webpage/program by a decent amount to make it readable. And I have really good eye sight.

So do I even want a 34" 1440 monitor or 49" 4k tv for that matter?

Perhaps I should just go back to my triple Dell UltraSharp 1080p monitors? I do like the look and experience of have a single monitor in the direct front of me while having space on the left and right to have additional programs open vs having 2 programs directly in front of me with 2 more stacked on top of it - that setup doesn't position me within the center of everything. It's all offset requiring my eyes to look either left or right constantly, vs looking directly straight to the middle monitor and then panning left and right as needed.

I'm trying to increase the quality of the monitors image as much as possible, thats why I went with this 34" ultra wide 1440 - but in it it's native resolution it's making everything so small it doesn't really work for me. And this single 34" in 2560x1080 is more like a double monitor setup vs a triple, which is what I prefer. And the 34" is just too big as a single monitor for most applications or browers it seems.

Can I use a 4k tv and yet keep the programs at a 1080p size? But still get 4k quality with pixels & resolution?

I hope that makes sense.
 
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