How low is too low(monitor resolution) ?

[mohit9206]

Hi i have a 20 inch 1600x900 led monitor. Is the resolution too low? How much difference will i see if i upgrade to 1080p? I still see many people gaming on 1366x768 and sometimes even lower like 1024*768 so what's the deal with 1080p and 1440p and hell even 4K?
Is there even a point in high resolution display if your hardware cannot even provide playable fps at that resolution?
Do games look better on 1440p than 1080p? Can the human eye even notice the difference? And what's with these 144hz refresh rate? Do they make any difference whatsoever since 60fps is the sweet spot anyway? Maybe I'll get a better monitor when i upgrade to better hardware that can take advantage of the higher resolution and refresh rates.

 

[Hugh Jass]

Is there even a point in high resolution display if your hardware cannot even provide playable fps at that resolution?

Not really.

Maybe I'll get a better monitor when i upgrade to better hardware that can take advantage of the higher resolution and refresh rates.

Good idea.

 

[chubbyfatazn]

Hi i have a 20 inch 1600x900 led monitor. Is the resolution too low? How much difference will i see if i upgrade to 1080p? I still see many people gaming on 1366x768 and sometimes even lower like 1024*768 so what's the deal with 1080p and 1440p and hell even 4K?

"Too low" is subjective. Same thing with your next question. If you have the hardware to drive it, you might. But if you're happy with what you have now...

I'd guess a lot of those people bought their computers prebuilt, which often came with sub-1080p monitors. And 1366x768 is still a pretty common laptop screen res.

Seems like you're looking at high-res monitors solely in the context of gaming. High-res monitors have their uses elsewhere - I do a significant amount of work on mine (3760x1600 total; coding), and being able to have multiple large windows open at the same time was well worth the cost to me.

Is there even a point in high resolution display if your hardware cannot even provide playable fps at that resolution?

In your context of strictly playing games, no, not really.

For productivity cases, like the one I mentioned above, it doesn't take anywhere near as much horsepower.

 

[rgallant]

Do games look better on 1440p than 1080p? Can the human eye even notice the difference?

yes and yes [27' @ 1440 ips]

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Better . . . but "how much" better?

It has to be a qualitative difference that has more . . . or less value . . . to the beholder.

On the "low end" -- here's a short story.

I provide care to my elderly mother, who just turned 90.

She had her first computer in 1993. Usually, in this house, I'm recycling old re-usable parts; a monitor is something we usually keep using until it dims out and dies. I replaced Mom's old CRT with a 1080p/HD monitor.

She went nuts.

"I can't read this print! Make it bigger!"

So I took the resolution down to 1200x[something].

She still complains. I keep guiding her toward the Windows "magnifier," but she won't budge.

My brother was using a little 17" Viewsonic LCD. I replaced it with a 23" Viewsonic -- still 4:3 ratio. 1680x1050 resolution. No HDCP compliance.

He's happier than a pig in poop. That monitor is ten years old, but bright as a light.

Depends on what ya need, what ya want, and how much the difference means to you. And Bro? He can play the same games on his Viewsonic that I can play on this full-HD BenQ.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Let's see. I had a 19" 1440x900 DVI/VGA/composite monitor for the longest time (actually, still have it, it's on server duty). My first flat screen, I think. Then when I moved into my own place, I picked up two 1680x1050 screens, a 20" Samsung and a 22" Westinghouse.

Then a few years later, I saw a deal online for some KDS 26" 1920x1200 DVI/VGA/HDMI TN LCD screens, for $250. They were, comparatively-speaking, "huge!" I put one of them on each of my two gaming PCs, and sold one to a (sadly, now late) friend. It was also quite the step up for him, as he had been using a demo-model 17" LCD from BestBuy that I picked up for him previously for cheap. (I think that was his first flat-screen LCD.)

I still have one of the KDS 26" LCDs in storage. I moved into a new place, and the electric in this new place isn't as good as the other place (lights flicker / get brighter). I got one of those monitors out of storage, finally, and hooked it up, and it died the next morning. Just kind of went "pop", although I took it apart at a later time, and couldn't find anything obviously wrong with it. (Caps looked fine.)

Meanwhile, I sold off the 20" and 22" LCDs to friends and relatives of friends. Made back probably half or less of their original price. They were still working fine when I sold them.

I'm currently using a pair of 24" 1080P Westinghouse HDTVs that I picked up at BestBuy last year for $100 + tax ea. on sale. I primarily bought them because they were cheap, and had HDMI and half-decent speakers. But they work just fine, and consume half or less of the power of that 26" KDS LCD. (New ones are LED and Energy Star.)

 

[Red Squirrel]

It depends what kind of work you do. The bigger the resolution the more real estate you have for stuff like code (more lines of code without scrolling), spreadsheets, graphics work etc.... for gaming, it's less noticeable other than detail.

These days it does not really make sense to run anything lower than HD since if your monitor does not support it it's probably so old that an upgrade would be a great benefit. Personally I'd love to see 4k and beyond become more widely available as a standard. You can never really have too much resolution.

 

[mikeymikec]

@ BonzaiDuck

Why didn't you just change the DPI setting (assuming Windows)? Most of my customers (with near sight problems) are fine with it being on 120dpi. Occasionally some customers need =>150dpi. Others respond better to changing colour schemes.

 

[ArisVer]

If this is your second monitor then you already know most of the good points of increasing area and resolution. If you are thinking of getting a larger monitor, a 24 inch 1080p/1200p will be a nice resolution and 4 inch area jumps and text wouldn't be much different.
It also depends whether you use more than one window on your screen. Apart from movies, my largest window is usually my browser which is only about 1130x840 but I like to have multiple windows open.

Is there even a point in high resolution display if your hardware cannot even provide playable fps at that resolution?

No. But you don't use your monitor only for games, right?

 

[mohit9206]

But what about the most important question CRT or LCD?
CRT monitors have a few benefits like No input lag, accurate colors, deep black levels, multiple resolutions without scaler blur, no back light bleeding, and I imagine there are some other reasons I'm forgetting?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

@ BonzaiDuck

Why didn't you just change the DPI setting (assuming Windows)? Most of my customers (with near sight problems) are fine with it being on 120dpi. Occasionally some customers need =>150dpi. Others respond better to changing colour schemes.

I can go back and give it another look-see, but I thought I'd actually made all the necessary tweaks. Moms has this tendency to make random, undesirable mouse-clicks on the wrong icons of the wrong toolbar. Then -- she blames me for changing the appearance of her Outlook browser -- to which I answer "How?! When!? Why?!"

I'm the first-born son. A month ago, she asked me five times in one day to tell her my birth-date. Y'all going to go through this eldercare thing, one way or the other! Putting computers and software into that mix will try your patience.

On the other hand, and for my part -- two years past Medicare eligibility -- I just bought new prescription "progressive-lens" eyeglasses a year ago. Now, at certain times of the day (mostly morning), I find myself reaching for a pair of drug-store reading glasses that had been far more powerful than I'd ever needed before -- just to read text on the monitor like this.

Y'all going to deal with your own aging -- too. Retirement seems "great" before you do it -- and probably -- it is. But growing older sucks like a rusty old Victorian bath-tub. It sucks, I say!

 

[riahc3]

4K is stupid...right now. I don't think it will be as important either as most people make it to be in the near future either.


I would get a 1080. Why? All media is available in 1080 or below. The only reason to get something slightly bigger is productivity. My personal PC is for my entertainment and I view a lot of movies on it so I got a 1080 and couldn't be happier.

Like I mentioned, you really have to think about 4K; In 2014, it was approved for use in Blu-Ray. Players/discs will probably come out in the winter of 2015....and what is worst is that, AFAIK, most productions (movies) are not shot in 4K so until you actually get media in 4K....I don't know, that's why I don't see it logical.

Plus, the hardware you have to push out for gaming at 4K is brutal. Better spend on a 1080.