I’ve used a 4K monitor for a year now, for both gaming and desktop work.
In my opinion, the world still isn’t entirely ready for the jump, but it’s getting there.
I’ve already covered gaming at 4K in another video, this one will focus more on desktop
applications.
WINDOWS I never actually had that many problems with
Windows 7, but Windows 10 itself works perfectly with 4K.
You’ll want to use its scaling feature, though.
If you keep everything at 100% size it’s painful to use, even if you have good eyesight.
Onlookers think I’m joking about when not using scaling… and usually I am.
At 200% scaling, it’s like a much clearer version of 1080p where everything’s got
a lot more clarity.
I guess most will choose something like 150%, which is a good compromise.
It’s slightly annoying to have to sign out of Windows every time you want to change this
and it resets the position of everything on my desktop, but hey.
Annoyingly, the desktop backgrounds by default are only HD.
There is a 4K version of the original backdrop but it’s hidden away in a strange folder
for some reason.
But all-in-all, the Operating System is ready for 4K… although the text and unrecognised
file types look far too similar for my liking.
DESKTOP APPLICATIONS This is the most problematic area.
It’s different for every program, they all work if you have scaling set to 100%, but
then they’re painfully small to use.
With scaling, for the most-part they’re still useable, but some bits of them scale
better than others.
Take Sony Vegas, for example.
Some options are unavailable because they’re hidden off the side of a fixed-sized box.
Some text is too big for the box that it’s in, making bits difficult to read.
You have to be super-precise with your mouse when editing in this mode, too, since the
edges of items remain the same number of pixels across as in HD mode, making it hard to catch
the edges of clips and stuff.
And some programs that were never a problem at HD lag in 4K.
Excel’s graphs are slow to update.
There’s a delay when adding text in Sony Vegas.
It’s noticeable enough to… notice, even when using an i7 processor.
In short, it’s nice to have more screen-space, not so nice to have the bugs that go with
it.
Just as an example since I have it open, HLSW also struggles with scaling.
The text does, the boxes don’t which leads to everything being pretty damn unusable.
Steam and FL Studio remains the same to look at and to use, only stretched with scaling
to make it slightly blurrier.
Microsoft’s Whindows applications like Word and Excel work brilliantly, though making
the charts take up the whole screen can make the program unresponsive, so be careful.
In my opinion, the biggest plus of 4K is text clarity.
It makes such a difference, whether you’re typing up a script in Word or are browsing
the internet.
And it’s something that easily scales to 4K!
It’s such a jump up that everything looks like it’s a different font.
Your brain’s pretty good at disguising that weird coloured blur at HD, but moving to the
real 4K deal is a treat.
But I don’t think anybody’s going to be upgrading to 4K just for clearer text.
INTERNET When using the internet, text looks beautiful
but images are a mixed bag.
Sites like Facebook and most news sites are designed with HD in mind and images on these
sites look hilariously jpeg’d or pixelated to the point where you can’t believe you
never saw it when using a standard monitor!
Youtube and Reddit are ready though, with crisp, clear preview images.
That being said, no matter how clear small preview images look you’ll still want to
have them take up a sizeable amount of your screen for comfort when viewing them.
Size still matters more than quality when browsing dank memes.
Each site supports 4K to a different extent.
What’s Youtube’s 4K option like?
It’s a mixed bag.
Most of the benefits of 4K mode can be appreciated even on a non-4K screen, since the upped bitrate
means that surfaces can display more details that would otherwise look like a blurry mess,
regardless of resolution.
The only additional benefit of actually viewing it on a 4K screen is that high contrast edges
look a lot clearer, rather than a fuzzy outline that everything at HD seems to have, but you’ll
only actually notice if you’re used to 4K.
RETURN TO GAMING Using anything other than the default 4K resolution
is kind of pointless for most things because it makes everything look worse than you’d
expect.
For example, 2560x1440 on a 4K monitor looks far blurrier and blockier than 2560x1440 on
a 2560x1440 screen, even if in theory it’s the same thing.
Because of this, if I can’t handle full 4K I usually sacrifice resolution completely,
dropping down to 1920x1080 and opting for higher FPS and detail settings instead.
But when I can run 4K, it looks great.
Higher resolutions benefit games that focus on QUANTITY more than QUALITY in my opinion.
This includes tactical ones like Total War, or immersive games with beautiful, expansive
environments like GTA5 and Skyrim.
For these I use my ‘special setup’ where I bring the monitor right up to my face, with
the keyboard behind it.
You have to be close up to the screen to really appreciate the increased resolution, plus
it gives games a super cool surround effect.
Kind of like VR on a budget and in 2D!
CONCLUSION In conclusion, for most people I still think
a 2560x1440 high refresh rate screen is a better choice, but if you don’t mind regularly
switching resolutions and scaling settings, buying 4K will reward with one of the most
flexible and future-proof devices around.
I can use my 4K screen as a standard full HD monitor, or get a little more screen-space
by upping to 2560x1440.
Or, when Windows software lets me, I can move to full 4K and reap the image quality benefits
it offers me.
Once the rest of the world has caught up, I really believe 4K is a big enough leap become
the next big standard whilst still not being too difficult to run.
I don’t see 8K being feasible any time soon.
And I predict that 5k will become the new pretentious standard that people will go out
of their way to use just to feel slightly superior to everybody else.
But the joke’s on them because I’ll only be making my videos in 4K!
Hahaha.