expiredBraveSwing278 posted Jan 21, 2025 03:06 AM
Item 1 of 3
Item 1 of 3
expiredBraveSwing278 posted Jan 21, 2025 03:06 AM
49" onn. 3840x1080 144Hz Curved Gaming Monitor
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PPI is a value you can use to determine the ideal ratio of resolution compared to overall size. And bigger isn't always better*. There is a sweet spot, which would vary depending on the distance you sit from your monitor. In addition, what you are looking at impacts the ideal PPI. For office productivity work, you normally want a little bit lower of a PPI. For gaming, the ideal PPI limit is more based on what quality your video card can provide.
If you get the chance, try to test out all 4 of these 16:9 monitor configurations. Use them at their native resolutions and without enabling OS scaling. They are fairly common and should give you a feel for a wide range of PPI values. You can use them as a guide without needing to to remember any PPI values.
- 24" @1080p (IMO, acceptable)
- 27" @1080p (IMO, bad. "Fuzzy" enough to be distracting.)
- 27" @1440p (IMO, great)
- 32" @2160p (IMO, bad. Uncomfortably "tiny".)
From there, any time you are monitor shopping you can just Google something like "monitor ppi calculator". You'll get search results for pages like this [sven.de] or this [calculatorsoup.com]. You can use a chart or calculator to quickly figure out what the PPI of a monitor is. Then compare it to the PPI of a monitor you think has a good ratio of being sharp without things looking too tiny.For me, I remember that 27" @1440p is great, and that I should aim to stay above the PPI of 24" @1080p. So I can quickly look up that I like 109 PPI, and 92 PPI is less than I want but acceptable.
For reference, below is a cheat sheet of common monitor configurations and their PPI values.
PPI comparison
22" WSXGA+ (1680x1050) is 90.05 ppi
22" FullHD (1920x1080) is 100.13 ppi
24" FullHD (1920x1080) is 91.79 ppi
27" FullHD (1920x1080) is 81.59 ppi
27" WQHD (2560x1440) is 108.79 ppi
32" WQHD (2560x1440) is 91.79 ppi
32" UHD (3840x2160) is 137.68 ppi
37" UHD (3840x2160) is 119.08 ppi
40" UHD (3840x2160) is 110.15 ppi
43" UHD (3840x2160) is 102.46 ppi
47" UHD (3840x2160) is 93.74 ppi
29" UW-FHD (2560x1080) is 95.81 ppi
34" UW-FHD (2560x1080) is 81.72 ppi
34" UW-QHD (3440x1440) is 109.68 ppi
* Too high of a PPI results in "all of your icons and text looking tiny". This can be mitigated if your device provides scaling at the OS level. In these scenarios there is typically still the same ideal PPI. But in this case, it would be the PPI that your OS is scaling to.
For example, UHD/4K on a 27" screen is way too hard to read, IMO. I think that 1440p is much better. But scaling to 1440p on a 27" UHD/4k display can look fantastic.
Luxury
- Most of the time these days the OS handles scaling well enough. And in many cases, scaling down can make text even easier to read. But you are still scaling down to a lower virtual resolution and not getting more actual space. It's like buying a nicer truck that hauls the same amount as a cheaper one. It's not necessarily a bad purchase, but you are paying more to do the same job in the end.
- Scaling does require more processing power from your computer. This can mean worse performance for your system overall or needing to purchase a more powerful hardware.
Problematic- Scaling a small amount can lead to less clarity.
- When using multiple monitors, each with a different scaling percentage, things can get wonky when windows are dragged between displays.
P.S. I'm not arguing against getting more pixels, assuming it doesn't cause problems. But it's good to recognize where there are diminishing returns.Leave a Comment