4k Monitor Guide – How to Choose one for Gaming?

4k Monitor Guide-What is 4K monitors

This is the first question you have to ask yourself, after all, 4K screens are available since late 2013 or so, at the time they were not very interesting since it was very rare to find content in 4K, but has this changed?

Well yes, things are progressing little by little, already 4K Blu-ray are more and more numerous and we also find a lot of videos in 4K on YouTube but it takes a lot of flow to really enjoy it (We do not live all in town, unfortunately).

For the office I find this excellent, it allows to display much more information on a single screen, so it is ideal for graphic designers, video editors or developers.

Personally, I would have a hard time returning to a classic “Full HD” screen after going through 4K!

But what particularly interests us here is the 4K at stake, thanks to the arrival of the Nvidia GTX 1080 we start to run the games in 4K 60 IPS without having to spend several thousand euros, good new! But I will talk about all this in more detail in the rest of the article.

Personally, I had made the choice to wait for a little before going on a 4K screen in 2015 but I think the time has arrived, we have more and more content available.

We hear a lot of things on the web and the classic “the 4k does not change anything” is wrong, yes we can see the difference between 4K and full HD.

The thing is that from a certain distance we do not see the difference indeed, I spare you the calculations but on average, if you are more than 60 centimeters from your screen, you will not actually see a big difference between 4K and full HD.

In the case of a TV the 4K can indeed seem like a gadget but in the case of a monitor for pc, it really takes its interest since it’s a safe bet that your screen is less than 60 centimeters from your face as you read this article, right?

In short, anyway, those who preach the “the 4k does not change anything” have often not had the opportunity to test. I can tell you, we feel a real difference in the details by switching to 4K.

No 144Hz in 4K at the moment

So already it takes a very big config to run from 144Hz to 4K but it’s still possible. Unfortunately, the 144Hz in 4K is not, for now, the problem mainly because of the fact that no connection allowed to send.

144images / sec in 4K.

But Asus has already introduced one of its 4K 144Hz screen prototypes running on the all-new Display Port 1.3 standard.

So we only have a few more months to wait before we see the 4K 144Hz screens on the market, so we will only be missing a very good set up to run all this.

The criteria to take into account his gaming monitor

I will now speak in this part of the features that are not directly related to the 4K, but to all screens. We will, therefore, look at the different types of the slab, the refresh rate, the response time and the V-Sync function.

Slab type and viewing angles

There are two main types of slabs: TN slabs and IPS slabs, I will explain the differences between the two so that you know which slab to choose according to your needs.

• The angle of vision:The angle of vision is the angle in which you can be in relation to your screen without it darkening, you have probably already noticed that it is better to be well in front of a laptop screen to see well for example.
• TN slabs:Older than IPS slabs they are often favored by gamers for their very low latency (often around 1ms) but they are known to have a lower quality image, less deep blacks. But the main problem with this type of slab is their very small viewing angle, it must be in front of the screen to keep perfectly clear.
• The IPS slabs:The IPS slabs as for it has an excellent viewing angle, you really have to stand on the side for the screen to darken. As I said, the quality of the image is also supposed to be better, although that is not the only factor.

Their problem is, however, their latency quite high although the latest models start to offer a latency shorter and shorter (about 4ms for the best IPS panels).

It’s up to you to see what matters most to you, a better screen for the office, movie playback but a little higher latency in games or a screen of lower quality but better performance in games.

Personally, I opted for the IPS by seeing an article from Bestolin ( Check their website ), the difference between 1ms of latency and 4ms is finally quite low and since I do not h

ave a particularly high level of games I made the choice of a better quality being because I’m not just playing with my screen.

The Refresh Rate

I have already written an article explaining the interest of a high refresh rate that I advise you to read if this point is not entirely clear to you.

So, having a graphics card that can generate 100 frames / second on a screen that can display only 60 is not very useful (although in practice, the feeling of fluidity is slightly higher).

The opposite is also true: having a graphics card capable of producing 60 frames / second on a screen capable of displaying 100 is not useful (and no additional feeling of fluidity in this case).

So you need a graphics card that can generate more images than your screen can display for maximum fluidity.

FPS

Most games turn 60 FPS, and a 60Hz screen is enough but for shooting games like CSGO for example that is particularly nervous, it is better to move to a 144 Hz screen.

We feel a real difference from 60Hz to 144Hz so much that once you have tasted the 144Hz it is really difficult to return to the 60.

Unfortunately, the 4K / 144Hz technology is still in its infancy, indeed it causes problems in the connection (Although with the new standard DisplayPort 1.3 things seem to be moving in the right direction.) and that there are some prototypes that start to pop, for the moment it is necessary to be satisfied with 60Hz on 4k.

Good Reads:Best Gaming Monitor 2018 – Reviews & Buyer’s Guide

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