External Display? 1440p or 4k? 24" or 27" ? What would you suggest?

[dstrauss]

I've posted this in several different threads and forums, but even with my old eyes, I dock my SPro 3 and use two WQHD 27" monitors in a daisy chain - I set the scaling factor one notch below "Larger" and let Windows do the rest. Outlook in full screen on the 27", Word docs, IE and Chrome all look fine - and I just zoom the screen if it gets too small (Example, set scaling on IE to 150% or enlarge the Word doc). All works well, and I take my notes on the SPro 3.

 

[zhenya]

So I ordered the Dell p2715q and it should be here tomorrow. I'll report back my experiences.

I was tempted by the 24" model - the p2415q but I wasn't sure of its compatibility. Anyone tried it? Does it run in collage mode so it can do 60hz with no hack? What scaling percentage will Windows automatically choose for it?

 

[rquellet]

So I ordered the Dell p2715q and it should be here tomorrow. I'll report back my experiences.

I was tempted by the 24" model - the p2415q but I wasn't sure of its compatibility. Anyone tried it? Does it run in collage mode so it can do 60hz with no hack? What scaling percentage will Windows automatically choose for it?

A co-worker purchased the 24" 4K Dell. It doesn't have a collage mode, so you'd still have to run at 50Hz SST. He also has the 27" 4K Dell and prefers it over the 24", because the 24" is cramped vertically due to being 16x9 instead of 16x10. The 16x9 27" 4K Dell is similar in height to a 16x10 24" monitor, but you get more width.

Congrats on the new monitor!

 

[zhenya]

Thanks for that info. I guess I don't understand about being cramped vertically though? Both screens are 16:9 and the same resolution?

Could you find out what scaling percentage Windows chooses with the 24"? Is it 150% like the 27"?

 

[zhenya]

So, got my display. So far so good.

Getting the custom resolution set up was a little more of a hassle than I expected - and I was surprised I couldn't choose the full 4k resolution at all until I had done so. I was under the impression I'd be able to choose it at 30hz natively?

Anyhow, at 50hz it looks good. The monitor quality is excellent, and I while I had become accustomed to the relatively low dpi of my 1920x1200 22" monitors, the increase in sharpness is substantial.

My plan is to use this monitor as a single external to replace the dual 22" monitors I had been running. At 150% scaling I can still nearly fit my typical workflow I had spread across 2 monitors onto one 4k monitor.

 

[rquellet]

So, got my display. So far so good.

Getting the custom resolution set up was a little more of a hassle than I expected - and I was surprised I couldn't choose the full 4k resolution at all until I had done so. I was under the impression I'd be able to choose it at 30hz natively?

Anyhow, at 50hz it looks good. The monitor quality is excellent, and I while I had become accustomed to the relatively low dpi of my 1920x1200 22" monitors, the increase in sharpness is substantial.

My plan is to use this monitor as a single external to replace the dual 22" monitors I had been running. At 150% scaling I can still nearly fit my typical workflow I had spread across 2 monitors onto one 4k monitor.

I think it's easy to use one 27in 4k monitor in place of 2 24in monitors - expecially if you use 150% scaling. I'm glad you're happy with the 4k Dell.

 

[B'midbar]

I think it's easy to use one 27in 4k monitor in place of 2 24in monitors - expecially if you use 150% scaling. I'm glad you're happy with the 4k Dell.

As stated previously in this thread Windows 10 can scale monitors individually. Again, no help to anyone on Windows 8 as also stated, but the one thing I never checked under Win8 before upgrading is if it was there all along and we just didn't know it. Could someone take a look at Settings > Display (not by right-clicking on the desktop or going into Control Panel > Display) and see if it's there?

 

[jnjroach]

As stated previously in this thread Windows 10 can scale monitors individually. Again, no help to anyone on Windows 8 as also stated, but the one thing I never checked under Win8 before upgrading is if it was there all along and we just didn't know it. Could someone take a look at Settings > Display (not by right-clicking on the desktop or going into Control Panel > Display) and see if it's there?

Its not...it is new to the latest Windows 10 builds.

 

[fletch33]

just to add to thread i am using the dock with:

2 x 23" HP LED HD Monitors on sale at BB here
1 x j5 Create USB 3 to HDMI also from BB

i purchased the dock to allow a true dock approach and so after a few days of having to manually plug in my second monitor to the SP3 port i bought the USB 3 to HDMI to fix that. no idea why they only put 1 display out on a $200 dock.

anyway all of this works great

 

[zhenya]

Hard to say as well, although the SP is kind of a cutting edge device that has left all legacy ports behind and the vast majority of new monitors support Displayport daisy-chaining. Note that for about $30 more you could have bought a displayport hub which plugs into your dock and allows you to connect up to 3 monitors from one port and doesn't rely on the CPU intensive compression of your video signal over USB.

 

[B'midbar]

Its not...it is new to the latest Windows 10 builds.

Well then, sucks for the Windows 8 crowd, but good for me as with the 9926 Win10 build I'm as happy as pig in shite on the multiple monitors.

Now I'm going to lay off a bet for the SP4 in late July, early August time frame, no Win10 RTM until October and free upgrades for all.

 

[zhenya]

What happens with individual monitor scaling in Win 10 when you move windows from one screen to the other? It must still have to re-scale the windows on the fly, no? And if it does that, programs must still appear fuzzy at times right?

Choosing your own scaling is really only half the battle - I mean yes it is great to be able to do so, but unless they've made other underlying changes you are still going to have many of the other issues we have in 8.1.

I haven't had the time or inclination to install Win 10 yet, so those of you who have, can you chime in as to how exactly this works?