Monitor upgrade

[conure]

Hi guys, also posted this to reddit so apologies if you end up reading twice. I'm hoping someone can help.

 

I currently have a 27" monitor which is 1440, and it's a little bit small for my liking. I'd like something a bit more immersive but with a couple of criteria. I don't want to go to 4k as I like high FPS, and I don't really want a 3440 ultrawide because I tried one in the past and didn't like the lack of vertical space in combat sims.

I've seen that there are 32" curved monitors with an aspect ratio I like - but I was wondering, is 1440p too low for this? I'm not crazy about image quality looking for every little alias, but of course I don't want something to look very low res. My guess is that a 32" curved screen is going to be significantly more immersive than a 27" flat screen?

I was even thinking, perhaps 1440p on a 32" could be an advantage over my 27" with spotting in DCS and IL2?

 

Thanks again for the advice.

[IL2Battle]

Oh yeah, go ahead. I did that about 6 months ago and don't regret. I start from 24" 75hz 1080 screen, changing that to 27" 144hz 1440 screen, thinking it would be big enough and ofcourse new screen feels like someone turn on the lights. Anyway, then starting to think if 32" screen been even better and when find on sale Samsung G52A screen, 32" 165hz 1440, I have to take it and haven't regret at all.

You may need to get use to it little bit at first, but soon you'll wonder how you have been able to see anything with your old screen.

 

So +1 to go bigger...

[1Sascha]

18 hours ago, conure said:

I was even thinking, perhaps 1440p on a 32" could be an advantage over my 27" with spotting in DCS and IL2?

Unless we're talking something like 14'' vs 40'', I'm not too sure about the spotting advantage with larger monitors. At the end of the day, you'll still be hunting a tiny dot on your screen.

 

My first non CRT was a 23'' Samsung 1080p screen which I wanted to upgrade to something larger precisely because of spotting. Went to an Asus IPS 27'' 1080p (VZ/Q27 something or other) and it wasn't the "revelation" in spotting that I had hoped for.

 

I'm now using a 32'' monitor with 1440p res - well... they call it a 32, but IIRC it's more like a 31.5, lol.

Iiyama G-Master GB3271QSU "Red Eagle". That's the flat panel variant, but there is a curved version available.

I paid just over €300 last year and I think it's a bit more expensive now, but not outrageously so. I'm very happy with the monitor.

 

However: Even on that screen (and with it set to the correct distance, perhaps even a bit closer), spotting is still pretty difficult for me.

 

Conventional consensus seems to be that 32'' is too large for 1440p. I can't say that I find this to be the case with this monitor, especially when I compare it to the Asus. That one was a tad too large for its resolution I thought and the image looked less sharp than it does on the Iiyama. Sure: The Asus is from 2014 or so, the Iiyama came out in 2022 IIRC.

 

What's important (I think) is to be able to place your monitor at the appropriate distance from your head/eyes - especially with larger screens. The larger the screen, the further away from your head it should be. I have mine mounted on an extendable monitor-arm (to adjust it to my flying position). When I have it set too close to my face, it's the sheer size of the monitor, not the resolution, that becomes problematic. Meaning that I have to move my eyes/head around to look at details towards the edges of the screen - kinda like sitting in one of the front rows of a movie theater with a large screen. 

 

I don't remember the exact suggested min viewing distance for a 32'' monitor, but I think it's around 80 to 100cm - meaning having a deeper desk is advantageous. My desk is 80cm deep (instead of the more common 60cm) and sitting right in front of it with the monitor set towards the rear works great for me for everything except flying (my mounted HOTAS pushes me back from my desk).

 

My monitor arm is desk-mounted, but if your desk isn't deep enough, you could also consider a wall mounted monitor arm to push a larger screen back far enough.

 

S.