Tobold's Blog
Friday, September 05, 2025
 
Going 4K

The last two times I bought a new PC, I didn't upgrade my computer monitor at the same time. So I was still using a 2014 Philips 27" screen with QHD resolution (2560 x 1440 or 1440p). Today I bought a new monitor, a Samsung Odyssey OLED G8, with 4K Ultra HD resolution (3840 x 2160 or 2160p) and 32" diameter. It's flat, I wasn't really sure I wanted a curved display. At nearly €800 the monitor was still rather expensive, but prices for OLED screens have come down a lot already.

One reason I wanted a 4K monitor was that I had been reading the specifications for Europa Universalis V, and it supports up to 4K Ultra resolution. EU5 might actually be a good use case for me, because my graphics card is a Nvidia Geforce 4070, which at 4K Ultra resolution might not reach 60 frames per seconds on the latest games. For a strategy game without fast moving images that won't be a problem. But ultimately I bought the monitor to be future proof. I can continue buying new PCs without having to change the screen.

Comments:
I really don't get the appeal of either large screens or very high definition. I'm using a 23" monitor at 1080p and it takes up most of my field of vision and shows everything in more detail than my mind can absorb. What is the purpose of larger, more visually dense displays? We have them at work and all I do (And what everyone else does, too, pretty much) is have anything I'm looking at in a window half the size of the screen, so basically the same size as the old monitors used to be.

I can see the point if you want multiple images displaying simultaneously but I very rarely do that and it certainly would never happen in any games I play.
 
I also watch TV/Movies on my gaming monitor so that's why I went with 4K. Had to get used to scaling apps, otherwise my old eyes can't read the settings screens. LOL
 
Is the OLED a noticable difference from your old monitor?
 
Yes, the contrast is a lot better, due to “off” pixels being really black.
 
I've been considering a 4k monitor the next time that I need a new one. However, one thing that I've been scared of is the text being too small. The older I get the harder it is to read that small text. Some games don't seem to let you change the text size like the main OS does. What's your experience been since the switch?
 
Windows lets you scale the UI, so no problem there. I've been mostly playing EU4 since, and that also has a scalable UI. Grounded 2 seemed to automatically adjust the text box size reasonably. But I am sure that there could be a potential problem with older games or games that have just badly designed UIs.
 
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