Into the 4K Gaming Frontier

Psst! Wanna know a secret? You don't have to spend a thousand dollars to get a large format 4K computer monitor. In fact, you can get one for 230 bucks. Not even kidding. Here's the 43" I bought this past weekend from Amazon. Piclick twice for super-fast photile enlargement.



That's 3840 x 2160 resolution. If you zoom in, you can clearly see even tiny 10-point text. The little bit of fuzziness you see is not from the monitor, it's due to the limitations of my iPhone's camera in a dark room. The image and text are crystal clear in person.

So what's the catch, you ask? Well, it's a 4K television, not a true monitor. That means there are a couple of compromises. The first is that it doesn't support Displayport input, so you're stuck with HDMI. However, with a good HDMI 2.0 or better cable, that's not really a problem. (If you're not already aware of this fact, do not skimp on HDMI cables. About 90% of video problems can be attributed to crappy cables.)

Secondly, you're not going to get the perfect deep blacks of a high-end monitor. To be fair, however, you won't get those from most monitors anyway. Only high-end monitors intended for artistic endeavors and commercial video editing are typically capable of true black display, and those tend to cost more than the average used car. If you're a typical gamer and home user, you won't notice the difference.

Finally, there is some very minor artifacting of dynamic text, (dynamic text is text that you can change, such as in a word processor). It's readable, but you'll see very slight color variations in, for example, single-pixel fonts on a bright white background. It doesn't bother me, especially as I write in Open Office with white text on a black background, but some people find it distracting.

Overall, if your primary use for a home computer is gaming and watching videos, you will not be disappointed with this moni-- er, television. There are even 50" and 55" options for only a few dollars more, but they wouldn't fit on my desk. And in case you're wondering, the view distance at my desk is about 40" from eye to screen. I do not find it too big or overwhelming at all. Gaming is perfect. I've watched a couple of television shows and movies at just a slightly farther view distance (i.e., leaning back in my chair while sipping adult beverages) and it's quite comfortable to view. That's due to the super high resolution. It's akin to sitting in the middle row at an Imax theater: it fills your field of vision, but it's not grainy or overwhelming.

If you do buy one, look at the review on the Amazon page written by Matthew G. Woodard. I recommend following all the steps he lays out except number 1, (a Displayport to HDMI converter). You can safely ignore that one and use a HDMI 2.0 cable instead, unless you just want to keep all your HDMI ports free for other uses. Also confirm that your video card supports HDMI 2.0 or higher; 2.0b is ideal. Most cards newer than five years old will do so.

So how do you know if you'll like it? After I got it up and running Saturday morning, my wife walked into my office. She is a Macophile and raves about the quality of Apple Retina displays. She looked over my shoulder at my new toy, then immediately went back to her office and ordered one for herself. If you're still on the fence, consider that even if for some reason you don't like it as a monitor, you've still acquired a 4K television for 230 bucks. I recommend you give it a try. If you hate it, feel free blame it all on me. Everyone else does.