4K TV as a monitor for work and gaming

[inzombiak]

I'm looking for a combo work/gaming monitor and only have room for either a TV or a proper monitor. My work is mostly programming so I'm worried a TV might not display text or colors (I do graphics programming sometimes) properly. I've never used a TV for work so if anyone has input that would be great.

I have a GTX 1070 if that matters, I don't mind turning down quality/resolution for gaming if my card cant handle it. If there are any particular recommendations

 

[Dugimodo]

TVs have low refresh rates and response times that make them less desirable as gaming monitors. Most do have the option to set an input for PC use which will help sharpen up the text but if they don't it can look terrible. Personally I think a PC monitor is a better all round screen than a TV is.

Having said that many people do use TVs and seem to be happy with it. TVs do get you a bigger screen for the same money I guess.
There's also QHD resolution (2560x1440) to consider which is a good compromise;- better resolution than 1080P, lower graphics load for gaming than 4K.

I find 4K on 27-34" monitors sometimes a bit too small with icons and text and windows still doesn't scale all that well. Also some games you end up with a tiny HUD that's hard to see. But this is only from brief shop demos so I may have it wrong, I use 1080P at home.

 

[Solandri]

As stated above, TVs are usually limited to 60 Hz. Even the ones advertised as 120 Hz or 240 Hz only use that internally (to eliminate judder from using a 3:2 pulldown to display 24 Hz movies at 60 Hz - you can't divide 60 into 24 evenly, but you can divide 120 into 24 evenly). There is no way to drive them at those refresh rates using an external signal.

They also tend to have more input lag due to doing heavier processing to clean up the picture. The better TVs should have a mode to disable this, in case you plug in a computer or console for gaming.

TVs also overscan the video image (enlarge it so it's larger than the monitor). This mismatch between video pixel and monitor pixel size is usually undetectable in video images and well-anti-aliased games, but will look horrible for desktop computing. Fortunately, almost all TVs have a setting to disable overscan, it can just be a PITA to find it.

Otherwise, TVs tend to better than monitors. They're brighter, and have better viewing angles (it's very rare to find a TV using a TN panel). TVs are considerably cheaper for the size and resolution than a monitor simply because so many more of them are produced (economy of scale). Colors should be the same (pretty much all monitors and TVs have 100% sRGB color gamut). There used to be an argument for pixel response times favoring monitors (TN monitors in particular). That's the time it takes for a pixel to change from one color to another. But pretty much all panels have gotten response times below 10 ms, making this a non-issue at 60 Hz. (Some older panels used to go as high as 25-40 ms response times.)

Your 1070 will support HDMI 2.0, which is what's needed for 4k @ 60 Hz, so you should be good to go there as long as you buy a new TV. Some of the older 4k TVs and monitors were made before the HDMI 2.0 spec was finalized, and are only able to do 4k @ 24 Hz or 30 Hz over HDMI, so be wary of that if you're buying used. For watching movies, make sure it supports HDCP 2.2 as well - you need that to view 4k movies, otherwise your Bluray player or streaming service will downgrade the image to 1080p.

The only over real caveat I can think of for using a large TV as a monitor is that the most comfortable positioning of a display is with the center of it at the same height as your eyes. For a 20-27" monitor, this usually means the monitor should be placed on your desk. For larger monitors and TVs, you may have to lower the display or raise your chair to view the screen comfortably. For very large displays (50+ inches), you're gonna have to move the TV off the desk and sit it on top of a cabinet. If you try putting a TV this large on a desk, you're going to develop a cramp in your neck from always having to look up at the screen.

 

[rustigsmed]

As stated above, TVs are usually limited to 60 Hz. Even the ones advertised as 120 Hz or 240 Hz only use that internally (to eliminate judder from using a 3:2 pulldown to display 24 Hz movies at 60 Hz - you can't divide 60 into 24 evenly, but you can divide 120 into 24 evenly). There is no way to drive them at those refresh rates using an external signal.

that isn't correct for all tv's -it was the case about 7 years ago and still good to assume that is the case rather than the other way around. once you have a model number check them at rtings.com where they actually test these things or check rtings.com first then make a call. my sony tv for example can run 1080p @120hz or 4k60hz.
also don't just assume that if it says it in nvidia control panel it is showing true frames, there are ways to test if the frames are real or interpolated which is why its best to follow rtings.com

as stated above the tv will also need hdmi 2.0 and if playing FPS shooters will have some input lag, although it really anything under 40ms is ok for casual gaming, if you're seriously competitve you should get a monitor.