Question Need a 4K 43" display for work + some gaming (budget is not important)

As the title suggests, I need something for my work primarily, but I will spend maybe an hour per day gaming on it so I'd like HDR and 120Hz + FreeSync if possible. Budget is not an issue. I will not be using the PC as shown in my signature with this display, so please don't consider that as a factor in any way. I'll be using my office laptop and a games console (PS4 Pro or PS5) with the new monitor. The laptop supports DP, HDMI 2.0 and 4K @ 60Hz.

It would need to have excellent text reproduction above all else - as I work with (very) large spreadsheets and I'll be sitting close to the screen.

I'm thinking/wanting 4K, 43" (16:9), HDR, curved and 120Hz with FreeSync if at all possible. The ASUS ROG XG43VQ came close, but an online review showed how text was not displayed crisply at all - as the pixels are aligned as BGR not RGB and currently Windows does not handle that very well unfortunately.

There is so much choice out there, but finding something that matches all of my requirements has so far been impossible.

Does anyone have any advice? Thanks in advance.
 
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lubomirz

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48" is too large to sit close ; Burger&Chips needs to work with spreadsheets.
I'm using 40" and 43" in 4K resolution for desktop/productivity work and they are awesome. 100% = no scaling.

43" is little bit bigger than it could be, I prefer 40". Unfortunately there are no 120Hz/HDR/Freesync options.
For spreadsheets, anything 40" 4K would be totally ok - based on your formulation, I feel you haven't used 40"/43" in 4K so far and believe me, it's a game changer for spreadsheets. You definitely WANT matte screen, forget all those shiny things which are unusable in daylight office (reflections will kill your eyes and spoil your experience). I personally use HP Z43 monitors but they are expensive, some other options would be LG 43UD79 or the new one LG 43UN700.

As of curved : I strongly recommend to test before you buy - grab notebook and head over to any closest place which has them. Test your spreadsheets there - my friends working with Photoshop, architectural photography and CAD systems CAN'T use curved by any chance. For spreadsheets it should not be a deal breaker but it's much more individual than you can imagine. Test it out beforehand, that's all I say.

Honestly, instead of one super-expensive "do it all" I would buy two 4K monitors. One for office productivity as indicated above, one for gaming. They would provide you better value, overall experience and much better price/performance ratio than single ASUS XG43. Honestly, I don't understand the requirement for 120Hz as you want to use laptop which is not going to give you 120Hz ; and I'm not starting about 4K performance (how do you want to use laptop for 4K gaming 120Hz ?)...

If you don't insist on Freesync, I believe some 48"/50"/55" TV would be great for gaming. Look at consoles. Also, don't kill smaller alternative : what about 32" for games ? NON-4K because LAPTOP doesn't have the required performance for 4K. You can use this 32" as secondary monitor during your production day for some minor tasks such as chat, emails, web browsing, spotify, etc.

So my recommendation :
40" anything matter you can find (very limited supply these days !) or MATTE 43" LG (500$) or HP Z43 (700$)
plus 32" 1440p (250$) for games and auxiliary office stuff (chat, emails, web browsing, spotify...) during the day


I'm running HP Z43 4K plus old 30" HP LP3065 (2560x1600). Second Z43 is sitting on the floor waiting to be put to production, if I didn't spend 15 minutes writing this it would be on the table already :)
 
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Thanks for the excellent response. The FreeSync, 120Hz and HDR requirements were more for when using it with a PS5 or XSX, not the laptop for work.
So it's not a 100% must have feature. I have two 4K HDR televisions that I use with consoles, but neither of them have VRR or 120Hz.
So the plan was to kill several birds with one stone. But looks like it's not that reailsitic (not right now anyway).
All the laptop can support is 4K @ 60Hz, so that is all I really want when it comes down to it.
I've recently tried using a 4K monitor and having 4 x 1080p windows open at once is simply fantastic! It's great for my tired old eyes and boosts my productivity.
Will review the suggestions and likely get one of those. :D
 
Dec 26, 2020
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@BurgerandChips66 , did you get the LG OLED 48 CX?

How do you like it for productivity?

I have a very similar use case scenario like you: all day productivity work, lots of spreadsheets, tons of office programs, and video calls in parallel, 8-10h a day; with casual gaming in the evening with a PS4 Pro, or PS5 if I can buy one in the future.

I also bought the LG OLED 48 CX:
I find that for gaming and movies it is great.
For office productivity, it is far from ideal.
48" is just too big, without any benefit from being big for office work, due to the 0.96 PPI text is not very sharp.
To be closer to the 110PPI, the resolution must be higher than 4K for 48", but I don't know what common resolution would result in that. There are some displays with 5120x2880, which would be 122 PPI, maybe at 125% scaling.

I agree with @lubomirz that 4K would be perfect at 40", but I didn't fany any screen like that.

I thought about ultrawides, but actually I want/need the vertical resolution of 2160p at least.

I think I will send the LG 48CX back, I don't like it for all day office work, it really feels it is a TV primarily, which can do some office work, but not ideal for it.

I use currently a 32" 4K Eizo EV3285 screen, and a 27" 4K Benq SW271 screen. The 32" 4K needs 125% scaling, so a lot of resolution is "lost", while the 27" 4K needs 150% scaling. Both are very sharp with text.
I find the 27" is way too small for being useable, I don't see the point of it.
The 32 is a bit better, but still a lot of pixels are "lost", due to the scaling.

At the moment my setup is 32" is my main screen in the center in front of me, and the 27 is on the side in portrait mode, with 1:2 division in PowerToys Fancy Zones.

If you don't use PowerToys, Fancy Zones, you defineatly need it! It is a great tool for multi-window setup for big screens. I position windows with the right mouse click over a region to expand it there.
 
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Dec 26, 2020
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@lubomirz
  • Where can I find any 40" 4K displays?
I would also try a 43" 4K display, but those that I found were BGR colour coding, and hence text was not very sharp, according to the reviews: ASUS XG438Q
  • Whihc 43" screens would you recommend?
Or I found the MSI PS341WU, and the LG 34WK95U-W 34" ultrawide, probably with the same panel:
  • 5120 x 2160
  • 163PPI
  • 150% scaling.
What do you think about these?
 
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lubomirz

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34" with 5K resolution is in the same league as 32" 4K == too small without scaling. If/when you scale, the benefit of huge resolution is mainly lost.

For text processing, 5120x2160 with 150% scaling is effectively 5120/1.5 x 2160/1.5 = 4.9 Mpixels.
Standard 4K resolution 3840x2160 provides 8.2Mpix without scaling, 3.7Mpix effective at 150% scaling.


40" monitors are really scarce, nothing to be found. 40" TVs are not exactly the best choice for computers (SHINY REFLECTIVE screens !!! no DisplayPorts !!, sometimes lack of 60Hz HDMI inputs because HDMI 2.0 is required, HDMI1.4 is NOT enough, generally no optimization for computer work/text clarity etc). For gaming, 40" TVs in the role of monitor are pretty fine, you just have to watch reflections, physical setup of your room == window position(s) perpendicular to your seating position etc.

48" OLED is too big to sit "computer close" plus OLED behavior and longevity is questionable long-term.


That leaves us not too much options : 43" monitors. Matte. Dell u4320/HP Z43 being the best and most expensive. Look at LG 43UN700 for price/performance ratio.
Since October (my last reply in this thread), my situation changed : I'm working on 2x HP Z43 now.

Together with virtual desktops... there's no way back. 16.5 megapixels on my command, one, two, three virtual desktops, just press a key. Certainly not needed for a word processing, but there's no denial being able to work with EIGHT pages in Word on one screen is freaking addictive.
 
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Dec 26, 2020
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How do you organise your dual 43" 4K?
One in the center, and one to the side?
If you can make a picture, it would be nice.

And how far do you sit to find it comfortable for work?

For my 32" 4K screen I sit at 60 cm, and use 125% scaling.

I had a look on all three monitors that you suggested, they look promising. I wish EIZO would make one of this size, this 32" Eizo that I have now is amazing for office work, so comfortable to look at. No glare at all, uniform colours, I can use it all they without fatigue.
 

lubomirz

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It is very individual - depending on who does what. I'm a datacenter/server boy, one physical screen on first virtual desktop dedicated to VMware, the other physical screen to Firefox, Word/Excel/Acrobat with documentations and that stuff.

Second virtual desktop contains stuff related to learning, certification preparation and test virtual machines on one physical screen ; the other hosts four partially overlapping 2560x1600 virtual machines (reminder : 3840x2160 physical resolution), that's how I connect to customers and do "the business stuff".

Third virtual desktop is essentially everything else, whatever garbage I came across during the day.


I use keyboard shortcuts to switch between those virtual desktops, so I'm not lifting fingers away from keyboard trying to hit any icon with mouse. Works brilliantly.
Typing this, I just realized I have three screens :) 18.5Mpix total. The last one I didn't mention so far is notebook itself, 1920x1080, used for Teams and Outlook emails. More often than not, I move email to big 43" screen when replying because it's more comfy that way... I do long emails, technical analysis of problems - my emails are not "WTF OMG that's chick. CU".

Somebody doing Autocad would have extremely different needs. Lawyer too.

I sit "an arm away" from monitors, circa ~60cm (23 inches) as you stated. That's about two sheets of A4/Letter paper, don't have any ruler handy. They are perpendicular to each other with ca. 7 inches space between them, because the desk is pushed right into corner of room. Apologies, no photo. I physically rotate on chair to have more comfortable (direct) view of the perpendicular monitor on my left side but I like it (we can't sit dead-still all the day). No scaling is necessary for 4K resolution on 40"/43" monitors, that's the most important part. Seldom, I adapt size of text in Firefox, Acrobat, Word to my liking, but generally I run 100% - on occasion I enlarge it a bit due to particular font being used as some fonts look more nice than some others. For example this forum doesn't fit my usual size - the text looks strange, so I enlarge it by one hitting CTRL and + in Firefox, that's it. When finished, CTRL and - returns me back where I was. Takes split of a second, no brainer.

You should have absolutely no worries about organization of your monitor(s) : you will very easily realize what you like and how you like it - no general advice, no common rule of thumb applies to you, to Jim, to Tom, to John... we are all different, we do different things. Don't worry about it for a second.
 
Dec 26, 2020
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I didn't use virtual desktops before - I knew about the feature, but never explored it.
Do you use the built-in virtual desktop in Windows 10?

I was curious how you organise the screens physically. I have a 120 x 80 cm desk, with an Ergotron LX dual monitor arm.
For smaller screens it was good, and it holds well the 32" screen, but cannot hold well the 27" next to it, it is not long enough.
And otherwise the half of the desk is not used, as the monitor arm extends to put thescreens close to me.

I see your point about the no scaling 4K on the 43" screen, that would be the benefit to me. Although, I also like that text is "super-sharp" with the 125% scaling, and feels difficult to give up.

I found a 40" screen, but it looks like it is ancient, only one HDMI for 4K@60Hz: iiyama ProLite X4071UHSU-B1. I wouldn't buy such an old screen.
 

lubomirz

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ahhh photos are better than words (I'm anti-social computer nerd, you know). Monitors are hooked to the wall with original stand :

https://i.postimg.cc/y8VV3LdS/IMG-20201227-132344.jpg
https://i.postimg.cc/hj7gRwCN/IMG-20201227-132556.jpg

apologies for the "quality". Desk is 75 x 180cm (29.5 x 70 inches), notebook 15.6" for better imagination of scale.
Monitors are physically 97cm wide (38"), their diagonal is 43".

That Iiyama you mentioned somehow slipped off my radar, and I can't remember why. Albeit being EoL, I wouldn't be scared to buy them - if you happen to find new in a shop, you have full warranty on those. I believe I didn't consider them just because of price, but I seriously can't remember...

For many people, 43" is too big. While 40"doesn't sound like too much difference, it is. I would seriously consider any 40" monitor you can find these days... if I could find any reasonable offers where I live, I would have 2x 40" instead of current 2x 43" but the thing is, I bought those Z43s for 300 eur a piece next-to-unused, which is less than 50% of original price.

The original 40" Seiki I used for 5 years is still waiting for me, power supply board went bust - it still works but it smells so I don't want to risk it. Seen the same board on ebay for ~30eur... I just don't need it anymore, I don't have space to host it.
 
@BurgerandChips66 , did you get the LG OLED 48 CX?

How do you like it for productivity?

I have a very similar use case scenario like you: all day productivity work, lots of spreadsheets, tons of office programs, and video calls in parallel, 8-10h a day; with casual gaming in the evening with a PS4 Pro, or PS5 if I can buy one in the future.

I also bought the LG OLED 48 CX:
I find that for gaming and movies it is great.
For office productivity, it is far from ideal.
48" is just too big, without any benefit from being big for office work, due to the 0.96 PPI text is not very sharp.
To be closer to the 110PPI, the resolution must be higher than 4K for 48", but I don't know what common resolution would result in that. There are some displays with 5120x2880, which would be 122 PPI, maybe at 125% scaling.

I agree with @lubomirz that 4K would be perfect at 40", but I didn't fany any screen like that.

I thought about ultrawides, but actually I want/need the vertical resolution of 2160p at least.

I think I will send the LG 48CX back, I don't like it for all day office work, it really feels it is a TV primarily, which can do some office work, but not ideal for it.

I use currently a 32" 4K Eizo EV3285 screen, and a 27" 4K Benq SW271 screen. The 32" 4K needs 125% scaling, so a lot of resolution is "lost", while the 27" 4K needs 150% scaling. Both are very sharp with text.
I find the 27" is way too small for being useable, I don't see the point of it.
The 32 is a bit better, but still a lot of pixels are "lost", due to the scaling.

At the moment my setup is 32" is my main screen in the center in front of me, and the 27 is on the side in portrait mode, with 1:2 division in PowerToys Fancy Zones.

If you don't use PowerToys, Fancy Zones, you defineatly need it! It is a great tool for multi-window setup for big screens. I position windows with the right mouse click over a region to expand it there.

Hi,

Yes. I got the 48" version of the LG OLED. It's fine for what I needed it for. I use spreadsheets for work, engineering line drawings/plans etc. and for that it has been perfect. The DPI is exactly what I expected as I already have a 24" 1080p monitor and so the 48" 4K screen is four of those stuck together effectively. The plan was to have multiple spreadsheets open at once, rather than make just one or two appear very large (as it were).

I also have a 27" 1080p display and a 27" 1440p display. Also a 32" 1080p TV... not to mention my 58" and 65" 4K televisions in other parts of the house. So I already had an idea of what I wanted and a realistic expectation of what I'd get with a 4K 48" screen. I would have got a 43" but none exists in that range at the moment.

It is connected to a laptop, I use the laptop screen for my emails and the 48" display for everything else. I sit very close to the 48" (as close as I do to my 27" screens) and the pixel density is fine for me. If you used it for certain types of graphical work, I imagine you might not be happy. But for CAD (viewing) and Excel spreadsheets it's more than acceptable. 27" @ 1080p is okay for me and this is even denser than that. But some people have different levels of acceptability.

For gaming it is perfect. The PS4 Pro looks great of course. But the Xbox One S upscales incredibly well on that particular display and when you add the VRR and HDR10 support on top of all that... it gives the console a new lease of life! Also I find the sound from the built in speakers to be of very high quality.

No real niggles yet, apart from the menus being a bit of a rats nest to navigate and I need to write down where certain things are located or I get lost!

It was not exactly cheap at 1,600€ but I feel that I got what I paid for. When watching movies in 1080p, they feel like 4K. Thanks to the upscaling performed by the TV itself. Quite remarkable. Especially as I sit very close to the screen.