Thinking of upgrading my HD monitor but doing my research has left me more undecided than before I started.

What are peoples thoughts on coding & working on a 27” QHD vs 27” 4K?

Is QHD much of an upgrade from full HD?

Is 27” 4K just too small and require upscaling ? (from about 80cm viewing distance) if so what size do you recommend should be the minimum ?

QHD is the sweet spot at the moment for me. *Definitely* a noticeable step up from 1080p, and the jump to 4k just isn't worth the expense IMHO.

This is from my perspective as a casual gamer and professional dev, in any case. If I was a professional graphic designer, my priorities would almost certainly be different.

In case it helps at all, you can compare 4K sizing with full HD laptops... E.g. if you find a full HD 15" laptop screen with no upscaling or zoom to be too small, then you would also find 4K on a 30" display to be too small.

I have a 32" 4K display that is _just_ touching the limit of what I'd consider to be too small, for me personally.

@alturnativ great tip.
I have a 15” laptop beside my main display and though I can use it for a short time at 100% scaling it’s not that comfortable and I prefer it at 125%.

I’ll try it for a day and see if I can manage it but I suspect not.

Got a Samsung U32J590UQR 32" 2160p (UHD, 4k) display for less than 350 USD recently and it definitely makes a difference to my previous 1080p (FHD).

I use 120 DPI setting with it on XFCE and sit 40 cm away from it.
Can still see pixels in my IDE, so there is room for future improvement...

VA panels seem to have gotten way better in the last decade. The black is fine in The Darkmod even without room lighting at night and colors are still reasonable when looked at from an angle.
Also turned ingame AA off, because it is no longer needed...

Like everyone else has said, it depends on the size of the screen, i will tell you that in addition you should consider performance and relative cost of hardware.

Mid-range GPU's like 1070Ti or 2070 will output 1440p or QHD in this case great even at high FPS like 120+. These GPUs start to hit their limit around 4K@60fps and especially when you start adding in modern processing features like HDR, high Anti Aliasing, Ambient Occlusion, and Ray-Tracing.

You will have to invest in a much more expensive graphics card in addition to your already expensive 4K monitor if you want to go there. Expect to also run into performance issues if your CPU is underpowered (i7 7k or higher probably is best).

Keep that in mind when choosing. Do you have a PCPartPicker list with your current specs?

@arcsector I think I’ve decided to go for 27”-34” QHD.

@TrevorTheRat good choice - hope you enjoy!