Need a new monitor - 1080p or 4k?

[Indus]

I have a EVGA GTX 660 FTW video card and I just don't game as much as I did 4 years ago.. call it growing up or whatever.

However I do a lot of photo editing mostly in lightroom and photoshop and I would like an upgrade over my Dell 2409 TN monitor.

Should I go for a 4k monitor or just get the best IPS 1080p? What technology is going to be the best for me for the next 6-8 years?

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I've been in the same dilemma since building my first SLI configuration since 2008 with two GTX 970s. In hindsight, this equation was set off by "want" plus "curiosity" as opposed to "need" + "common sense."

Within weeks of clicking check-out for the second gfx card, my crappy Hanns-G 25" "full-HD" monitor died at an age beyond expectation as shown in archived reviews by disgruntled customers. I had already been "planning" for a higher-res or Ultra-HD monitor, but the "plan" anticipated "execution" after some indefinite period of time -- maybe measured in years.

Looking at price versus "want" and want versus "need," I chose to simply replace the dead monitor with a new BenQ XL2420Z:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824014370

I might have spent double on one of the 4K offerings. I might have picked the 27" model. I might have done this -- I might have done that.

I can neither recommend nor advise further. "6-8 years" is a long time-span. Following my own logic, with the ~$320 outlay as a stop-gap and interim solution, I could say "wait and see if the field of selections widens and prices drop." I could just as easily say "take your time but make your next monitor an Ultra-HD purchase."

For any number of reasons, I like my BenQ -- for now . . .

 

[BonzaiDuck]

Here's a discussion of TN versus IPS.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/id-2342813/ips-monitor.html

I didn't have any "specialized concerns" about selecting my BenQ (linked above). For "color reproduction," I've been able to adjust the TN monitor to be "richly satisfactory" -- for me. I have a problem with a single game which looks absolutely stunning with a single GTX 780 adapter but "washed out" with 2x GTX 970, while similar games are great both ways -- all with the same monitor. So I don't think my choice of a "TN" monitor is necessarily responsible for that one, single difficulty.

 

[lupi]

Where is the neither option.

 

[rickon66]

I went with a 32" Acer IPS 4K and am loving it, however I would not go with less than a 32 incher for 4K. Fonts are usually just too tiny in native resolutions.

 

[riahc3]

If you are doing editing, 4K will give your more productivity.

If you are using your PC for entertainment reasons, 1080 will give you a more native feel.

Anyways, I got some bad news for you: http://www.evga.com/Products/Specs/GPU.aspx?pn=47C2B3D9-FA2C-420E-9A56-EA174652B579 according to these specs, the max you push out is 2560x1600. Native 4K is 4096 × 2160. rickon66 is BARELY pushing 4K as that is the max digital resolution his card can push.