Need more pixel real estate, is 4k the answer?

[Red Squirrel]

I work at a NOC, currently have 4 normal res monitors (a bit under HD) and it's simply not enough for all the stuff we have to watch as we keep getting more,which is good for job security, but there's no budget to give us equipment to handle the extra needed screen area so looking at buying some equipment out of pocket.

Our PCs are also low profile which greatly limits video card choices, but I have found some low profile cards that support 4k. This one looks interesting but a bit pricy:

http://www.ncix.com/detail/lenovo-quadro-nvs-510-2gb-d8-87422.htm

I'm thinking I could put 3 of my existing monitors, then buy a 4k monitor. 1 4k monitor would be equivalent to the 4 I have now in terms of area so by adding a single 4k it would be like adding 4 separate monitors but only take 1 port and less desk space, am I right in that thinking or am I missing something?

 

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[Piroko]

A 4k screen will feel a bit smaller than four 1080p screens, mostly because you'll be tempted to use it less efficient. But it'll go a long way in helping with your problem.

As for low profile cards, if you can fit a two-wide cooler then there's this option: http://www.ncix.com/detail/gigabyte-75toc-2gl-gtx750ti-2gb-ddr5-70-121031.htm

There's also this AMD FirePro card that has four mini-DP ports: http://www.ncix.com/detail/amd-firepro-w4100-2gb-gddr5-e8-105476.htm
and probably a couple others that i've missed.

Also, check that you have the correct display cables and adapters before attempting the swap

 

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[Red Squirrel]

We have a mix of VGA, DVI and big DP (those ports on the card and other I've seen look smaller) so I definitely would need to get adaptors too but not a huge issue, hard to get away from that without greatly restricting video card selection. We're running win7 as well, if it matters. That AMD card is way cheaper so may look at that one, though that bracket looks bigger than low profile to me... unless it comes with a separate one you can swap. Description does say low profile.

Going to think about this further but might pull the trigger on card + adaptors + 4k monitor.

 

[Piroko]

Yeah that's a full height bracket premounted. I assume it comes with a half height one to swap (two screws), if not, test the card without one and then just ghetto-mod the large bracket in place.

Win7 is not a problem, but you won't be able to hook up VGA monitors on these cards without a KVM or something similar.

 

[dpodblood]

1440p is a good compromise in either 16:9 or ultrawide. It's still a significant increase in real-estate over 1080p without making the text so small as to be unreadable. Unless you have the space for a very large 4K monitor such as the phillips one which is becoming more and more popular.

 

[LurchFrinky]

The small display port on the W4100 is called "mini DP" as opposed to just "DP" for the full sized one. I own the W4100 and it comes with a mini DP to DVI passive adapter (at least in the retail box). Everything else will likely need a new cable/adapter, and as Piroko mentioned, these digital signals will not drive an analog vga monitor.
And yes, there is a half-height bracket included.

 

[Red Squirrel]

The existing monitors I got have DVI, VGA and (big) DP, so I think I should be ok. I'd probably get rid of one, run the 3 off the card, then a 4K off the last port. Later on get another 4k as well. I could probably manage with 2 4k monitors actually. That would be like 8 current monitors.

Windows does not do anything weird with 4k like try to upscale text or anything right? Just want to make sure I truly get more real estate if I do this. I can live with it being smaller as long as it's clear and not pixelated or fuzzy or anything, which should be the case correct? From what I seen Win 10 text looks terrible so would probably be worse with 4k, but this is 7 so think I should be ok.

 

[Red Squirrel]

How does this look as far as monitor goes?

http://www.ncix.com/detail/philips-288p6ljeb-27-28in-4k-uhd-ad-104683.htm

I like that the stand rotates, as placing it vertical makes more sense for NOC environment. Though for this much pixel density it matters less as I'll just be tiling apps anyway, with the smaller res screens they're vertical but only room for one app per row.

Now to try to convince my work to put this on the Visa... doubt it, I'll probably be paying out of pocket and engraving my name on it.

 

[tweakboy]

Yes! Must have

 

[Piroko]

Windows does not do anything weird with 4k like try to upscale text or anything right? Just want to make sure I truly get more real estate if I do this. I can live with it being smaller as long as it's clear and not pixelated or fuzzy or anything, which should be the case correct? From what I seen Win 10 text looks terrible so would probably be worse with 4k, but this is 7 so think I should be ok.

No, Win7 should not do anything funky by itself.

As for Win10, it uses the same cleartype fonts with some differences in how they are antialiased (not entirely convinced either), but in general everything should look and behave the same. Exceptions are programs that use their own font renderer (Why, Google?).

 

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[Red Squirrel]

Ended up biting the bullet on that AMD FirePro W4100 card, and 4 mini dp to dp cables. That will handle my 4 existing monitors. I have another monitor that is the same, but died, I will try to fix it (I think the problem is the flat flex connector for the LCD, it's been sitting in my office for months "just in case" I get the will power to solder each line one by one). If I succeed in fixing it that will give me 5 monitors. I have 2 lower res VGA monitors that I may use as well. For now I'll forget about 4k as it's a lot of money to spend for work. Either way the card is the first step to add more ports, so going to start with that. I find it's ridiculous I have to use my own money for this, but whatever, I'll engrave my name on it so I can take it back home any time I want, ex: if they finally decide to let us use the corporate card to buy more stuff.

 

[guachi]

I recently purchased a 4k 27" monitor.

At 100% scaling everything was too tiny so I increased it to 150%. Everything looks crisp and is readable.

In Firefox, I had to set default text size to 200% as I didn't feel like constantly hitting CTRL-+ on every page. Huge text, while normally a pain, is fine when reading a web page as it's easy enough to scroll up and down when reading.

The monitor, an LG 27UD88, was an amazing value for $600.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I started work again today, and discovered that my PC actually has an extra displayport. I stole a coworker's (who quit) monitor and now have 5. I may end up just leaving it like this, I will have to cancel that video card order.

As for 4k, now I'm almost thinking of getting one for home, maybe a bigger one like 30", and doing away with multi monitor, will make things simpler while still getting enough screen real estate for programming and such. Then I could use my HD monitors at work, as the ones at work are not quite HD, so would give a big more real estate.