When will 4K resolution (and up) monitors be commonplace?

[Vageetasjn]

Considering the retina macbooks, the next logical step is bringing the same tech to desktops. Must the industry wait for Apple to do it first, as always? Is it a difficult transition for video card makers?

 

[sm625]

We have to wait until there are enough people willing to shell out $5000+ for a 4k display. When we get enough people like that, then we have to wait until there are enough people willing to shell out $4000+ for a 4k display. When we get enough people like that, then we have to wait until there are enough people willing to shell out $3000+ for a 4k display. When we get enough people like that, then we have to wait until there are enough people willing to shell out $2000+ for a 4k display. When we get enough people like that, then we have to wait until there are enough people willing to shell out $1000+ for a 4k display. When we get enough people like that... you see that pattern here? When it gets down under $1000 the product takes off like a rocket.

I'd estimate another 7 years... but I believe more exotic forms of display will intervene before then. I'm thinking contac lenses and glasses with built in screens. They wont be 4k, but they wont need to be because they'll be right in your eye.

A stopgap solution is what I call prismatic bezeling, which in theory would enable you to place 4 or more 1080p panels together using the properties of a prism to bend the light at the edges so the screen appears seamless. I expected this technology by now. Folding screen tablets that look like a standard laptop until you open it and it folds out into a beautiful seamless 25" display. Or a phone that folds open into a fullsize tablet. (The holy grail of mobile computing.) Needless to say, I am disappoint...

 

[corkyg]

Right now, in this economy, it would not make much business sense. Maybe down the road when more folks have jobs and technology pushes costs down.

 

[greenhawk]

Must the industry wait for Apple to do it first, as always? Is it a difficult transition for video card makers?

Industry waits for a few reasons. One being that when apple goes down a path, IP / supply agreements / other limits are imposted by apple on the market so that others can not copy them. That adds time to the whole thing.

Then you have to take into account apple customers are willing to pay the extra price so they can get the "nicer" hardware sooner.

As to it being common place, you need it under $300 and that is a long way from happening. Even 1920 HD resolution is not common as people still buy cheap and those monitors are luck to be as high as 1366x <whatever>.

 

[ShintaiDK]

4K displays offers very very little value over current displays. And the price difference is huge. Not to mention all the GPU power you need.

Maybe 5-10 years down the road. Maybe never considering the spiralling cost for 20nm and down at TSMC for future GPUs.

The "retina" Mac isnt really useful for its res. Its best used with the lower res scaled up. Kinda silly actually.

 

[krnmastersgt]

I think we need to see a shift in media and software before we see the shift in hardware and hardware costs come about. People might be more willing to buy a 4K+ res monitor if they had a lot of media that could make use of such an a high res. As it stands the only people that really have use for such a monitor are image editors that need the highest quality and clarity of pictures for accurate editing and such, as well as some photographers I suppose.

They'll become commonplace when all our movies, tv shows, and games are able to scale up that resolution and actually offer something (like looking much much nicer) before it becomes commonplace. I think 1920x1080 is pretty good right now considering the costs for gaming at it and that most media does not go beyond it. But once the media shifts (games are ahead of the curb) we'll start seeing larger and larger resolution solutions become cheaper and cheaper.

 

[Vageetasjn]

My main concern is reading text for extended periods, so the macbook's scaling down seems right up my alley. I use a dell u3011 and while good for text, there's room for improvement.

And by commonplace, I just mean readily available to consumers and easily compatible with gpus.

Maybe special glasses will end up being the solution, who knows.

 

[krnmastersgt]

If you just mean obtainable and not constantly OOS, probably a few months maybe even now. For the price though, it will probably follow sm's curve.

 

[gmaster456]

Even if they did go for less than $1,000. I still don't think they would sell in any large volumes. Most people just get a new monitor pre bundled with a PC. And many times they are crap.

 

[Randomoneh]

There are really many different factors that determine whether we'll see the difference between current displays and 4K / 8K displays.

In some situations normal, healthy person can see difference up to ~200 pixels per degree (angular resolution - number of pixels per degree of viewer's field of view).

Apple classifies "Retina" display as a display that has angular resolution of 60 or more pixels per degree at normal viewing distance(s).

If you have any questions, like - "Is my display already 'Retina'?" or anything with calculations, I'd like to talk about this.

 

[rsutoratosu]

one of the place i consult at still uses 17" monitors at 1024x768, they have no upgraded in like 8 years... when a monitor goes out, they replace it with the same 17", there is still a Viewsonic VE150B in use, a 15"

4k is probably for movie studio pc, not regular business.