In the last few years 4K tv We have cultivated the market with many features and technologies that made them almost attractive. NS 4K TV perfect for games Offering high refresh rate and adaptive synchronization technology, Game monitorHowever, the wide color gamut and staggering peak brightness levels of these TVs’ HDRs are embarrassing for most gaming monitors. LG UltraGear 38GN950..
Some game monitors borrow TV technologies such as 10-bit color depth and full-array local dimming, but these “monitors” are the same size as competing TVs. And while smaller monitors boast HDR specifications that compete with TVs, they often cost as much or more than those TVs. This allows PC gamers who want to pickle the best visuals on their desk to stick to a small monitor without the latest TV technology, pay a big screen price for a small monitor, or just get bigger. .. But how practical is it really to use a TV-sized display as a PC game monitor? We decided to find a difficult way.
setup
I didn’t want the experimental results to be distorted for a large display with poor panel and feature selection, so I chose the 55-inch LG CX OLED TV and got one of the most attractive and big game screens. .. market. The display offers a variable refresh rate of 120Hz at 4K, with a wide color gamut, high peak brightness, and a contrast ratio not found on game monitors. This left its size as the main variable for how well it worked in the setup.
I mounted the LG CX on a 52-inch wide desk and occupied almost the entire width, but there was space in front of the display for a desk-sized mouse pad for the mouse and keyboard. This is a warning flag for some people. Not all desks can hold such a large display.
It is also difficult to set up a desk space with such a large display. Reaching out to the back of such a large display to connect an HDMI cable or wiring a USB cable for peripherals is not easy. And, of course, lifting the TV on a desk can be difficult in itself. If you change the situation regularly in the setup, it will be difficult if the screen is large.
With the TV installed, I could use a gaming PC sitting near my desk, or lay my chair back and play at a distance. The focus here is not on the sofa game, but on how well a large display can work instead of a game monitor, but it’s worth noting that it can be played remotely.
experience
The presence of the 55-inch display on our desk was almost immediately overwhelmed and took some time to get used to. It effectively fills most of our horizons. 34 inches Ultra wide gaming monitor It may look pretty vast, but it’s inferior to the scale of a 55-inch TV sitting at the same distance from our eyes.
As a workspace, it’s almost magical. You can’t miss the ability to move windows almost anywhere and fit well on the display at once. However, we soon realized that the shortcomings were added together.
4K is farther away
For one thing, the highly acclaimed 4K resolution, which is widespread on television, doesn’t quite hold up from normal desk viewing distances. Looking at things, a 55-inch 4K TV resembles four 27-inch 1080p monitors, but this isn’t a top priority for sharpness. Even with uniform arm lengths, the individual pixels were clearly visible enough. This isn’t too much of a problem with a 48-inch display or a 43-inch like the gigabyte Aorus FV43U. But even with a 43-inch display, we’re seeing a pixel density of 102 PPI, which is less than the classic 27-inch 1440p monitor for PC games.
Its ability to peek into pixels at a detailed level also has a negative impact on the gaming experience. Lots of moving graphics can help distract each pixel, but it’s still noticeable when you stop watching the details of the game. If you don’t see the jagged edges due to weak antialiasing, you can’t support this.
Bright for our eyesight
It doesn’t knock on the wider color gamut, but the high peak brightness of the big screen is another experience up close. The LG CX isn’t the brightest TV available, as the QLED TV focuses on the contrast ratio, which does more to peak brightness, but the display is a lot of VESA on the market. Much brighter than the Display HDR 400 monitor. .. The LG CX isn’t the brightest, but it can strain the eyes and even reduce the level of brightness. This definitely helped usability.
However, limiting the brightness may defeat the purpose. Brightness is the main thing that small PC monitors lag behind (besides size, of course). See how few monitors are smaller than 43 inches. Display HDR1000 certified.. The reason to buy a large capacity display for PC game setup is to enjoy higher peak brightness, but if the actual brightness is so high that you need to lower it, you really want that big display Does it make sense to buy?
Differences in framing of things
But not everything is bad. We found some perks in the huge size of the display. When playing the archer, the area of Scopefire was so large that it was incredibly easy to find the target and pin it to the crosshairs. What might have been a 2X scope gave us the viability of a 4X scope. Similarly, distant details were easy to recognize. That said, the size of the display also meant that parts of the scene were exposed to the peripheral vision, making it difficult to see those bits in the heat of the moment.
The experience was almost VR-like, as our horizons were so full, but it was like inducing motion sickness. The animation that brought about many camera movements was dazzling.
However, there are some options for fine-tuning the display. If the entire range of the display is useful in some games and gets in the way in others, you don’t need to use the entire display. It is possible to output video with a resolution and aspect ratio that is different from the native specifications of the display, such as going to the 21: 9 or 32: 9 area. This allows you to take full advantage of the width of your display without having to stretch too much into the vertical area, which can be much cheaper than ultra-wide options like the Samsung Odyssey G9. It’s a letterbox, but on premium displays with high contrast ratios and local dimming, these black bars can be less distracting (or black on OLED displays like the LG CX). increase).
Is it practical or worth it?
It was an interesting experiment, but the intimate and personal nature of the game made the TV-sized display feel more ridiculous than anything else. In some cases it proved useful, it wasn’t really achieved. For example, setting a bunch of working windows was still constrained by the reality of low sharpness and ergonomically close to the center of only one or two of them. It also shows that the screen is too large when run with different aspect ratios and resolutions.
Price is also included in the practicality equation. Larger displays that offer high-end features tend to be more expensive. Gigabyte’s Aorus FV43U is small and costs $ 1,100 (£ 1,000 / AU $ 1,699), but our review found it still too big to use up close. NS The best gaming tv Don’t get cheaper.
This does not mean that you cannot go to the big screen to enjoy PC games. If you’re setting up a gaming PC in your living room, or if you plan to play at some distance, it can be a great setup. But for traditional PC games at the desk, it’s better to wait for some of these premium features to finally hit the game monitor market. TV set.
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