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Monitor choice 4k

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willie45

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 27, 2007
234
5
Hi,

I’m getting into video editing and I’d like to buy a 4k monitor but I understand these are problematic on Macs due to the issues with scaling. Is it true that fonts look way too small on the screens?

I’m pretty old and now have to wear glasses and I peer at monitors even now.

I was hoping to get a 27” screen but I have been told that this would be even worse and that 32” is the smallest I can use.

I have also been told that software companies have been introducing ways of making their fonts bigger to resolve his issue but to be honest I haven’t noticed this option on the software I own. I use Capture One and and now about to try out Final Cut Pro X.

What is your experience and/or advice please?
 
willie45 said:
Hi,

I’m getting into video editing and I’d like to buy a 4k monitor but I understand these are problematic on Macs due to the issues with scaling. Is it true that fonts look way too small on the screens?

I’m pretty old and now have to wear glasses and I peer at monitors even now.

I was hoping to get a 27” screen but I have been told that this would be even worse and that 32” is the smallest I can use.

I have also been told that software companies have been introducing ways of making their fonts bigger to resolve his issue but to be honest I haven’t noticed this option on the software I own. I use Capture One and and now about to try out Final Cut Pro X.

What is your experience and/or advice please?
Click to expand...
I have not had many issues with a 27" 4K even though I am older. But my eyesight at the monitor range is pretty good.
You can always tell the mac to scale things up, and it does a good job with that. And 4K also means elements like text are very crisp because there are more pixels used to draw each character. Most of my usages is browsers, Office 365, Adobe Suite, and code editors.
 
willie45 said:
Hi,

I’m getting into video editing and I’d like to buy a 4k monitor but I understand these are problematic on Macs due to the issues with scaling. Is it true that fonts look way too small on the screens?

I’m pretty old and now have to wear glasses and I peer at monitors even now.

I was hoping to get a 27” screen but I have been told that this would be even worse and that 32” is the smallest I can use.

I have also been told that software companies have been introducing ways of making their fonts bigger to resolve his issue but to be honest I haven’t noticed this option on the software I own. I use Capture One and and now about to try out Final Cut Pro X.

What is your experience and/or advice please?
Click to expand...
No problem if your eyesight is normal, but it is true that Apple doesn't have much to offer in terms of customization for anything but 2K resolution. They are a phone company, after all.

I use 2 x 69.85 cm @ 3840 × 2160 px² (America: 27.5 inches, United Kingdom: 3.47 millifurlongs).
 
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It is not true that fonts look way too small on the screens.

It sounds like a 27" 4K monitor will be perfect for your eyesight. The standard retina setting (most monitors I have worked on have gone to this setting by default, one I had to change from the full 4K) should give "looks like 1920x1080" pixel doubled to give a much clearer image than a 1080p monitor that would have the same size text. There will be scaling options that can make things bigger or smaller to suit the vision/workspace trade off. Scaled options will not be quite as sharp as pixel doubled, but much better than a lower resolution monitor.

My eyes are not as good as they were, but I use a 27" 4K monitor set to "looks like 2560x1440". If I'm tired or ill, I sometimes set it to "looks like 1920x1080" to be easier on my eyes and it is plenty large enough.
 
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What @Moonjumper said - I also have a 27" 4K, I use it pixel doubled most of the time at "looks like 1920x1080", but sometimes "looks like 2560x1440". I am 50, I have prescription glasses for far and near, +0.75 and -1.00, but I don't wear glasses when working on the computer, and I prefer the larger "looks like 1920x1080".
 
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Another vote for "looks like 1920 x 1080" on a 27" 4k. Note: If you find the desktop icons and text to be a little large at that resolution you can shrink them using the view options settings. I shrank mine to 48x48 and text to 12 pt.; just perfect.
 
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I have a 43" LG 4K display. This works just fine in 4K 100% zoom (although Apple seems to think that it needs 200% zoom as standard, I had to disable the recommended zoom and manually set it to the smallest available setting).

It is also HDR and looks really great, although it does seem to cause problems when the Mac has been to sleep / has slept the screen, when it turns back on every thing is washed out. I have to switch inputs back and forth (E.g. USB-C to DisplayPort (my other PC is connected on it, but turned off), when I then switch back to USB-C, the HDR is back to its proper colors. Apart from that, I'm very happy with the combination.
 
Thanks everyone. I had heard that there were issues with scaling etc and then I asked on a photosite and got confused by all the tech information people gave me ( I'm a bit dim ) Is is the case that if I kept a 4k monitor at native resolution, text would be rendered larger thank with a 27" monitor at native?

I'm leaning to a 32" monitor so that I can see things better and I was told the Apple scaling down ( looks like etc ) looked better with 24" and 32" if editing at pictures at 100% but I'm questioning if that information was reliable now.
 
To complicate things a little, I have now been told by work I can take my 27" iMac with me when I leave at the end of this month. I am assuming the iMac screen will be at least as good as any 4k monitor I could buy. Is this assumption correct or wrong? If correct, there's little point in me buying an expensive screen for the mini.

Does this reasoning make sense?
 
It's a 20175k.
Screenshot 2021-12-18 at 15.49.00.png
 
These are the specs. Made a bit of a mess of attaching though. Sorry :oops:?

I was looking at a 32" LG UN880 and I wonder how it will compare.

I have the iMac now anyway. It was pretty much a freebie so ......
 
I think I missed what kind of Mac Mini you have?

I have a 2018 i7 with 2x 32" 4k - but I never edit videos. I know that the M1 Minis can edit decently - but that 2017 iMac isn't too bad either - the GPU is looking decent.

I mean, if you can get that, you can try it out.
 
Another option would be a 34“ ultra-wide Monitor with 3440x1440. The pixels have a nice size, so text is far better readable than on standard monitors (disclaimer: My eyesight is also growing worse and switching to a 34” UW myself about 3 years ago was one of the best IT-related decisions for quite some time).

And compared to 27” or bigger monitors, the physical height is lower, making it easier to keep the overview and sit a bit closer to the monitor (if required), without getting neck strain from constantly looking upwards.

If you want to pay a bit more, you can even get Thunderbolt-enabled devices, which is not that common on standard monitors.

Beware: At that size you’d definitely want a “curved” display, to avoid eye fatigue due to constantly refocusing between middle and corners of the display! Mine is 1800R (==> “A circle with a radius of 1800mm”. The smaller the number, the higher the curvature) and despite some criticism by other users, in my opinion that’s a fine radius. 2.200R or even 2.500R are too flat imho. And the eyes quickly adapt, so you don’t have problems with “straight lines not being straight”, as people claim, who probably never used such a monitor for more than a few minutes.
 
I have a 28" 4K Samsung and 4K looks beautiful but I have to sit like 3 inches from the screen to really read it comfortably heh. I just turned 46, just got my first pair of progressives this year, but my eyesight is still pretty good (a little near sighted is about it), and after about 20 minutes its just too small for me. I use it scaled to 2K (looks like 2560x1440) and thats about perfect.

Keep in mind, a Mac mini with the built in Intel GPU is going to take a performance hit scaling a 4K monitor to anything other than 1080p. I just got an eGPU this week and threw my Radeon RX570 in it and I couldn't believe how much it made the OS itself 'wake up' and start moving fluidly finally. Not to mention my DAW apps, Ableton Live/Cubase Pro/Logic Pro, the CPU itself dropped up to 20% in a few projects after moving to a 'real' video card.
 
Monotremata said:
Keep in mind, a Mac mini with the built in Intel GPU is going to take a performance hit scaling a 4K monitor to anything other than 1080p.
Click to expand...
Even with 1080p on a 4K monitor, the iGPU of the 2018 mini can go up to 100% load easily, as soon as anything 3D is involved. That’s one major grief making me impatiently wait for a an AppleSilicon desktop with more than 16GB …
 
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Found out the problem with my monitor, in case anyone else is having similar problems.

When the Mac wakes from sleep or turns the video card back on (on, but no interaction for a while), it checks to see if HDR is supported (by the look of it). If the monitor is still in stand-by, it drops back to SDR mode and everything looks washed out.

If I manually wake up the monitor/wait for the monitor to go through its POST and light up the display, before waking the Mac or pressing a key to kickstart the video card, it works fine, it registers the monitors HDR capabilities and everything is good.

Annoying, but now I've gotten to the bottom of the problem, I can live with it.
 
Hi my mini specs are: 2018 mini i7 with 32Gb RAM and an eGPU using a Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card. I'm assuming this should be plenty of power to run a 4K 32"?
 
willie45 said:
Hi my mini specs are: 2018 mini i7 with 32Gb RAM and an eGPU using a Sapphire Radeon RX 580 Pulse 8192MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card. I'm assuming this should be plenty of power to run a 4K 32"?
Click to expand...
The Mini itself is perfectly capable of running 3 x 4K screens, including movies (hardware decoder). The external graphics card will be useful for gaming and advanced rendering of other sorts.
 
macdos said:
The Mini itself is perfectly capable of running 3 x 4K screens, including movies (hardware decoder). The external graphics card will be useful for gaming and advanced rendering of other sorts.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I'm still toying with my options. If I went for a dual monitor set up would this be better for video editing?

I have another monitor at home and this would let me run the iMac and connect the other ( 24" 1920 x 1080 ) screen externally. Would this mean I would need to run my iMac at 1920 x 1080 too or can I run both at different resolutions? Would there be a disadvantage to using two such different monitors?
 
In case anyone's interested, I went with the LG 32 UN880 and I am pretty happy with it. The text is a little small at 3840 x 2160 but it's manageable for times I want to have it there. It looks really great at 2560 x 1440. Thank you all for your help.

I started another thread for clarification on this youtube video which confused me as I'm still not 100% sure about what he says.
 
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I have found the monitor to be great generally but I'm noticing a small "buzzing" type sound when I move items on my desktop. Its only there when I drag with the trackpad and I'm not sure if its an issue with the eGPU, a cable or what. Is this something anyone has heard of happening? I will try and isolate issue this weekend but if anyone has advice I'd be grateful.

Thank you
 
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