What kind of monitor is the easiest load on a 27" 2019 iMac?

[Turnpike]

My daily computer (12+ hours a day) is a 2019 27" iMac i5 nothing special, but with 64GB of RAM.

I'd like to have a second monitor just so I can have an original document open to glance at now and then, so it's not about gaming, etc and it can be anywhere from 19" and up, what types of monitor, or what should I focus on to make sure the monitor is the least amount of strain on the iMac? Smaller screen, less resolution, older more pixelated display, etc....? I can be very forgiving for the second monitor, I just don't want the iMac to work any harder than it has to. I have a bunch of extra monitors around here from over the last 10 years, what specifically should I focus on so that the iMac isn't working any harder.

Some time ago I used a second monitor on another similar iMac (with less RAM) and it seemed to slow it down or cause a bit of lag with the web pages. Not sure if those things were related, but if there's a type of monitor that's especially light on an iMac, that's what I'm looking to know.

Thanks!

 

[salamanderjuice]

My daily computer (12+ hours a day) is a 2019 27" iMac i5 nothing special, but with 64GB of RAM.

I'd like to have a second monitor just so I can have an original document open to glance at now and then, so it's not about gaming, etc and it can be anywhere from 19" and up, what types of monitor, or what should I focus on to make sure the monitor is the least amount of strain on the iMac? Smaller screen, less resolution, older more pixelated display, etc....? I can be very forgiving for the second monitor, I just don't want the iMac to work any harder than it has to. I have a bunch of extra monitors around here from over the last 10 years, what specifically should I focus on so that the iMac isn't working any harder.

Some time ago I used a second monitor on another similar iMac (with less RAM) and it seemed to slow it down or cause a bit of lag with the web pages. Not sure if those things were related, but if there's a type of monitor that's especially light on an iMac, that's what I'm looking to know.

Thanks!

Less resolution. I bet you won't notice anything with a cheapo 1080p monitor or a 1440p one. How well the monitor runs depends on your GPU. With MacOS running a retina monitor at certain "looks like" resolutions requires doing twice the "looks like" resolution and scaling down which can be a drag on older/crummy GPUs. I would see lag at certain looks like resolutions with a 4K monitor with my 2018 Mac Mini but that had a garbage Intel integrated card.

 

[BeatCrazy]

My daily computer (12+ hours a day) is a 2019 27" iMac i5 nothing special, but with 64GB of RAM.

I'd like to have a second monitor just so I can have an original document open to glance at now and then, so it's not about gaming, etc and it can be anywhere from 19" and up, what types of monitor, or what should I focus on to make sure the monitor is the least amount of strain on the iMac? Smaller screen, less resolution, older more pixelated display, etc....? I can be very forgiving for the second monitor, I just don't want the iMac to work any harder than it has to. I have a bunch of extra monitors around here from over the last 10 years, what specifically should I focus on so that the iMac isn't working any harder.

Some time ago I used a second monitor on another similar iMac (with less RAM) and it seemed to slow it down or cause a bit of lag with the web pages. Not sure if those things were related, but if there's a type of monitor that's especially light on an iMac, that's what I'm looking to know.

Thanks!

You will be fine (best?) with 2560x1440. Scaling will be perfect/native, so easiest for macOS. You should be able to find several inexpensive 27" monitors with this resolution. You only need 60Hz refresh.

 

[pshufd]

A used 2019 or 2020 iMac 27 or an iMac Pro. Tie them together with Universal Control and set up a share for your files so that you can access files from either iMac. You double (or better) your overall CPU and don't add any strain on the GPU.

 

[Nguyen Duc Hieu]

My daily computer (12+ hours a day) is a 2019 27" iMac i5 nothing special, but with 64GB of RAM.

I'd like to have a second monitor just so I can have an original document open to glance at now and then, so it's not about gaming, etc and it can be anywhere from 19" and up, what types of monitor, or what should I focus on to make sure the monitor is the least amount of strain on the iMac? Smaller screen, less resolution, older more pixelated display, etc....? I can be very forgiving for the second monitor, I just don't want the iMac to work any harder than it has to. I have a bunch of extra monitors around here from over the last 10 years, what specifically should I focus on so that the iMac isn't working any harder.

Some time ago I used a second monitor on another similar iMac (with less RAM) and it seemed to slow it down or cause a bit of lag with the web pages. Not sure if those things were related, but if there's a type of monitor that's especially light on an iMac, that's what I'm looking to know.

Thanks!

You iMac 2019 has AMD RX570x 4GB I guess...
It can drive another 4k display, but for displaying documents, I guess you just need a 1080p display or lower resolution TFT display which you might already have in your stock. Size doesn't affect the performance, only resolution and refresh rate do.
An adapter or cable (USB-C to HDMI/DP/D-SUB) might be needed to connect between the iMac and the display, depending on what type of input port it has.