I'm spending more time moving my desk and monitors around than I am playing games at the moment. I have a 30" 2560x1600 60hz monitor as well as a 24" 1080p 144hz freesync monitor but don't know which to use most of the time. Twitchy online shooter is an easy choice. But everything else is a compromise. I sit the 30" at about the same distance (arms length?) as the 24", but find it a bit overwhelming and in most cases makes me less accurate in games because my head is having to move more to see all the information. I could move the 30" back to a more comfortable distance...but then what is the point of a larger monitor with bigger resolution if I'm just going to move it further back? Wouldn't the experience of a smaller monitor closer to your face be similar to a larger monitor further away? The other factor is that I sit with my arms resting on the desk so whichever monitor I use tends to sit quite close to the back of the desk to allow space for my arms plus keyboard and mouse. Do most people rest their arms on the desk? TL/DR For gaming only - What is the point of a larger size, larger resolution monitor if you can just sit closer to a smaller size, but better gaming (features wise) monitor?
Immersion, I like my face full of screen, I have a 43inch 4k, ~70cms from my face, awesome, I manage to see the whole screen, never have an issue. It is on an arm, when I am racing I actually pull it much closer. A 24/27" is like watching stuff through a letter box, rubbish IMO. If you game with your phone 2 inches from your face, is the experience as good as doing it on a 24" monitor....no it isn't, well unless VR optics are involved, but that is something else entirely I don't find myself moving my head, my eyes seem to move quite well, are yours broken, do you not have peripheral vision>?
No, 'cos you have to take into account dot pitch (pixel size, effectively.) A 1080p monitor further away will look smoother than the same 1080p monitor closer to you, 'cos you can't see the individual pixels. The closer a monitor gets to you, the higher resolution it has to be - which is why TVs are low resolution but massive, PC monitors are medium resolution and medium size, and phones which you use reet up against your fizzog like are stupid-high resolution and tiny. So, you'll get a better viewing experience from the larger display further away than the smaller display up close, all things being equal. When the larger display is higher resolution, that goes double - but you won't see as much benefit as going to a higher resolution display at the same distance. Further away is also better for your eyes, with less strain. Depending on how much higher the resolution is, though, you might need to scale things up so you're not peering all the time. Dunno about anyone else, but my chair has armrests which I use.
Thanks Sandys. I understand the point about immersion, but I'm not that keen to increase immersion at the expense of how well I play. Maybe I need to suck it up and get used to it! Gareth - thanks for the explanation. I'm not sure where that leaves me however. Larger screen can be moved further away and improve viewing experience, but the larger resolution being better suited closer to my face. Armrests! Hadn't thought of that as I have a cheap office chair with non-adjustable arms.
Get yourself an articulated monitor arm and you can have it up-close and personal like for detail work but still swing it back for gaming. Also frees up desk space for clutter (or arms). Heck, get two - or a dual monitor version, which is annoyingly the same price as two individual arms - and you can have both the 24" and 30" running at the same time, switching betwix the two depending on what you're doing.
Yup I have an articulated arm that I push back for work, pull forward for certain games but then I do sit back the so I suppose distance to screen does not change, Its fair to say I play racing games and RTS, with racing I am used to looking as you do that driving and screen is moved to be in my faces, with RTS having the resolution and big play area means I can look at tonnes of stuff and not have cluttered GUI and well work is work, I just need to get lots of CAD stuff on screen. With RTS and work monitor is up against wall on desk mount articulated arm pushed right back, my arms rest on desk which is 80cm deep, keyboard sits ~20cm in.
Gaming while resting on armrests? Nope... the firefights are 24-7 to intense :0 Blk ops 4 nuke town madness o_0
I rest my arms on the desk too. It's far more comfortable - probably because that's what I've always done... I have both a 27" 1440P and 24" 1080P monitor. Both of them sit approx. 50 to 75cm from me, and are great that way. I cannot stand them any closer. It's all down to personal preference at the end of the day. I cannot stand the 60Hz refresh on my 1080P panel for gaming, though. Everything is on my 1440P panel unless it's chat/browsing in the background.
