Buyer’s Guide 4K monitors: hardware top, software flop – Spiegel Online

I think I have made a mistake. Last week I bought a 4K monitor, with UHD resolution, which stands for Ultra High Definition 3840 x 2160 pixels at 71 inches screen size. That’s three times more pixels than a normal HD monitor. Instead of 16.7 million colors, like any other screen, my new device can be up to one billion Show. Within a thousandth of a second an image is constructed. And all testers say: What a beautiful picture!

The Monitor is not even expensive: 450 Euros are for a UHD model a bargain. But alas, I was naive. I wanted fast, colorful, many pixels, a new, shiny workhorse. And I had the iron rule of thumb to consider when buying hardware: Never buy a unit of the first generation

Even the cable purchase was a farce.. For a whole week I was in search of a cable that’s good enough for my monitor. But no electrical trade as led a string. Instead, I tried ignorant salesperson and -verkäuferinnen disabled, but expensive junk goods to rotate. The cable that I finally let me send over the Internet, cost 20 euros for two meters. But still, it works

The large, high-resolution chaos

The commissioning of the monitor was then quite simple:. Plugging. Turned on. Works. But many programs and Windows 8.1 can not cope with the many, closely packed pixels 4K my monitor. They make the image appears sharp, but a lot also tiny Icons and graphics in my case only a quarter as large as on the old screen. Although

Windows has an automatic magnification function, but that works only with correspondingly adapted programs. And these are currently too few: the result is a completely chaotic desktop with huge menus and tiny icons, fonts and faded into each other tumbling program interfaces. Can work really is not so. Right absurd it is when you connect a second display with lower resolution. Then Windows gets completely out of hand.

Subsequent costs

Unfortunately, Microsoft will not fix this problem in Windows 8. But it is also due to the software developers to make their applications for high-resolution monitors fit. Unfortunately, some companies take advantage of the offer and 4K functionality only in the form of paid update. To purchase the monitor draws consequential costs.

But not only due to poorly adapted software, a 4K monitor in retrospect be really expensive. To create a 4K image, he needs a current, fast graphics card with lots of video memory and a modern DisplayPort connector. Who wants to play today’s hottest games needs a video card or must choose a low resolution in the game.

Conclusion

Extremely high resolution monitors are the future. Anyone who has ever used to it, do not want to go back. Text and images are crisp and sharp, as long as they are adapted to the high resolution. But still, it is my opinion too early to upgrade – probably much too soon. Probably Windows will support the new 4K technology only in version 10 right that should appear the end of 2015.

Until then, the purchase of a 4K monitor for Windows users is not worth it. Mac users have it any better. My experience: 4K monitors are great, but make too much trouble

Tips for buying 4K monitors.

If you want to buy a 4K monitor, you should note the following:

• A mandatory requirement is a graphics card with DisplayPort 1.2 connection and a cable that supports high resolution, 1080p and 1600p are not enough. Attention, there are two types of connectors: DisplayPort and Mini DisplayPort
• 4K monitors need a fast graphics card, the high bit rate 2 (HBR2) or Multi-Stream Transport support
• Who in.. 4K want to play, you need a video card with three gigabytes of video memory, but it can disable antialiasing for anti-aliasing. Older games run with a gigabyte of video memory still good
• care when buying monitor. Very cheap monitors often have a so-called TN panel that displays only in a very limited viewing angle good colors. Other monitors only support a refresh rate of 30 Hz. Of these, one should stay away

Against the everyday complaints with 4K help these two software tricks:

• Windows 8.1 has an automatic zoom function for programs and applications on high-resolution displays. Some programs have greatly faded. By right-clicking on a program icon you can disable the automatic adjustment of such programs in Properties / Compatibility / scaling on high DPI value .
• If you use the automatic adjustment is worthwhile the installation of high-resolution mouse pointer.