32” 4K vs 32" 1440p - Which Is The Best For Mac? 

The Best Monitors for MAC: www.nilsoncreative.com/best-monitors-for-mac I made a list of the best monitors you can buy for Mac computers! You can check it out by clicking the link above. I will be adding more monitors over time! If you have any suggestions, let me know.

By far the best explanation I have found regarding 4K vs 1440p. Using the comparison images summed it all up. Thanks so much. I have been looking for a review like this for the last year.

This video was a perfect explanation with fantastic examples to demonstrate the differences in scaling. Well done and thank you!

Thanks - Been watching lots of these videos to decide on a screen rez for my M2 mac mini, and yours was the most straightforward and clear 👍

Dude. This is a great video. You answered every single question I've been asking in my head.

Very succinct and good comparisons with explanations.

Your explanation was incredible! Finally, I've decided that for my workflow a 4k monitor would better suit my needs. Thanks a lot!

I've been trying to figure out what monitor/resolution I should get and your explanation is by far the best I've found. Spent all day reading through other articles and watching other videos but you made a complex topic simple to understand. Thanks!

That was an amazing explanation, thanks man!!

Excellent video and information. And I've watched a lot on the subject.

Excellent presentation, with tons of information! Keep it up.

Thanks! Hands down the best showcase of this topic!

Thank you so much, I was setting up mine 4k and needed this so bad. 100% spot on

I agree with previous comment, definitely the best explanation of a very confusing subjet!, thanks for your time and information!

Best explanation I have seen regarding this issue in the internet!! Great work!1

Your explanation is so good and clear. Thank you !!

Finally someone summed it up for me! Thanks

Excellent review! Thanks!

Very helpful video. Thanks!

Finally, now I understand. Thank you for this video.

Dude... I'm so happy I found this video! I struggle to get my 1440p ViewSonic Monitor to work with my Macbook Pro. Now I know why I have so many problems. Thank you for this video.

Excellent!!. By far the best explanation I have found regarding 4K vs 1440p. Thank you.

Excellent explanation. My use case is exactly the same with yours. I go with the 4K option. Many thanks for your efforts.

appreciate this video...made a complicated topic easier to understand. i would like to see the memory usage between 1080p scaled vs 1440p scaled on the 4k monitor and comparing it to the native 1440p native monitor.

yeah thanks. it helps me alot to choose what to buy. thank you again

Thanks for the very hands-on and usable comparisons! can you link to which LG 4k 32" monitor you are using in the video? And can you recommend it in general?

Very useful information, because I am saving up to buy a MacStudio and I really need the proper monitor. Thanks for the clear explanation.

For the past 2 years I had constant overheating issues with my MacBook Pro 16 (2019). I have it connected to 32" 4K display and set to the 2nd last scaling option (3360x1890). Only now when I checked in the system report do I see that all this time I've actually been working with an almost a 7K resolution (6.7K). In fairness, when I work I don't have any issues. Only when I use parsec to connect to my Window PC (parsec screen set to 1080p) and play games, then I get extreme thermal throttling after 10 minutes. My mouse starts lagging with a 3 second delay even when switching tabs back to macOS. I have to point a desk fan directly to the back of the MacBook just for it not to overheat. Now when I set my resolution to native 4K and use parsec.... not a single issue. Who would have thought that setting the scaling to lower than 4k was actually doubling the internal screen resolution. I had no idea that my system was working with an almost 7k resolution under the hood for the past 2 years. FML. Thank you so much for this video.

Great breakdown!! Thanks for this video. Really helps me understand a lot more how Mac scaling works.

Thank you!!! Straight to the point, no bla bla bla explaining a thousand things. You nailed it 👍🏼

Thanks, I really need a comparison of the text at close range on a 2k monitor, but with the FullHD resolution set.

Best explanation I have run across. Thank you.

Greate video! Many thanks.

Great video! Thx

absolute best video on this topic. Everyone else just rambles on and on. Thanks, I'll buy a 4K monitor now

Please make a similar comparison for 27" monitors

Thank you. I bought an MSI 4k. Curved I can’t wait for it to get here. Just running contracts, spreadsheets, and reading,

2:19 and yet here I am using 28" 4K monitor in its full (native) resolution and super happy with it and all the realestate.

I've been looking for exactly this video. There are many "mac scaling issues" videos on youtube, but none which make such a good comparison or show so many examples of what the different scaling options look like in practice. Thank you very much for that! I was thinking of buying an LG 5k monitor which is 27" (but not as ridiculously overpriced as the one from Apple) because I was afraid of the scaling not working out well on anything that is not 5k. But after watching your video, I decided to buy a 4k 32" monitor from BenQ which costs the same but has so many more useful features and ports (and actually looks a lot better too). I have a M2 Max chip with maximum GPU cores, so any performance issues should be negligible...but I wanted to see what it will actually look like. Thank you for helping me with this choice 🙂

Best video so far. Could you make 27" 4K vs 32" 4K?

This is a very helpful video. I just got my first Mac, a 14" MBP M3 Pro 12/18 with 36gb ram, and hooked it up to my 38 and 34 inch ultrawides (3840x1600 and 3440x1440) and was very disappointed with the text clarity. It seems like a 32" 4K monitor would be a better experience.

Excellent explanation, well done. Do these rules apply to a 27 inch monitor?

The only thing that is missing in this video is a IRL photo comparison of how the pixel look and how the text look (if is too blurry in the 1440)

Great video

I'm working with macs for more than 20 years and I didn't know that... Thanks a lot.

Great video, what is your opinion about the LG 40WP95C-W monitor with a mac studio m2 pro?

Today I tested 4k monitor Samsung LS32BM700UPX with Mac M1 pro with the middle and the 4th resolution option and it was very readable at more than arms lenght while providing more lines of text than 1140p

Thanks for this video a lot of great and useful information, quick question, do you have any tutorial on color grading? Or which color profile to use for mac and this LG monitor so they look the same or almost the more accurate color? Thanks!

Awesome explanation, thank you. Finally I’ve bought 34” ultrawide and that’s basically good enough. However, better PPI is always better for sharpness.

I'm running a 32" 4k screen at native resolution (no scaling). It's similar to using the "More space" option on the MacBook in-built retina display. Initially it looked a bit small, but I quickly got used to it and now it doesn't bother me at all. I've also used a 27" 4k screen with scaling (Looks like 1440p), which still looked good, although obviously you lose some sharpness and screen real estate. Previously I had a 27" 1440p screen, which felt alright at the time, but once you've tried a 4k screen there's no going back to native 1440p.

absolut perfect explanation of scaling under macOS! thank you my friend!!

Great video. Super informative. But I still struggle to make my desicion on the matter.. I want a 27 monitor that I can use for work (work in e commerce) so image quality and sharpness is important. At the same time I want to be able to hook it up to my ps5 (so 144hz + is a must). 4K monitors with 144hz are still very expensive. What do you think man? Worth saving up? Or is 1440p IPS 144hz a great option for both work & ps5 gaming?

Very good video.

Well explained, now I understand better. Thanks! For me, when working on spreadsheets, based on your demo, I prefer 1080 resolution for a 4K monitor, where I will see less content, but at least I will clearly see the larger size numbers. I thought 5K monitors were the only option for Macs these days, but now I understand that it all depends on the power of your machine. In my case, I use a MacBook Pro m3 Pro and I expect it to provide the necessary power. Plus, I'll finally be able to justify the expensive M3 PRO chip I paid for.

nice video! right now im using 24 inch 1080p and the "space" is enough for me, but i want clearier image, and i was thinking about to get 27 inch 4k. so what i think is, when im happy with 1080p scaling, i will be happy with 4k too or not (without the need of performance loss /scaling)?

Thanks

Great, thanks! Now I'm definitely sure I'd prefer 4k monitor for mac and use it in 1080p mode

finally a reviewer that doesn't assume everyone wants a gaming monitor, thank you!

I have great results using a 32" Dell UltraSharp 4K monitor, scaled to 1440p with my M2 Mac Mini.

Great video, thank you! What about the refresh rate? Many of these 1440p displays can go up to 120 Hz or even passed that. But most of the 4k screens are capped at 60 Hz. Even if the 4k display (scaled to effective 1440p) is sharper, the smoothness of the 120 Hz of the native 1440p display might make up for that depending on personal preference.

I was looking at a Dell 4k 27" monitor. This video wouldn't apply to a smaller monitor in terms of scaling, correct?

Good explanation

Thanks for explaining. I've been looking for a solution myself since purchasing the M2 Mac Mini last month. I have a Q32QC Gigabyte monitor (1440p, VA). Everything seems to be ok, videos, photos, icons, etc. But the text in the browser, in Excel, Word, basically everywhere, is so terrible that I can no longer control myself. And the view could be bright. Out of desperation, I even thought about Apple Display, but I prefer 32 and the price is killing me. To sum up, what monitor 32 will not destroy my eyesight in fonts? Working on MS Office, www and that's it.

Great video, of the ones I've seen on this thema I think it's the best. However, I still can't find a solution, so I would like to ask your opinion: I am an architect and I work with ArchiCAD, lumion/Twinmotion (Rendering) and little Photoshop. I would like a screen with good resolution but most of all efficient. Leaving aside 5k (too expensive) can 2k be a good idea? or better to opt for 4k? (I work with apple system) Thank you in advance and regards

what a good video !

Amazing explanation, I have one questions though When I want to watch a movie/show at 4k will it run at 4k or 1440p? if I am using a 4k 27 inch monitor scaled to 1440p like you said in the video

Been using both M1 and Intel MacBook, I can say that there's no noticeable change in performance with scaled resolution, and I use weird scaled resolution on my 4k monitor.

Hi, thank you very much for your explanation. I've a old 27" Imac which I'm using with the newer M1 14" MBP as a Monitor and have a Dell Latitude 5520 for Work, now I would like to buy a Monitor which will work with both machines..what would be here the sweetspot in size and resolution? Thank you very much..

Great explanation, but not the results I was hoping for. I've been using a 4k monitor scaled at 1440p, and everything works great, except Photoshop. For whatever reason Photoshop doesn't scale, so since the actual resolution is scaled to 5k (as you explained), Photoshop displays at 5k, or at least the resolution of the image does. I've never understood why an image that had a greater resolution than my monitor would be smaller at 100%, but this appears to be why. I was hoping maybe switching to a 1440p monitor would be the answer since I'd be at it's native resolution, but you've pointed out that might not be the way to go. That said, I realize if I simply view an image at 150% rather than 100%, I'll get the correct view, and it's still the same image being displayed over the same amount of pixels I would at 4k.

I appreciate your suggestions from this video. I now realize that a 32" 1440p with USB C is far more important to me than my need to have a 4k monitor. Thus I'm buying a 1440p since the 4k 32" options with USB C are way out of my price range at this time. Keep up the good work.

Honestly I use the 1692 setting on my 4k 32 inch monitor and its plenty sharp and solid for me. Text looks much better and I have more space than a native 1440p monitor. Also I dont think using native 4k is truly out of the question. If you work close to the monitor and are comfortable using hotkeys to adjust scaling for websites and text you can make it work. That is too much effort for some people but some people prioritize that clarity and screen space. This is such a contentious topic and its hard to help people make a choice because so many people are throwing out their own personal preferences as the truth. Its hard to make a choice unless you see them in person but I highly recommend people not listen to all the people complaining about 4k on mac and give it a try first. I am 100% sure and happy with my choice.

I have a 27" 4k monitor at 2048x1152 (HiDPI) scaled with the app BetterDisplay. Very sharp text, Retina display for my eyes, no problem whatsoever.

My testing shows a less than desired sharpness when using scaled resolution on a 4K monitor in comparison to running at native resolution or half of native resolution, i.e., 1920x1080 on a 4K (3840x2160) monitor. However, at 1920x1080, everything on the screen appears too large on a 27 inch or larger monitor. Utilizing a 2K monitor may be the best bet for the Mac if it is desired to use a 27 inch monitor and cost is a consideration. I use the 24 inch LG Ultrafine 4K monitor as a second monitor operating at 1920x1080. Text is as sharp as the text that appears on my 27 inch 2019 iMac and font and window size are very reasonable in comparison to what would appear on a 27 inch monitor operating at the same resolution. Bottom line: Macs are made for 5K monitors when the monitor size is 27 inches. Everything else is a compromise.

Hi Nilson, thanks for the informative video. So in my case (mid 2014 MBP 15 inch retina with max. 2560x1440 at 60hz) what would be better: a 4 K 32 Inch (LG UltraFine 32UN880 = yours?) or 4k 27 Inch. I tend to go bigger but... obrigado

Just wondering, is there any changes in macOS Sonoma? I’ve heard that they improved rendering UI on various external monitors But I don’t have 32” 4k under my hand to test

I really wish there was a video like this but for Windows 11 and PC space. I have both a mac and PC and I can't decide between a 2K or 4K 27" monitor for gaming and game development.

hi @nilsoncreative , which is better - flat or curved?

Hey, what about FPS for these monitors? I'm looking for LG Ergo 32" 4K, but if use scaling to 2k, will it be more than 60fps?

Hi I’m planning to buy same 32” 1440p with 93ppi will be using with Mac Mini M2.. Will be particularly using for TradingView.. So will the text/lines be blurry??

What the plant holder thing you have? I'm looking for something similar in my own setup :)

What did you do to colour calibrate and setup the 1440p external monitor

I bought the 4K one few days ago for $800 is processing , I was wondering comes within Mic on the monitor or not

I have a 4K monitor (27") and was thinking of getting a secondary monitor 27" 1440p (to save on cost) - from your experience would this setup cause any major 'issues'? I'd use the second screen to 'place' windows etc that I need to refer to but would obviously use the 4K as the primary screen. Thank you.

The performance issues are actually not a concern at all. Apple adds that message for legal reasons since the system is working slightly harder. For most modern systems however it’s less than a 1% performance change when others have actually tested it. Some really old systems might see small hit but that should be very rare. Keep in mind Apple by default uses scaling now on their laptops and they still perform perfectly. I have two 32” 4K displays and both are run at 3000 (6000) retina wide scaled mode which is the optimal DPI for that size and they work exceptionally.

So if use a 1440p monitor and you use it at native resolution you'll get some performance issues anyway??

The concern about performance hit when using scaled resolution is valid when you are using Intel hardware. But it's totally fine when you are using Apple Silicon-based machine (except the lowest M1, you might see some occasional hiccup with that)

Thank you for this video. I am confused about what thing, as a video editor, if i shoot in 4k and want to view video playback in 4k on my 4k monitor, is that possible? I'm confused about what the displayed resolution is vs. UI interface display. How do i get a 4k monitor to display 4k video in.... 4k, without it looking super small. Thanks!

Can someone recommend best 27" Monitor for Mac Studio Silicon under $1,000? Cheers!

Do you know if I scale it my 4k monitor to 1440 will that affect the 4k resolution? The reason I bought a 4k was to match higher resolution videos and edit photos in 4k. Thanks

Hello, great video! Can you please advise if a 32 inch 4K or 34 inch ultra wide is better for MacBook Pro?

For macOS I think 4K at 24 inch would be the best, such as the LG ultrafine 24. It's a shame that they don't produce them anymore.

great content Nilson.. how about 24 inch 2k monitor ? will it scale better at default 1440p with my m2 air macbook. ? i dont like large displays. i had tried 22 inch 1080p but didnt like the text clarity and low resolution to work on. what do you suggest pls ?

Mac scaling was an issue back in the Intel days, but nowadays, with the Apple Silicon chips, the difference if marginal, maybe 1% slower at most.

I am on a M1 Mac Mini and using ASUS ProArt Display PA279CV 27 inch 4K, which resolution is best for me?

4K 28” is perfect for me. 144Hz of course. Connected using a high speed USB-C cable. Which also charges the laptop. Keyboard and mouse connected to monitor’s USB hub. Plug one USB-C cable and everything works.

4k at 1080 it is just my tired eyes!! Thanks a lot for the video, it really helped me!!

What is the model number of the 32 inch 1440p LG monitor you showed here? I’m having trouble finding it

What are the names of the 2 monitors? Cant seem to find

I use the Apple Pro XDR. It’s perfect for Davinci Resolve

can anybody tell me why a og year or 2 years after and one that came out 10 years after doesn't look much different in quality im asking for 1080 1440p and 4k tv-monitor,cause phones show a difference in quality from years spread like that