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Door staff@engadget.com (Dave Meikleham) - 01 Sep 2026
While we've looked at reasons 5K isn't worth the upgrade over 4K for gaming, there's a separate discussion about whether Ultra HD monitors are necessarily better than lower-resolution alternatives.
The key factors to evaluate how high-res your monitor should be are screen size and PPI (pixels per inch). As AV experts will tell you, PPI matters more than screen resolution. Just because you own a huge 4K or 5K monitor doesn't automatically mean it will look better or sharper than a smaller 1440p display. For example, a 42-inch 4K panel, which has a PPI of around 105, will actually look less crisp than a 122 PPI 24-inch 2K monitor.
It's all about hitting the pixel density sweet spot when buying one of the best monitors for your budget. For 4K monitors, you shouldn't consider a screen that's smaller than 27 inches, because onscreen text will look overly sharp. The same goes for 5K panels.
It's also worth considering the ultrawide option, such as UWQHD (also called 2K ultrawide). These stretched-out 21:9 displays boast a resolution of 3440 x 1440 and usually measure 29-34 inches. While that resolution provides only around 60 percent of a 4K panel's pixels, the aspect ratio makes it a better fit for productivity tasks compared to a standard 16:9 4K monitor.
Super ultrawide screens offer even more screen real estate, with some models like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 measuring 49 inches for its resolution of 5120 x 1440 (akin to having dual 1440p 16:9 screens). If your main priority with a monitor is to pair it with a workstation, rather than a gaming PC, a widescreen 4K panel (let alone 5K) isn't necessarily your best bet.
The key factors to evaluate how high-res your monitor should be are screen size and PPI (pixels per inch). As AV experts will tell you, PPI matters more than screen resolution. Just because you own a huge 4K or 5K monitor doesn't automatically mean it will look better or sharper than a smaller 1440p display. For example, a 42-inch 4K panel, which has a PPI of around 105, will actually look less crisp than a 122 PPI 24-inch 2K monitor.
It's all about hitting the pixel density sweet spot when buying one of the best monitors for your budget. For 4K monitors, you shouldn't consider a screen that's smaller than 27 inches, because onscreen text will look overly sharp. The same goes for 5K panels.
It's also worth considering the ultrawide option, such as UWQHD (also called 2K ultrawide). These stretched-out 21:9 displays boast a resolution of 3440 x 1440 and usually measure 29-34 inches. While that resolution provides only around 60 percent of a 4K panel's pixels, the aspect ratio makes it a better fit for productivity tasks compared to a standard 16:9 4K monitor.
Super ultrawide screens offer even more screen real estate, with some models like the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 measuring 49 inches for its resolution of 5120 x 1440 (akin to having dual 1440p 16:9 screens). If your main priority with a monitor is to pair it with a workstation, rather than a gaming PC, a widescreen 4K panel (let alone 5K) isn't necessarily your best bet.