I’ve been using my 4K monitor for a few months now and it’s changed the way I work and interact with the computer. It isn’t without some challenges. If you are accustomed to a 60hz monitor (a monitor which can refresh the screen 60 times per second) and you switch back to 30hz you’re going to feel like there’s some lag in the mouse. The technology is moving in the direction of higher frame rates as HDMI standards start to catch up with the screens but for the average user, those advances are expensive and difficult to work with. Most shows and movies are presented in 30hz so you wont notice any difference when watching movies and the 4K makes for a really stunning picture quality.
Having the mouse lag took some getting used to but it hasn’t had a major impact on my productivity and I’ve been writing software and doing 3D modeling without any major problems. When I want to play a game I switch back to 1080p to give my graphics hardware some room to breath and to get the increased frame rates that are so critical to gaming. To switch between modes follow these steps:
- Right click on a blank area of the desktop and select Screen Resolution.
- You’ll need to change Resolution down to 1920 x 1080 in order to access the higher refresh rates. Windows knows enough to limit your selections in the next step.
- Before applying the new settings chose “Advanced settings” to get the following dialog
- Select the 60 Hertz from the drop down and hit apply. All your changes will go into effect.
- To change back to 4K just do step 1 and 2 but select the 4K resolution. The hertz will automatically set to 30 hertz.
