It's a strange time for monitors. Due to WFH I was using 2 5-year old 27" 4K monitors, with 4 computers ((macbook + windows workstation)*2 for personal and work). It was a bit unwieldy so I assumed I could upgrade to something like an ultrawide and use VNC or remote desktop to work on my various PCs. But there's basically no such thing as hiDPI ultrawides. Everything is driven by gaming or home theatre. So you can choose from any size screen, and higher end models top out at 1440p but go up to 240Hz or something, or you can get 48 inch 4K TVs. There's almost no other choices for any price point.

I ended up getting a 49 inch 5120x1440p, 120Hz ultrawide, because it was on sale for a price I couldn't refuse. I learned a few things:

- Going from retina and 4K to 1440p looked awful at first, but I did get used to it while retaining some minor annoyance. It's annoying because I can run 2 4k monitors easily so I ought to be able to buy 2 of them glued together.

- Using my M1 macbook pro side-by-side I can't get over how much better its screen looks. And it isn't even a particularly high spec. Laptop screens are amazing (except for size), even when you compare a $1000 macbook to a $2000 monitor. HDR on the 49 inch looks terrible and it's a main feature. On the other hand, HDR on my M1 macbook pro looks amazing and it's basically not even advertised.

- 120Hz vs 60Hz isn't really a big deal for general use, but it is a way bigger difference than I expected for gaming

- For gaming, 1440p is indeed a sweet spot today for trade off of resolution vs framerate

- When setting this stuff up, you need to use displayport for best results and be careful about which cables you buy. HDMI 2.1, which is out but not widespread yet, seems to be futureproof for a while.

- Remote desktop and VNC don't feel like native, even with 10Gbps ethernet

- The ultrawide monitor I bought supports being configured as 1, 2 or 4 screens with 1,2 or 4 inputs. Due to above point not working like I hoped, it's worked really well to alternate between 1 and 2 screens. Usually I focus and use it as 1 screen, but if I'm doing a mundane work task outside of my normal hours, maybe I want a youtube video open on my personal screen. Or maybe I want The Office playing while I am grinding in an RPG.

- It takes some effort to set up to work in all of my possible configurations, but I'm using barrier to use on KB and mouse for all PCs.

It seems like in about 3 years, HDMI 2.1 + OLED + GPUs that can drive higher resolutions in games will be available and we will enjoy some very nice monitors. For now, the selection is so limited. The article linked also notes this with only four 4k 120Hz monitors available. All are 27 inch and probably include the same panel inside.

All of that being said, here are some on-topic comments:

- absolutely, get the highest resolution monitor that works for your other requirements.

- External mouse and KB add a lot of ergonomics for multiple screens compared to using your laptop's input devices.

- I haven't really noticed demerits for any random scaling settings in MacOS. But I followed the instructions in the blog post and it indeed looks much nicer.

- SwitchresX can be used in MacOS to add support for more resolutions.