Programming/Coding on two 27" 4K Monitors or two 24" 1440p Monitors?

[Aggie1999]

Would like to hear some opinions on which monitor spec people like for software development? Two 27" 4K monitors or two 24" 1440p monitors? This is for back end web site development (vi, tail'ing multiple logs in a terminal, etc). No graphically intense front end work. This would be used on a 2016/2017 Macbook Pro work is providing me.

My eye sight is pretty decent with glasses. Have used two 27" 1440p monitors on my personal computer for years. Somewhat smaller text and icons than these 27" 1440p monitors provide would be fine with me. Just unsure if 4K would be to small on a 27".

Side note: I am toying with the idea of going with 3 monitors on my work setup. Any thoughts?

[ender]

I have a 2560x1440 monitor mounted horizontally and a 1900x1080 monitor mounted vertically.

I use the vertical monitor for terminal output and the main monitor for everything else.

This works fine.

I don't think you need 3 monitors, for a while I used my laptop screen too but I found that nearly always if I had all three monitors what I really had was "two for work, one for distractions" but YMMV I guess.

[Paul der Krake]

I have two 27 inch 2560x1440 monitors, both mounted horizontally. Anything more and I am tempted in cycling through windows just to check on things, which leads to more shitposting distractions.

[caffeine]

My home computer is 2560x1600. I like the extra height of pixels.

I'm thinking of going with those ultra wide monitors instead of two monitors.

[ketchup]

I have two 22" 1920x1080 monitors at work, and one 24" 4K at home on my GF's computer (pro photographer).  4K is great as long as whatever software you're using plays nice with that resolution.  Windows 10 works a lot better at 4K than Win7.

I'd probably do 2x 27" 4K.

I've never done three monitors productively.  I did it once years ago for giggles, but it was just for the sake of it.

[GuitarStv]

A 4k TV is a workable monitor for most things, software development included.  I'm much more productive with two monitors than one, but didn't feel the same benefit when going to three.  Two separate dual monitor workstations at your desk is very handy though.

[Blackeagle]

Would like to hear some opinions on which monitor spec people like for software development? Two 27" 4K monitors or two 24" 1440p monitors? This is for back end web site development (vi, tail'ing multiple logs in a terminal, etc). No graphically intense front end work. This would be used on a 2016/2017 Macbook Pro work is providing me.

My eye sight is pretty decent with glasses. Have used two 27" 1440p monitors on my personal computer for years. Somewhat smaller text and icons than these 27" 1440p monitors provide would be fine with me. Just unsure if 4K would be to small on a 27".

Side note: I am toying with the idea of going with 3 monitors on my work setup. Any thoughts?

MacOS has really good scaling (to support their built-in retina displays on iMacs and laptops) so you don't need to worry about it being too small.  If anything, I've heard folks say that 27" is a bit too large for a 4K display.  It's not quite truly retina quality.

I run an iMac 5K with a 24" 4K display on either side.  I really love the setup and find it's a real boost to my productivity when doing certain things.  I wrote about it some here:

https://causeeffectiveness.com/2017/07/17/my-multi-monitor-setup/

Is the MacBook you'll be using a 13" or a 15"?  As I read the specs page it looks like the 13" will only support two monitors (up to 4K), while the 15" will support up to four 4K displays.