Table of contents
I have been using a Dell UP2414Q monitor for a little over a year now. The Dell UP2414Q was the first commercially available display that qualified as what Apple calls a Retina Display, meaning it has such a high resolution that you cannot see the individual pixels in normal viewing distance. In more technical terms, this is called a HiDPI display. To be specific, Dell’s UP2414Q has a 527mm wide and 296mm high screen, hence it has 185 dpi (3840 px / (527 mm / 25.4 mm)). I configured my system to use 192 dpi instead of the actual 185 dpi, because 192 is a clean multiple of 96 dpi, so scaling gets easier for software.
The big drawback of the Dell UP2414Q, and all other 4K displays with sufficiently high dpi, is that the display uses multiple scalers (also called multiple tiles) internally. This makes use of a DisplayPort feature called Multiple Stream Transport (MST): in layman’s terms, the display communicates to the graphics card that there are actually two displays with a resolution of 1920x1080 px each, both connected via the same DisplayPort cable. The graphics card then needs to split each frame into two halves and send them over the DisplayPort connection to the monitor. The reason all display vendors used this technique is that at the time, there simply were no scalers on the market which supported a resolution of 3840x2160 px.
Driver support for tiled displays
The problem with MST is that it’s poorly supported in the Linux ecosystem: for the longest time, the only driver supporting it at all was the closed-source nVidia driver, and you had to live without RandR when using it. With linux 4.1, MST support was added for the radeon driver, but I’m not sure if that is all that’s necessary to support 4K MST displays as there are other use-cases for MST. The intel driver still doesn’t have any MST support whatsoever, as of now (linux 4.1).
(RandR) Software support for tiled displays
Regardless of the driver you are using, you’ll need the very latest RandR 1.5, otherwise software will just see multiple monitors instead of one big monitor. Keith Packard published a blog post with a proposal to address this shortcoming, and the actual implementation work was included in the randrproto 1.5 release at 2015-05-17. I think it will take a while until all relevant software is updated, with your graphics driver, the X server and your desktop environment being the most important pieces of software. It’s unclear to me when/if Wayland will support tiled 4K displays.
Having to disable RandR means you’ll be unable to use tools like redshift to dim your monitor’s backlight, and you won’t be able to reconfigure or rotate your monitor without restarting your X session. Especially on a laptop, this is a big deal.
The ViewSonic VX2475Smhl-4K
I’m not sure why ViewSonic chose such a long product name, especially when comparing it with the competition’s names like HP z24s or BenQ BL2420U. This makes it pretty hard to talk about the product in real life, because nobody is going to remember that cryptic name. In that sense, it’s a good thing I won’t need to recommend this product.
Let’s start with the positive, and the main reason why I bought this monitor: the screen itself is great. It entirely fulfills my needs for extended periods of office work and occasionally watching a movie. I don’t play games on this monitor. With regards to connectivity, it comes with 2 HDMI ports (one of which is MHL-capable for connecting smartphones and tablets) and 1 DisplayPort. Since most graphics cards don’t support HDMI 2.0 yet (which you need for the native resolution of 3840x2160px at 60Hz), I am driving the monitor using DisplayPort, which works perfectly fine so far.
Unfortunately, the screen is the only good thing about this entire monitor. If you are using it in an office setting, you might be used to a lot more comfort. Here is a list of shortcomings, sorted by how severe I think each issue is:
- The monitor does not contain a USB hub at all. This is a big shortcoming I can’t understand at all. From plugging in wireless receivers for mouse/keyboard over Yubikeys for second-factor authentification to the occasional USB thumb drives, I don’t understand how anyone would not see the lack of USB ports as a big minus.
- The case of the monitor is painted in a glossy black, reflecting light. This is ironic, since the screen itself is matte, but you still have light reflections in your field of vision. I’ll need to see what I can do about that.
- The monitor feels a lot cheaper than other monitors. The stand it comes with is flimsy and does not allow for rotating the monitor or adjusting the height at all, so I’ve already ordered an Ergotron LX 45-241-026 to replace the stand. The buttons to power off/on and navigate the on-screen display don’t feel comfortable, and the power LED is bright blue, reflecting multiple times in the glossy stand.
Using the ViewSonic VX2475Smhl-4K with Linux
Using DisplayPort with the nouveau open-source driver
Connecting the ViewSonic VX2475Smhl-4K to my Gainward GeForce GTX 660 using DisplayPort works perfectly fine with the nouveau open-source driver version 1.0.11, meaning the driver detects the full native resolution of 3840x2160 px with a refresh rate of 60 Hz and does not use YUV 4:2:0 compression. As I understand it, you need to have a graphics card with DisplayPort 1.2 or newer in order to achieve 3840x2160 px at 60 Hz. Here’s the output of xrandr:
$ xrandr Screen 0: minimum 320 x 200, current 3840 x 2160, maximum 8192 x 8192 DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-1 connected 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 521mm x 293mm 3840x2160 60.00*+ 30.00 25.00 24.00 29.97 23.98 1920x1080 60.00 50.00 59.94 1920x1080i 60.00 50.00 59.94 1600x1200 60.00 1680x1050 59.95 1400x1050 59.98 1600x900 59.98 1280x1024 75.02 60.02 1440x900 59.89 1152x864 75.00 1280x720 60.00 50.00 59.94 1024x768 75.08 70.07 60.00 832x624 74.55 800x600 72.19 75.00 60.32 56.25 720x576 50.00 720x480 60.00 59.94 640x480 75.00 72.81 66.67 60.00 59.94 720x400 70.08 DVI-D-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis)
Using DisplayPort with the nVidia closed-source driver
Connecting the ViewSonic VX2475Smhl-4K to my Gainward GeForce GTX 660 using DisplayPort works perfectly fine with the nVidia closed-source driver version 352.21 (haven’t tested it with other versions), meaning the driver detects the full native resolution of 3840x2160 px with a refresh rate of 60 Hz and does not use YUV 4:2:0 compression. As I understand it, you need to have a graphics card with DisplayPort 1.2 or newer in order to achieve 3840x2160 px at 60 Hz. Here’s the output of xrandr:
Screen 0: minimum 8 x 8, current 3840 x 2160, maximum 16384 x 16384 DVI-I-0 disconnected primary (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DVI-I-1 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) HDMI-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DVI-D-0 disconnected (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) DP-1 connected 3840x2160+0+0 (normal left inverted right x axis y axis) 521mm x 293mm 3840x2160 60.00*+ 29.97 25.00 23.98 1920x1080 60.00 59.94 50.00 60.00 50.04 1680x1050 59.95 1600x1200 60.00 1600x900 60.00 1440x900 59.89 1400x1050 59.98 1280x1024 75.02 60.02 1280x720 60.00 59.94 50.00 1024x768 75.03 70.07 60.00 800x600 75.00 72.19 60.32 56.25 720x576 50.00 720x480 59.94 640x480 75.00 72.81 59.94 59.93
And here’s the relevant block of verbose log output generated by the nVidia
driver in /var/log/Xorg.0.log when starting X11 with
-logverbose 6:
[ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): --- Building ModePool for ViewSonic VX2475 SERIES (DFP-4) --- [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Validating Mode "3840x2160_60": [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode Source: EDID [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Pixel Clock : 533.25 MHz [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HRes, HSyncStart : 3840, 3888 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HSyncEnd, HTotal : 3920, 4000 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VRes, VSyncStart : 2160, 2163 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VSyncEnd, VTotal : 2168, 2222 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): H/V Polarity : +/- [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Viewport 3840x2160+0+0 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Horizontal Taps 0 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Vertical Taps 0 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Base SuperSample x1 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Base Depth 32 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Distributed Rendering 1 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Overlay Depth 32 [ 87934.515] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode "3840x2160_60" is valid.
Using HDMI with the nVidia closed-source driver
In order to drive the ViewSonic VX2475Smhl-4K with its native resolution of 3840x2160 px at a refresh rate of 60 Hz, you’ll need to have a graphics card that supports HDMI 2.0. As of 2015-07-17, the only cards I can find that feature HDMI 2.0 are nVidia’s Maxwell cards (NV110), e.g. the models GeForce GTX 960, 970 or 980. These models need a signed firmware blob, which nVidia has not yet released, hence you cannot use them with the open-source nouveau driver at all. I’ll not buy them until this issue is resolved.
Even though I know that it’s not supported, I was curious to see what happens when I try to connect the display to my GeForce GTX 660, which only has HDMI 1.4.
With the nVidia closed-source driver version 346.47, by default, you will end
up with a resolution of 1920x1080 px. The X11 logfile
/var/log/Xorg.0.log contains the following verbose log output when
starting X11 with -logverbose 6:
[ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Validating Mode "3840x2160": [ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz [ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode Source: EDID [ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Pixel Clock : 533.25 MHz [ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HRes, HSyncStart : 3840, 3888 [ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HSyncEnd, HTotal : 3920, 4000 [ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VRes, VSyncStart : 2160, 2163 [ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VSyncEnd, VTotal : 2168, 2222 [ 8265.425] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): H/V Polarity : +/- [ 8265.425] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode is rejected: PixelClock (533.2 MHz) too high for [ 8265.426] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Display Device (Max: 340.0 MHz). [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Validating Mode "3840x2160": [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 3840 x 2160 @ 30 Hz [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode Source: EDID [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Pixel Clock : 296.70 MHz [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HRes, HSyncStart : 3840, 4016 [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HSyncEnd, HTotal : 4104, 4400 [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VRes, VSyncStart : 2160, 2168 [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VSyncEnd, VTotal : 2178, 2250 [ 8265.429] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): H/V Polarity : +/+ [ 8265.429] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode is rejected: Mode requires YUV 4:2:0 compression.
When setting Option "ModeValidation" "AllowNonEdidModes" and
configuring the custom modeline Modeline "3840x2160" 307.00 3840 4016
4104 4400 2160 2168 2178 2250 +hsync +vsync, you can get a resolution of
3840x2160 px, but a refresh rate of only 30 Hz. Such a low refresh
rate is only okay for watching movies — any sort of regular computer work is
very inconvenient, as the mouse pointer is severely jumpy/lagging.
Since driver version 349.12, nVidia added support for YUV 4:2:0 compression. See this anandtech article about how nVidia cards achieve 4k@60 Hz over HDMI 1.4 and the wikipedia article on chroma subsampling in general.
I upgraded my driver to version 352.21, and indeed, by default, it will now drive the monitor with 3840x2160 px at a refresh rate of 60 Hz, but using YUV 4:2:0 compression. This compression is immediately visible as the picture quality is so much worse. You can even see it in simple things such as a GMail tab. To me, it looks similar to when you accidentally misconfigure your system to use 16-bit colors instead of 24-bit colors. I recommend you try to avoid YUV 4:2:0 compression as much as possible, unless maybe if you’re just trying to watch movies and aren’t interested in best quality.
With version 352.21, the X11 logfile /var/log/Xorg.0.log contains
the following verbose log output when starting X11 with -logverbose
6:
[ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Validating Mode "3840x2160_60": [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode Source: EDID [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Pixel Clock : 533.25 MHz [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HRes, HSyncStart : 3840, 3888 [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HSyncEnd, HTotal : 3920, 4000 [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VRes, VSyncStart : 2160, 2163 [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VSyncEnd, VTotal : 2168, 2222 [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): H/V Polarity : +/- [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode is rejected: PixelClock (533.2 MHz) too high for [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Display Device (Max: 340.0 MHz). [ 123.402] (WW) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode "3840x2160_60" is invalid. [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Validating Mode "3840x2160_60": [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode Source: EDID [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): 3840 x 2160 @ 60 Hz [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Pixel Clock : 593.41 MHz [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HRes, HSyncStart : 3840, 4016 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): HSyncEnd, HTotal : 4104, 4400 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VRes, VSyncStart : 2160, 2168 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): VSyncEnd, VTotal : 2178, 2250 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): H/V Polarity : +/+ [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Viewport 1920x2160+0+0 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Horizontal Taps 0 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Vertical Taps 0 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Base SuperSample x1 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Base Depth 32 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Distributed Rendering 1 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Overlay Depth 32 [ 123.406] (II) NVIDIA(GPU-0): Mode "3840x2160_60" is valid.
Conclusion
With its single scaler, the ViewSonic VC2475Smhl-4K works just fine on Linux when using DisplayPort, which is a big improvement over the finicky Dell UP2414Q. Everything else about this monitor is pretty bad, so I would recommend you have a close look at the competition’s models, which as of 2015-07-17 are the HP z24s and the BenQ BL2420U. Neither of these are currently available in Switzerland, so it will take a while until I have the possibility to review either of them.
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