Monitor size and distance calculator
Screen size is meaningless without a viewing distance. A 27 inch panel at 50 cm and a 32 inch panel at 70 cm fill your vision almost identically. This calculator gives you the numbers that actually describe what you see.
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Pixels per degree beats PPI
Pixel density in pixels per inch describes the panel. Pixels per degree describes what reaches your eye, which is the thing you care about. It folds in how far away you sit:
Useful reference points, all at a 65 cm viewing distance:
| Setup | Horizontal FOV | Pixels per degree | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| 24.5 in, 1080p | 45 deg | 42 | The tournament standard. Below the acuity limit, so pixels are resolvable, but the whole screen sits inside the scanning cone. |
| 27 in, 1440p | 49 deg | 52 | The practical sweet spot: near the acuity limit and still mostly inside the cone. |
| 32 in, 1440p | 57 deg | 45 | Sharpness close to a 24.5 in 1080p panel, with the edges pushed outside the cone. |
| 32 in, 4K | 57 deg | 67 | Beyond what most eyes resolve at this distance, and very expensive to drive at high refresh. |
Two conclusions people find uncomfortable. First, the tournament-standard 24.5 inch 1080p panel is well below the acuity limit at a normal desk distance: you genuinely can resolve its pixels. It survives as the standard because field of view and framerate headroom outrank sharpness in a competitive shooter, not because it looks better. Second, a 32 inch 1440p panel is no sharper to your eye than that 24.5 inch 1080p one, because the extra pixels are spread over more degrees. Panel specifications alone cannot tell you any of this; only the distance can.
The scanning cone
You can move your eyes comfortably through roughly 45 degrees of horizontal arc without moving your head. Beyond that, checking the edge of the screen means a head turn, and a head turn is slow enough to matter in a duel. Fitting your whole screen inside that cone is the actual reason competitive players use small monitors, and it is a far better argument than the folklore about "less eye travel to see enemies".
The calculator tells you which side of that line you are on. If you are outside it, you have two options: sit further back, or use a smaller screen. Both work; only one is free.
Measure the distance properly
Measure from your eyes to the panel surface, not from the front of the desk. Most people sit 5 to 10 cm further back than they estimate, because the monitor stand pushes the panel behind the desk edge and their chair is not pulled fully in.
Related reading
- Monitor size for competitive play, in full.
- Resolution and scaling, including stretched and black-bar 4:3.
- Monitor position and height, which changes your neck more than your aim.
Frequently asked questions
What is pixels per degree and why should I care?
Pixels per degree is how many pixels fall into one degree of your visual field. It combines resolution, screen size and viewing distance into the one figure that describes perceived sharpness. Around 60 px/deg is roughly the limit of normal human acuity: past that, more resolution is invisible. Below about 35 px/deg, distant enemy models start being described by very few pixels, which is a genuine competitive disadvantage.
What size monitor do competitive players use?
24 to 25 inches at 1080p or 1440p remains the tournament standard, and the reason is field of view rather than tradition. At a typical 60 to 70 cm viewing distance, a 24 inch screen sits almost entirely inside the cone you can scan with eye movement alone. Larger screens push the edges outside that cone, so checking a corner of the minimap or the far edge of the screen requires a head movement, which is slower.
Is 4K worth it for competitive shooters?
Only if you can drive it at a framerate that feeds a high refresh panel, which for most systems means turning settings down far enough that the resolution advantage partly evaporates. At 27 inches and 65 cm, 1440p sits at about 52 px/deg, already close to the roughly 60 px/deg acuity limit. The frames are usually worth more than the pixels.
How far should I sit from my monitor?
Far enough that the screen width subtends no more than about 45 degrees, which is the arc you can scan with eye movement alone. For a 24.5 inch 16:9 panel that means roughly 65 cm or more; for a 27 inch panel, roughly 72 cm. Sitting further increases pixels per degree and reduces head movement, at the cost of small targets covering fewer pixels of your retina, so treat 45 degrees as a ceiling rather than a target.
Does an ultrawide help or hurt in competitive shooters?
Usually hurts, for two reasons. Many competitive titles either letterbox to 16:9 or, where they do render the extra width, place important information further from your centre of vision. And the horizontal pixels are spread over more degrees, lowering pixels per degree at the same resolution. Ultrawides are excellent for many genres; competitive shooters is not one of them.