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Need clarification! 1440p monitor vs 1440p scaled down to 1080p

shinryu333

Hello, I need some insight on the difference between a true 1440p monitor vs GPU scaling to 1440p and then downscaling that to 1080p. Here is my interpretation: From what I know, GPU scaling to 1440p then being made to fit into a 1080p monitor will result in sharper display. So does this mean that the 1080p monitor will synthetically look like a 1440p display (everything is smaller)? Or does that mean that everything will keep its size native to a 1080p resolution but the pixels will be more condensed, thus resulting it sharper image?

 

If it is the latter, then wouldn't that mean that GPU scaling to 1440p then downscaling to 1080p would be a much more appealing option for image quality rather than getting a true 1440p monitor? Since with GPU scaling, the images will have more condensed pixels resulting in sharper image quality?

Insight and clarification will be appreciated.

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1440p interpolation is very odd, to say the least. Unlike 4K which is much easier to scale down to 1080p, 1440p means all the pixels are just gonna be different then they originally were, being 1.xxxx pixels for every single pixel in 1080p.

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Hello, I need some insight on the difference between a true 1440p monitor vs GPU scaling to 1440p and then downscaling that to 1080p. Here is my interpretation: From what I know, GPU scaling to 1440p then being made to fit into a 1080p monitor will result in sharper display. So does this mean that the 1080p monitor will synthetically look like a 1440p display (everything is smaller)?

Yes, everything will be smaller, all the elements on the screen will be the same scale as on a 1440p monitor. However, it will be slightly blurrier than an actual 1440p monitor because a 1080p monitor doesn't have as many pixels to render the image with.

 

Or does that mean that everything will keep its size native to a 1080p resolution but the pixels will be more condensed, thus resulting it sharper image?

Not sure what you mean. The pixels are a physical part of the monitor, they can't change size.

1440p interpolation is very odd, to say the least. Unlike 4K which is much easier to scale down to 1080p, 1440p means all the pixels are just gonna be different then they originally were, being 1.xxxx pixels for every single pixel in 1080p.

You're talking about upscaling, showing a lower resolution on a high res monitor. He's talking about the opposite, showing a higher resolution downscaled to a lower resolution monitor. Anti-aliasing, in effect.

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When downscaling 1440p to 1080p, things (like text) will look smaller, and will generally look blurry. However, ingame, lines will appear less jagged. VSR (downscaling higher res to lower res) on rocket league makes stuff look far better (less jagged), especially the one-pixel wide lines, but I cannot overclock my monitor to 75hz, so I leave it at 1080p.

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