Gaming at 4K?

[XylimirGaming]

Hello,

 

So I am probably going to be getting a new 4k TV/Monitor at the end of this year or next year. I know gaming at 4k is very demanding and most graphics cards can't handle gaming at 60 fps. I also know you can run a game at a lower resolution, say 1080p.

 

Would there be a difference in performance between playing a game on a 1080p screen vs running a game at 1080p on a 4k screen?

 

I'm just not completely sure how it all works so any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

[don_svetlio]

it would look blurry.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Hello,

 

So I am probably going to be getting a new 4k TV/Monitor at the end of this year or next year. I know gaming at 4k is very demanding and most graphics cards can't handle gaming at 60 fps. I also know you can run a game at a lower resolution, say 1080p.

 

Would there be a difference in performance between playing a game on a 1080p screen vs running a game at 1080p on a 4k screen?

 

I'm just not completely sure how it all works so any information would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks!

Preformance? No. Visual fidelity? It varies by panel but generally a little bit. Running at 1080p from 4k isn't that bad though normally because 4k is a perfectly divisible resolution on 1080p so you shouldn't have as many blurry issues with say 1080p on 1440p panel.

[Glenwing]

Depends on the display, but it's typically blurry since it's still interpolated, despite the myth that it always displays perfectly since it's evenly divisible. You can check the FAQ at the top of this section for more details.

[Curufinwe_wins]

Depends on the display, but it's typically blurry since it's still interpolated, despite the myth that it always displays perfectly since it's evenly divisible. You can check the FAQ at the top of this section for more details.

It won't be perfect (generally), but it is MUCH better than non divisible resolution scaling.

[mattonfire]

- snip -

There should be no difference in performance as you're still using the GPU in a way to power as many pixels but as it's not the native resolution it will look absolutely horrible I promise you. (That moment when you try Nvidia surround on different resolution monitors). If you have a strong graphics card go in the middle 1440p/2k.

[Glenwing]

It won't be perfect (generally), but it is MUCH better than non divisible resolution scaling.

 

What makes you say that?

[Curufinwe_wins]

What makes you say that?

Because the interpolation mechanism is significantly less affected. In fact, there are displays (nominally some of the first 4k screens) that when 1080p is/was selected as the resolution actually tied together groups of pixels and did not use interpolation. This wasn't always a better solution than interpolation though as sometimes color issues arise, and as interpolation has gotten better it's become less common. 

 

It should be obvious why trying to scale 1 pixel on a 1.4 pixel map is harder to do accurately than scaling to a whole number map. 

[XylimirGaming]

There should be no difference in performance as you're still using the GPU in a way to power as many pixels but as it's not the native resolution it will look absolutely horrible I promise you. (That moment when you try Nvidia surround on different resolution monitors). If you have a strong graphics card go in the middle 1440p/2k.

Do you mean buy a 1440p/2k panel or run the game at 1440p/2k? I just know I will not be able to run games at 4k but would still like to buy a good 4k screen so I don't have to in a couple years. Is there a resolution that would look good on a 4k monitor that is less then that of 4k?

[Glenwing]

Because the interpolation mechanism is significantly less affected. In fact, there are displays (nominally some of the first 4k screens) that when 1080p is/was selected as the resolution actually tied together groups of pixels and did not use interpolation. This wasn't always a better solution than interpolation though as sometimes color issues arise, and as interpolation has gotten better it's become less common. 

 

It should be obvious why trying to scale 1 pixel on a 1.4 pixel map is harder to do accurately than scaling to a whole number map. 

 

Not really. In practice a higher resolution is much clearer just due to the far greater number of sample points.

[mattonfire]

Do you mean buy a 1440p/2k panel or run the game at 1440p/2k? I just know I will not be able to run games at 4k but would still like to buy a good 4k screen so I don't have to in a couple years. Is there a resolution that would look good on a 4k monitor that is less then that of 4k?

Too run things in general it will be lot more laggy if you keep it at 4k or downscale it and get awful image it's a dodgy situation.

[jjohnthedon1]

i had a 4k monitor set up next to a 1080p monitor and duplicated the screen in farcry 4 and skyrim to see if there was a differance with the 4k screen set to 1080p and it looked just as good no real noticable blurring as the pixel count is so high at 4k