Monitor Resolution Clarification

[Optimus Prime]

Hey LTT,

I have a bit of headache on my mind here and I'm hoping someone awesome out there is willing to help

If I play a game on a 27" 2560x1440 monitor that doesn't natively support that resolution ie: highest res it goes is 1920x1080 (before ini tweaks) will it display properly or will I need to tweak it to use the full screen?

If so I might just go 5760x1080 instead of 7680x1440 I was planning for simplicity sake

(also how bad is 1080p for a 27inch IPS monitor really or would 23inch be better for 1080p)

reason I ask is because I'm building my first PC eventually when I can decide whether or not I'm going 1155/2011 or Haswell/2011 (new chipset x99?) and I'm jumping headlong into it, full watercooling, nvidia surround :)

Thanks all

[Helltech]

It isn't actually displaying 2560x1440. It is best to just play at the highest res your screen nativeley goes.

23 inch is better for 1080p.

I personally am upgrading to 3 1440p or 1600p monitors soon. 3 1080p just isn't anything anymore.

[eshbop]

It'll work fine, the image will just be upscaled to fit the screen, albeit with a drop of quality compared to the native resolution. Agree with Helltech, I wouldn't get a 27in 1080p display, the pixel density on 24in 1080p is low enough haha. Give me 4k!

[Optimus Prime]

so a game limited to 1080p will stretch to 1440?, why is that, since they are the same aspect ratio's?

[Optimus Prime]

so how bad a quality drop are talking about?

[eshbop]

The game just stretches out to fit the screen, irrespective of aspect ratio. The game is only rendered in 1080p then made to fit, kind of analogous using a 1080p image stretched out to fit a 1440p resolution for the desktop, it won't look as sharp as if it were rendered in the native resolution. If you have a 1080p display now change the resolution settings to somewhere around 800p, that'll give you an idea of the change in quality, though 1080p on 1440p will probably look better due to the higher pixel density.

[Optimus Prime]

hmmmm that's annoying but i guess if you wanna play an older game your gonna have to just suck it up. so in that case would a 27 inch 1080p monitor still stretch out the game as well?

[eshbop]

Narh not at all, it's still 1080p, the monitor will just have a lower pixel density than on a 24inch display. I'd still get a 1440p 27in over a 1080p 27in for the sake of the other games you have the extra desk space you'll get.

[Optimus Prime]

Narh not at all' date=' it's still 1080p, the monitor will just have a lower pixel density than on a 24inch display. I'd still get a 1440p 27in over a 1080p 27in for the sake of the other games you have the extra desk space you'll get.[/quote']

true, so the stretching has more to do with the actual size of the screen, no?. I can live with that. my dreams of 7680x1440 lives on

[eshbop]

No, not the physical size of the screen but the number of pixels the screen has. 2560x1440 screen = more pixels than 1920x1080 no matter how big the screen is, only the size of the pixels changes to accommodate the change in screen size. If your game only supports 1080p then the GPU renders an image that is 1920x1080 a 1440p monitor will then upscale the signal from the GPU to fit across the entire screen. Its like the difference between playing a standard DVD vs a Blu-ray on a 1080p TV. That's why Blu-ray looks so much better, because the image the Blu-ray player gives to the TV consists of more pixels than the image a DVD gives to a TV.

[pcman2000]

I think you are confused over what we mean by "stretch". If the monitor and the game are using the same aspect ratio, you will get a stretched image, but it will not be distorted.

[Optimus Prime]

yeah I was confused, but now it "clicked" and I'm like OOOooohhhhh, lol.