Question 1440p gaming on a 4K display

[Excalibur.]

I keep hearing that 1440p looks worse on a 4K monitor than a native 1440p monitor, due to scaling and such, but I'm looking to upgrade my 1080p monitor to 4K, and would want to play some games, especially more demanding games at 1440p or possibly on some rare occasions even 1080p for high framerates. The monitor I'm looking at right now is the Gigabyte M32U. The question is how bad does 1440p, look on a 4K monitor like the M32U, and is it something i should be concerned about?

Thanks.

 

[Darkbreeze]

It looks bad. 1080p usually doesn't look so bad, because it's literally scalable from 4k. It's 4x 1080p. It will look more pixelated (Each pixel looking 4x larger when running at 1080p on 4k) depending on the size of the display, but better than 1440p. Of course, if you use the 1440p resolution in windowed mode, you might not have any problems at all. Usually it is mostly only during full screen with 1440p on a different resolution monitor that it looks bad. Every monitor is likely to be somewhat different though so your mileage may vary.

 

[Excalibur.]

I guess then the question would be would it be wise to instead go with a 1440p monitor, because pushing games to 4K is going to mean a much more expensive GPU, i ideally wanted to go with a 32 inch 4K monitor because i do use my PC for other things besides gaming and 1440p is an odd resolution, like 720p is? Or should i still go with the 4K monitor and play what i can on 4K and for most of the rest instead of dropping the resolution down to 1440p, drop it to 1080p to keep the same scaling, if 1440p looks bad.?

 

[ThatVietGuy]

It helps to know the make and model of all the parts of your PC in order to reliably answer that question.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I think it makes a lot of sense and I'm going to be honest. There are definitely caveats to ANY decision you make. I will explain the best I can and it won't be as good as some can because I am most definitely NOT a "monitor" expert, but I have PLENTY of personal experience in this regard.

First thing. If you are going to ALWAYS play at one resolution, 1440p makes WAY more sense. It looks MILES better than 1080p but it is VASTLY less taxing on your hardware than 4k. So, you get way better expectation of performance than you do with any 4k display, because you BETTER have the best hardware you can get if you want to do that AND maintain high levels of performance especially if high FPS gaming is important to you BUT you don't want to turn down the eye candy. And let's be honest, what is the point of 4k if you have to turn down the eye candy? 4k gaming is marketing. Yes, looks great. No, it's not great, unless you have very deep pockets and don't mind paying for GREAT EVERYTHING. Not just great graphics card. Everything. Everything matters if you want even marginally good high FPS gaming at 4k. Anybody says otherwise is an idiot or a liar.

At 1080p, with even decent hardware these days, you will get great performance. But maybe the eye candy isn't AS good as you'd like it. Waaaaa. If high FPS is what you want, this is the way to go. 1080p still looks GREAT unless you are on a VERY big, meaning 32" or higher, display. It also has the benefit of not looking COMPLETELY like crap on a 4k display. Yes, pixels are going to seem much larger and you'll be able to LIKELY identify individual pixels if the display is large enough, but it won't look distorted or "borked".

1440p on the other hand, requires like HALF the level of hardware, and looks WAY better than 1080p, but, ONLY if you're at 1440p. Or windowed. Otherwise, it is not going to look "right" whether at 1080p or 4k. So it's LITERALLY a "make a decision on what looks fine to me" and go with that and MY recommendation would be, GO LOOK. Go to Bestbuy, or a local shop, or ANYWHERE that will let you do this, so that you can look at a specific monitor size, with a specific resolution, on some few specific games or videos, and then YOU decide what works for you.

This is, of course, only MY opinion. It is neither all encompassing nor completely expert oriented. It is simply MY opinion, based on what I've seen and what I feel is accurate after done MUCH research on it myself when I was in the same situation as you are right now. Take it with a grain of salt and also seek other opinions and then make your own decision based on what you can glean from all the opinions and evidence. Otherwise, you just have yourself to blame for assuming anybody other than you actually had a god view of anything. None of us do. Not even the ones that THINK they do.

 

[Excalibur.]

Thanks for the input guys.

It helps to know the make and model of all the parts of your PC in order to reliably answer that question.

It's for a yet to be built PC actually.

The GPU and CPU I'm looking at right now is the RTX 4070 ti and Intel 13700K, my current monitor is a 24 inch 1080p 144hz TN monitor but I really want to get a 32 inch IPS monitor for my new build, and i keep hearing that 1440p doesn't look good at a 32 inch size, but as mentioned, going with native 4K for a 4K would mean I'd get much lower framerates and some games would struggle and i really don't want to pay $1000 or more for a GPU, I'm not sure which would be best for situation.

Sadly, i likely won't be able to go to a store and see the differences beforehand, so I'm really left with collecting as many opinions as possible from as many sources as possible.

 

[Darkbreeze]

I have THREE 1440p displays, this one in fact:

LG 32GK650F 32" QHD Gaming Monitor Review

We were excited about testing today's monitor because the product falls into one of our favorite categories: affordable but decent gaming monitors. Lots of companies try and...

www.techspot.com

If you're near a Microcenter, it's like 279.00 but you can often find it for 299.00 on Amazon. Currently about 350 on Amazon.

https://www.microcenter.com/product...2560-x-1440)-144hz-wide-screen-gaming-monitor

You might be looking for something higher end though, I don't know really, but I've had these for a few years and despite the fact that they don't have native G-sync, they ARE G-sync compatible, and I've had no problems whatsoever with my RTX 2060 Super. Yes, it's getting to be about that time for a graphics card upgrade again but so far I just haven't really been able to justify it although I recently did upgrade to a 12700k so it's on the to do list.


The point being, they look perfectly fine at 32". Do they look as good as 4k at 32", or larger? No. Of course they don't. But they also don't require anywhere near the firepower, although I do only game on one screen except for some few games that are worth using a surround configuration on AND that have very low hardware requirements.

Keep in mind, not JUST "1000 dollars or more for a GPU", but also, you'll require a MUCH more expensive power supply to handle that graphics card and focusing on having extremely good case cooling becomes an even more important consideration. 1000+ dollar graphics cards don't do well with basic cases or cooling, AND they often require having an even better CPU cooling solution because they'll be dumping some of that heat right in there with the air your CPU and motherboard VRMs are trying to use to stay cool with. The more you move up the food chain, the more it is never just one thing.