Desktop Res, Game Res and TV/Mon Res - how do they all interplay ?

[gj81]

Hi, newbie here making the jump from consoles to PC. I'm trying to get my head around how the various parts affect the final displayed resolution.

This isn't a question of what looks better, or TV vs Monitor, or anything to do with FPS, I'm just trying to understand how all the different resolutions actually end up.

I have a 4k LG C7 and a 1080 TI hooked directly to the TV by HDMI, playing around with the resolutions in Shadows of War on Full Screen. I'm using Game Mode on the TV so all extra processing is turned off.

According to the TV, setting the game to 2160p but desktop at 1080p means the TV still only receives a 1080p signal even with Full Screen in the settings (ie. not borderless window).

For a full 2160p signal the desktop must also be set to 2160p.
(I'll refer to it as 4K from here on. I know 2160p is more correct, but 4k/1080p is easier to read)

So in the below scenarios, are my Final Res assumptions correct in what is actually finally displayed ?

1 - Deskop res is 1080p , InGame res is 4k.
Final Res = TV upscaled 4k from desktop downsampled 1080p
Flow :
4k rendered in game
Downsampled to 1080p by GPU to fit Desktop Res and sent to TV as 1080p
Upscaled again by TV to 4k from the 1080p signal, so 4k but not the true 4k actually rendered ingame

2 - Deskop res is 4k, InGame Res is 1080p
Final Res = Desktop Upscaled 4k
Flow :
1080p rendered in game
Upscaled by GPU to 4k to fit Desktop Res and sent to TV as 4k
TV receives 4k signal so no TV upscaling

3 - Deskop res is 1080p, InGame Res is 1080p
Final Res = TV upscaled 4k
Flow :
1080p rendered in game
No upscaling for desktop, sent as 1080p signal to TV
TV upscales to 4k

4 - Everything 4k - Obviously everything is 4k so no question here.

Sorry if this are basic questions, just getting confused between all the resolutions and scaling.

Cheers everyone,
Dave

 

[Glenwing]

Hi, newbie here making the jump from consoles to PC. I'm trying to get my head around how the various parts affect the final displayed resolution.

This isn't a question of what looks better, or TV vs Monitor, or anything to do with FPS, I'm just trying to understand how all the different resolutions actually end up.

I have a 4k LG C7 and a 1080 TI hooked directly to the TV by HDMI, playing around with the resolutions in Shadows of War on Full Screen. I'm using Game Mode on the TV so all extra processing is turned off.

According to the TV, setting the game to 2160p but desktop at 1080p means the TV still only receives a 1080p signal even with Full Screen in the settings (ie. not borderless window).

For a full 2160p signal the desktop must also be set to 2160p.
(I'll refer to it as 4K from here on. I know 2160p is more correct, but 4k/1080p is easier to read)

So in the below scenarios, are my Final Res assumptions correct in what is actually finally displayed ?

1 - Deskop res is 1080p , InGame res is 4k.
Final Res = TV upscaled 4k from desktop downsampled 1080p
Flow :
4k rendered in game
Downsampled to 1080p by GPU to fit Desktop Res and sent to TV as 1080p
Upscaled again by TV to 4k from the 1080p signal, so 4k but not the true 4k actually rendered ingame

2 - Deskop res is 4k, InGame Res is 1080p
Final Res = Desktop Upscaled 4k
Flow :
1080p rendered in game
Upscaled by GPU to 4k to fit Desktop Res and sent to TV as 4k
TV receives 4k signal so no TV upscaling

3 - Deskop res is 1080p, InGame Res is 1080p
Final Res = TV upscaled 4k
Flow :
1080p rendered in game
No upscaling for desktop, sent as 1080p signal to TV
TV upscales to 4k

4 - Everything 4k - Obviously everything is 4k so no question here.

Sorry if this are basic questions, just getting confused between all the resolutions and scaling.

Cheers everyone,
Dave

To simplify one thing, the desktop resolution and ingame resolution are the same thing. What happens when you change your ingame resolution is it actually changes your desktop resolution whenever you open the game, and then changes it back whenever you minimize or close the game.

The resolution of the display is always the same, since it is a physical property of the display. When the desktop/game resolution is smaller, that smaller image is upscaled so it will still fill the whole screen.

If you set your desktop to 1080p but ingame to 4K, then the whole system will change resolution to 4K whenever the game is open, sending a native full 4K signal, and then will switch back to 1080p when you go back to the desktop.

 

[gj81]

Hi Glenwing, cheers for the answer. That's what I would have thought would have been the case, but regardless of the InGame resolution the TV is saying it's receiving a 1080p signal. It only says it's received a 2160p signal if I've set the Desktop Res to 2160p as well. This is what's causing me the confusion.

 

[gj81]

So based on you answer, I went back and tested again with the same confusing result.

However, I tried a different game on 2160p (Dark Souls 3), and it behaved like you said - the TV's input changed to 2160p even though the desktop was 1080p.

So the culprit just coincidentally happens to be the first game I tried with 4k. I also just noticed that Shadow of War's menu isn't Resolution select, but Resolution Scaling select which I've not come across before, so guessing the game itself was upscaling/downsampling to 1080p to match the monitor res rather than changing the actual resolution.

 

[Glenwing]

So based on you answer, I went back and tested again with the same confusing result.

However, I tried a different game on 2160p (Dark Souls 3), and it behaved like you said - the TV's input changed to 2160p even though the desktop was 1080p.

So the culprit just coincidentally happens to be the first game I tried with 4k. I also just noticed that Shadow of War's menu isn't Resolution select, but Resolution Scaling select which I've not come across before, so guessing the game itself was upscaling/downsampling to 1080p to match the monitor res rather than changing the actual resolution.

Perhaps different games handle the desktop/ingame resolution difference with different behaviors; I'm not sure. But at least most games will behave the way I described.

 

[gj81]

Yeah, hence why I got caught out and didn't even think to test another title as I didn't think it was doing anything out of the ordinary.
Cheers for the help anyway, it helped me solve this mystery 🙂