Question DLSS Performance on 4K vs Native 1440p: Best Choice for a RTX 4070 and 32-Inch Monitor?

[pierred512]

Hi everyone,

I currently have a 27-inch 1440p monitor, but I’m looking to upgrade to a larger screen, ideally 32 inches. My GPU is an RTX 4070, which isn’t really designed for native 4K gaming in modern titles while maintaining high performance.

Given this, I’m debating between getting a 32-inch 4K monitor and relying on DLSS , or sticking with a 32-inch 1440p monitor for native resolution gaming.

My main concern is image quality. Specifically:
How does the image quality of a 32-inch 4K monitor running a game in DLSS Performance mode (rendering at 1080p and upscaling to 4K with the latest version of DLSS) compare to the image quality of a 32-inch 1440p monitor running the game at native 1440p resolution?

I’d love to hear your thoughts, experiences, or advice on this!

Thanks in advance for your help.

Best regards,

 

[Gaidax]

Why not 1440p OLED ultrawide? Get the best of both worlds and 4070 is enough to drive it too.

Besides, DLSS went a long way - it's really good for what it does, I use it all the time with 3080Ti and unless you're cracked looking for every little pixel off, it's simply free FPS.

 

[pierred512]

Why not 1440p OLED ultrawide? Get the best of both worlds and 4070 is enough to drive it too.

Besides, DLSS went a long way - it's really good for what it does, I use it all the time with 3080Ti and unless you're cracked looking for every little pixel off, it's simply free FPS.

I appreciate the suggestion, but I prefer to stick with a 16:9 aspect ratio, so I’m leaning towards either QHD or UHD. I’m not really looking for an ultrawide setup at the moment. As for DLSS, it’s a great tool that has only improved over time, and I completely agree. That’s why I’m curious about how it performs when upscaling from a lower resolution like 1080p to 4K, compared to using native 1440p on a 32-inch screen.

 

[Gaidax]

I appreciate the suggestion, but I prefer to stick with a 16:9 aspect ratio, so I’m leaning towards either QHD or UHD. I’m not really looking for an ultrawide setup at the moment. As for DLSS, it’s a great tool that has only improved over time, and I completely agree. That’s why I’m curious about how it performs when upscaling from a lower resolution like 1080p to 4K, compared to using native 1440p on a 32-inch screen.

Well, you don't need to upscale from 1080p to 4k. You can use Quality mode, which uses base resolution of 66% of target then upscales, so from 1440p to 4k. So, whatever FPS you get now native, you will approximately get with Quality DLSS on at 4k.

For that you can probably hit review and comparison videos frankly. But I use Quality mode for just about everything on 1440p ultrawide and I honestly don't see any issues. Now, I am not sitting with my nose into my monitor scanning every pixel, so your mileage may vary.

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Heck just fire up some of your games with DLSS on at Quality preset and see for yourself.

 

[pierred512]

Well, you don't need to upscale from 1080p to 4k. You can use Quality mode, which uses base resolution of 66% of target then upscales, so from 1440p to 4k. So, whatever FPS you get now native, you will approximately get with Quality DLSS on at 4k.

For that you can probably hit review and comparison videos frankly. But I use Quality mode for just about everything on 1440p ultrawide and I honestly don't see any issues. Now, I am not sitting with my nose into my monitor scanning every pixel, so your mileage may vary.

--

Heck just fire up some of your games with DLSS on at Quality preset and see for yourself.

I would be happy to stick with my 27-inch 1440p monitor, but as I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized that in certain situations, the text on my 27-inch monitor becomes really small (for example, the interface text in Baldur’s Gate 3). I also noticed at a friend’s place that the text on a 32-inch 1440p monitor is indeed larger (but it’s clear that you can see more pixels than on my 27-inch).

Obviously, in Quality mode, the result will be better on the 4K screen than on the 32-inch QHD in native resolution.
I don't have a 4K monitor at the moment to test this.
After purchasing this 32-inch monitor, I don’t plan to upgrade my setup for a long time. That’s why I’d like to get feedback on this somewhat extreme case: 1080p to 4K upscaling on a 32-inch vs. native 1440p on a 32-inch 1440p monitor. Maybe even in this case, DLSS would still perform better?