How bad is not using native resolution?

[TheCanadian0495]

I've found a great price on a 4K monitor. Obviously, you need like 5 980's to run anything decently at that resolution. I'm going to most likely use SLI 970s, so I would probably game at 1440p most of the time. I've heard by almost everyone that whatever your monitor, you should run any game at the native resolution. How bad would a game look at 1440p, or even 1080p on a 4K monitor? The only reason I"m even considering it is because of the price, it's like $450.

 

[clutchc]

Unlike the older CRT displays, LCD displays can only accurately display at their native resolution. Anything less and it becomes much poorer quality. And unless you find a resolution that keeps the exact same aspect ration, things will be distorted; circles become ovals.

 

[Quixit]

If you play at an exact multiple of the native resolution, like say 1/2 (1080p is half 4K) it can be ok. Otherwise it's pretty awful because you're going to be looking at an image rendered at one resolution and then displayed at 4K (because LCDs always display at native regardless of input resolution), the reason a multiple of 1/2 works is that 4 pixels will display the same colour, which generally looks ok.

 

[TheCanadian0495]

If you play at an exact multiple of the native resolution, like say 1/2 (1080p is half 4K) it can be ok. Otherwise it's pretty awful because you're going to be looking at an image rendered at one resolution and then displayed at 4K (because LCDs always display at native regardless of input resolution), the reason a multiple of 1/2 works is that 4 pixels will display the same colour, which generally looks ok.

Awesome, thank you for the reply!