Question Is Nvidia Integer Scaling really able to render 1080p/1440p games with excellent sharpness on 4k monitors?

[devetimon]

Hi, I'am asking this question to know if someone among you ever tried the Nvidia Integer Scaling method explained in this article https://www.anandtech.com/show/14765/nvidia-releases-geforce-436-02-driver-integer-scaling-and-more (scroll down the article until you find ""Integer Image Upscaling At Last").

In a nutshell, by this method it should be possible to play 1080p/1440p games on 4k monitors having a native image quality as you were playing on native 1080p/1440p monitors. You should not be experiencing blurred images, aliasing nor other issues. The only thing you should do is access Nvidia Control Panel > Adjust desktop size and position > scaling > integer scaling > perform scaling on GPU and then select the scaling resolution.

Please note: according to the article above and other infos on the internet, this method only works with Turing cards (not Pascal nor older cards). Plus, please note, this is a different method than the Image Sharpening GPU scaling present in Nvidia Control Panel > Manage 3d settings. Nvidia Integer Scaling is a complete different thing and should be used alone.

I would like to know if someone among you tried it and can really confirm the native sharpness of 1080p/1440p games on 4k monitors or if you did experience any issues

 

[hotaru.hino]

Integer scaling is meant to neatly scale images that can evenly divide into the monitor's native resolution. So for a 4K monitor, a 1080p image will be sharp and crisp. Up until now, displays or the GPU would simply interpolate the image regardless if the resolution was an even division of the native one. It doesn't, for example, scale a 1440p image up to 4K as if you were looking at a native 1440p monitor.

To put it in another way, integer scaling requires whole pixels. So take the native resolution and figure out resolutions you get from 2x2 = 1 pixel, 3x3 = 1 pixel, 4x4 = 1 pixel etc..

 

[devetimon]

Ok that's fine. 720p ---> 1440p monitor, while 1080p ---> 2160p monitor. But apart from that theoretical remark, has anyone among you tried to enable Integer Scaling from the Nvidia control panel and can tell me if you really noticed sharper and crisper images in games with 1080p resolution on your 4k monitor? That is exactly I wanted to know with my question