Viewing vid/games in 2K/4K on a 1080p monitor

[tAKticool]

Question-

I had recently read (probably in June or July, as I was researching components for a potential system buy that I actually did get to buy and recently built & am using now) that you don't want to view videos/etc. in a resolution greater than what you really have - if you have a 720p display on your tablet for example (as I do, actually) and you select the 1080p in Youtube, you're actually going to get a worse image because while the display isn't capable of that resolution, the device will attempt to make it work and you wind up with a worse quality of display than you would had you simply selected the 720p [or whatever resolution in the given situation.]

However, I was just watching a product video on Nvidia's website about their GTX 980 and 970 line, and it was explaining Dynamic Super Resolution (DSR) - and basically what it was saying was that say you're gaming with your GTX 970/980 on a 1080p monitor, you can select 2K/4K resolution, and it will take the picture given in the higher resolution, do some Nvidia magic, and then give you a superior image on your monitor in the actual size (say 1080p here) that is a better and superior picture than it would be if you had picked 1080p. It then demonstrated a regular 1080p gaming scene with a 4k gaming scene using the DSR and the 4K definitely looked better. Not saying it looked like 4K or even 2K but definitely had some benefits.

So I am wondering - is that what I want to be doing all the time, with Youtube etc.? I have a 1080p monitor but do have a new MSI GTX 970, so I am wondering if I want to make a point of selecting higher resolutions or will that only work out in gaming situations? thanks much, not real knowledgeable in this specific area.

 

[N3rdR4ge]

this is a pic of dsr in an extreme closeup

left is normal/right is dsr

you can clearly see it interprets the pixels in a better way from downsampling.

I believe it works the same for regular videos as well. I can absolutely see a difference in 1440p settings on youtube with my 1080p monitor.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

What's happening is that your video is going to look better than 720, but worse than 1080, on a 720 display. Maybe you've noticed that playing back a video higher than your native resolution can cripple your computer/device. This is happening because your GPU is still rendering a higher resolution, but then downscales it to fit your native resolution, in real time. If you were to playback the video again, with the same computer specs, but this time the graphics card is sending it to a 1080 monitor, your computer would not slow down what so ever. VSR/DSR is doing the same thing, but to a video game. However, it's important to remember that while it makes a difference, it's going to impact performance like it would actually natively running your selected VSR/DSR resolution, but still not look as good as on a 1440/4k monitor.

Now, a tablet is pretty small in comparison to your typical monitor. This means that the (Apple) retina pixel density can easily be reached without the need of a super high resolution. What this means is that from a typical viewing distance, going from 720 to 1080 is going to look exactly the same, because you can't see any more details until you move closer. Look at your arm, move closer and you'll start seeing some more detail. You're experiencing something very similar with your tablet display (if) you can't make out any more detail, a good example would be 480 vs 720 - they'll likely appear the same. It's important to remember that resolution is not the only thing that comes into play here, but I'll keep it simple.

If you buy a 1440 monitor, and lower it's resolution to 1920x1080, which is 78% less pixels than 2560x1440. What is going to happen is that you'll instantly lose 1:1 pixel mapping, meaning you'll introduce a blur, and small details will be lost. You will maintain 1:1 pixel mapping if you choose to use your monitor but display black bars, but this isn't really a problem. People get by, just have to try it yourself.

 

[tAKticool]

Thank you both very much for your help- I should have made myself more clear in my writing.

I was using my tablet as an example but not really the main question here. I happen to have a Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 (the original edition) which has a 720p display, often gets bashed to all hell. I always was very happy with it because I wasn't necessarily buying it for the display- you mentioned Apple, they really revved up the public's desire and necessity for super resolutions on things like tablets and phones but for me the Note was amazing due to it's multitasking and writing ability.

ANYWAY, What I was really referring to was my new computer. I do have a 1080p monitor, I think I got a pretty great deal on an HP but it's nothing super fancy, 21.5" IPS LED 1920x1080 60hz. However, I have also got (as part of the entire new build) a GPU that can go up to 4K I believe, an MSI GTX 970 Gaming 4G. I happened to have been browsing the Nvidia website and watched a video on new features (Primarily showing off the 980 series but also the 970) and it showed about the DSR - specifically mentioning using the GPU and a 1080p monitor to get better picture on the display with 2K/4K selections. Until seeing it, I was under the impression I would always want to pick 1080p and only 1080p when given a choice (Youtube, in a game if I ever game, etc.) But now it seems I have the choice of 2K/4K due to the Nvidia technology.

Just making sure I got that last part right, it will look better than 1080p because of the DSR tech? (While keeping in mind I have a 1080p monitor and no plans whatsoever to upgrade the display anytime soon, it's brand new and it serves my purposes just fine for right now.)

thanks much@!

 

[Reaper_7799]

Yeah, it will look better. It wont be the same quality as 4k if you are using dsr to play games or watch videos at 4K but it will be better than 1080P or whatever your native resolution is. It renders the images or game at 4K resolution, so the output is actually 4K but then it does it's nvidia magic with scaling it to fit on whatever your native resolution is.

People use DSR with a 1080P monitor in order to reduce the amount of anti aliasing or post processing needed at 1080P resolution and because the picture is rendered at 4K or 1440P, the jagged edges, flickering and such will mostly be gone because of the increased resolution it's rendered at. To me it looks a lot smoother and clearer than native 1080P, when I run it on my 1080P monitor. I have a 1440P monitor too and have compared them to each other and of course the true 1440P monitor is much better but DSR looks really good on a 1080 P monitor when comparing it to native 1080P with all AA and post processing turned on.

 

[Suzuki@1473780084@1473780163]

Yes, it will look better than 1080, but worse than 2.5k/4k. It's for games only.

The difference is not the resolution when it comes to your tablet. Your display becomes retina (again, Apple's definition) right after 1.9 feet away, meaning a higher resolution can't make things any sharper than it already is, at that distance. And no more detail can be seen if you go any higher. It's just a way for the marketing teams to sell their products, people think resolution is the single most important spec in a display, that is until they take a look at the spec sheet, and get a headache.

Your Samsung display is actually 1280x800 (800p).

The difference in a display, especially phones and tablets is not the resolution, it's actually how high the quality is of the display, and the display type (IPS/AMOLED). What I mean by that is that the difference is how big the color difference is (not all displays are equal), and how big the difference in contrast is. That's the difference between black and white, the higher the sharper a display will appear to be.

 

[ERIC J]

I see a much sharper picture when running at a higher resolution than my 1080p monitor has normally
when i switch to 2560x 1440 in game everything looks more vibrant and sharp.
of course the GPU works harder and i get less FPS but i dont care it is worth it.