What will the Nintendo switch look like on a 4k monitor?

[hhjkkh10]

I want to get a Nintendo Switch for Christmas. Pc games running at 1080p on my 4k monitor look horrible, 1440p in playable. Does the Nintendo Switch have software/hardware that helps the downscaling process or na? The nintendo switch runs games at 1080p btw. My monitor is the LG 27ud68p. Thanks in advance

 

[photonboy]

The Nintendo switch doesn't run most games at "1080p", in fact the game DOOM drops down to about 640p or so.

The 1080p output is simply whatever the game resolution is, then quickly scaled to 1080p and output via the HDMI connection when docked or 720p on the screen (or just 720p when docked I'd have to investigate that.. wouldn't make a difference).

4K and 1080p should look exactly the same within the limits of whatever difference in video processing is done to the 1080p signal, but that won't be significant likely (except to possibly add a lot of LAG due to the HDTV's processing time so you want a "gaming mode" type option for the HDMI input, or know that the HDMI input is low latency (i.e. under 40ms).

So...
Not sure why you say 1080p games look "horrible" or even what you mean by it because most can look great. Possibly a little bit of fuzziness to the HUD text but if you do anti-aliasing via MSAA, or other method most of the jagged edges get smoothed out.

Depends on the game though, as games with small text/HUD elements tend to look worse, whereas games like SKYRIM can game at lower resolutions and look pretty good.

*So games for the Nintendo Switch won't tend to have small text due to the limited pixel count and how large the screen is to your eyes in mobile.

To repeat, the 4K HDTV will not matter vs a 1080p HDTV. Either way you're sending out a 1080p signal which again is probably 720p or lower so, DOOM for example is:

620p->720p upscaled for mobile

620p->1080p (or 720p?) via dock

If you have a 4K HDTV then it is:

620p (average)->
1080p (Dock output)->
1080p-to-4K (HDTV video processor)

You are NOT meant to fill up your field of view too much due to the relatively low resolution of the Switch, so essentially it's best that your 4K HDTV look roughly the same size as the Switch does when sitting from it.

Sitting close to a MONITOR however will reveal the softness of the image. The TEXTURES are not high resolution. You're simply upscaling from the 720p or whatever resolution the actual game is, and are NOT doing upscaling then downscaling after the fact to act as some sort of anti-aliasing.

So long story short it will look:

fuzzy/blurry likely when viewed closely (just hold up the Switch closer to your eyes so it looks the same size as your 4K monitor would)

I repeat, it does not offer any kind of upscale/downscale beyond 720p AFAIK.

 

[photonboy]

THIS should answer your question better than my overly long answer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOz_BlVbqlY

(Freesync mode was mentioned, but you can't actually use Freesync with the Switch AFAIK)

He talks about the "sharpness" because it has more pixels which is probably true, but that's not the same as having a higher output resolution from the Switch, and it is NOT a form of anti-aliasing.

I'm honestly not sure why it would help aside from preventing you seeing the individual pixels. AFAIK you simply end up with FOUR pixels for every ONE pixel in 1080p that are the same color.

Bottom line though is it looks OKAY as these games are designed with the HUD and TEXT fairly large compared to some PC games. You again will still get a lot of jagged edges as there's no aliasing beyond the maximum 720p (1280x720) internal processing on the Switch. Everything above 720p is just simple upscaling on a monitor or upscaling + post-processing on an HDTV (HDTV adds lag due to this).

 

[photonboy]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-uses-dynamic-resolution-scaling

Okay, I found out that the games run at DIFFERENT resolutions (or some do) in mobile vs attached to an HDTV. So it outputs a 1080p signal from the dock, but in mobile it runs at 720p.

*it's still variable resolution so fluctuates so in the case of the 4K monitor it will be 900p some of the time in processing (again variable) and output as 1080p, then upscaled to 4K on the screen.

So in very DEMANDING scenes your resolution drops (always 1080p upscaled output though) so now sharp the image is will vary.