4k Monitor question

[phillyman36]

If your gaming on a 4k monitor can you switch the gaming resolution to say 2560x1140 to get higher frame rates? Is there any downside to doing this?(other than not having the full 4k resolution will any images become distorted?)

 

[fleshconsumed]

You sure can. The monitor will just upscale it for you. You can even step down all the way to 1080p with is exactly half of 4K. However you will get scaling artifacts. Plus it's possible you'll get an additional display lag if that's important to you.

 

[amenx]

1080p is 1/4 of 4k. 1920x1080 = 2,073,600 pixels. 3840x2160 = 8,294,400 pixels. 1080p on a 4k monitor is exactly 4 pixels mapped to 1, so scaling 'should' work better at this res.

1440p = 2560x1440 = 3,686,400 pixels. Thats 2.25 pixels not evenly mapped to 1. So in theory should look worse than 1080p, or rather blurrier on a 4k monitor.

 

[wilds]

If you get a 4k monitor, you only want to game at 3840x2160, no other resolution will look right. I own two 4k monitors, one Gsync, one Freesync, and both look like crap at 1080p. My native 1080p monitor looks so much crisper.

 

[phillyman36]

If setting are turned down should gaming be ok with a gtx 1070? Right now the only game I'm thinking about is Friday the 13th, maybe some Tomb Raider. Looking to find a game similar to Command And conquer Tiberium Wars as far as gaming goes.
Most of my usage is movies, youtube, web surfing and maybe an hour or 2 of gaming per week. Wondering if i should go 4k now, wait till next year or just go 1440?

 

[amenx]

If your 4k monitor is large enough, you could create a custom res, ie, 3840x1620 ( basically turning it into a 21:9 ultra wide screen), which is about 25% less pixels and therefore easier to run vs full 4k. This is 1:1 scaling so no degradation in image quality. Thats what I'm doing with a gtx 1070 on a 40" 4k screen. Still need to turn down some settings on difficult to run games. But would rather have that than be on smaller, lower res screen.