Anyone downgrade native res to improve performance?

tviceman

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Mar 25, 2008
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Anyone here on 1440p or even 4k and thought about going back to 1080p for performance's sake? I've considered in my mind more than once, and I may in fact do it when HDR monitors are pervasive.

I do realize that many 4k monitors can scale down to 1080p without visual distortions, but viable 4k gaming with high / near max settings with <$400 graphics cards on new release games is still 3-4 years away.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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For 1440p (2560 x 1440) you would want to use 1280 x 720 to avoid visual distortions.

For 1080p, I don't know of a lower resolution you can use to avoid visual distortions. (I use my second monitor, a 1280 x 1024, if I need to run lower than 1080p for any reason)
 

13Gigatons

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Apr 19, 2005
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Most people use 1080p on 4k monitors when gaming....4k is 4 times the pixel count plus most games weren't designed for the 4k era.
 

topmounter

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Aug 3, 2010
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No, not since the days of CRT monitors. I'd probably just play in windowed mode at a lower resolution if I couldn't turn down the game's graphics settings enough. This is a big reason why I bought a QHD monitor instead of a 4K monitor recently, I knew I wouldn't own a video card capable of driving it full-res / full-screen for quite some time. I'm happy with QHD resolutions and FreeSync.
 
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richaron

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Mar 27, 2012
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Running at native resolution is the only thing I won't compromise on.

I don't mind (too much) where I have to be on the arbitrary max-min settings choice to get playable rates. But if it isn't playable on lowest settings then I think it's time for an upgrade. I guess Gsync/Freesync (with lfc) helps here also.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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I'd probably just play in windowed mode at a lower resolution if I couldn't turn down the game's graphics settings enough.

Yes, windowed mode would work if the game supports it. I forgot about that one.
 

Sonikku

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Jun 23, 2005
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I play WoW in native 4k on my 1060 but when I start up Battlefront it's either 4k on medium or 1080p on ultra. One thing I will say is that I can't ever go back to 1080p for WoW. For such a text heavy game, the text is so richly clear and easy to read from the couch on my dirt cheap 4k 65" tv.
 
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gradoman

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Yeah, the R9 290x can't reach a decent FPS at 1440p in some of the more taxing games, so I sometimes play in a windowed mode. I really liked that Doom 2016 ran native with all the candy on though.

Actually since I got into CRPGs, I can just run in native mode. Finally playing BG:EE after I finished Pillars of Eternity.
 

tviceman

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I really don't have a desire to do a window mode and sacrifice image size.

For 1440p (2560 x 1440) you would want to use 1280 x 720 to avoid visual distortions.

For 1080p, I don't know of a lower resolution you can use to avoid visual distortions. (I use my second monitor, a 1280 x 1024, if I need to run lower than 1080p for any reason)

Not all monitors have quality scale mechanisms.
 

postmortemIA

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Jul 11, 2006
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Most people use 1080p on 4k monitors when gaming....4k is 4 times the pixel count plus most games weren't designed for the 4k era.

Neither Windows nor graphics card scale this properly, they are both set to interpolate all resolutions beside native resolution. In other words, it looks bad even on 1/4 resolution. If you don't believe me, then drop your resolution to 1/4 while you're on desktop, and see how everything looks fuzzy like all non-native resolution.

OSX does this right though.
 

cbn

Lifer
Mar 27, 2009
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For 1440p (2560 x 1440) you would want to use 1280 x 720 to avoid visual distortions.

For 1080p, I don't know of a lower resolution you can use to avoid visual distortions. (I use my second monitor, a 1280 x 1024, if I need to run lower than 1080p for any reason)

Not all monitors have quality scale mechanisms.

Can you explain what you mean by that?

The reason I am asking is because 1280 x 720 is an even division of 2560 x 1440 in the same way 1920 x 1080 is an even division of 3840 x 2160.
 
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tential

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May 13, 2008
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It is better to run the game at medium settings at native resolution (4K) than Ultra settings at lower resolution (1080p).

I don't believe you Atenra.
I don't at all.
You once said to run a game at low 4K I think (could be wrong).
I couldn't get Overwatch to run with my 4K monitor. Set it to low 4K settings. I don't notice the difference. Actually, I like it better compared to 1080p eyecandy. The resolution makes is just beautiful.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, you can boost most texture settings if you set the preset to low. Just leave the more intensive ones off. The textures +4k resolution is what is nice.
That's better than lighting effect -70% fps effect ULTRA MAX DEATH SENTENCE TO FPS setting.

I'm converted. Get your game to work at playable 4K settings. It's a better experience.
 

CakeMonster

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Nov 22, 2012
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I'm still waiting for GPU, driver, and Windows support for playing in full screen on a non native resolution WITHOUT my desktop and open windows resizing and moving. I don't really have a problem with the fuzzyness that comes with the scaling, but my blood boils whenever a game starts up and everything I'm using gets resized.
 

AtenRa

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Feb 2, 2009
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I don't believe you Atenra.
I don't at all.
You once said to run a game at low 4K I think (could be wrong).
I couldn't get Overwatch to run with my 4K monitor. Set it to low 4K settings. I don't notice the difference. Actually, I like it better compared to 1080p eyecandy. The resolution makes is just beautiful.

Also, correct me if I'm wrong, you can boost most texture settings if you set the preset to low. Just leave the more intensive ones off. The textures +4k resolution is what is nice.
That's better than lighting effect -70% fps effect ULTRA MAX DEATH SENTENCE TO FPS setting.

I'm converted. Get your game to work at playable 4K settings. It's a better experience.

Yesterday i connected my PC (Core i7 3770K@4.4GHz + XFX RX 480 GTR Black 8GB) to my 49" 4K TV and played Star Wars Battlefront MP with custom settings (Medium//High) at constant 60fps. Also played 1-2 games of Paladins but forgot to use fraps.

I may do the same today and report back about lower resolutions than 4K.
 

f2bnp

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May 25, 2015
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Never downgrade, unless I'm using a CRT monitor. Everything else will have to go first, before I lower the resolution.
 

Piroko

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Jan 10, 2013
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Anyone here on 1440p or even 4k and thought about going back to 1080p for performance's sake?
Nope. I would hate to go back down to a pixel density below my 27" 1440p monitor (108 ppi) and I would hate to go back down in monitor diagonal as well (to keep a high ppi on 1080p). We'll have faster GPU options by the time HDR starts being relevant anyways, so that's a non-issue for me as well.
 

Flapdrol1337

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May 21, 2014
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Some games have a setting that lowers the rendered resolution but keeps the hud and such at native.

In doom with tssaa on a lower than native resolution looked quite decent. The world is rendered in lower than native res, but the game outputs to native res, and tssaa uses the data from previous frames to fill in the gaps I think.
 

tviceman

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Mar 25, 2008
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I'd downgrade my credit score first OP.

Hahaha. Well with some people saying 1080p + HDR looks better than 1440p without HDR it's got me curious. I'm sick of spending $400+ on graphics cards nearly every year. Some of it was me buying a new card that I didn't need, but I don't see the price trends reversing...ever. AMD has perhaps permanently fallen behind Nvidia's release cadence, especially at the higher end. 225mm2 chips generally just don't cut it at 1440p resolution at the start of their product life, if at all.
 
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Golgatha

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Jul 18, 2003
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No, I buy a video card capable of gaming at 1440p. Resolution is the absolute last thing I'll turn down to make a game playable. Thankfully I don't have to worry about doing that currently.
 

Yakk

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May 28, 2016
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Native 1440 for me. Good old CF 280x cards can still run it well (toning down AA a little with only 3GB). Next GPU will probably be Vega to cruise at full 144fps.

Next monitor will be for HDR, not 4K.
 

Zilog

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Jan 14, 2017
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Sadly it's no longer like the days of the good old CRTs when you can run any resolution you like. In general with modern screens only turn down resolution to hole divisions. So 4k to 1080 is ok and 1440 to 720 is also ok. As soon as you start getting fractions of pixels it all starts going poorly.
 

happy medium

Lifer
Jun 8, 2003
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I'm at 1080p and plan on staying there for a few years.
I wonder what will happen when 4k is mainstream, will people make themselves believe that 5k is better or mabe 8k?
I wonder when consumers will snap out of it and realize they are being ripped off? I would think that "they" will always find ways of making us pay more for something and upgrade for nothing.

Mabe that's where VR comes into play.
 

IEC

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Jun 10, 2004
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I'm at 1080p and plan on staying there for a few years.
I wonder what will happen when 4k is mainstream, will people make themselves believe that 5k is better or mabe 8k?
I wonder when consumers will snap out of it and realize they are being ripped off? I would think that "they" will always find ways of making us pay more for something and upgrade for nothing.

Mabe that's where VR comes into play.

I would never go back to 1920x1080. Having 2.39x more pixels on my main screen means I can be that much more productive.

4K 100% sRGB or better @ 100Hz+ with low input lag, 30 inch+, and Freesync and I would upgrade in a heartbeat.

VR has more room to grow as well.
 
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