Saturation decrease when playing at non-native resolution

[eltocliousus]

I have a GTX 670 and a DGM 27" 1440p display, sometimes I can't max a game at that resolution so I play at 1080p, but when I change to 1080p I notice a massive decrease in saturation and general sharpness, I can attribute the sharpness being used to 1440p now, but why is my game getting much more dull at this resolution?

Many thanks.

 

[toyota]

games will look better on reduced settings at the LCD's native resolution than maxed out below native resolution. IMO people that think otherwise are too blind to be commenting on anything image quality related.

 

[eltocliousus]

games will look better on reduced settings at the LCD's native resolution than maxed out below native resolution. IMO people that think otherwise are too blind to be commenting on anything image quality related.

I understand and agree, although I've found some games lose little fidelity when bumping resolution while others benefit largely, but what I don't understand is why I'm getting reduced saturation in colours, brighter blacks (les contrast) when I'm at a lower resolution, shouldn't just the resolution change?

 

[djsb]

I don't know exactly where to check with Nvidia drivers, but make sure that GPU or driver scaling is enabled. Sounds like maybe your monitor's scaler is ruining the image (or possibly misinterpreting a 1080p signal as a TV signal and doing some undesirable image processing), so scaling it with the video card before it even gets to the monitor would avoid that.

 

[bystander36]

The problem is that 1080p doesn't evenly divide into 1440p's resolution. You might find games look better at 720p than 1080p on the monitor, as the 720p will go into 1440p evenly. Using non-native resolutions require scaling, which some monitors do a very poor job at, and even when they do a good job, it can look poor. Another alternative is to not let it scale, and show black borders around the 1080p resolution. It'll shrink everything, but it'll remain sharp.

 

[toyota]

The problem is that 1080p doesn't evenly divide into 1440p's resolution. You might find games look better at 720p than 1080p on the monitor, as the 720p will go into 1440p evenly. Using non-native resolutions require scaling, which some monitors do a very poor job at, and even when they do a good job, it can look poor. Another alternative is to not let it scale, and show black borders around the 1080p resolution. It'll shrink everything, but it'll remain sharp.

what? using that logic I should run 960x540 instead of 1280x720 or 1600x900 on my 1920x1080 if I need to lower it? that makes no sense as the lower it goes then the worse that it looks. keeping 16:9 helps a little though and that is what matters more than evenly dividing because nothing is going to evenly divide except half the resolution.

 

[bystander36]

It is usually not a good idea to lower it anyways, but with some monitors, they do not scale things very well at all. They may simply make every other pixel double up. This causes very poor results. At least at half the resolution, every pixel remains is consistent. Others can scale better.

That said, turning off scaling may be best.

 

[eltocliousus]

Turns out it was was either a driver issue or an option that I accidentally messed with, I reverted from 320.00 to 314.22 and now when I change resolution it's just a little blurry, as it should be, the colours don't change!

Cheers.

 

[toyota]

Turns out it was was either a driver issue or an option that I accidentally messed with, I reverted from 320.00 to 314.22 and now when I change resolution it's just a little blurry, as it should be, the colours don't change!

Cheers.

:thumbsup: