Question about 2160p native resolution vs 1440p native resolution.

[jadedzero]

So here's my quick question with an explanation below. If I own a 2160p(4k) native monitor and I attempted to go to a lower resolution, 1440p, will this lower resolution look worse than if I was using a native resolution 1440p monitor?

Basically, I am attempting to compare what 1440p looks like to determine if I want to buy a secondary monitor that can handle higher refresh rates. I have a 2160p monitor and a PC that can handle it, but my understanding is that if you do not run a resolution at what your monitors native resolution.

Ultimately, what I am getting at here is, Do I need to buy a 1440p native resolution monitor in order to really know how good 1440p resolution is gonna look?

Thanks for any advice you guys can give me! 🙂

[Slitzerikai]

From the reviews and technical discussions I've read and watched, you will have scaling issues with downscaling from 4k to 1440p.
There are some discussions about this exact question actually, and has been discussed over a few videos by Linus of LinusTechTips.

Obviously things will look better when something is in a 'native' resolution, as that is what the monitor is built for and specced around.
I'm curious though as to why it would matter if you DID have a secondary monitor at 1440p? What is your desired use of it exactly? Unless you're going to be using a Surround experience to combine the two monitors for gaming or something, I don't see a problem with having your gaming screen at 1440p with high refresh rates, while having the 4k as well.

>>Discussion Link<<

[jadedzero]

The desired use of it is to play games at higher refresh rates and to ultimately get a 21:9 monitor. I am really hoping the QC on the new asus 34 inch is decent because it would be great to have a gsync monitor that i can play at 80fps for first person shooters or games like Elite. Basically, I am getting 40 - 50 fps on games on my 2160p monitor, and I want to experience double that. I am hoping the tradeoff is worth it (higher refresh rate but a lower resolution)

[Slitzerikai]

jadedzero wrote:
The desired use of it is to play games at higher refresh rates and to ultimately get a 21:9 monitor. I am really hoping the QC on the new asus 34 inch is decent because it would be great to have a gsync monitor that i can play at 80fps for first person shooters or games like Elite. Basically, I am getting 40 - 50 fps on games on my 2160p monitor, and I want to experience double that. I am hoping the tradeoff is worth it (higher refresh rate but a lower resolution)

In my opinion, the price to performance ratio for 4K just isn't there yet. I myself AM getting the PG348Q and have been waiting for it to finally freakin' show up (it took way too long -.-). Honestly, I think high refresh with 1440p to me sounds like the perfect medium for high end gaming in today's market. The 21:9 AR I know will have some caveats and will still have to be run in 16:9 for certain scenarios, but I'm more than willing to deal with that. The 21:9 AR with 1440p at 100hz? Sounds perfect to me.

But ultimately, if you're just going to do a dual monitor set-up and game on one, why would you need to downscale the 4K monitor? I don't see why you couldn't have a 1440p native monitor AND a 4K monitor used as a secondary, provided of course you have powerful enough GPUs with enough VRAM to cover the high resolutions on both monitors at once.

[Kylis]

It will look worse because its not an even scaling. like 1080 is an even scaling down of 4k but since 1440 isn't a scaling of 1080 like 4k is but a scaling of 720 it will not translate as well as an even scaling would.