1080p on 1440p Monitor

[Nicholars]

Hello, I am looking at getting a 1440p 27" monitor, if I got a 1440p monitor (AOC Q2770PQU or LG) and find that some games do not run well enough at 1440p, what would it be like if scaled to 1080p full screen? Would it be a lot worse than running on a 27" native 1080p monitor? If I do not have the money to get a new GPU every year to run new games max settings at 1440p will scaling it to 1080p full screen look terrible? I am guessing not great. Thanks.

 

[Richard Jones]

It really depends on the ability of the monitor's built-in scaler, some do a great job, others really fail.

The AOC Q2770PQU and LG 27MB85R are said to be among the best performers in that area (IIRC).

Of course on a 1920x1080 monitor, matching a 1920x1080p signal from your pc, there will be zero scaling, and therefore a sharper/crispier picture.

It's hard to narrow things down to a single choice, huh ?
You will never find the ideal monitor nor ever be 100% satisfied anyway.
Current display technologies are either dead (plasma), showing age (lcd), or too expensive and unaccomplished (oled).
1st world problems.

 

[sethk]

Why not let the video card scale, if you have a monitor with a poor scaler? Worth trying if you don't like the native scaling.

 

[Nicholars]

Why not let the video card scale, if you have a monitor with a poor scaler? Worth trying if you don't like the native scaling.

I don't have one yet, but I want a 27" screen and I was set on getting a 1440p screen, then I looked at benchmarks of games 1440p vs 1080p and now I am not sure, but if I could get a 1440p screen that could run 1080p full screen and still look 99% as good as a native 1080p screen that would not be a problem, I don't know how good the scaling is on 2014 monitors, its not very good on my NEC 20wgx2 monitor... My single GTX 970 can only just about run every game at 60fps 4xaa already so 1440p 2xaa is going to be 50% worse than that...

 

[Nikyo]

I'm in my experience interpolated 1080p looks the just about the same on a 1440p monitor with the exception of the BL3200PT, which has a relatively poor scalar. PCmonitors claims that the AOC has top notch interpolation in their review and I find that the LG performs the exact same in this category. As an added note, I was also actually pretty surprised by how well the LG scales 4:3 480p content when I tested it for Richard; it looks really good.

 

[Nicholars]

I'm in my experience interpolated 1080p looks the just about the same on a 1440p monitor with the exception of the BL3200PT, which has a relatively poor scalar. PCmonitors claims that the AOC has top notch interpolation in their review and I find that the LG performs the exact same in this category. As an added note, I was also actually pretty surprised by how well the LG scales 4:3 480p content when I tested it for Richard; it looks really good.

Hmm interesting, do you mean when scaled full screen ? (not 1:1 with black borders) does it cause any problems in games when its scaling to from 1440p > 1080p (full screen) when moving about in an FPS game for example? Also would scaling add to the input lag? Only way to know properly would be to buy one and try it, but if you say its almost the same quality maybe I will get a 1440p then, I just tried running far cry 4 at 1080p vs 1440p DSR and it was a lot worse FPS. I looked at getting the LG but only way would be to import it at about £600 and if anything goes wrong or get a bad screen it would be a nightmare to return it, no idea why that panel is available everywhere except UK

 

[cybereality]

Games would probably look better at 1440p on medium/low settings than 1080p-upscaled with high/ultra.

That said, you can run 1080p if you need to but obviously it's not ideal. It should work though.

 

[napkun]

Games would probably look better at 1440p on medium/low settings than 1080p-upscaled with high/ultra.

That said, you can run 1080p if you need to but obviously it's not ideal. It should work though.

This. At 1440p you can even turn down AA a notch or have it off completely. I went from a 23" 1080p to 27" 1440p on a single GTX 780 and for most of my games I just turn off AA and still get roughly the same performance as I did running on a 1080p monitor. A single 970 can max out most games out right now at 1080p, at 1440p lowering some of the graphical settings to high and lowering the AA should still produce better visuals than on 1080p anyways.

 

[Darwin32]

My single GTX 970 can only just about run every game at 60fps 4xaa already so 1440p 2xaa is going to be 50% worse than that...

Dude, a single GTX 970 is more than capable of running all the games at 1440p... Anti-aliasing makes little difference, so just disable it and you are all set.

 

[MacLeod]

Sure, if you're blind.

Yeah I tend to agree. Maybe it's not as important at 1440 but you'd still want a little. Maybe you don't need 8x anymore but at least 2x to polish things off.

And while a 970/290x are plenty for the vast majority of games at 1440, the really high end games like Crysis 3 or Far Cry 3 and the newer crop of games like DA:I will big down a 970/290x at max settings. And it looks like the trend in newer games is going to be a lot more demanding than the last gen stuff. I'd call a 970 or 290x the minimum you'd want at 1440 for high end gaming if you're looking for max settings and high frame rates.