How does 1080p gaming look on 4k screen?

[ANGRY MALICE]

Greetings,

Since I want a new thing in my life, the idea is to upgrade my current 24' 1080p 144hz panel to 28' 4k 144hz panel. I am looking at Gigabyte M28U. And use the current monitor as secondary when needed.
Thing is: right now I only have GTX 1070ti. I am thinking about upgrading to something like RTX 4070/80. But got to live and see when they will even come out and how much they will cost and what my financial situation will be, etc.
Either way, is there a big visual difference between running a game @1080p on a 1080p monitor vs running the game @1080p on 4k screen? I'd imagine they would be a bit blurrier because the screen would be larger.
So running games like that would be a temporary thing.

I have also looked at 1440p screens, but the thing is, I need to upgrade my GPU anyway and I figured if I bought a high end card, 4k would be nicer to have.

I hope you understand what I mean.

Thanks!

Oh, and if you're curious, the rest of my PC is:
11600k
2x16 RAM

[nullable]

Well, native would look better, but upside is 1080p is an optimal fraction, a 1080p screen is 1/4 a 4k screen and that works out pretty well. It would look better than if you went to 1440p or 900p at any rate.

That said, effectively quadrupling the size of a pixel isn't going to look as sharp or/detailed. However at 28 inches 4K pixels are pretty darn small.

[ANGRY MALICE]

Actually, I'd kind of like to get 32 inch 4k, but they are ~50% more expensive and maybe 32 inches would be too large, because I am sitting ~80cm from screen.
I kind of hate monitor shopping, because there is no way to just look at them without buying.

[nullable]

Well a 32" 4K would be nicer, you'd get a bit more of the 4K experience on the desktop. I tried using a 27" 4K monitor on my crappy work laptop, the two issues I had was I could only run it at 30hz (crappy laptop) and with the default Windows scaling it was pretty close to a 1440p monitor (which I could run at 60hz) so no improvements there.

A 32" monitor should afford you less scaling and thus more workspace (which is what I really wanted).

At 27"/28" maybe 1440p is a better upgrade? It looks pretty nice next to a 27" 4K.

Maybe next monitor I go for will be a 32/34 inch 4K, otherwise I think 27" 1440p would be my sweet spot.

[ANGRY MALICE]

Yeah, I've heard that 27' goes well with 1440p and then 32' with 4k.
I dunno. Some say that you can't really see much of a difference between 1440p and 4k @27 inches. Others say that you can.
And I agree Windows does not do scaling well, so it would be better to be able to run at 100% without straining the eyes.

Maybe I'll go for 32inch instead. Its just that I can't afford everything at once and I figured to start with a monitor.

Anyway, thanks for the responses, Mr. Plissken. Actually, I've seen you before, long time ago. Heh.

[r.linder]

Publicado originalmente por ANGRY MALICE:

Since I want a new thing in my life, the idea is to upgrade my current 24' 1080p 144hz panel to 28' 4k 144hz panel. I am looking at Gigabyte M28U. And use the current monitor as secondary when needed.
Thing is: right now I only have GTX 1070ti.

Wait until you buy a new GPU before you buy a new monitor, there's no sense in buying into 2160p/4K when you don't have a powerful enough video card for it and would have to run 1080p on a 2160p panel, which would look worse than native 1080p, which already looks pretty bad as it is if you've ever used a native 1440p or 2160p monitor. Again, wait until after you buy a new GPU, we have no idea what's going to happen when Lovelace launches, but it could go the same way that Ampere did, and it could take you months to get a GPU that could actually handle 2160p at decent settings. Crypto is on vacation, it can come back and screw the market again. NVIDIA is basically counting on it, because they've allegedly started making 3080s again after 2 months after ceasing production of many Ampere GPUs. They have an excess of stock because they made too many, while cryptomining ended up having another temporary crash.

Publicado originalmente por ANGRY MALICE:

I am looking at Gigabyte M28U

Don't buy Gigabyte monitors, their quality and support fall hard below their AORUS branding, they don't give a single damn about users that aren't buying their premium stuff, I've heard a lot of Gigabyte users basically getting shafted on warranty because the warranty support on their non-AORUS is not nearly as helpful. When in doubt: LG, Dell, Samsung, Acer, and Asus put out the best monitors, but pay attention to reviews for potential caveats with individual models.
While Gigabyte pats you on the back for buying AORUS, they effectively punish you for not buying AORUS by giving you lower quality garbage, with a higher rate of failure, with a worse warranty. Monitor defects are *very* common.

Publicado originalmente por ANGRY MALICE:

Either way, is there a big visual difference between running a game @1080p on a 1080p monitor vs running the game @1080p on 4k screen? I'd imagine they would be a bit blurrier because the screen would be larger.
So running games like that would be a temporary thing.

I have also looked at 1440p screens, but the thing is, I need to upgrade my GPU anyway and I figured if I bought a high end card, 4k would be nicer to have.

1080p native would look better than 1080p stretched on a 2160p panel, always. Like I said, just wait. Doesn't matter if it's temporary, don't blow money on a monitor when you can't guarantee you'll have a GPU that can run that anytime soon, which you can't guarantee. We don't know what'll happen tomorrow or next week.

2160p is something for at least a 3080, anything less and you may as well not even bother, and in most cases, you won't be getting anywhere near 144 FPS unless you fine tune settings for more performance without degrading quality too much, but even then, the 3080 Non-Ti might still struggle since it's only a tad bit faster than the 2080 Ti, I'd say at least a 3080 Ti for 2160p 144Hz. 1440p 144Hz+ is much more manageable, it's the perfect balance between quality and performance. 2160p might look nicer, but GPU hardware won't be there quite yet until Lovelace, assuming the 4060 is anywhere as fast as a 3080.

[ANGRY MALICE]

Wow, thanks. You make some solid points and thanks for warning about Gigabyte. Yeah, Dell usually have a really nice build quality.

I'd say that 90+ fps feels good enough @144hz in single player shooters and some slower paced MP ones. I don't have to have locked 144fps. Stuff like 3rd person whatever.. rpgs/action or strategy games are fine even at +-60.

Right now I have only one monitor so games are not the only reason why I want another screen. Lately I get more and more situations, where I could really use another screen. So I wanna buy one and I figured to future proof right away since I also wanna play stuff.

I am aware that I could get stuck with 1070ti for a while longer,should the gpu situation go to hell once more.

[nullable]

Publicado originalmente por ANGRY MALICE:

Yeah, I've heard that 27' goes well with 1440p and then 32' with 4k.
I dunno. Some say that you can't really see much of a difference between 1440p and 4k @27 inches. Others say that you can.

There is a difference. It's not 1:1. Both provide a detailed, pixel dense, experience. And while someone might prefer a 27" 4K I don't think you could take them serious if they were to argue 27" 1440p looks bad, or so much worse.

I think I prefer 1440p because it's on par with 4K on that screen size, but it takes less power to run. You're getting some diminishing returns with the pixel increase on such a small screen I think. Although with DLSS or FidelityFX the demands of 4K are lessened somewhat too so even that becomes less of an argument.

On larger screens 4K will become a better and more desirable option.

There's gotta be some shops around by you that sell PC/Gaming stuff that would have things that would give you some idea though right? Although I grew up in the boonies, so know sometimes "by you" means half way across the state.

[ANGRY MALICE]

Publicado originalmente por Snakub Plissken:

There's gotta be some shops around by you that sell PC/Gaming stuff that would have things that would give you some idea though right? Although I grew up in the boonies, so know sometimes "by you" means half way across the state.

"Boonies". Had too google that one. =D

Its been a couple of years, but last time I strolled into a big tech store. They sure had a ton of TVs to show off and then a small shelf of some standard office-grade monitors. Maybe something has changed.
But yeah, its annoying to look at yt videos and they tell you: this one has good colors, the other one does not. In a video they all look the same to me. :D

[nullable]

Well, in general if you read around between user reviews and professional reviews you should be able to get an idea whether most people like a particular screen or configuration or not.

If everywhere you go monitor X has stellar reviews, I haven't been burnt by that yet, even if you still feel like you're taking a chance.

[ANGRY MALICE]

Publicado originalmente por Snakub Plissken:

Well, in general if you read around between user reviews and professional reviews you should be able to get an idea whether most people like a particular screen or configuration or not.

If everywhere you go monitor X has stellar reviews, I haven't been burnt by that yet, even if you still feel like you're taking a chance.

Fair enough.

I guess I should not stress too much about this. Usually by doing some research you get a product thats "good enough".

Anyway, my original question has been anwered. I was simply curious about what to expect since I am planning on getting a monitor either way.

[_I_]

1080p looks perfect on a 4k display
its evenly double pixeled

[MonkehMaster]

i run 1080p on a 55in 4k tv and it looks great, so i see no reason you couldnt do 1080p on a 32" 4k monitor.

fyi, the 55in 4k tv is my main and i have a 1080p 50in as my secondary

[_I_]

for 4k you want a 50+in
32in 4k is the same pixel size of a 16in 1080p

[Jamebonds1]

I only have 50" TV with 4K and PS5, but I can tell you I barely notice different between 1080p and 4k in game. I think 4KTV worth it because you do not see a black grid easily.

[ANGRY MALICE]

You probably are not sitting right next to a 50+ inch screen and using it as a monitor, no?
There is a difference between a monitor and a tv.