4K monitor used in 1080p: how does it look?

Superlevure

Superlevure

Superlevure

Associate
Joined
9 Jun 2015
Posts
142
Dear all,

I was just reading the reviews of an Asus 24'' in 4K, which sounds crazy to me as even a GTX1080 struggles with 4K.

But then it seems people are not against using a 1080p resolution on a 4K screen, arguing that visual quality is not impacted as the 4K resolution is a multiple of the 1080p resolution.

To me, not using a monitor with its native resolution always looks dreadful: have things really changed?
 
No things have not changed. People with no real-world experience mistakenly believe that '4K' UHD monitors simply display Full HD with perfect 1:4 scaling and therefore do not lose any sharpness. In practice, they use exactly the same interpolation process used for any other non-native resolution. This varies depending on monitor model, so you'd have to refer to reviews of specific models on websites like my own for information on interpolation performance.
 
That was my feeling too. I didn't know your website, it's quite nice.

So I guess I'll still have to look out for the rare 27'' 1080p gsync monitors on the market.. It's a shame many only have dp and no HDMI at all.
 
PCM2 said:
No things have not changed. People with no real-world experience mistakenly believe that '4K' UHD monitors simply display Full HD with perfect 1:4 scaling and therefore do not lose any sharpness. In practice, they use exactly the same interpolation process used for any other non-native resolution. This varies depending on monitor model, so you'd have to refer to reviews of specific models on websites like my own for information on interpolation performance.
Click to expand...

It is one thing I don't really understand with 4K displays - on my AOC for instance every pixel is where it should be - no anti-aliasing or distortion but the overall picture is definitely a touch softer (not blurry) looking compared side by side with a native 1080p panel of the same physical size.

But yeah so far from my experience albeit not as extensive as your own I've not found a 4K display that does it perfectly the best have some loss of sharpness and a fair few have interpolation artefacts like anti-aliasing like effect on edges/corners, etc.
 
I can tell you that 1080p looks as good on my 28" 4K display as 1080p does on a 27" 1080p display. The pixels on both are sufficiently large to be not just visible but noticeable. From that I conclude that 1080p on a 24" 4K display will be just fine. Plus you get the benefits of fonts at 4K. Comparing the text on my 4K monitor with the text on my 1200p monitor is like comparing night and day. It's a massive qualitative improvement.
 
Apparently, the notion that 1080p content viewed on a 4K UHD display will always look just as sharp as if it were a native 1080p monitor is a myth:

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/278610-display-technology-faqmythbuster/

"Most 4K monitors do not scale 1080p with simple 4:1 pixel mapping, no interpolation, despite the fact that it’s an exact fraction of 3840×2160. Most monitors will still interpolate the image."
 
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