4K60 to 1440p144?

squerble

squerble

squerble

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Has anyone switched from 4K @ 60fps to 1440p @ 144Hz and regretted it? I've currently got a 4K60 monitor which I use for both my gaming PC and extending my MacBook Air (scaled 200% 1080p for Retina-like goodness), and I'm considering getting a 1440p/144 monitor to try out higher frame rates in games. I'm not a competitive player - somewhere between casual and enthusiast - and mostly play simulation games so 144Hz will likely be limited in usefulness but I'd like to have that option around for when I dip my toes into more combat-based games etc (for example, I'm trying to get into Skyrim at the moment).


As a related question, 1440p @ 144Hz is about 7% more pixels per second than 4K @ 60Hz, so can I expect similar performance levels from my 6800XT? If I play games that won't benefit from the higher frame rates, I guess I could drop the refresh rate back down to 60Hz, in which case the GPU only needs to pump out 44% of what it would at 4K meaning I could probably be able to crank game settings?
 
No but I know I would absolutley regret downgrading from 4K to 1440p as I would find it really noticable downgrade. 4K 144hz screens are pretty affordable nowadays, why not get one of them instead of downgrading? You can always lower the resolution if you feel the need to.
 
Captain_Bosh said:
No but I know I would absolutley regret downgrading from 4K to 1440p as I would find it really noticable downgrade. 4K 144hz screens are pretty affordable nowadays, why not get one of them instead of downgrading? You can always lower the resolution if you feel the need to.
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I had considered this, but the 6800XT is already getting pretty heavily used at 4K60, so not sure I'd be able to get much above 60fps without topping the card out, plus I'm very much "native or nothing" on the resolution as I can't stand how everything looks when it's not native.
 
What is the screen size? I doubt you'd notice a difference if it's a 27" but maybe more noticeable above that.

Resolution aside, 144hz is a noticeable improvement over 60.
 
squerble said:
4K is 27", and the 1440 would very likely be a 27" too.
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I personally don't see the point in 4K on a 27" - you will lose some resolution scaling options with your MacBook though.

A higher refresh rate does do more for competitive games, but I'll still run most AAA titles at 90-120FPS as it is a smoother experience.

If you plan on upgrading your GPU next year, then it could be worth considering 32" 4K, possibly look at OLED too. Really depends on budget and future plans.
 
Having both a 3440x1440 and 4k qd-oled displays, when games load in textures properly for res < 4k, it's not a huge difference but when they don't load in the higher res. assets etc. it's extremely noticeable.

Games with TAA also look noticeably better at higher res. With your take on "native or nothing", I presume you are also turning off TAA anti aliasing in games too then? The only way I would stick with 1440p and you do in fact use TAA based methods.... is if you intend on getting a nvidia gpu, being able to use DLDSR resolves this and brings 1440p very close to native 4k, the performance hit is a bit more though due to the DLDSR overhead.

You are missing out on a lot of performance by refusing to use upscaling, even fsr quality at 4k is decent enough to use (depending on the game and what you are sensitive to with regards to ghosting, shimmering, aliasing, jaggies, temporal stability) but if you went nvidia, you could use the lower upscaling modes i.e. performance and still get better IQ and performance than native 1440p.

Having tested all forms of res, upscaling, upsampling and so on out now:

From IQ POV:

DLSS quality 4k > native 4k > DLSS perf. at 4k > fsr quality 4k > 1440p with dlss perf. and DLDSR > native 1440p (both TAA and no TAA)

From performance POV:

DLSS/FSR perf. at 4k > 1440P with DLSS/FSR quality > 1440p with DLSS perf. and DLDSR > DLSS/FSR quality 4k > native 1440p (both TAA and no TAA) > native 4k
 
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Mesai said:
I personally don't see the point in 4K on a 27" - you will lose some resolution scaling options with your MacBook though.

A higher refresh rate does do more for competitive games, but I'll still run most AAA titles at 90-120FPS as it is a smoother experience.

If you plan on upgrading your GPU next year, then it could be worth considering 32" 4K, possibly look at OLED too. Really depends on budget and future plans.
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Probably have said this in the OP, but I'll keep the 4K 27" around regardless, it'll just be kept for my MacBook only.

No real plans for GPU upgrade at the moment - I've got a honeymoon, split air conditioning system, bedroom window, and new front door to pay/save for first :D so my current setup will get sweated for a while (not that it's a bad setup).
 
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