Will a 4k monitor perfectly down scale to 1080p

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Thinking of getting a 4k monitor down the line. But when it down scales to 1080p (for certain games or videos etc) how does it look? I'm kind of hoping that because it's 4x the resolution that it can just turn a square of 4 pixels into 1? Basically does it look as good as 1080p looks on a 1080p monitor? And side note. When will 4k monitors with a higher refresh rate arrive?
 
Never seen one that does it perfectly - some do it fairly well with only minor softening of the image though.
 
Like Rroff says, I have two 4k monitors of different brands and both soften the 1080p images. I play console games on both and some games look worse than others. The Division for example is pretty bad with it when you're used to 4k graphics.
 
That's really annoying and surprising. You would assume that it would just divide the screen such that 4 block square pixels become 1 pixel. Hardly difficult is it? Then you will have a sharp and perfectly accurate 1080p image.

I knew that resolutions like 1440p had issues with interpolation because it cant resize it easily or perfectly. but with 1080p I thought it would be so simple.
 
I mean seriously, how hard can it be? Why would this process create any softening?

1080p.png
 
Download an image file. Zoom to 200%, this is in effect what you're wanting to do.

You want to stretch 1 pixel of image information on to 4 display pixels of the screen - as a result you'll get a level of blur (lack of sharpness, however you want to describe it) associated with doing this.

However, the smaller the 4k screen the more pixel dense it is - so in theory the less of a problem it would be.
 
You're effectively stretching 1 pixel of information being rendered over 4 physical pixels on the display itself though - that's why you get blurring.
 
In theory though there shouldn't be any blurring - in practice so far I've not seen a 4K display that does it perfectly not sure why - I have by no means an exhaustive experience but have tested around 6 different models and own the original AOC 4K myself.

Have to say as well - if you can try and test a 4K display before purchasing - I jumped on the bandwagon but ultimately ended up with a 2560x1440@144Hz panel as my main monitor and a 21:9 ultrawide IPS alongside it and the 4K is rarely used.
 
That's really annoying and surprising. You would assume that it would just divide the screen such that 4 block square pixels become 1 pixel. Hardly difficult is it? Then you will have a sharp and perfectly accurate 1080p image.

I knew that resolutions like 1440p had issues with interpolation because it cant resize it easily or perfectly. but with 1080p I thought it would be so simple.

There aren't issues, at least not visible to the human eye.

I bought a Dell 25" 1440p monitor, and quite frankly it's miles better than my two previous 1080p ones.

Videos look no different, images look clearer (and you can see more of a HQ image on screen). 4K is a gimmick. The same 4K@60fps video I had on my previous 4K monitor (which I got rid of), looks the exact same on my 1080p and 1440p monitors. Pointless.

That said, i'm not a gamer, so it may be different...
 
Never seen one that does it perfectly - some do it fairly well with only minor softening of the image though.

Not doubting what it looks like, as haven't got a 4K Screen to test, but in my head it makes no sense.

If anything the image should be harsher rather than softer, as aliasing (e.g. on diagonal lines etc) should be more pronounced by being scaled up.
 
4K is a gimmick. The same 4K@60fps video I had on my previous 4K monitor (which I got rid of), looks the exact same on my 1080p and 1440p monitors. Pointless.

That said, i'm not a gamer, so it may be different...

I don't know how you can say that. When I saw a 4K TV first time....well it's astonishing. It's like looking out of a window. its night and day over 1080p.
 
Not doubting what it looks like, as haven't got a 4K Screen to test, but in my head it makes no sense.

If anything the image should be harsher rather than softer, as aliasing (e.g. on diagonal lines etc) should be more pronounced by being scaled up.

Yeah I dunno why it is like that - as there is no noticeable distortion of pixel positions i.e. all lines of the same fatness show as the same fatness rather than some being 1 pixel wider than others - I've not compared closely to see if there is any anti-aliasing type effect from downsampling.

I don't know how you can say that. When I saw a 4K TV first time....well it's astonishing. It's like looking out of a window. its night and day over 1080p.

When I first got it I had the same 4K youtube video running at 4K on the AOC 4K panel and 1080p on the BenQ XL2420T I had for gaming at the time beside it and the difference in detail was massive, what little high bit-rate 4K video I could get my hands on didn't disappoint. Ultimately though I never really got on with it for gaming outside of elite dangerous and some racing games where I was using a wheel/other controller which was an awesome experience but personally I just couldn't get on with it for i.e. FPS gaming on keyboard and mouse (and it wasn't just the lack of high refresh rate).

EDIT: My experience may have been a little more positive with 4K at 40 or so inch size screen rather than 28 though some of the issues I had with gaming would have still remained - a few games I could never get a good mouse feel where I could rapidly move large distances over the screen while still retaining precision for more finer moves for instance while on 1440p I'm completely untroubled by that.
 
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There aren't issues, at least not visible to the human eye.

I bought a Dell 25" 1440p monitor, and quite frankly it's miles better than my two previous 1080p ones.

Videos look no different, images look clearer (and you can see more of a HQ image on screen). 4K is a gimmick. The same 4K@60fps video I had on my previous 4K monitor (which I got rid of), looks the exact same on my 1080p and 1440p monitors. Pointless.

That said, i'm not a gamer, so it may be different...

Games will be clearer to tell the higher resolution (inch for inch) than film, but for what it's worth I can see a clear difference between the same film at 1080P compared to 4K/2160P on my 34" ultrawide.
 
I don't know how you can say that. When I saw a 4K TV first time....well it's astonishing. It's like looking out of a window. its night and day over 1080p.

4K TV is a bit different to 4K monitor. The difference becomes more noticeable at bigger screen sizes.

Take a high quality 4K video and play it on both a 4K monitor alongside a 1080p monitor, you won't notice a difference, not at least on a PC monitor.
 
Well if you don't notice the difference between 4k and 1080p on a monitor. How the he'll is everyone raving at 1440p!?

Because 1440p offers an ideal compromise between the two.

You don't need to scale it (even at 25"), you get plenty more real estate than 1080, and it doesn't bring your GPU to its knees like 4K does.

In the gaming world those extra pixels shown in 4K are noticeable, but require spending a fortune to achieve those gains. For films, it makes no bleeding difference. The source of the film/video is more important than the resolution.
 
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