Downscaling vs Real Thing

[CanadaOne]

And the title says it. 

 

I can downscale my 1080P monitor to play make believe and show "1440P", and it does look better, but I'm curious how much better the real 1440P would look compared to the downscaled make believe 1440P? And would the performance be about the same?

 

Thanks. 

[dburne]

I would think native should both perform better and look better.

But wait and see what others that have actually done this have to say.

[RedKestrel]

38 minutes ago, CanadaOne said:

And the title says it. 

 

I can downscale my 1080P monitor to play make believe and show "1440P", and it does look better, but I'm curious how much better the real 1440P would look compared to the downscaled make believe 1440P? And would the performance be about the same?

 

Thanks. 

I did the same before buying my 1440p monitor, to test how 1440p would stress my card. I didn't test too extensively, just enough to try 1080p vs. 1440p on a given scenario.

It makes spotting much, much worse (this was before the spotting update, not sure it would affect spotting as badly now). Things are a bit sharper but not as sharp as native 1440p. It looks better than 1080p but not as good as 1440p.

I would say for me downscaled 1080p was maybe halfway between 1080p and 1440p in terms of prettiness, for roughly the same load on your system. But at least at that time it compromised playability quite a bit. 1440p is worth the investment IMO, especially if you are going for big screen size.

[CanadaOne]

Thanks. 

 

I'm thinking about a 32" monitor. Or even a new "hot rod" 27".  My 1080P performance is good to great in IL2/DCS/FS20. Downscaled is still very good in IL2 and good in DCS. Haven't tried FS20 yet, but I will. 

[RedKestrel]

1 hour ago, CanadaOne said:

Thanks. 

 

I'm thinking about a 32" monitor. Or even a new "hot rod" 27".  My 1080P performance is good to great in IL2/DCS/FS20. Downscaled is still very good in IL2 and good in DCS. Haven't tried FS20 yet, but I will. 

I use a 27 inch at 1440p. At 32 inches you might see a little bit of fuzziness due to reduced pixel density per inch, but that is subjective. When I was researching monitors it seemed like 27" was the sweet spot for 1440p. I have a GTX1660 Super and at middle to high settings on multiplayer Il-2 runs very smooth at 60 FPS or more under most conditions. I can't speak to higher framerates, my monitor goes up to 75hz but there is no frame limit setting for that refresh rate in Il-2, and not having one plays hell with G-sync it seems so I lock it at 60 and have no problems there.

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

2 hours ago, CanadaOne said:

but I'm curious how much better the real 1440P would look compared to the downscaled make believe 1440P? And would the performance be about the same?

 

Real 1440 looks significantly better. Downscaling 1440 to 1080 decreases jaggies, but the downside is blurriness that can ruin some details. True 1440p gives you the best of both worlds. The performance should be very similar.

 

From personal experience, I'd say that 27" is a reasonable size. I wouldn't pay much more for an otherwise equivalent 32". As always, do your research before buying a monitor as there's more to it than just resolution, size, and refresh rate.

Edited September 30, 2020 by Mitthrawnuruodo

[CanadaOne]

Thank you both, appreciate that. I did notice blurriness in FS20 at "1440P" downscaled.

 

Thinking of an LG monitor, seen some good reviews. Not cheap though. 

[RedKestrel]

11 minutes ago, CanadaOne said:

Thank you both, appreciate that. I did notice blurriness in FS20 at "1440P" downscaled.

 

Thinking of an LG monitor, seen some good reviews. Not cheap though. 

This is the one I got recently: https://www.amazon.ca/Acer-V277U-FreeSync-Monitor-Speakers/dp/B07M9V8XNQ

 

27 inch 75 hz refresh, with FreeSync. A huge improvement over my old crappy 1080p monitor - it had more problems than just the resolution.

[CanadaOne]

2 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

This is the one I got recently: https://www.amazon.ca/Acer-V277U-FreeSync-Monitor-Speakers/dp/B07M9V8XNQ

 

27 inch 75 hz refresh, with FreeSync. A huge improvement over my old crappy 1080p monitor - it had more problems than just the resolution.

 

Yeah, that's an option. But I would prefer no speakers. 

 

The problem with hardware shopping is it's so easy to spend a lot of time doing it. Before I bought my 2060 Super, I watched enough reviews and comparisons on the Youtube to eclipse a Lord of the Rings movie for running length. But I was happy with the card after I got it, so there's that. 

[ST_Catchov]

7 hours ago, RedKestrel said:

I use a 27 inch at 1440p. At 32 inches you might see a little bit of fuzziness due to reduced pixel density per inch, but that is subjective. When I was researching monitors it seemed like 27" was the sweet spot for 1440p. I have a GTX1660 Super and at middle to high settings on multiplayer Il-2 runs very smooth at 60 FPS or more under most conditions. I can't speak to higher framerates, my monitor goes up to 75hz but there is no frame limit setting for that refresh rate in Il-2, and not having one plays hell with G-sync it seems so I lock it at 60 and have no problems there.

 

I've got an old 24" 1080p (without speakers, prefer headset) and I'm thinking of upgrading to a "sweet spot" 27" 1440p. Seems I have pretty much the same rig specs and settings as you do. What would you recommend? I've had a look around but geez they're pretty expensive. Sign of the covid times I guess **sigh**

[RedKestrel]

47 minutes ago, ST_Catchov said:

 

I've got an old 24" 1080p (without speakers, prefer headset) and I'm thinking of upgrading to a "sweet spot" 27" 1440p. Seems I have pretty much the same rig specs and settings as you do. What would you recommend? I've had a look around but geez they're pretty expensive. Sign of the covid times I guess **sigh**

Well I posted the one I bought in a comment just above. Im very happy with it, the colour, contrast, and quality of the picture is good and even the speakers aren’t too bad. It’s on the cheaper end for 1440p because the refresh rate is relatively low. But not cheap to be sure. I got it for 350, looks like it’s now on for a little less than that. High res monitors are not going to be cheap. Best thing would be to put some on a wish list on the site and have it tell you if they go on sale, you can save money that way.