How normal is it that a monitor can do a higher resolution than it's advertised?

[Kenrou]

TUF Gaming VG27WQ1B Curved, 27 inch WQHD 2560x1440, 165Hz, Extreme Low Motion Blur, Adaptive-sync, FreeSync Premium, 1ms, HDR10

I bought this monitor some 3 years ago, got it dirt cheap at the time, and has served me very well (despite the usual VA blurring issues in dark scenes), so when I went back to one of my fav games this caught me by surprise? I thought it was a glitch, but the rivatuner OSD at the top is completely centred (and bigger) at 1440p, so it seemed the game was actually doing 4k. I tried CRU (used it on older monitors to unlock higher refresh rates) and indeed it shows this monitor can do stable 4k at least ~85hz. I also double-checked pixel density, and this is supposedly pure 1440p at 109ppi? I know that some companies sometimes rebrand monitors because of price trends, but how "normal" is this?

 

[EarthDog]

Impossible? No idea. Can't make more pixels out of nothing. Upscaling? Game glitch (only one game can do this?)?

If you thought 'native' was 1440p, it would be blurry as it's not the native res (4k would be?) and doesn't divide nicely like 1080p does to look 'clear'.

Weird one...I can't imagine it's a native 4k panel parading around as 1440p though.

 

[mackerel]

It's a compatibility thing. 1440p isn't a common resolution outside of the PC space. Consumer media is most commonly 1080p or 4k. Adding in a virtual 4k mode means you can get better than 1080p out of the display for sources not directly supporting 1440p. It'll just downsample to fit.

 

[Kenrou]

Upscaling wasn't enabled (check image) and now that I force enabled it in CRU, desktop and all games can do it, so not a glitch. Both 1440p and 4k look crisp, but 4k looks too small (for me) on a 27" screen, desktop especially

Post magically merged: Jan 21, 2024

It's a compatibility thing. 1440p isn't a common resolution outside of the PC space. Consumer media is most commonly 1080p or 4k. Adding in a virtual 4k mode means you can get better than 1080p out of the display for sources not directly supporting 1440p. It'll just downsample to fit.

Can you explain that one a tad better? The monitor itself is down sampling from 4k to 1440p? So wouldn't that mean is a 4k panel?

 

[mackerel]

Can you explain that one a tad better? The monitor itself is down sampling from 4k to 1440p? So wouldn't that mean is a 4k panel?

Monitor panel is 1440p. Monitor processor can accept a higher resolution signal. To display that higher signal it downsamples it to 1440p for display.

 

[Kenrou]

So I guess that also answers by original question, I doubt this is very common, I don't imagine brands overspeccing monitors like this on the regular...

 

[EarthDog]

It's not overspec'd, though. It's still a 1440p panel/number of pixels.

What's the rare part? The acceptance of the signal and downsampling?

 

[Kenrou]

Is it not? Are all 1440p monitors made like this?

 

[mackerel]

I don't know how common it is but it isn't the first time I heard of it. Basically it gives extra value in some use cases that otherwise would lead to lower resolution than the display is capable of.

I've only one other device that does it, but it is a more modest difference. My TV is native UHD 3840x2160 but it also accepts true 4k which is 4096x2160.

 

[EarthDog]

My TV is native UHD 3840x2160 but it also accepts true 4k which is 4096x2160.

That's an NTSC/PAL thing for a TV, no? I'm not sure how that works.

Feels like that ability just the lowers the rate of seeing 'out of range' message when being presented with a signal different than the monitor's native res(?). I really don't know.

Is it not? Are all 1440p monitors made like this?

Genuinely asking, lol. I have no idea.

EDIT: Sorry, I meant DCI.... not NTSC/PAL.

 

[mackerel]

DCI defined 4096x2160 as 4k. The 3840x2160 that we call "4k" is actually UHD. Edit: Actually I'm not 100% sure on if 3840x2160 is just "UHD" or "4K UHD".

Since my TV is an OLED, it does the pixel shift thing to prevent burn-in effects so I never have 1:1 mapping anyway.

 

[EarthDog]

Sorry, yes. I know what it/they are. Just being the other common '4k res' I'd expect that to translate down to 4K UHD/UHD (w/e it is, lol).

EDIT: With a lot of content in 1080, scaling is what our 4K UHD TVs do.

 

[magellan]

In some older games (e.g. Dying Light, Dishonored 2, GTA IV) I can set the resolution to 5120x2880 on my 2560x1440 Asus PG279q, supersampling writ large.

I see mackerel's point different standards groups define 4K differently:

Examples of some 4K resolutions used in displays and media
Format	Resolution	Aspect ratio	Pixels
-	4096 × 3072	1.33∶1 (4∶3)	12,582,912
-	4096 × 2560	1.60∶1 (16∶10)	10,485,760
-	4096 × 2304	1.77∶1 (16∶9)	9,437,184
DCI 4K (full frame)	4096 × 2160	≈1.90∶1 (256∶135)	8,847,360
DCI 4K (CinemaScope cropped)	4096 × 1716	≈2.39∶1 (1024∶429)	7,020,544
DCI 4K (flat cropped)	3996 × 2160	1.85∶1 (37∶20)	8,631,360
WQUXGA	3840 × 2400	1.60∶1 (16∶10)	9,216,000
4K UHD	3840 × 2160	1.77∶1 (16∶9)	8,294,400
-	3840 × 1600	2.40∶1 (12∶5)	6,144,000
-	3840 × 1080	3.55∶1 (32∶9)	4,147,200
Vertical UHD	2160 × 3840	9:16	8,294,400

 

[rainless]

Isn't all this missing the obvious: You can set the in-game resolution to whatever you want. It doesn't mean your monitor is actually OUTPUTTING that resolution.

I could set any game I wanted to 4K... years before I had a 4K monitor. But that didn't mean anything.

 

[Kenrou]

Depends on the game, as far as I know only some very specific ones (engine based?) show any resolution besides the ones you see in Windows, you usually have to edit file settings to get more. In my case there's a distinct difference in the image, it gets smaller and the FPS tanks like you would expect from regular 4K. Using CRU also unlocked 4k in Windows, not just all games. Only thing I have to figure out in more depth at the moment is how far I can push refresh rate, was waiting to have more time now in the weekend to try it out.

 

[magellan]

If you don't enable DSR or DLDSR in the Nvidia CP I don't think you'll have the option of any resolutions greater than native.

 

[rainless]

If you don't enable DSR or DLDSR in the Nvidia CP I don't think you'll have the option of any resolutions greater than native.

That makes sense... That it would be more a video card thing than a monitor thing. (The monitor thing doesn't make sense. )

 

[Kenrou]

Ok, after further testing with NVCP and CRU, NVCP kinda crapped out with the previous settings, so I went full CRU, managed to get (stable) Automatic PC - 3840x2160, 73hz or 141hz interlaced, Native PC - 3840x2160, 73hz or 147hz interlaced. Not going to use either on Windows as the 4k image is tiny (to my eyes) at 27" and I really don't want to go back to lower refresh rates in games, so will stick to 1440p 165hz, but it's interesting to find out some screens can pull this off

Anyone got a newer version or something that does the same job? This one (1.5.2) was last updated in 2012...