4K vs 1440p vs 1080p - What Monitor Resolution Should You Buy?

[Music] welcome back to hardware unboxed today we're going to be talking about monitor formats and specifically what sort of format you should think about buying are you ready to step up into the world of 4k gaming or is a more traditional 1440p or even 1080p display ideal for your setup what about ultrawide displays how do they fit into the picture so we're going to answer some of the major questions we often hear in this video for 2022. primarily we'll be looking at the monitor options you can get on the market today and how the pricing structures differ for each line for example generally how much more expensive is it to go with a 4k monitor over 1440p and what sacrifices are you making along the way what sort of gpu performance hurdles are there to upgrading or choosing a higher resolution we test so many monitors across each year and somehow we've never really talked about this so let's give it my best shot i'm going to start here with a discussion on 1080p monitors because whenever i review a 1080p display i often see comments asking why would you buy a 1080p monitor in this day and age and i think there are two primary reasons why you might still consider a 1080p display the first reason to go 1080p is simply that they are the most affordable monitor format if you don't have a lot of cash to spend 1080p might be your only choice as it stands today some really excellent 1080p monitors often go on sale for below 200 us like the aoc 24 g2 so if you only have 200 us to spend you can still end up with a decent 144hz 1080p display that will be good for gaming meanwhile the price floor for 1440p monitors is around 250 and at that price you're not exactly getting the best that 1440p has to offer whereas today budget 1080p ips panels are really quite decent in how they look and perform for a lot of buyers saving up the extra 50 to 100 to grab a higher resolution display is a tough ask especially when that extra cash may be better put towards a pc hardware upgrade like a faster gpu and with the vast majority of today's mainstream gpus being able to run games at 1080p high quality settings at decent frame rates choosing a 1080p display ensures that your pc will be able to run games without issues or other sacrifices especially at a 24 inch size where the pixels don't feel too massive i really think the experience is very good for budget shoppers the other reason for buying 1080p is that you primarily play competitive esports games the majority of competitive gamers and even the pro level tournaments of today use 1080p monitors the reason for that is that 1080p monitors are available at higher refresh rates than any other display format on the market and the requirements of running games at this resolution are low allowing for super high frame rates the combination of a high refresh rate and a high frame rate substantially reduces latency compared to other configurations which gives serious competitive gamers an edge at times this edge might be small but any small advantage could lead to victory in an otherwise very even playing field for gamers starting out with more serious competitive play 1080p 240hz displays are pretty affordable these days options like the lg 27 gn750 and asus vg259qm are usually available below 300 us and are a great entry point to high refresh gaming while still providing great ips image quality not the crappy tn tech of old if you wanted that refresh rate but at a higher 1440p resolution you're faced with spending at least double the price which puts that sort of display well out of reach of most mainstream or mid-range pc gamers if i'm faced with the option of 1080p 240hz or 1440p 144hz at the same price which is the case right now and if i was wanting the best fast-paced competitive experience i'd definitely be opting for the 1080p display 1080p also services high-end competitive game as well with 360hz options and several top end tn options with excellent backlight strobing for the clearest image quality such as the benq xl 2546k those sorts of features yet to make it across to 1440p displays so 1080p is easily justified here if that's what you're after when should you step up to 1440p well as i've said in many reviews over the last few years 1440p is the sweet spot for gamers today and in this video i'll kind of explain myself the main reason for saying this comes down to the pricing structure of today's monitors let's take a look at a typical medium refresh rate monitor something around 144 hertz and 27 inches in size for a 1080p display you're looking at between 200 and 250 us for a decent but still budget-friendly 1440p display like the gigabyte m27q pricing is between 300 and 350 dollars then to jump up to 4k 144 hertz and get a product like gigabytes m28u 600 to 650 us in other words going from 1080p to 1440p is costing you about 50 more for a display panel of similar quality same sort of response times ips technology same great colors and so on but then going from 1440p to 4k is costing you a hundred percent more right now or double the price many people including myself feel that the step up from 1080p to 1440p in games is visually more substantial than going from 1440p to 4k at these sorts of panel sizes so being able to get that sort of upgrade at only a 50 increase to pricing is great bang for buck then normalizing for price let's say you want to spend 350 on a monitor your options here are a 1080p 240hz display like we've just talked about a 1440p 170hz ish display or a 4k 60hz display unless you are really keen on competitive gaming the 1440p 170hz display is going to be the most balanced delivering a decent resolution to keep games looking nice and crisp while also delivering a decent refresh rate to ensure smooth gameplay 4k options at this price lack a good refresh rate for gaming while 1080p monitors lack the resolution especially if you're playing today's visually stunning aaa titles 1440p sits nicely in the middle and offers something for everyone but it's not just the bang for buck factor that makes 1440p a good choice there are simply a lot more 1440p monitors on the market right now than any other display type so finding the exact monitor to suit your needs is easier there are options at pretty much any price point between 250 dollars or right up to 900 us depending on the display panel tech refresh rate size and quality that you want this allows you to optimize for certain criteria like wanting a va monitor for its deep blacks or needing a kvm switch things that aren't as available with 1080p monitors of today at least to the same quality level one thing that's often overlooked in the discussion between 1080p and 1440p is the quality of the panels themselves my response time performance is generally pretty similar between the same panel technologies at different resolutions like comparing 1080p ips to 1440p ips 1440p monitors typically have the advantage in color gamuts i meant to see a 1080p gaming monitor with 80 rec 2020 coverage allowing for great performance in dc ip3 and adobe rgb color spaces that sort of thing is readily available in the 1440p market adding additional versatility to gaming displays that you might also want to use for content creation or consumption however elements like brightness contrast ratios and viewing angles don't differ substantially those things are more down to individual monitors i've also found that 1440p displays are more usable across a wider range of panel sizes at 32 inches for example 1080p displays look pretty low resolution and there's an aspect of being able to see the pixels that's not the case with 1440p and again there are a wider range of better quality 32 inch panels here than in other resolution classes it really cements 1440p as the versatile choice in 2022 with an option for any type of gamer we've also seen the emergence in the last year or so of high refresh rate 1440p displays delivering up to 240hz or even 270hz refresh rates for competitive gamers while these are much more expensive they do again offer excellent versatility and what i'd choose if you want to dabble in both competitive and aaa gaming the resolution gives you a crisp experience when playing games like guardians of the galaxy and cyberpunk 2077 at lower frame rates but then if you want to jump into say fortnite or rocket league the high refresh rate gives you a smoother lower latency experience i see these 1440p 240hz displays as very future proof perhaps the most future proof of any display type available today is they have the resolution and refresh rate to last five years if not more without needing an upgrade whereas with 1080p 240hz or even 4k 144hz you might think about an upgrade sooner to access either higher resolutions or higher refresh rates 1440p is the only format that offers a bit of both right now if you think 1440p is right for you the main consideration to make is the performance of your pc across our latest 12 game samples with modern titles moving from 1080p to 1440p is going to result in a 25 to 35 performance drop depending on the gpu you have it will also increase vram utilization putting a lot more pressure on four gigabyte and six gigabyte cards in particular so for a gpu like the rtx 2070 if you were previously getting 110 fps at 1080p you can expect around 80 fps at 1440p as a rough guide this should only really be an issue with some mid-range cards or low as most gpus including the rtx 2060 are still very capable of gaming at 1440p even with high or ultra quality settings on the other hand 1440p isn't an ideal resolution for console gaming while the xbox series x does support 1440p outputs and gaming at that resolution the playstation 5 and older playstation consoles do not there are some 1440p monitors that will accept and downscale a 4k input but often this is limited to just 60 hertz and the quality can be hit or miss depending on the monitor this is something to keep in mind if you want to do both pc and console gaming with the same display next up when should you choose a 4k monitor luckily with a slate of releases in the last year or so i think it is now worth buying a 4k gaming monitor in some instances previously when 60hz options dominated and 4k 144hz was extremely expensive there weren't any really good options and 60hz in my opinion is too low of a refresh rate for a modern gaming focus display but these days high quality 4k high refresh monitors are available for 650 us which i think is quite reasonable 4k gaming though is for high-end buyers if you're on a budget if you're wanting the best bang for buck or if you just have mid-range gaming hardware 4k is probably not the format for you it does offer a better visual experience than 1440p but it's of diminishing returns especially at the high prices of 4k monitors today compared to 1440p typically you're looking at spending at least double on a 4k monitor versus 1440p for otherwise similar specs so the bang for buck category is still firmly in favor of 1440p but if you did want the highest available resolution for gaming at a respectable refresh rate 4k is for you it's also very much worth it in my opinion if you have a high-end gaming gpu while an rtx 3080ti or rx 6900 xt are typically good for over 150 fps at 1440p they're still able to hit 100 fps or above in many of today's games at 4k and over 60 fps in the most demanding games like cyberpunk 2077 and assassin's creed valhalla if you have a preference for visual quality over pure fps performance and you're playing a lot of single-player titles with a powerful gpu there are definitely some benefits to going 4k and a lot of the time the experience will still be very smooth of course though there is a performance cost and it's higher than going from 1080p to 1440p here moving from 1440p to 4k typically sees a 40 to 45 reduction in performance and cards with less than 8 gigabytes of vram will struggle at times compared to 1080p 4k sees a 60 performance drop or greater the impact of this can be mitigated to some extent with technologies like dlss and fsr but there is no doubt upgrading to 4k has the highest performance cost and a lower visual improvement than other resolutions this is why we recommend 4k displays only for high-end gamers with gpus like an rtx 3070 or better outside of still being great for gaming the main benefit in my opinion to buying a 4k monitor is their high level of versatility 4k monitors are generally excellent for productivity work text is extremely sharp there's lots of screen real estate for applications and most 4k monitors have great wide gamut support for creative workloads it's also the perfect resolution for today's content consumption as a lot of tv shows and films are released at 4k if you're doing a lot of things at your pc aside from gaming 4k displays in my opinion are a significant upgrade and worth the price premium but they do make less sense as pure gaming options 32 inch displays and above in particular benefit from the additional resolution and these benefits only get larger as the screen size increases a 42 inch monitor as an example wouldn't look great but 4k is very usable at that size or even larger unfortunately though 32-inch 4k gaming monitors are one of the more expensive categories you can find today and some larger format displays aren't the best quality 4k monitors are also the perfect choice for console gaming both the xbox series x and playstation 5 can output up to 4k 120 hertz and to get the full benefit of this you'll need a 4k gaming display these sorts of monitors are the best for pure console gaming with no pcs attached the best for people playing on both pc and console and the best for future proofing in case you want to add more devices in the future just make sure you get a display with proper full hdmi 2.1 which is not every 4k high refresh display on the market in terms of similarities to other resolutions 4k displays are generally just as fast and have just as good color performance as 1440p monitors if not better but this does depend on the exact monitor type today's 32 inch 4k displays for example are not as fast in terms of response times as a similar refresh rate 1440p offering so that's something to keep in mind features like backlight strobing might also be less refined than on lower resolution monitors the other important question is what alternatives are on the market at a similar price to 4k monitors if we take 650 dollars to 750 as a sort of entry point for decent 4k 144hz monitors at a similar price you can also purchase 1440p 240hz displays which is a tough comparison point 1440p 240hz provides the additional versatility of a high refresh rate for competitive gaming while 4k is superior for productivity and console use so you'll have to toss up what matters most to you and i don't think there is a clear-cut answer in this price range both options should be very future-proof and provide years of usage just optimized for different use cases the other format to consider are ultrawide monitors so how do they fit in like 1440p displays ultrawides are available in a huge number of different variants ranging from as cheap as 350 to 400 at the low end to over 1 000 for premium flagship models it's also just a very different format and not everyone will appreciate the extra width i personally find it more immersive for gaming and i do appreciate the width for productivity tasks but it's a personal preference thing so it's hard to say that it's better or worse than traditional 16x9 displays but let's say that you are interested in an ultra wide monitor at the lower end of the market there are some decent options in the 400 to 500 range however there is a noticeable price premium over 16 by nine 1440p monitors if you want a curved va with a 3440x1440 resolution you're looking at spending at least 400 us compared to just 250 for these specs at 1440p an ips alternative will set you back roughly 500 compared to 300 for a 16x9 configuration and this is pretty typical of any ultra wide format pricing is in the range of sixty percent higher than a similar sixteen by nine display to gain access to that additional width whether or not that premium is worth it depends on your position but generally i think the discrepancy is fair for what you are getting ultra wides generally allow for split screen use with two apps running side by side similar to a multi-monitor setup with 21x9 you don't get as much real estate as two 16x9 monitors but pricing is also cheaper for a 21.9 monitor and that may be a better choice for a single display setup there are some limitations to be aware of though aside from super premium and unusual monitors like the samsung odyssey g9 most ultrawide monitors don't have as high-end specs as you can get from a 16x9 monitor for example there are lots of 1440p 240hz displays right now but none that hit that refresh rate at 3440 by 1440. similar with 4k class ultrawides we're just starting to see great 144hz options for regular 4k displays but that sort of refresh rate hasn't come to 5120 by 2160 monitors in a serious way just yet as for performance considerations ultrawide formats require more horsepower than their 16x9 counterparts as a lot of reviewers don't test every ultra wide resolution the best rough guide to go on is that 3440x1440 sits right in the middle of 1440p and 4k performance 2560 by 1080 sits between 1080p and 1440p as well so if you are thinking of upgrading to an ultra wide expect to see a 20 to 30 reduction in performance compared to the non ultra wide resolution and that's pretty much it for my look at what resolution makes the most sense to buy into at this stage of 2022. luckily these days there are so many monitor options out there that there should be something for everyone and of course we go over our recommendations in our recent best monitors video but outside of that i would generally recommend 1440p to most gamers at the moment while there are some use cases for 1080p 4k and ultrawides as well depending on what you want to do i think it's also important to note just how many formats may be available at the price point you are considering there may be more options available than you realize within your budget especially around the 400 to 700 us mark you may be able to get a higher resolution or higher refresh rate than you were expecting which may have benefits so it's always good to do your research anyway that's it for this video if you want to continue supporting our independent monitor testing gpu testing and all sorts of other testing we have our patreon floatplane accounts links to those are in the description below you'll gain access to our discord chat monthly live streams behind the scenes videos steve just published one of those recently so yeah well worth checking out anyway that's it thanks for watching and i'll catch you in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Hardware Unboxed

Views: 367,402

Keywords: hardware unboxed

Id: YAOQaMMGbcw

Length: 18min 34sec (1114 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 12 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/DrKrFfXx]

Ideally one could quickly say 4K.

But then you have to drive those pixels, which becomes exponentially more expensive as you ramp the resolution up.

[u/OmegaAvenger_HD]

After you go 4K there's no going back. You just start to see pixels on everything and it's just not the same anymore lol.

[u/Solace-]

If you have a capable card then the answer is 4k, easily. There’s really no comparison in how phenomenally crisp 4k looks and it is absolutely worth the price premium if you have a 3080 or higher.

[u/Hxfhjkl]

High refresh rates and performance gains from lower resolution monitors are really tempting, especially with the current gpu shortage, but after using a 4k 28 for some time (for work and gaming) those alternatives look disgustingly mushy.

[u/LeichtStaff]

I would say up to 24" 1080p, 27" 1440p, 32" could be 1440p but 4K would be better, over 32" 4K

[u/allegoricalwolf]

How you perceive the resolutions really depends on your viewing distance. You could make a 720p 32" screen and from 8 feet you would not be able to tell it apart from a 4k one if UI elements were held constant.

I see many setups where people are 3 feet away from the monitor. Do the math yourself to figure out if you'll even be able to perceive the added resolution.

If you sit more than 3 feet back and your monitor isn't more than 24 inches, you won't benefit from more than 1080p. If you have more than 20/20 vision then sure, but lets be honest you sit in front of a computer all day you probably don't and even then that only marginally reduces the minimally perceptible viewing distance.

[u/GrosseZayne]

4K, as long as refresh rate and price are sufficent. 4K@144 is pricey. Dont care about GPU power, scale is there for every game now

[u/GuineaFridge]

1440p 32in is what I got. Gotta say, I love it.

[u/PucciPucciBauBau]

A lot of the discussion here is focused on gaming, but let's not forget that only with a 4K monitor can you fully appreciate 4K films, which look awesome.