Running games at 1440p on a 4K monitor vs a monitor with native 1440p

[Homy]

Since the larger iMac is supposed to be delayed until 2022 I'm considering to buy the rumored upcoming MBP 14"/16" and an external monitor. I've been researching like crazy and was thinking of buying a 4K monitor but read that running 1440p on a 4K monitor stress the GPU twice since MacOS first scales the image up to 5120 x 2880 and then scales down to 2560 x 1440. Does this also happens in games and means that running games at 1440p on a 4K monitor would actually decrease the performance compared to a native 1440p monitor?

 

[Irishman]

Since the larger iMac is supposed to be delayed until 2022 I'm considering to buy a MBP 14"/16" and an external monitor. I've been researching like crazy and was thinking of buying a 4K monitor but read that running 1440p on a 4K monitor stress the GPU twice since MacOS first scales the image up to 5120 x 2880 and then scales down to 2560 x 1440. Does this also happens in games and means that running games at 1440p on a 4K monitor would actually decrease the performance compared to a native 1440p monitor?

Are you waiting so you can get a new M1X equipped MacBook?

Have you checked to see if AS MacBooks will let you use an external monitor?

 

[diamond.g]

Since the larger iMac is supposed to be delayed until 2022 I'm considering to buy a MBP 14"/16" and an external monitor. I've been researching like crazy and was thinking of buying a 4K monitor but read that running 1440p on a 4K monitor stress the GPU twice since MacOS first scales the image up to 5120 x 2880 and then scales down to 2560 x 1440. Does this also happens in games and means that running games at 1440p on a 4K monitor would actually decrease the performance compared to a native 1440p monitor?

Why not run at native resolution and use games internal scalar to reduce internal render resolution?

 

[GrumpyCoder]

Huh? This is up to the monitor chaps. Force your resolution to 1440p, output that signal to the monitor and it should handle the rest.

 

[Homy]

Are you waiting so you can get a new M1X equipped MacBook?

Have you checked to see if AS MacBooks will let you use an external monitor?

Yes, I'm thinking of the upcoming MacBooks. All Macbooks including M1 MBs support external monitors. No need for checking.

Why not run at native resolution and use games internal scalar to reduce internal render resolution?

Yes, that's one way of doing it but not all games have such video settings.

Huh? This is up to the monitor chaps. Force your resolution to 1440p, output that signal to the monitor and it should handle the rest.

But it's not only the monitor that handles the resolution. MacOS uses Retina HiDPI resolutions which stresses the GPU more. I was worried that performance-wise running games at 1440p would actually be like running them natively at 2880p since 1440p is HiDPI on MacOS but someone at Insidemacgames said that games will run at whatever resolution you choose and not in Retina mode.

I saw this video by MrMacRight where running Metro Exodus in low resolution mode didn't make a difference so it seems that games will run at the resolution you choose and not with Retina resolution. Another solution is to choose native 4K resolution for the UI and run the games at lower rendering resolution for better performance, in games like Fortnite. Not all games have such video settings though.

So is there a visible difference in image quality when running games at scaled 1440p on a 4K monitor vs. at native 1440p on a 2K monitor?

 

[Aggedor]

I use an LG 4K display with an M1 MBA and a Windows 10 PC with an Nvidia 1070 graphics card (so... 4 years old? Maybe older?). Windows scaling is at 150% and macOS scaling is at the middle option (both equivalent to 2560 x 1440).

Haven't tried gaming on the Mac, but on the PC, I've been able to hit 60fps at ultra settings on WoW (not a demanding game) and FFXIV (which is... more demanding?). No-one was more surprised than me! Haven't tried a AAA game yet - I've have some I could install via Steam to see how they run.

 

[Homy]

I use an LG 4K display with an M1 MBA and a Windows 10 PC with an Nvidia 1070 graphics card (so... 4 years old? Maybe older?). Windows scaling is at 150% and macOS scaling is at the middle option (both equivalent to 2560 x 1440).

Haven't tried gaming on the Mac, but on the PC, I've been able to hit 60fps at ultra settings on WoW (not a demanding game) and FFXIV (which is... more demanding?). No-one was more surprised than me! Haven't tried a AAA game yet - I've have some I could install via Steam to see how they run.

Thanks, but I'm more interested in comparing a 2k and 4K monitor with a Mac regarding the quality and performance in games.

@Aggedor What do you think of 1080p and 1440p quality on your 4K monitor in Mac/Windows games? Which resolution is blurrier or more pixelated?