Using 1280×720 Gaming Resolution on a 2560x1440 Display

[Malphas]

I feel like replacing my aging 22" 1680x1050 monitor with one of those Catleaps or something but I don't really want to bother with high end GPUs and/or Crossfire/SLI. I could just buy a 1920x1080 monitor, which would be fine for gaming, but I'd appreciate the extra pixels for general stuff whilst potentially be happy to compromise the resolution for gaming, so I was curious about whether lowering the resolution would be worthwhile or not. I googled it and most of the results are forum threads of people with similar ideas and the responses are all conflicting and mainly sound like people pulling stuff out of their ass, frankly, so I figured I'd ask here. I guess the main concerns are.

A) Will this actually work the way I'm figuring it will, I read something vague about graphic cards not supporting the method of scaling required to simply turn 1 pixel into 4, so even though 720p is exactly quarter of 1440p it'll still interpolate and create a blurry mess unnecessarily. Is monitor scaling any better?

B) If say I were to get a 27" 1440p monitor I'll be dropping down to like 50dpi from my current 90dpi, is that going to look horrible, regardless of being able to ramp all the settings and AA up to max? Would it look better to just  play on medium settings at a higher resolution/DPI instead?

[damorgue]

A) Will this actually work the way I'm figuring it will, I read something vague about graphic cards not supporting the method of scaling required to simply turn 1 pixel into 4, so even though 720p is exactly quarter of 1440p it'll still interpolate and create a blurry mess unnecessarily. Is monitor scaling any better?

B) If say I were to get a 27" 1440p monitor I'll be dropping down to like 50dpi from my current 90dpi, is that going to look horrible, regardless of being able to ramp all the settings and AA up to max? Would it look better to just  play on medium settings at a higher resolution/DPI instead?

First of, higher resolutions are mostly dependent on how much vram you have got. Just fyi
Also, AA, vsync and other buffer based processes and effects store a lot of raw image data in vram. Decrease or turn these off to make a bit more vram available which might help you in higher resolutions. I am a strong believer that if you get a high enough dpi, then AA becomes unnecessary. If turning of AA allows for a higher resolution, I would go for it.

A) If the display supports 1:1 pixel mapping, and you turn it on, then yes, I believe you can make it 2x2 pixels in your gpu settings.

B) Yes, I believe that 720p is a bit to low of a resolution to play modern games decently and I would go for the higher one, assuming that it is at all playable fps-wise.

[Soarer]

It will depend on the monitor as to how well it will scale. If you set the game to 720p then the graphics card won't be doing the scaling. Personally, I wouldn't mind either a totally blocky look (1 pixel -> 4) or a decent upscaling... but I think you're right to be worrying a little, there are probably some terrible scalers out there. Essentially though, it's the same as piping 720p video into it via HDMI, so maybe you might find some some reviews that cover that aspect.

[alaricljs]

The most common Catleap/Shimian/??? choice is a nearly bare monitor, no scaler at all with a single input.  Your video card must be capable of driving the full resolution and if you want scaling the card must also be capable of that.

So it comes down to checking the specs on your GPU or paying more for the 27" models with a scaler, or going a completely other way.

[Malphas]

Yeah, I'm not dead set on the Catleap or anything. I'll probably get a new GPU at the same time, I'm just not going to put in some ridiculously large and hot dual GPU card, or bother with two cards.  Basically my issue is, I want a new monitor, I'd quite like a 1440 for workflow reasons, I'll also be playing games occasionally with a midrange graphics card (something in the range of between a Radeon 7850 and a GTX 670) and would like prefer to be able to play them close to maxed out and towards the 60 FPS range, which wont be possible at 1440p.

So really, my options are settle for a 1080p monitor instead or this potential thing of playing games at quarter resolution, assuming it works with the 1:1 scaling and doesn't look like crap because of the low DPI. I'm quickly going off the idea though, based on what I'm hearing, but it was worth asking about.

[alaricljs]

So go to Anandtech Bench and check things out.

Don't see 1440p but you could probably interpolate between the 2560x1600 and 1920x1200.


There's other benchmark DBs around as well.

[Malphas]

Yeah, I already have an idea of what most midrange GPU's put out at that resolution with the setting cranked up. It's more along the lines of 30-40 FPS, and worse for titles like AvP, Witcher 2, etc. Which isn't really good enough.

[tp4tissue]

Get the catleap only if you "KNOW" for sure, that you will never have $700 for an A+ panel.

Catleap, while a good value, is a bit weak in terms of build quality and power delivery. Although you can probably beef up the power circuits with new caps, that'll probably run you $80.

[Malphas]

Well I could easily go buy a A+ monitor tomorrow if I wanted, I'm just extraordinarily cheap and like "bang for buck" things more than high end things.

But yeah, after everyone's advice I guess I'll just get a 1920x1080 monitor then upgrade again once QFHD ones are out.