One of the great advantages of old CRT monitors was the ability to adopt different resolutions and refresh rates. In contrast, modern panels come with predefined native resolutions, and that leads to situations where we waste firepower on our GPU. Fortunately, both Nvidia and AMD recognize this problem. If you have the hardware to run 4K graphics but only have access to a 1080p panel, you can enable a feature in the drivers and potentially extract more visual quality from your games.
When a player tries higher resolutions and refresh rates, it's hard to go back. The problem is that this combination still requires a very significant investment at both CPU/GPU and monitor level. Neither does it make sense to force higher resolutions on a basic panel, as the effects of interpolation ruin visual quality, unless... we take another path. The concept of downsampling is not exactly new, however, the latest graphics cards and their drivers reduce it to a couple of clicks.
Even if you don't have such powerful hardware, downsampling can be useful in older games. For example, Half-Life 2 will turn 15 years old on November 16 and today even a fuel pump can run it. Why play it at 1080p when we can inject 4K onto that 1080p, improve quality, and avoid potential errors associated with traditional antialiasing? The exact process depends on the graphics card in your system:
How to Play in 4K on a 1080p Monitor: Virtual Super Resolution (AMD)
AMD calls its downsampling/supersampling "Virtual Super Resolution", and to find it you don't have to go too far. Go to Radeon Settings, click on Display, and Virtual Super Resolution will be there, ready to be enabled.
It's possible that the screen flickers a couple of times: don't worry about it. AMD shared a list of compatible graphics cards, but in essence, all models from the HD 7790 onwards can use some form of VSR. The enabled resolutions depend on the GPU and the type of monitor.
... and there you have it!
How to Play in 4K on a 1080p Monitor: Dynamic Super Resolution (Nvidia)
The equivalent to VSR on Nvidia is known as DSR or "Dynamic Super Resolution", and it's a bit more hidden in the GPU configuration. First, you need to go to the classic Nvidia Control Panel. There we click on "Manage 3D settings", and in the Global Settings tab we look for the entry DSR Factors.
https://old.neoteo.com/como-eliminar-el-stutter-en-windows-10/An interesting detail of DSR is that it allows us to enable intermediate values. For example, 4K on a 1080p panel equals a 4.00x factor, but if you use a 1440p, 900p, 768p or even 720p monitor, nothing prevents you from playing with other multipliers. Nvidia also offers a smoothing factor for DSR. The factory value is 33 percent. Some players set it to 0 for a 4K-1080p downsampling, others lower it to 15 percent. You have to experiment here.
And that's it. Easy to enable, easy to disable. But what does the fine print say? Let's see:
- Some titles simply ignore VSR/DSR. No matter how much you activate the virtual resolutions, they don't appear in the video settings inside the game.
- Sometimes, resolutions are incorrect. That can lead to a loss of quality, or an out-of-sync error on the monitor. Manual downsampling is possible, though more complex.
- It's not a "free" 4K. The GPU must have the ability to chew all those pixels and "downscale" the content to 1080p. Otherwise, you'll only see a break-dancing show.
- It doesn't work for the Windows desktop. Most likely everything will look smaller, or other anomalies will appear (there are reports of "giant cursors").
- Digital outputs. The official recommendation is DisplayPort, HDMI and digital DVI. Technically we lose nothing by trying this with a VGA monitor, but we have been warned.
Give it a try, and tell us how it went. Good luck!
