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Maybe it's that I still have older hardware, but the step change from 1080p to 4k seems a lot smaller than the previous generation jump from TV or DVD resolutions to 1080p. Do you find that playing at 4k native resolution dramatically improves the gaming experience? Again, it might be a selection bias that I've been playing fewer cutting-edge games.
Do you mind if I ask what titles you're playing?
I got an inkling you were a 1080p antiquarian when I read your first post. :P
Yes, there's a massive difference between 1080p and 4K. It's 4x the number of pixels. 8.3M vs 2.07M. Even going from 1080p to 1440p is a noticable upgrade in terms of monitors.
You're right that the jump from DVD (480p for NTSC, 576p for PAL) to 1080p was an even bigger change, at around 6x and 5x increases, respectively. And it's true that some people who have weak eyesight and/or sit very far from their TVs struggle to see much benefit from going further up in resolution. However, when you sit less than 15-20 feet from the TV and you have decent eyesight and you want to fill a let's say 65" TV with pixels, you will prefer 4K after seeing it in action, whether simply for displaying Windows programs or playing games or watching movies (beware that quite a few '4k releases' of movies are simply poor quality upscales from 1080p, false advertisements that will not reveal the true increase in quality that 4k can bring).
Framerates are another matter where the old implementation might still look okay to your perception, until you get used to something better, at which point you'll never want to go back. 60 hz looks very choppy to me now after using 120 and 144 hz for a few years. Playing a game at 24 fps would be totally absurd for me at this point. There's a bit of hedonic adaptation though. If saving on costs is your only priority, you might not want to try the upgraded alternatives, lest you lock yourself into a costlier habit. I deem that life is short and we only live once so why settle for staying with mediocrity.
What titles I play isn't all that relevant tbh, what matters is that I need to fill big displays (my ultrawide monitor or my TV) with the output from the GPU.
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