4K Display Monitor in 2K Mode

[Anto38x]

Hi all...

I recently purchased a BenQ PD3200U 4K Designer Monitor.... I love the monitor and the image quality is just unreal... watching full 4K video on YouTube is just a beautiful thing... but I find that at full 4K resolution I could barely see the UI of many of the most popular workflow apps that I use on a daily basis, so I dropped to 3200px x 1800px and that still was very impressive.... but some apps have slow refresh rates and aren't as snappy as they used to be while working on my Apple 27" Cinema Display monitor... so now I have dropped the resolution to 2560px x 1440px and the UI is perfect on all apps.. and performance seems excellent now also.... I'm using the Option/Scaled 2560px x 1440px and not the 2560px x 1440px (low resolution) version.... can anyone tell me if 4K video content is now also being scaled down... and really if my purchase was a bit of a waste of time as I'm no longer having the full 4K experience ?

I'm running a MacPro 12Core (Mid 2010) 2 x 2.93 GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon with 64GB RAM and a Sapphire PULSE RX580 with 8GB with 500GB SSD Startup Drive

Any comments most welcome...

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

Depends on how you are attempting to do this. Are you changing the Mac”s output resolution to 1440p, or are you adjusting the scaling of the UI? If you are doing the latter, the Mac is still outputting to 4K, but it’s adjusting the UI to be more manageable for your eyes. If you are changing the output resolution, then no, you won’t be seeing 4K anymore, but whatever your output resolution is—in your case 1440p.

 

[Anto38x]

Depends on how you are attempting to do this. Are you changing the Mac”s output resolution to 1440p, or are you adjusting the scaling of the UI? If you are doing the latter, the Mac is still outputting to 4K, but it’s adjusting the UI to be more manageable for your eyes. If you are changing the output resolution, then no, you won’t be seeing 4K anymore, but whatever your output resolution is—in your case 1440p.

Hi Darmok... and greetings from Ireland...

And thanks for your reply and input. I'm using the HiDPI version which I believe is the version that still allows the monitor to output at full 4K but the I is far more manageable on the eyes. So far all is going very well with this solution. I started off at full 4K... but even writing an email was difficult... and with 51-year-old glasses... a bit of a challenge...

Thank you again for taking the time to write me your excellent explanatory reply.

Regards,
Anthony

 

[Darmok N Jalad]

No problem. I can relate, as running my 5K iMac at native resolution with no scaling is futile at best! enjoy your new display!