From our other sites
The story
A thread titled “2K monitor users are idiots” appeared on the Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board and grew into a broader debate over resolution and scaling methods. When it comes to PC monitors, “2K” isn’t an official standard — it’s a nickname that came to refer to 2560×1440 (QHD), sitting between Full HD (1920×1080) and 4K (3840×2160). In the thread, opinions clashed over whether integer-multiple scaling matters when displaying Full HD or 720p content on a 4K screen, and over how high a refresh rate humans can actually perceive. Some also argued for deliberately choosing FHD or smaller monitors for gaming, prioritizing response speed — splitting opinion between image quality and practicality.
What people said
If you add the height's last few digits (the hundreds place and below) to the width number, you get a nice round number.
QHD comes out to 3000, so unofficially it's called "3K"
https://www.lg.com/jp/monitors/gaming-monitors/25g590b-b/?srsltid=AfmBOooHRaQ2b8KmW4aBtaczRA4aLhabUuH5Zq1F8CiUWO6dxdW1oGUi
Finally releasing, huh
Guess I'll preorder one too
Full HD lol
On smartphones this has been the norm for about 15 years now, but with high pixel density, scaling gets applied regardless, so integer multiples don't really matter anymore.
It mattered up through 24-inch FHD monitors with a pixel pitch of about 0.25mm, but now the whole "dot-by-dot" obsession has lost most of its relevance
That's exactly the point — when you scale it, the pixel count comes out to a clean multiple, that's why it's good
Exactly this
Re: #10 doesn't even make sense anymore
Yeah, it's pointless
Their excuse is apparently that scaling makes the text "a bit cleaner" (suuure)
People who can't get along with iPhone/Windows display scaling are the ones stuck fumbling through trial and error over this stuff
At 200%, that's not dot-by-dot anymore, you know
Do you even understand the interpolation algorithm behind upscaling?
Let me ask you this instead — you don't know about Integer Scaling? lol
Intel was pushing hard on integer-multiple scaling a while back, though I haven't kept up lately
Even without a dedicated feature in the drivers, if the monitor itself supports it, you can get proper integer scaling regardless of pixel pitch using things like Db4D
The dual-mode panels around these days are pretty good too
Messing with upscaling in retro hardware emulators really teaches you all sorts of algorithms
You probably end up knowing more than people who are heavy users of photo-retouching software
And preferences vary a lot too
Well, integer scaling is still better than non-integer scaling though
4K can display both FHD and 720p as clean integer multiples
Even with a mediocre scaler, that beats stretching FHD onto a QHD screen (assuming no GPU upscaling, obviously)
Not too bright, are you?
Consoles use 1440p as their source resolution because it scales well to 4K
With consoles, even when it's rendering at QHD internally, it seems like it upscales to 4K first and then downscales back to QHD for HDMI output
So you don't get the benefit of native QHD rendering like you would on PC — kind of a waste
Let's take a closer look at the price and specs, shall we
Nah, I think Full HD is fine lol
It's pro-grade, supports up to 1000fps, so it's definitely not aimed at someone like you
You're not a pro either, so you don't need it either, do you
Ouch, that's embarrassing
All because I didn't check the specs properly 🤭
Well yeah, that's exactly why it's fine
It's Full HD though 😂
It's become a dedicated Fire TV Stick machine
Nobody cares about your story of wasting money, man
Getting all worked up insisting games have to be 4K doesn't fly
Serious gamers actually recommend FHD for its responsiveness
Turns out you really do get used to "looking sharp" fast
Never did hook it back up to the 4K screen
in an NHK study, even people in their 50s-60s showed a clear, statistically significant difference in perception up to 240Hz when watching sports
Exactly this
In Sony's experiment, the figure cited was 360Hz
which means your eyes have to travel farther, slowing your reaction time
If you're playing on instinct and feel, you don't really need that big a screen
I've ended up deliberately gaming on a 22-inch (HD) monitor
Honestly, I just don't game on a TV anymore…
Was planning to enjoy my second playthrough with DLSS5 turned on,
but on the harder difficulty the fights get brutal right from the start, so I'm still running vanilla here
Checked Frame Generation on/off too
Since this is a Capcom (written as "Capunko" — a jokey misspelling) RE Engine game, does a lower base fps actually tend to help with parry timing and stuff? lol
Background and Key Points of This Debate
The term “2K” originally comes from the film industry, where it refers to a resolution of roughly 2048×1080. Calling the common PC monitor resolution of 2560×1440 (WQHD/QHD) “2K” is really just a colloquialism. The thread’s central disagreement was over whether “integer-multiple scaling” — used when displaying Full HD or 720p content on a 4K screen — still matters for image quality today; some argued it’s an outdated concern given how fine the pixel pitch is on current displays, while others insisted it’s still important. On refresh rates, some cited NHK and Sony experiments as evidence that humans can perceive meaningful differences even beyond 240Hz, while others prioritized practical gaming performance, deliberately choosing FHD or smaller monitors for faster response times — a value system distinct from pure image-quality maximalism that’s easy to overlook in this debate.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Hardware/Industry, aka “Geha”) thread “[Sad News] Overseas Reactions: “Anyone Still Using a 2K Monitor Is an Idiot”.”
Leave a Reply