Image quality or graphics. Which is more important? (Poll)

[Pemalite]

LegitHyperbole said:

Idk how. I still far exceed 20/20 vision and I got out a measuring tape from my 50 inch and used the PS5 menus as the perfect example of detail. If you're saying you notice a clear difference at 4 feet, you're lying to yourself. Between 3 and 4 feet is where it melts away and doesn't matter very much. Between 4 and 5 feet it matters basically to the point of nothing. At my usual 10 feet back there is zero difference. It's like having a 1440p phone, I had a 6 inch 1440p phone for about 2 years and I "upgraded" to a 1080p phone at 5.2 inches which most phones are now and for good reason and that looked clearer and sharper or at the very least no more sharper than the waste of battery power 1440p was and to that point 60fps vs 120fps is a noticeable difference if you're paying attention but it really matters not for daily use, only when you put your intent on it and switch between the two will you actually notice it, perhaps that is what you are doing. Switching between the two in the settings and having your attention on the difference make it feel like it's a bigger difference than it is.

I would suggest you get someone to randomise the settings while you're not looking, go no closer than 4 feet from your large monitor and see if you can see the difference in an unbiased controlled manner and after a few attempts you'll see that you are guessing. 

Edit: I will admit, there is a slight difference to rounded edges, looking at some big blocky text and the roundness of the lettering is apparent but it's not enough to notice if I wasn't switching back and forth between 1080p and 2160p going out of my way to check.

My vision also exceeds 20/20.

My Television is an 85" OLED.
My computer monitor is a 43" IPS overclocked to 144hz.

At 4-5 feet you can see the difference in aliasing between 1440P and 1080P on both my displays. (Although I need to sit significantly further back with my OLED due to size.)

As for phones... I can tell a slight difference in clarity between 1080P and 1440P on my Galaxy S24 Ultra, but it's not significant, the benefit of battery life and system responsiveness of rendering at 1080P rather than 1440P on my phone is worth it.

This chart breaks down the benefits of resolutions over distance per panel size in a much more coherent manner than our back and forth unscientific anecdote exchanges.



Basically at 5 feet... 1440P has benefits over 1080P on my 43" panel.
...But to also be fair, 5 feet is an arbitrary number, I sit at about an arms length and run multiple quadrants... So there is visible gains from 1440P to 2160P... And I would even benefit from 8k.

However panel resolution is only part of the equation, things like pixel crawl, breakup, aliasing, shimmer and more can present itself even at "optimal resolution over distance" scenarios.
Rasterization is not always pixel accurate... For example shadows and other effects are often rendered at a fraction of the output resolution in games to conserve rendering budget.
Textures are also their own independent resolution with many textures being 16k in resolution these days, some even 32k or 64k, the higher those resolutions the better they look even on a 2k (1080P) display.

Anyhow, I have shared my preference of resolution to drive clarity, if you disagree or don't like it... That's really your prerogative. My personal preferences won't change on this matter, I like what I like.

Last edited by Pemalite - on 30 March 2025