Okay, so I have a 5700xt and a 24inch 1080p monitor and I’m thinking of getting into 4k. However, I’m struggling to understand how it works.
So my pc is currently on 1920*1080. Everytime I Google 4k, the resolution mentioned is far larger. For example 3840*2160. If I change my resolution on windows everything gets either larger or smaller. So is 3840*2160 really zoomed in or out if the TV is also 24 inch? Everytime I Google a picture it suggests you see more of the same image of it’s in 4k. Or is 1920*1080 just the aspect ratio and the pixels are infact really condensed?
Sorry for the confusing paragraph, I’m really struggling to get my head around 4k. Logically, I’m presuming the pixels are condensed into the same space but the ratios are confusing me.
Thanks for the help!
In: Technology
1920×1080 is the resolution of your monitor. This is also sometimes called “1080p” referring to the vertical pixel resolution and the “p” meaning “progressive” in contrast to “interlaced”. Televisions used to sometimes only send every other horizontal line of image in order to work within the limitations of data transfer at the time. Progressive images are full frames every time.
The “aspect ratio” is the ratio between the horizontal and vertical resolution. The aspect ratio of 1080p video is 16:9 which means for every 9 vertical pixels there are 16 horizontal pixels. Knowing the aspect ratio doesn’t tell you the resolution of the screen, you could have the same aspect ratio with a 178×100 pixel screen.
A 4k screen is 3840×2160 pixels which is also an aspect ratio of 16:9. Knowing a screen is 4K will tell you the resolution and the aspect ratio but it doesn’t tell you the physical size of the screen. You could have a 10 inch or a 50 inch screen, both of which are 4K but with very different sizes of individual pixels. The icons in Windows are a certain number of pixels in size so if you cram more pixels into a given space by making them smaller then the icons you see will be smaller.
Trying to set your resolution to 4K in Windows on your 1080p monitor is sort of pointless. Windows will produce a 4K image and send it to your monitor which then needs to downsample in order to figure out how to display it on the 1080p screen. Icons look smaller because Windows thinks there are more, smaller pixels in the same space except in this case there aren’t.
Aspect Ratio is just the ratio of how many pixels horizontally compared to vertically. A lot of stuff is 16:9 these days, although 16:10 and 3:2 are more and more common.
4k resolution is a nickname for 3840x2160p. It is 4 times the size of a typical 1920×1080 resolution (twice as wide and twice as tall, effectively 4 screens).
If you have a monitor that is a certain size as a 1080p monitor, and then take an identically sized monitor that is 4k (i.e., a 27 inch 1080p vs a 27 inch 4k), then you basically are just smooshing more pixels in the same place. If everything was the same number of pixels in size, it would all appear smaller on the screen.
You’re right. More pixels in a smaller space. Ignore the aspect ratios. 4k is mostly a marketing word. We have 1080p because we use the vertical of 1920×1080. With 4k we’re using the horizontal 3840 amd rounding it up to 4000. It would be more accurate to call it 2160p. It’s all kind of meaningless. More pixels in a smaller space, and hence a sharper image. That’s really all you need to know.
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