eli5 if my monitor is 1080p why does 4k look better than 1080p videos?

Question

shouldn’t 1080p and 4k have no difference if my monitor is only capable of displaying 1080p

In: 422

Answer 1

You know how anti aliasing softens edges of lines by smoothing the color so the edges seem less jagged? Similar to that. 4k to 1080p is kinda the same. More information/detail means that the transition between each pixel line isn’t so harsh, giving you a better anti aliasing from the down scale processing of higher graphics.

Things look better because the edges of lines have smoother color transition from the downscale. A form of antisliasing