When will 1440p be mainstream and commonly used?

[whereismymind]

Now I know that 1440p is being used by current-gen 70/80 users quite frequently, but when will it be the resolution that your average gamer is using like 1080p?

 

[birdie]

After 2027 at the earliest.

Tech enthusiasts forums such as this one are not representative of the average gamer at all.

Last but not least the QHD resolution means 77.8% more pixels [to render] which means you need roughly twice as fast GPU to maintain FPS which is a very expensive upgrade for far too many.

 

[Hyderz]

been on 3440x1440p 100hz over two years ago, i love playing games on ultrawide..

 

[dj-electric]

1440p being mainstream and commonly used - depends purely on the market.
I'm at work. i have a dual 1440p set up, as do about 60% of the workforce of where i'm at. At home its a dual 4K + 1440p, as for enthusaists do.

Is 1440p affordable in the western market? very much, you can find $1xx 1440p monitors being sold today.
Is it the majority? according to statistics evidently not, a part of it is because laptops still make a large market in statistics and those usually come at 1080p these days.

 

[whereismymind]

1440p being mainstream and commonly used - depends purely on the market.
I'm at work. i have a dual 1440p set up, as do about 60% of the workforce of where i'm at. At home its a dual 4K + 1440p, as for enthusaists do.

Is 1440p affordable in the western market? very much, you can find $1xx 1440p monitors being sold today.
Is it the majority? according to statistics evidently not, a part of it is because laptops still make a large market in statistics and those usually come at 1080p these days.

I meant 1440p like your average 600-800 dollar gamer setup. Where 1440p would be considered the same as 1080p and 1080p would be similar to 1366 x 768 or 1280 x 720 in terms of use.

 

[Mussels]

I said never because 4K is already overtaking it, DLSS and FSR (and the console versions) mean that many people will outright skip right to 4K and never go lower

 

[64K]

1440p gaming takes more GPU power to run games than 1080p with 2560x1440 having about 75% more pixels than 1920x1080. My impression, from the average gamer, is that they don't want to spend the extra money on the extra GPU performance and upgrade more frequently. You can really only say that future GPU performance will be greater but demands for 1440p gaming will be greater as well. An entry level or lower midrange GPU bought today will run 1440p games from 4 or 5 years ago fine but a 4 or 5 year old entry level or lower midrange GPU won't run today's games at 1440p very well.

I don't think the average gamer wants to upgrade GPUs fast enough to keep up the performance necessary for 1440p gaming so it may never be as common as 1080p gaming. 1440p gaming is growing though over the years but very slowly. Also look at the direction prices are going with entry level and lower midrange GPUs and it's clear that going to 1440p desktop gaming is a difficult proposition financially for the average PC gamer.

As has already been stated, a poll on an enthusiast site will be skewed in favor of 1440p desktop gaming being more of a serious option. Hell, I've seen for years posters on sites like this saying 4K is going mainstream. That is absurd. 4K desktop gaming will never be more than for a very, very few desktop gamers and certainly never mainstream. The cost of the GPU and the need to upgrade frequently will continue to hold it back in the future just like it always has.

My take on the 1440p proposition won't be popular on an enthusiast site but it is reality from my observations.

 

[Mussels]

64K:

Consoles lead the way. FSR and DLSS have made that GPU rush redundant, with modern midrange GPU's being 4K capable thanks to them.

 

[BSim500]

Now I know that 1440p is being used by current-gen 70/80 users quite frequently, but when will it be the resolution that your average gamer is using like 1080p?

When you donate +70% faster GPU's to 80% of the market for free? In all seriousness over a certain "good enough" baseline, many budgets gamers really don't care much about the great resolution rat-race. MOAR fps ESports, more battery life / lower fan noise for laptop owners, better older game compatibility (non-scaling UI's vs HiDPI displays), etc. There are lots of reasons besides performance / cost alone as to why someone would continue to want 1080p. As for polls, as others have said the sampling bias inherent to enthusiasts sites will skew the answers you get so that 100 people here will give "higher end" answers vs 100 answers from actually average people.

Edit: To give a real-world example of UI scaling : 1080p vs 1440p vs 4k (download and view them all full-screen). See the obvious problem with just piling on the pixels vs fixed scale UI's (elements such as buttons, maps, quickbar, etc, shrink to the point of becoming unplayable). As someone who often plays more older games than newer ones, 1080p is definitely the sweet spot or more specifically 92-96ppi has been the "hard-coded target" by developers for a very long time. 1080p -> 1440p upscaling is still regularly uglier than 1080p -> 1080p native especially for things like small text. 27" 1440p gives too small UI's in many older games. 32" 1440p can mimic a 24" 1080p (or 29" 1080UW) by running 1080p centered and unscaled with matching ppi, but that in turn just requires more "fiddling" around. Even 1080p -> 4k upscaling in theory is pixel perfect, but in practise often looks different, not to mention it's an "effective" 28-32" 1080p which is 69-79ppi or worse than 27" 1080p's 82ppi (some things look "too big", aliasing artifacts between the 2x2 upscaled pixel blocks are unpleasantly large, etc). And running 1080p centered and unscaled on a 28-32" 4k monitor is like downgrading to a 14-16" screen. Whereas 24-27" 1080p native is a low-cost no-brainer for universal game compatibility.

 

[chrcoluk]

Depends what you count as mainstream, we never getting 1440p TVs.

So I assume you mean the PC space, and I think we already transitioning now.

 

[Dristun]

I'd agree with Mussels. The answer is "never". Where ai upscaling is available even 3060ti/6700XT-class cards are more than capable of delivering playable 4K unless one insists on pushing all settings to ultra quality.
Plus for vast majority of non-enthusiasts 4K is the resolution of their TV - I imagine when the time to replace that ageing pc screen they bought 10 years ago arrives, they'll go for 4K too.

 

[lemonadesoda]

1440p ? What's that?

Desktop 1600x1200 >> 3840x2160 more than 6 years ago. Why would anyone not go 4K or 5K on a new monitor purchase? Let the GPU or monitor scale if your GPU can't cope in those weekend moments you use your PC for gaming.

Is 1440p a cheap laptop thing? My laptop is 5 years old and is 3200x1600. ASUS UX330.

Really! 1440p ? What's that? Is this a nostalgia thread?

 

[N/A]

Yes, having a given display resolution is not necessarily the resolution you play on. I have a 4K but play on a tiny 1080p full screen centered window with no scaling and soon be forced to go 720p even or 1440 scaled up by the GPU depending on the game. So how do they know what Im using. Between 1080p and 4K maybe I still lean more towards 4K, 1440 27" is not even an option as it sounds like 1050p to me, it died out pretty quickly and is has the same low dpi blockiness as 1080 24". If we take 2% per year as a constant growth then it should take 57 years.

 

[Sithaer]

1440p gaming takes more GPU power to run games than 1080p with 2560x1440 having about 75% more pixels than 1920x1080. My impression, from the average gamer, is that they don't want to spend the extra money on the extra GPU performance and upgrade more frequently. You can really only say that future GPU performance will be greater but demands for 1440p gaming will be greater as well. An entry level or lower midrange GPU bought today will run 1440p games from 4 or 5 years ago fine but a 4 or 5 year old entry level or lower midrange GPU won't run today's games at 1440p very well.

I don't think the average gamer wants to upgrade GPUs fast enough to keep up the performance necessary for 1440p gaming so it may never be as common as 1080p gaming. 1440p gaming is growing though over the years but very slowly. Also look at the direction prices are going with entry level and lower midrange GPUs and it's clear that going to 1440p desktop gaming is a difficult proposition financially for the average PC gamer.

As has already been stated, a poll on an enthusiast site will be skewed in favor of 1440p desktop gaming being more of a serious option. Hell, I've seen for years posters on sites like this saying 4K is going mainstream. That is absurd. 4K desktop gaming will never be more than for a very, very few desktop gamers and certainly never mainstream. The cost of the GPU and the need to upgrade frequently will continue to hold it back in the future just like it always has.

My take on the 1440p proposition won't be popular on an enthusiast site but it is reality from my observations.

Yep I'm definitely not upgrading my GPU more often just to be able to run newer games at a higher res as a budget-mid range user at most. 'My current 3060 Ti was already too expensive for my taste/income'
I try to keep and use my GPUs for at least ~3 years as long as they don't die on me ofc.

Went from a 16:9 1080p monitor to 21:9 2560x1080 in 2019 and I have no plans on going back to 16:9 so my only option is a 3440x1440p and that I rather not do for that very reason.
I think even if my current monitor kicks the bucket I will just buy another 2560x1080 monitor maybe with a better panel or something but higher res nope.

 

[mb194dc]

4K is on console already, it's the new standard as 1080p was a few years ago.

What I'm waiting for is a reasonably priced card that can do 4k 60 under 200w and will fit in a small case.

 

[Bomby569]

4K is on console already, it's the new standard as 1080p was a few years ago.

"4k" and with shitty frame rates

 

[P4-630]

1440p 165Hz G-Sync, been using it since 2016....

 

[Bomby569]

It's really hard to go 4k and get decent frame rates unless you can be buying the latest and greatest gpu every generation, games will keep jumping ahead of the new cards especially with stuff like the UE5 coming out.
Maybe i'm biased but 1440p looks like an amazing option.
1080p is still a great option, but i don't see most people that are stuck on 1080p and the hordes of 1060 owners going straight to 4090 cards and 4k monitors. Most will stay there or go 1440p.

 

[Vayra86]

For gaming 2024 gets my vote, and that is because price point of monitor and gpu to drive it has plateaud pretty much.

For lots of content 1080p or 1440p is a toss up if you relate this to the GPUs on sale today. As in, tweak a few settings and you can run 1440p. VRAM wise, 6GB and up suffices but you also needed that for 1080p already, if you wanted no compromises.

 

[64K]

Console Gamer: I'm playing 4K games on my $500 console. Woot! Woot!

PC Gamer: It's not native 4K. It's upscaled from 1080p and some quality settings are low and you're playing shooters at 30 FPS

Console Gamer: 30 FPS is fine. The human eye can't see more than 24 FPS anyway. You PC gamers are full of poop with your 144 Hz monitors.

PC Gamer: <sigh>

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
Not enough real estate difference for people to change from 1080 to 1440
If they switch they'd go 4k so 1440 gets other=never.

 

[Bomby569]

Hi,
Not enough real estate difference for people to change from 1080 to 1440
If they switch they'd go 4k so 1440 gets other=never.

as someone that went from 1080 to 1440 i have to disagree, the difference in real estate is noticeable, not as big as going 4k, sure. But then again you get a lot of monitor real estate but also wallet real estate going for 4k

You can't real go 4k and sit on older generations cards unless you play CSGO or Dota

 

[Chomiq]

"4k" and with shitty frame rates

And yet PCMR has nothing against "4K" with DLSS or FSR.

Console Gamer: I'm playing 4K games on my $500 console. Woot! Woot!

PC Gamer: It's not native 4K. It's upscaled from 1080p and some quality settings are low and you're playing shooters at 30 FPS

Console Gamer: 30 FPS is fine. The human eye can't see more than 24 FPS anyway. You PC gamers are full of poop with your 144 Hz monitors.

PC Gamer: <sigh>

MW2 has 120 Hz mode at 1440p but still.

As to OP:
The time is now, both PS5 and XSX offer 1440p support and usually use it in "performance" modes. Prices for 1440p displays also came down to what people used to pay for 1080p displays (at least 27" models).

 

[AsRock]

Depends what you count as mainstream, we never getting 1440p TVs.

So I assume you mean the PC space, and I think we already transitioning now.

Only because the lack of 4K monitors with 120Hz+ all so price, and manufactures will drag their heals as much as possible as they will get you to buy more in the end.

 

[Bomby569]

And yet PCMR has nothing against "4K" with DLSS or FSR.

Why would you ever have something against it? if you don't have the hardware it's your choice to use it.
But if your stretching 1080p to 4k with it, it really isn't 4k. Worst if you have to go to 30fps to do the 4k.

Whatever works for you, but don't let yourself get fooled. You kind of get used to it on consoles. And the controller instead of kb+m helps a lot not to noticed it even further. I saw that they have different modes now, performance vs beauty or something like that