Topic: PS5 and 1440p question

Okay, so it's been my impression that while PS5 does not do 1440p on (most) 1440p monitors, that it can do 1440p on 4K TV's.

But while playing F1 2021 in Performance Mode, I noticed that the image seemed extra blurry. When I checked the status of my current TV (Samsung Q900R) input, it showed "1920x1080 120Hz". 1080p?!?!?! I know this TV does 1440p gaming...

Is this a PS5 thing/issue/limitation? Am I misunderstanding this? Does the PS5 only downscale 2160p resolutions to 1440p, but is not capable of displaying actual true 1440p resolutions and instead downscales it to 1080p???

I think it's most likely that the game can only output 1080p at 120Hz as I think that's what other games manage at the higher frame rate. I remember in the early reviews of Devil May Cry 5 on PS5 that only output 1080p at 120 so I think that's likely a limitation of most PS5 games.

@render I was thinking that, too. But according to Tom from Digital Foundry, the performance mode in this game is 1440p and a rock solid 120Hz: https://youtu.be/AyQwgJJ2lTk

DF is pretty reliable with their tech analysis. But it's possible he was mistaken: He claims there's no screen tearing in performance mode, and at least on PS5, it is rife with screen tearing😫

@eagletrippin I see what you mean. I don’t know if this is right or not but the PS5 doesn’t do native 1440p output over the HDMI cable. If that’s right then to do 1440p it must either downscale that to 1080p or upscale it to 4K so that the TV can render it. I guess in your case it is downscaling it but if DF got 1440p output then you must be able to as well. Maybe it’s a limitation of the TV?

@render That (PS5 doesn't do native 1440p) sounds right...

I wonder if anyone else has successfully run a game on PS5 at 1440p???
I know for sure my TV supports 1440p (gaming): https://www.rtings.com/tv/reviews/samsung/q900-q900r-8k-qled

btw, you ever get around to platinum-ing Returnal? Did the RNG gods bless you with what you needed???

@eagletrippin It must be possible if DF has done it but not sure what the trick is.

I did indeed get the Returnal platinum. It was hard work but very rewarding. I can’t remember how many runs I did altogether but I know I did 18 B1 - B2 runs to find a single cipher. Did you ever get there or give up before you did? There’s lots of chatter on the Housemarque discord about DLC but nothing is certain. Would be great if it’s true.

@render I tweeted out to the DF guy, hopefully he can respond to little ole me ...

Niiice. 18 B1 - B2 runs? That's it? LOL. Man I don't know how many of those I had to make, I wasn't keeping count. But following "Act 3", I'd probably put the number at around 50 just to get that last cipher in Biome 2. Two to three weeks of continuous playing each day. The most frustrating experience...but I didn't give up. This was before the patch that fixed RNG frequency. But, doesn't negate that it's one of my favorite games of all time. I'd love to get a DLC.

SOLVED — Figured out the issue: It was a PS5 setting from a known issue earlier this year, in conjunction with some Samsung TV's.

My '4K Video Transfer Rate' setting had been set to -1. This was because back in the Spring time there was a known bug that turned off HDR in 120Hz-mode PS5 games when this setting was set to Automatic. (Also, I experienced lots of screen tearing in games like Demon's Souls, so setting it to -1 was a workaround.)

Set it back to Automatic, and now my Samsung TV's input information shows as "3840x2160p 120Hz HDR".👍 Although it is clear that it is not actually running 4k120, as the image in F1 2021 is definitely a little blurrier than 4k — but not nearly as low res as 1080p — so this must be actually in 1440p.

Awesome, glad you got it sorted. Even though it's in a lower resolution than 4k does the 120Hz make it for it in smoothness? I think most games at 60 look really smooth and are noticeably different than playing at 30fps but does going to 120 look as different as that?

I would say the difference in smoothness going from 60 to 120 is like going from 30 to 60 👍 Particularly in racing games where ever .001 seconds count. I could go back to 4k60 if I was forced to --- I could eventually re-adjust. But like they say once you've played 60fps, you can't go back to 30 — for me, similar applies to 120fps after you've played it long enough. The res bump down to 1440p isn't horrible. Now, the bump from 4K down to 1080p like I was experiencing in F1, that was becoming tough to swallow, despite being at 120Hz — it looked like a PS3 game...

That said, I really hope SONY fixes this 4K Video Transfer Rate thing on select TV's. Switching it back to Automatic fixed this issue for me in F1. But then I switched to playing a different game (Madden 22), and screen tearing galore, like I experienced earlier in the year with games like Demon's Souls and Ratchet & Clank. So basically I will need to change this setting depending on the game🙄 In my Samsung TV forum, Xbox Series X users aren't having the video issues that us PS5 users are having🙄 This is definitely a Sony thing.

Oh, and by the way — Sony, give us our VRR support! Series X has had this out of the box from the get-go!