Support for 8K displays may still be AWOL, but Sony surprised us last week by unveiling a new firmware beta test, opening the door to 1440p functionality for PlayStation 5 alongside a host of other smaller new features and quality-of-life upgrades. With its plans to break into the PC monitor market, it makes sense to add support for 2560×1440 functionality, and while the firmware beta is working fine, a little more work is needed to make sure this update covers everything. delivers what it should deliver.
Before going into details, the introduction of this feature shows that Sony is more responsive to consumer feedback. Not only has support for 1440p monitors been implemented, the company has also responded to criticisms of the initial implementation of Auto Low Latency Mode support, an option that basically automatically invokes Game Mode on HDMI 2.1 TVs. First of all, ALLM was not available at all, then it was added but could not be disabled (causing problems with other TV features, such as inserting a black frame). However, ALLM was eventually added as a switch, satisfying all parties. This may seem like a minor detail, but it’s actually good to see a platform holder go into what some consider minutiae.
However, the introduction of 1440p is more of a mainstream request simply because of the proliferation of 1440p PC displays, currently the top spot in terms of price, quality, features and performance. While a 4K display is a better fit for the current generation of consoles, 1440p is becoming ubiquitous in the PC space. These displays also typically support 1440p over HDMI 2.0 at both 60Hz and 120Hz, while HDR is often used as well. Adding specific support solves the problem where some of these displays wouldn’t support 4K 60Hz input, meaning 1080p was the only way forward. And while some monitors could downscaling a 4K 60Hz input, 4K at 120Hz was always off the table, due to the bandwidth limitations of the HDMI 2.0 protocol. Using a native 1440p output solves the compatibility issues – and also allows 120Hz. Meanwhile, allowing the PS5 to do the scaling eliminates the possibility of additional display latency via scaling and likely yields a higher quality result as well.
And it’s at this point that it’s worth emphasizing that, like the 1080p option on PlayStation 5 for the vast majority of games, 1440p simply changes the video output – it changes the display resolution of the titles you play. does not play, so the performance will be the same as 4K. Another thing I’ve found is that titles that have different display profiles according to the output resolution selected (usually PS4 Pro games) delay them to 4K modes when 1440p is selected, which downscales the GPU before sending the image to the screen. output.
Interestingly, Sony has added a test feature for users to see if 1440p actually works correctly on your screen – and it’s mandatory to run this before the new display option is available. It cycles through 1440p output at 60 Hz and 120 Hz, in both SDR and HDR color modes. Once you’ve validated that you’re getting an image in any configuration, you can select 1440p output from the dashboard and you’re good to go.
For the final 1440p rollout for PlayStation 5, I’d like to see a major change. VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) works fine on PS5 at 1080p or 4K, but Sony has chosen not to support it at 1440p – which is disappointing as it works fine on Xbox. There may very well be some deviation from the HDMI spec for VRR and 1440p to work together, but the point is that it is possible and therefore should be supported. If you are using a 1440p PC monitor with FreeSync enabled in the menus, the 1440p functionality may not work at all. We noticed this behavior on an LG 27GL850. However, go to the menus on your monitor, disable FreeSync support and it should work. Ideally, everything should just function automatically. Some PC monitors don’t support VRR at full 120Hz, so maybe compatibility issues are the cause here – but the fact is that many screens do support it, so it really should be supported.
Something we extensively tested – as far as we could – involved the support of the new firmware for HDMI 2.0 televisions. Right now PS5 runs 60Hz content at full 4K, as it should. At 120Hz game modes, however, the resolution is reduced to 1080p – which is fine, except many displays, including the popular Samsung NU8000, actually support 1440p120. Support for this would be a good thing, as many 120Hz game modes come out at 1440p anyway. We got this working on the NU8000, but it wasn’t easy. You see, the screen supports 1440p120 but not 1440p60, which means we didn’t pass the test sequence that starts with a 60Hz test. Only by pressing right on the controller and then X to ‘pretend’ it was supported did we move on to the 1440p120 test, with which the NU8000 works just fine. Say yes to that and you’re good to go: games run at 4K60 on 60Hz content and deliver 1440p120 when high framerate modes are enabled. A little tweak to the 1440p test cycle might fix the problem, perhaps by testing 120Hz first and not failing automatically if you don’t see an image. This may only be an issue with a small number of displays – many may work just fine – but I’m willing to get many thousands of Samsung HDMI 2.0 displays from any given year.
Runs at 4K60, with a 1440p120 fallback for high frame rate content, works quite well. It may well be preferable to the Xbox route, where 120Hz forces it for all content – even when frame rates are limited to 60 fps. For owners of HDMI 2.0 sets that support 1440p120, Xbox essentially requires you to manually change the resolution and refresh rate for best results, while a properly configured PS5 will automatically change the display output for you depending on the content.
Once you’re running 1440p, the next question is what actually happens to games running at different resolutions. The Sony blog post describes how the console outputs 1440p natively, but are we talking just a 1440p signal or will games natively render at 1440p output with a pure 1440p 1:1 pixel mapping output? The truth is, it’s a bit complicated. First of all, to test this we need to find a game that runs 1440p natively and preferably without any anti-aliasing – the more erratic the picture, the better. That’s not easy, but if we dive into the PS4 Pro library, Star Ocean: The Last Hope gives users the chance to choose from a range of resolutions and yes, you can get an image without any anti-aliasing of this one. game. Picture quality is razor sharp, suggesting that a native 1440p game will indeed deliver crystal clear 1440p with no scaling or double-scaling (1440p to 4K to 1440p) artifacts.
However, in our testing, this ultra-clean 1440p output doesn’t always come naturally. PUBG on PS4 Pro also renders internally at a locked 1440p. Gameplay here with TAA definitely looks good, but double scaling seems to be happening, as evidenced by a photo from a camera shot, where TAA is not active on the first frame. The evidence suggests that the developer uses the 1440p frame buffer and integrates it into a higher resolution 2160p image with 4K HUD details. This is then scaled back to 1440p by the console’s new scaler feature. Is it a problem? Not really, because the loss of clarity isn’t that great, but it illustrates limitations with the setup.
There is also something else to keep in mind. In the current era of TAA upscaling, a native 1440p image gets details of previous frames before beaming a 2160p image to your 4K screen – the Demon’s Souls Remake in its performance mode is a prime example of this. In this scenario, rebuilding to 4K and then scaling back to your 1440p display is actually a net gain in terms of image quality. Ultimately, whether supersampling a well-scaled image, or just downsizing 4K, the results look pretty good on a 1440p display with this new firmware.
In summary, I was surprised and happy to see this new feature come out of nowhere – the more high-resolution screens that PlayStation 5 supports natively, the better. However, the lack of VRR support needs to be addressed and a little more focus on the mandatory 1440p test cycle to account for the possibility that HDMI 2.0 TVs support 120Hz but not 60Hz. Next stop: 8K? It’s hardly a priority given the lack of game and media support, but it’s still somewhat bizarre to have 8K support marked on the box, while the console lacks any form of 8K functionality.
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