What is 4k (my question is not that silly but nearly....)

Lee Monk · 15 Nov 2020 at 09:29

Hi,

A somewhat embarrising question here...... though I do tend to live in the frame of mind that a "silly question is one that is not asked".

What determines if a monitor/gpu is 4k?

Is this an actual spec item on the hardware or is 4k simply a resoloution threshhold (3,840 x 2,160 pixels resolution?).

Thus if I purchase a monitor capable of 3840x2160 does that mean I am 4k enabled subject to GPU and FPS?

Please correct my thinking if I am on the wrong path.

Regards

Legend · 15 Nov 2020 at 12:14

Yes, you are correct. 4K is a resolution, and a monitor capable of that resolution means you are at 4K. Any GPU can display 4K, but obviously some will give you better results in gaming than others regards framerate.

pp111 · 15 Nov 2020 at 13:27

Manufacturers love making this stuff up. We started with 720p and 1080p which is the vertical number of pixels then decided that this was boring so instead of 2160p they came up with 4K Sounded impressive even though displays were not 4K but 3840 and of course we have switched to using the horizontal resolution instead of the vertical. It gets worse though that I have seen monitors that use both - it was advertised as 5K2K! ( I guess to distinguish it from 5K3K ). *sighs*. If in doubt, add more numbers!

Legend · 15 Nov 2020 at 16:07

pp111 said:
Manufacturers love making this stuff up. We started with 720p and 1080p which is the vertical number of pixels then decided that this was boring so instead of 2160p they came up with 4K Sounded impressive even though displays were not 4K but 3840 and of course we have switched to using the horizontal resolution instead of the vertical. It gets worse though that I have seen monitors that use both - it was advertised as 5K2K! ( I guess to distinguish it from 5K3K ). *sighs*. If in doubt, add more numbers!

The term “4K” originally derives from production and digital projection of 4K content, which is 4096 x 2160. So technically, no monitor is 4K, it's actually UHD at 3840 x 2160

Regardless, if you have a "4K" monitor, you have a UHD monitor, but they are going to continue being called "4K" no matter what the facts are. The problem comes when 4K is thrown in to other resolutions, nonsensically so - When 4K is Not Really 4K

pp111 · 15 Nov 2020 at 20:05

Legend said:
The term “4K” originally derives from production and digital projection of 4K content, which is 4096 x 2160. So technically, no monitor is 4K, it's actually UHD at 3840 x 2160

Regardless, if you have a "4K" monitor, you have a UHD monitor, but they are going to continue being called "4K" no matter what the facts are. The problem comes when 4K is thrown in to other resolutions, nonsensically so - When 4K is Not Really 4K

That confuses me even more. And then they stupidly support 4K even though they are not, which confuses most applications, that assume that the highest supported resolution is the native resolution, which of course it's not. Lol.

Legend · 16 Nov 2020 at 14:30

pp111 said:
That confuses me even more. And then they stupidly support 4K even though they are not, which confuses most applications, that assume that the highest supported resolution is the native resolution, which of course it's not. Lol.

Well, for monitors, you really just need to take 4K as meaning 3840x2160, because that's what it will always be. There are a handful of 4096x2160 monitors out there, but they will never be mainstream or targeted at the average or even niche consumer, as they're very specialist. The 'definition' of 4K has essentially been redefined in this sense. Don't worry about 4096x2160... you will never encounter that in your day to day, unless you are working in the media/film/TV industry.