Before we get into the details, the introduction of this feature shows that Sony is more responsive to consumer feedback. Not only has support for 1440p displays been implemented, the company has also responded to criticism for the initial implementation of Auto Low Latency Mode support, an option that basically automatically turns on gaming 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 functions, such as black box insertion). However, ALLM was eventually added as a swap, to the satisfaction of all parties. This may seem like a minor detail, but it’s actually good to see a platformer address what some might consider minor details. However, the introduction of 1440p is more of a basic request, simply because of the proliferation of 1440p PC monitors, which are currently the sweet spot in terms of price, quality, features and performance. While a 4K display is better suited to current-gen consoles, 1440p is becoming ubiquitous in the PC space. These monitors typically support 1440p via HDMI 2.0 at both 60Hz and 120Hz, and HDR is often featured as well. Adding dedicated support solves the problem where some of these monitors don’t support 4K 60Hz input, meaning 1080p was the only way to go. And while some monitors could downscale a 4K 60Hz input, 4K at 120Hz was always off the table, due to the bandwidth limitations of the HDMI 2.0 protocol. Adopting a native 1440p output solves the compatibility issues – and also allows for 120Hz. Meanwhile, allowing the PS5 to perform the scaling eliminates the possibility of additional display latency through scaling and likely produces a higher quality result as well. Join Richard Leadbetter for a video deep dive into the 1440p display support of the new PlayStation 5 beta firmware. And at this point it’s worth pointing out that like the 1080p option on the PlayStation 5 in the vast majority of games, 1440p just changes the video output – it doesn’t change the rendering resolution of the titles you’re playing, so the performance will be the same as 4K . Another thing I’ve discovered is that in titles that have different performance profiles according to the selected output resolution (mainly PS4 Pro games), they are transferred to 4K modes when 1440p is selected, with GPU downscaling before sending the image to the screen production. Interestingly, Sony has added a test mode for users to see if 1440p works properly on your monitor – and it’s mandatory that you run it before the new display option is available. It clocks in at 1440p output at 60Hz and 120Hz, in both SDR and HDR color modes. Once you’ve confirmed you’re getting an image in each configuration, you can select 1440p output in the dashboard and you’re good to go. For the eventual release of 1440p for the PlayStation 5, I’d like to see some key changes made. VRR (variable refresh rate) works fine on PS5 at 1080p or 4K, but Sony chose not to support it at 1440p – and that’s disappointing, because it works fine on Xbox. There may well be some deviation from the HDMI spec in allowing VRR and 1440p to run at the same time, but the point is that it is possible and therefore should be supported. In fact, running a 1440p PC monitor with FreeSync enabled in the menus can stop the 1440p mode from working at all. We observed this behavior with an LG 27GL850. However, go into your monitor’s menus, disable FreeSync support and it should work. Ideally, everything should work as it should automatically. Some PC monitors don’t actually support VRR at the full 120Hz, so maybe compatibility concerns are the cause here – but the fact is that many monitors do, so it really should be. A test cycle is required to enable 1440p, allowing the PS5 to understand what refresh rates are supported at 1440p resolution and whether or not HDR is working. Something we tested extensively – as much as we could – was support for the new firmware for HDMI 2.0 TVs. The PS5 currently runs 60Hz content at full 4K resolution, as it should. However, gaming modes at 120Hz drop the resolution to 1080p – which is fine, except that many monitors, including the popular Samsung NU8000, actually support 1440p120. Support for this would be nice because many 120Hz game modes go beyond 1440p anyway. We got this working on the NU8000, but it wasn’t easy. You see, the monitor supports 1440p120 but not 1440p60, which means we failed the series of tests starting with a 60Hz test. Only pressing right on the controller and then X to ‘pretend’ it’s supported got us to the 1440p120 test, which the NU8000 works fine with. Say yes to that and you’re good to go: games run at 4K60 at 60Hz content, rendering 1440p120 when high frame rate modes are enabled. A small change to the 1440p test cycle could address the issue, perhaps testing 120Hz first and not automatically failing you if you don’t see an image. This may only be a problem with a small number of displays – many may work just fine – but I’m willing to take it that there are many thousands of Samsung HDMI 2.0 displays of a certain vintage. Running at 4K60, with a 1440p120 res for high frame rate content, it works pretty well. It may well be preferable to the Xbox route, where the 120Hz setting enforces this for all content – even when framerates are limited to 60fps. For owners of HDMI 2.0 sets that support 1440p120, the 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 with games running at various resolutions. Sony’s blog post describes how the console outputs 1440p natively, but are we talking about just a 1440p signal, or are the games natively rendered at 1440p output with 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 outputs 1440p natively and preferably without any anti-aliasing at all – the jaggeder the image the better. This isn’t easy, but if we dive into the PS4 Pro library, Star Ocean: The Last Hope offers users the chance to choose from a range of resolutions and yes, you can get an image with absolutely no anti-aliasing from this game . Image quality is sharp, suggesting that yes, a native 1440p game outputs crystal-clear 1440p without scaling or dual-scale artifacts (1440p to 4K to 1440p). Star Ocean: The Last Hope is a PS4 Pro title that offers a choice between 720p, 1080p, 1440p and 2160p resolutions – and you can turn off anti-aliasing. This allowed us to confirm that when a native 1440p framebuffer is used (click the thumbnail for a full resolution image) you get a sharp 1440p output. However, many games simply composite 1440p to a 2160p output image, so you’ll get double scaling. Not really a problem in the TAA era, but it shows the limitations of the new 1440p support. However, in our tests, that ultra-clear 1440p output isn’t always a given. PUBG on PS4 Pro also renders internally at a locked 1440p resolution. The game here with TAA looks perfectly fine, but the double scaling seems to be happening, as evidenced by taking a photo from a camera cut where TAA is not active in the first frame. The figures show that the developer takes the 1440p framebuffer and embeds it into a higher resolution 2160p image with 4K HUD details. It is then downscaled to 1440p by the console’s new scaling function. It is a problem? Not really, because the loss of clarity isn’t that significant, but it does show limitations with the setup. There is something else to remember. In the current era of TAA upscaling, a native 1440p image gains detail from previous frames before a 2160p image is streamed to your 4K monitor – Demon’s Souls Remake in render mode is a good example of this. In this scenario, upscaling up to 4K and then downscaling to the 1440p display is actually a clear win in terms of image quality. After all, whether it’s upsampling from a well-upscaled image, or simply downscaling 4K, the results look very good on a 1440p monitor with this new firmware. All in all, I was surprised and pleased to see this new feature come out of nowhere – the more high-resolution displays the PlayStation 5 natively supports, the better. However, the lack of VRR support should be addressed, and some more thought is needed for the mandatory 1440p test cycle to allow for HDMI 2.0 TVs that support 120Hz but not 60Hz. Next stop: 8K; It’s not a priority considering the lack of gaming and media support, but it’s still a bit odd to see 8K support highlighted on the box when the console lacks 8K functionality.
