What resolution to choose?

[Brakkeleer]

Hi all,

I`m pretty new here and want to use some Fallout 4 mods for pc. Now, when I go to the mods I see a lot 1K and 2K resoltution selections. Since I have a Full Hd (1920 x 1080) monitor I`m bit puzzled which one to choose. I tried google to get an answer but it didn`t help me that much. One is saying Full HD is 1K and others are saying Full HD is 2K.
So what must I choose on this site for my monitor? 1K or 2K? Thanks in advance!

[Ethreon]

The one your GPU can handle. What's you GPU ?

[Brakkeleer]

My gpu is an Asus R9 290 4GB.

Edited February 9, 2016 by Brakkeleer

[Ethreon]

You should be able to run the 2k textures just fine.

[Brakkeleer]

You should be able to run the 2k textures just fine.

 

Thanks!

[Ethreon]

Btw, a small explanation that might help in future. Not mine, just from interwebs

 

"The texture resolution affects how much detail an object surface can have. Think about an object which gets 200x200 pixels on the screen. The object can have 4kx4k texture, but it's overkill. GPUs also store many lower-resolution versions of textures so that when the object is small (like my example), a lower-version is used (like 128x128 or 256xx256). but when the object gets "closer" (maybe 80% of the screen), a much larger texture is used. The idea is to get as close as possible to 1:1 screen vs texture pixels (at most 2x2 texture pixels/1 screen pixel). This is because of 2 reasons:

1. sampling a high-res texture is memory-ineficient (the smaller the objects, the more of them there are and more spread among sampling from memory)

2. the developers can prepare the low-res textures so they look better than a simple GPU/DX size reduction

1st point affects frame rates very much.

2nd point may be skipped but overall image quality is affected.

So downloading a 4K res pack should be for good for 1st of all high resolutions (like 3x1080p) and 2nd high-performance boards (with much RAM and performance).

In current games, the developers probably release the game with right textures for 1080p, so high-res pack is mostly for those with exceptionally big screens."

[Beriallord]

R9 290 should be able to handle up to 4k textures with basically no performance impact at all.

 

I can still play count-the-pixels with Fallout 4's vanilla textures even with settings maxed out. Unfortunately things are going to be like this for a lot of games because developers are making games with the lowest common denominator in mind, Xbox One.

Edited February 13, 2016 by Beriallord

[IAmVicar]

How much memory do you have? I'm running the R9 380 4GB which is an absolute beast of a card but I struggle with Fallout due to my memory.

[billyro]

Try not to cripple your system by using large textures everywhere. My suggestion would be to use 2k-4k textures for characters, equipment, etc. and leave landscape, architecture, etc. at 1k resolution (unless the texture is very noticeable, in which case go higher).

 

This is if you're planning on maintaining a high frame rate, anyway. You can try inject lots of 2k textures, but you'll just hurt your performance and stability in the long run.

[Dwnldz]

2K is pretty safe. 4K would not be that much of an improvement because of your display resolution.

 

There are exceptions however: for example a map texture should be much larger because when you zoom in, it would get blurry or pixelated. Just like if you were zooming a picture on a desktop program.

 

If you are unsure, you could download both and see if you note any real difference (take some screenshots or so). But I doubt it would be worth it because 1080p.