When it comes to modern AAA gaming, visuals play a big role. It is one of the key selling points of most of the games released these days. And, this is where resolution comes in. The resolution of your display determines a lot about games. Running a technological marvel like Red Dead Redemption 2 on a 20-year-old 640×480 CRT screen is not going to look good. But, if you to run it one of the latest 8K OLED TVs, your hardware is going to have a hard time trying to keep up.
So, what is the deal with resolutions? What are the cryptic numbers used to express them, and what is the best resolution for you? Well, the answer varies.
The Most Popular Display/Monitor Resolutions in 2022
In 2022, we see the dominance of three resolutions. 16:9 is the most popular aspect ratio, with 32:9 and 21:9 being the most popular in the ultrawide market.
So, the most popular resolution by market share is 1920×1080. Panels with this resolution have a whopping 2,073,600 pixels in total. 1080p became popular with the 8th generation of consoles, and especially after the mid-cycle refreshes, it became clearly the dominator in the market.
But, the 8th generation is over, and so is the time for 1080p.
The intermediate stage between 1080p and the next market trend is 1440p or the QHD standard. The modern Xbox Series S console supports 1440p gaming out of the box, and it is a grear balance between visuals and performance.
Judging the current market trends, it is safe to say that 1440p will be the budget option in the bigger half of 9th generation gaming. In the PC market, graphics card capable of 1440p gaming have already become quite cheap and available, hinting at the same.
This brings me to the next market trend after 1080p. And, that is UHD or 2160p resolution. UHD is 8 times the number of pixels FHD ever supported, and it looks extremely crisp. Although 4K and UHD are not the same, the market has got into referring 3840×2160 as 4K for convenience.
4K gaming was a luxurious dream even a couple years ago. You would need two GTX 1080 Ti graphics cards in SLI connected via NV Iink to pull such a thing off. But, the latest RTX cards have changed the tides altogether.
What Is The Best Resolution For Gaming?
The answer varies depending on how much you want to spend behind your gaming setup.
If you are on the weakest console available today, the Xbox Series S, stick to 1440p for visuals, and dial down to 1080p if you are looking for a lag-free 60fps experience.
Xbox Series X and the PlayStation 5 are almost equally powerful. They can run most games at 4K, thanks to the enormous optimization developers put into them. But, if you are playing a competitive title, like say Call of Duty: Warzone, dial down to 1440p. You can play the games at 1080p 120fps as well, if that is what you are after.
In the PC market, anything up to an RTX 3060 Ti or an RX 6600 XT is capable of 1080p gaming at almost 100 frames a second in the most popular titles.
If you are a bit tight on budget, the RTX 3050 or the RX 6500 XT are still great 1080p cards. They are no where close to the flexibility you would get by choosing their more powerful siblings, but they can pull off 1080p 60fps with a breeze.
The RTX 3070 or the RX 6700 XT from AMD has been built for 1440p gaming, but we have seen the RTX 2080 Ti killer 3070 pull off decent framerates even at 4K. This doesn’t mean you need to get a 4K screen if you are a 3070 owner. It struggles to get 60fps at that resolution in most titles.
The RTX 3080 was built for 4K gaming. But, we recommend you to get at least an RTX 3080 Ti if 4K is what you are after. The 3080 Ti gives great framerates at every possible game you can throw at it. Same is the case with AMD’s RX 6800 XT.
We hope this guide helps you figure out what resolution is the best for you.