One question or confusion that comes up often (especially with people who like to game) is whether or not a 1080p PC can pass 4K to another device. As I write my opinion on this question, we will explore what this means and understand if your laptop can deliver 4K resolution.
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Confusion If Your PC Can Yield 4K Resolution!
The resolution of the outer screen depends on the graphics card from PC and the display of this screen. NVIDIA 600 series and others require either a Display Port or HDMI cable; AMD Radeon 79xx or 78xx or 77xx series and higher, R7/R9 270 and higher are sufficient.
How to Determine If PC Can Output 4K?
screens with 4K resolution or 4K PC are currently a hotly debated topic. For those of you who have no idea, 4K refers to the number of pixels on your screen, whether it is a PC, screen or TV. Many screens output 1080 pixels, which means you see 1080 pixels horizontally.
A 4K screen provides four times (i.e., 4096 horizontally) the pixel viewing area. Many monitors and TVs today offer 4K or Ultra HD resolution. This is the pinnacle of resolution; the latest AAA titles look exceptionally good in 4K.
Check out: The best 4K laptops
For PC gamers around the world, the question is whether your PC can do justice to one of those sublime 4K screens. They regularly ask themselves, “Can my 1080p PC yield at 4K?”
Can A 1080p Laptop Output 4K?
The most important thing to know is that your base screen resolution (e.g. the screen resolution of your PC, 1080p, 720, etc.) has nothing to do with whether you can deliver 4K.
The moment you link your PC to a 4K screen, your PC screen is completely out of the game (pun expected). You are playing/viewing on a 4K screen right now, and what makes the biggest difference in this situation is your hardware.
Think about it: if you were to buy a PC with a 4K screen, what hardware would you need to run that 4K screen? A decent graphics card of course, a decent processor, a large amount of RAM. Essentially all the things that make PC work. These are very similar things to look for when deciding if your PC can output 4K.
How to Check If My Laptop Supports 4K Monitor?
The most important thing you need for your PC to output 4K is a graphics card.
The most important hardware for outputting 4K is your graphics card. So you need to know what kind of card you have before we can begin.
In case you have no idea about the specifications of your PC, just run dxdiag.exe (for Windows). To do this, type dxdiag into the Windows search bar, just to the right of the Start button. Then click ‘Run Command‘ Select ‘Yes‘ when prompted to check your drivers for advanced signatures.
Once you have opened dxdiag, you’ll naturally see the ‘System‘ tab, which will show you the entirety of your PC system’s specifications. Examine the ‘Display’ tab. You may have two if you have a dedicated graphics card. In this case, you should open the Display 2 tab.
You will now be shown the specifications of your graphics card. We also need the name of your graphics card, so you should make a note of it. This will give you the opportunity to compare your graphics card with the list of supported 4K graphics cards.
Can My Graphics Card Output 4K?
NVIDIA 600 series and higher: Certainly, you can yield 4K with the assistance of either a Display Port or an HDMI cable.
AMD Radeon 79xx or 78xx or 77xx series and up, R7/R9 270 and up Sure, you can yield 4K with the assistance of an HDMI cable.
Intel UHD Graphics: Using an HDMI cable is possible.
Intel HD Graphics: No.
Most current PC graphics cards are capable of rendering 4K. However, your gaming experience may change if you output the screen of your PC instead of using it.
If you have an advanced graphics card, you most likely also have the wide range of different hardware required to run games and play them back in 4K
If your graphics card is not on the list of supported 4K cards, you will not have the ability to output 4K. This is because your graphics card cannot support it
You can have the best processor with all the RAM in the world, but if you are using a coordinated Intel HD graphics card, you will not have the ability to play back 4K. As a result, your PC may break down or you’ll have miserable frame rates if you try to use 4K with a non-base graphics card.
How Do I Connect My 4K Screen?
The easiest way to do this is to connect your PC to your 4K display with an HDMI cable. At this point, I would like to point out that not all HDMI cables are suitable for this task. First of all, you need a high-speed HDMI cable to connect a 4K device. There are a few types of high-speed HDMI cables available to you.
HDMI 1.4: This connection can easily deliver 4K from your PC. They are tested to transfer 1080p to 4K. So if you have such HDMI connection, you are free.
HDMI 2.0: This cable can do everything the 1.4 cable can. However, it offers a wider range of shades for your 4K devices
HDMI 2.0a: This cable is enhanced for HDR and offers a wider range of shading. It can play back 4K like the cables above
HDMI 2.1: This cable enables dynamic HDR and offers good refresh rates compared to the cables above.
These cables will work great and deliver 4K from your PC. It’s up to you which connection you choose for your needs. The stronger the HDMI cable, the more uses it will have (e.g. for connecting to your 4K device TV etc.).
Once you have your high-speed HDMI cable, plug one end into the HDMI port on your PC and the other into the HDMI port on your external monitor (4K screen, TV, etc.). It may take a minute for the screens to connect, but do not worry.
Once the two screens are connected, open your PC as usual to start your game or anything else you want to watch in 4K resolution on your external screen.
Would It Be Possible for Me to Run 60 fps While Gaming?
That’s the real kicker if you want to output 4K from a PC with little regard for your graphics card. You may have to struggle with the usual settings (e.g. high or ultra quality) to get to 60fps
You may have to set your screen settings to “Low” or “Medium” to achieve 60fps in current graphics-intensive games.
Tragically, there’s not much you can do about it. 4K screens PC are still in their infancy, and PC graphics cards just aren’t groundbreaking enough to run 4K as well as a desktop graphics card.
The NVIDIA GeForce 1080 ti delivers the best performance in 4K from PC; however, it struggles to reliably deliver 60fps in all current AAA titles. So keep that in mind when playing 4K from your PC.
While it’s possible to stream 4K from your PC (without worrying about screen resolution), there are a few things you need to consider before doing so.
First, make sure your graphics card can support 4K resolution. If so, get a high-speed HDMI cable to connect to your 4K device. Then, change your resolution settings to achieve the frame rate you’re happy with
I’m confident that the day will come when PC gamers can easily use 4K at 60 frames per second for all of our top titles, but it’s not there yet
PC equipment is making leaps and bounds with each new graphics card configuration. That’s why I don’t think it’ll be long before we can play at similarly exceptional resolutions as our partners at work.
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