Getting 4k and 1080p monitors to play nice

[jazzmac251]

I've recently gone from two computers down to one, which has left me with an extra screen to play with. My main monitor is 4k and the extra screen I now have is 1080p. I'm interested running a dual monitor setup for productivity reasons.

As expected, the resolution mismatch is very annoying.

From the 4k's perspective, the 1080p is half its own height. From the 1080p's perspective, the 4k is twice as tall. This makes mousing between the two very annoying as the cursor doesn't move smoothly from one screen to the next. It's either running into an imaginary monitor "edge" or it's jumping location dramatically. My desktop background on the 1080p is also only 1/4 of what it is on the 4k, which makes sense and isn't a huge deal, but it's still annoying.

Is there a way to get Windows to mirror real life a bit more - i.e. the screens are the same physical size, but the 4k simply has a higher pixel density - as opposed to considering 4k as literally 4x larger than 1080p? Maybe via DSR on the 1080p screen or something?

Nvidia GTX980ti, btw.

 

[Hlsgsz]

Nothing you can do about that, sorry. It is what it is.

 

[jazzmac251]

Nothing you can do about that, sorry. It is what it is.

Actually, I just figured out how to play around with DSR. You can use supersampling to upscale to 4k resolution and this fixes all the annoying crap I listed in my OP. It does, however, create a few of its own uniquely annoying issues...

Still exploring this option.

 

[Hlsgsz]

SS + high DPI settings? I don't know man...

 

[jazzmac251]

SS + high DPI settings? I don't know man...

I think that + ClearType is gonna have to be the answer. It's actually working pretty well, I think. Having your 1080p monitor next to a 4k monitor REALLY shows off the warts in 1080p in a way I'm not used to, but I think it looks pretty good.

DSR on the desktop makes your mouse pointer huge for some reason, though.

 

[Hlsgsz]

SS + high DPI settings? I don't know man...

I think that + ClearType is gonna have to be the answer. It's actually working pretty well, I think. Having your 1080p monitor next to a 4k monitor REALLY shows off the warts in 1080p in a way I'm not used to, but I think it looks pretty good.

DSR on the desktop makes your mouse pointer huge for some reason, though.

What diagonals are they? Personally i wouldn;t go for 4k on anything including 27" and below. I just can;t stand high DPI settings.

 

[jazzmac251]

SS + high DPI settings? I don't know man...

I think that + ClearType is gonna have to be the answer. It's actually working pretty well, I think. Having your 1080p monitor next to a 4k monitor REALLY shows off the warts in 1080p in a way I'm not used to, but I think it looks pretty good.

DSR on the desktop makes your mouse pointer huge for some reason, though.

What diagonals are they? Personally i wouldn;t go for 4k on anything including 27" and below. I just can;t stand high DPI settings.

The 1080p is a 27" and the 4k is 28"

 

[Hlsgsz]

SS + high DPI settings? I don't know man...

I think that + ClearType is gonna have to be the answer. It's actually working pretty well, I think. Having your 1080p monitor next to a 4k monitor REALLY shows off the warts in 1080p in a way I'm not used to, but I think it looks pretty good.

DSR on the desktop makes your mouse pointer huge for some reason, though.

What diagonals are they? Personally i wouldn;t go for 4k on anything including 27" and below. I just can;t stand high DPI settings.

The 1080p is a 27" and the 4k is 28"

Yeah, they both should be 1440p as far as i'm concearned

 

[jazzmac251]

I've solved most of the blurry text issues by simply turning my monitor's "sharpness" setting higher. Hah!

 

[jazzmac251]

Okay, so, I think what's going on is this:

DSR specifically - and other types of supersampling, I assume - messes with your perception of image sharpness. Your monitor's default sharpness settings are just not going to cut it when sampled up 4x. Increasing mine to 80-90% helped considerably with the "out of focus" feeling of small text. However, text then appeared too sharp, almost jagged in character. I believe this is an artifact of the supersampling process.

This is why you have a smoothing option. Blend in smoothness to taste and the results should be pretty good. Maybe not perfect, but pretty close to it, actually. Finding the right balance between your monitor's sharpness setting and DSR's smoothness setting is the key to success.

Bumping your DPI scaling up to 200% helps a lot too.

Still not sure what to do about this giant mouse cursor, but that's next on the list.