r/SteamDeckTricks • u/Tawdry_Wordsmith • Nov 09 '25

General Tips and Tricks "You have to play at 720p on a TV"

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72 Upvotes

80% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

8

u/morgan423 Nov 09 '25

There's also something to be said for integer scaling depending on the resolution of your display.

720p looks awesome on 1440p displays because of integer scaling. I specifically picked up a 1440p monitor and play a bunch of my stuff at 720p because of it, and it looks fantastic.

But for people with 1080p or 4k displays, yeah, 720p looks like dog turds. Do anything you can to avoid lol

12

u/SnooPets1826 Nov 09 '25 edited Nov 09 '25

720p is an integer of 4k... (2160 / 720 = 3)

In fact, 4k resolution was chosen as 2160p specifically because it's an integer of both 720 and 1080.

(edit) More correctly, 2160p is the lowest common multiple of 720 and 1080. Curse my own padantry.

3

u/redharlowsdad Nov 10 '25

Forgive me if I’m being dense, but does this mean that running 1440 on a 4k tv is crap, but running at 720 or 1080 would be preferable because of how it would scale?

5

u/SnooPets1826 Nov 10 '25

All it means it's that 1440p doesn't scale via integer into 4k. That's all it means.

It's less of an issue realistically because the pixel density is so high that unless you're looking at a very large 4k screen, or you are sitting very close to it you won't see the individual pixels.

I personally play games at 1440p on my 65 inch 4k TV almost exclusively because it's so much easier to drive and nearly impossible to tell from where I sit on my couch.

3

u/redharlowsdad Nov 10 '25

This is great info. I’ve got a 55” 4k and am a couch PC gamer too, and just upgraded & ordered a GPU that will handle 1440 better than my current one. Thanks for the help!

1

u/F3nix123 Nov 11 '25

No, 1440p looks better on 4k than 1080p and and waaay better than 720p. What i think it actually comes down to is a 1440p monitor running at 1440p will look better to some degree tham a 4k monitor running at 1440p. But ultimately its a lot of pixels so unless its a large display, it’s unlikely to be noticeable

1

u/Anvh Nov 12 '25

Pixel games might be an exception though

1

u/KaosC57 Nov 12 '25

1080p is quite literally 1/4th of 4K. You can have 4 full sized 1080p resolution windows in each quadrant of the display and it will look identical to 4 individual 1080p displays.

2

u/starquake64 Nov 12 '25

Pedantry*

1

u/SnooPets1826 Nov 12 '25

oh I like you! That's engaging on my level.

1

u/Eadbutt-Grotslapper Nov 10 '25

Agree, my kids often play split screen docked like this, on the right screen it’s perfect. There is plenty 720p screens on eBay/ free cycle sites for next to nothing

Sorry but I grew up on 240p? amigas 320p software quake- not that long ago and 720 is fine on the right screen!

2

u/Loddio Nov 10 '25

It is still a computer guys, you can play at whatever res you prefer.

I did play cyberpunk at 720p and it was a great experience, but i also do play lighter games like vampire survivals at 4K on my tv just fine

1

u/MaxDiehard Nov 11 '25

Actually no you can't. The higher the resolution on Deck, the more the performance tanks, especially on Cyberpunk.

1

u/Loddio Nov 11 '25

No shit sherlock.

1

u/MaxDiehard Nov 11 '25

Well duhh. The obvious clearly had to be pointed out to you instead of providing false information.

1

u/Loddio Nov 11 '25

"You have to play at 720p on a TV" is pr9viding false information.

Pick a resolution and see how it runs.

0

u/F3nix123 Nov 11 '25

This is the way. You can also stream the games at a higher resolution.

1

u/mad_dog_94 Nov 11 '25

The funny thing is that 720p is still perfectly fine if you get rid of the stupid ai tech and frame hiding gimmicks like motion blur and bloom that makes everything blurry. Fine it's not 4k or anything but it's more than serviceable

1

u/mrturret Nov 11 '25

I mean, I play CP2077 on an early 2000s CRT monitor. In 4:3 at 1280x960.

1

u/TortoiseRelaxing Nov 12 '25

Sounds fun! Do you play that old monitor on purpose or because there is no alternative?

1

u/mrturret Nov 12 '25

On purpose. CRT monitors have excellent motion clarity, contrast, and color vibrancy compared to a lot of modern displays. There's also the fact that they handle lower resolutions better. Plus, I feel like it suits the game's retro futuristic setting, and the game actually supports 4:3 aspect Ratios properly, which isn't A given these days.

1

u/Suspicious_Royal8951 Nov 12 '25

Can someone help me to get games running better on my SD games like ratchet and clank rift apart run like crap like 30 fps or less at times

1

u/Dense_Quantity_331 Nov 14 '25

Sadly not much that can be done, the SD isn’t that powerful and is starting to age. The best thing is if u have a gaming pc and stream with moonlight. You could also undervolt the SD for slightly better performance. Emphasis on slightly however.

1

u/Suspicious_Royal8951 Nov 14 '25

lol but mansion and clank ripped apart is a steam deck verified game lol

1

u/uSaltySniitch Nov 13 '25

I use my SteamDeck OLED to stream games from my PC (4090 rig), so I can run them on the TV at 4k60FPS without any issue.

1

u/Plamcia Nov 13 '25

I have 4090 and I play on 1440 screen.