LG's Dual Mode OLED Display: 4K vs 1080p Comparison

LG's new OLED display features a dual mode allowing seamless switching between native 4K and 1080p resolutions for improved performance.

### LG's Dual Mode OLED Gaming Monitor: Exploring 4K and 1080p Modes, Performance, and Future Prospects
* 🎮  LG introduces a new generation of OLED displays with dual mode, allowing users to switch between **native 4K resolution** and **1080p resolution**.
* 🔍  While many modern displays can interpret signals in various modes, only one mode is **native and displayed cleanly without scaling**.
* 🔒  The **1080p mode allows up to 480 Hz**, offering **better motion clarity**.
* 🎨  Color accuracy is solid in sRGB mode, but the gamer mode sacrifices **accuracy for aesthetics**.
* 🕒  An additional frame of processing latency is added at **480 Hz**, which can be a concern when using **adaptive sync**.
* 📏  The monitor seems to apply a **unique scaling method**, offsetting each 1080p pixel **down and to the right by half a 4K pixel**.
* 💰  Priced at **$1,400**, the LG dual mode OLED gaming monitor offers **impressive technology**, despite some limitations.
* 🚀  The future prospects of OLED displays with faster refresh rates are promising, with the potential for **TCONs to support even greater than 480 Hz**.

this is part of a new generation of OLED displays that LG is calling dual mode. It allows you to switch between the native 4K resolution and 1080p resolution. Wait, you must be thinking, I can do that on my monitor right now. Is my monitor dual mode or no DEA mode? Yes, but also no. If you have a modern display, it may be capable of interpreting a signal in all of those different modes, but only one of them is native, that is able to be displayed cleanly without any scaling. That is the trick here, or at least it would be if it worked as well as this. Segue to our sponsor, UGREEN. Their super compact two-in-one magnetic foldable charging station features a 15W CH2 charger for your phone, a 5W wireless charger for earbuds, and a pass-through port for plugging in USBC cable. Check it out at the link below. [Music] Before we get into the details, let's just try the two different modes because there is more to this than just setting.

it to the ideal mode, and then forgetting about it forever. In theory, a display like this can offer the best of both worlds. Right now, what we're looking at is 4K 240 Hz. Obviously, there's outstanding picture clarity, amazing motion clarity, but because of how human vision works, OLED is still going to have some drawbacks compared to a classic CRT monitor. That is, unless you use black frame insertion to artificially strobe the image. So, to my eyes, this is pretty darn clear even with fast on-screen movements, but it can be better. We experimented with this before we started, and it turns out mid-game, at least in this game, I can just press the mode toggle button, and now we're looking at 1080p 4 180 Hz. We still get the same outstanding HDR and color performance, but at this size, I would say the image clarity is a bit of a drag. The upside is that by running at a lower resolution, we overcome the limitations of our display port link.

we can run it a whopping 480 Refreshers per second. Now, I already spoke about this in detail when I took my first look at Alienware's new 500 HZ display, but in a nutshell, it makes more of a difference than you would probably imagine. For reasons that we'll get into later, in terms of the subjective experience, it's great. Like, I just can't miss heads with this thing, you know, got them, which is really cool. But why can't I just go into the advanced Windows menu and change my refresh rate here? They're dual mode, right? Well, no. Since the days of this connector, monitors have included a bit of metadata called an EDID. The ID's purpose is to report the display's capabilities to any connected device, be it a computer or game console or what have you. This monitor has two EIDs, which can be toggled through the OSD or this little button right here. We extracted them, we ran them through an interpreter, and we had a look at the output. And surprisingly, the only major difference

is that the 4K mode will not allow the display to be driven past 240 HZ, regardless of the configured resolution in the Windows settings. The 1080p Eed doesn't list as many resolutions and maxes out at 1080p 480 HZ. If you try to force feed it 4K resolution in 1080P mode, it will actually scale that input down to 1080P and then back up again to the native 4K of the panel. Why did they feel the need to do this? Well, we have some theories, but let's come back to them after we've talked about the performance of the display and determined whether this thing is even worth jumping through all these hoops for. Starting with color accuracy, sRGB mode is solidly okay. The color temperature is a little cool, but if you don't know what that means, you're unlikely to notice it. And if you do, you can simply calibrate your troubles away, at least unless you want to use gamer mode. Unfortunately, it is tuned for

colors that are pretty, but not accurate. No problem, just ignore it then, right? I guess. But unless you're using one of the first four listed display modes, an extra frame of processing latency gets added at 480 Hz, or 240 Hz for that matter. It's not such a big deal, but if you use adaptive sync for smoother animations and your GPU doesn't happen to be god-tier, it could be a problem for you. In HDR, we measured both low peak brightness mode and high peak brightness mode. Low is best viewed in a dim room, while high managed over 1,200 nits in a 1% window for dazzling highlights. Now let's talk about responsiveness. This is a gaming monitor first and foremost, and both of the modes are great, but they have some small differences. Because it refreshes at half the rate, the 4K mode has inherently worse input latency. Of course, we're talking about a difference of about 1 millisecond, so who cares, right? Well, hold on. We've said for years that there's a point of diminishing returns.

past about 240 Hz, but the reason that faster matters for OLED displays is because of how our eyes perceive motion. By switching more frequently, we will see fast-moving objects with better clarity. The 1080p mode has a curious trait of its own, though. If you run it at a lower refresh rate, the latency goes up more faster than you would expect. Perhaps it has something to do with scaling those inputs. It is a 4K native panel regardless of whether it's running in a 1080p mode, and scaling is impossible to avoid on a modern display because these panels are made up of a fixed array of pixels that can't change in size or shape. By contrast, classic CRTs had no concept of physical pixels; they could adjust the beams to draw tighter lines for higher resolution, even if it came at the cost of brightness or refresh rate. Now, sometimes scaling can be simple. 4K happens to be exactly four times the number of pixels as 1080p, so that's fine. You just double in each dimension.

voila perfect clarity. Just with bigger blocks. This is called integer scaling because the higher resolution can cleanly be divided by the lower one. 4K also happens to be divisible by 720p and for you retro Gamers 240p as well. So you would think that we would use that kind of scaling as often as possible but as it turns out most displays just throw a blurry igging filter on it and call it a day. Of course this isn't most displays. Is it if LG expects you to use 1080p mode it had better be clean. So how does it hold up as it turns out pretty okay even in 4k mode it seems like it's trying to do integer scaling. It's sharper than you'd expect but if you look closely each 1080p pixel is offset down to the right by half of a 4K pixel. Okay hold on a second line is half a pixel you just told me they couldn't change size and shape okay yes but check this out we've established that integer

scaling converts four physical pixels into a single virtual 1080p pixel. If you offset that by half a pixel in each dimension, now that one pixel takes up nine at 4K: one in the middle and eight half pixels on each side. At first, we thought this must be some kind of intentional scaling thing, but after looking at how it affects the corner pixels, we think it's actually just an off-by-one error somewhere in the display logic that maps the scaled image to the panel. We get to see how well it actually scales if we try any other resolution, including 720p, and it gets blurred. This is unfortunate because they could have integer scaled 720p as well. That would mean that the lion's share of common resolutions over the past two decades would look perfect on this display at 480 Hz. That would be awesome if LG could rectify it in the future, but if not, it's a pitfall that hopefully at least other manufacturers who use a similar technology can avoid in the future. And in LG's defense, it's not

really a deal breaker. In 4K mode, you can still use integer scaling on your GPU driver, or you can use upscaling methods like DLSS and FSR to render your games at a lower resolution for better performance and then output 4K native from your GPU, which is obviously going to look perfect. The question then becomes, why does the 1080p mode exist, and should you bother to use it? Well, our best-educated guess for why the mode switch even has to happen is that the timing controller or the TCON needs to be reset to change its behavior. Even though 1080p at 480 Hz requires half of the bandwidth of 4K at 240 Hz, 480 Hz is fast in terms of time, so the timing controller probably can't directly address the full 4K pixel grid at that crazy speed. So instead, it appears to use a technique called line doubling, scanning out each line of the image twice to reduce the processing load. We can verify that this is happening by

looking at the pixels, rather than being offset in both directions as 1080p looked in the 4K mode. Now, the image is only offset to the right. In summary, an intriguing product. Hopefully, it's a solution that we just won't need a few years from now. But if you want tomorrow's Tech technology today, and you don't mind pressing this switch depending on what mode you want to run in and what game you're running. And also, if you don't mind spending $1,400, you're getting a genuinely impressive piece of technology, even if there are a few limitations. It also makes me even more excited for the day after tomorrow. No, not that one. When we see updated tcons that can push even greater than 480 HZ. Because with pixel response times that are in the .3 millisecond range, OLED has a lot more Headroom to be pushed. And while 600 htz or heck, even this 480 HZ display is going to be endgame territory for most people, perfect to the eye motion Clarity.

could require closer to 1,000 HZ or even more, which is so fast that if you blink you'll miss it like the segue to our sponsor delete me. Privacy isn't just about individuals, it's about families. That's why delete me is expanding to cover everyone you care about. Their new family plans make sharing and caring as simple as it can get. With their family account management, you can easily add family members, ensuring personalized protection for each person. Their privacy-first design means every family member gets their own data sheet, keeping their online footprint secure. From kids to adults, everyone's covered, reducing the risk of exposure to spam and scams. And with simplified management, overseeing your family's privacy has never been easier. Choose delete me for peace of mind for your entire family in the digital world. Check them out at the link below today and use the code LT at checkout for 20% off. Thanks for watching, guys. Go check out that time we pitted an OLED against an HD crrt for a little bit more on the importance of motion clarity. Let's go.

My Computer Thinks This OLED is TWO Monitors…

Linus Tech Tips is a passionate team of "professionally curious" experts in consumer technology and video production who aim to educate and entertain.


Linus Tech Tips

LG has introduced a new dual mode OLED display that allows users to switch between native 4K resolution and 1080p resolution, offering the potential for the best of both worlds in terms of picture clarity and refresh rate.

The display's unique feature of having two separate EDIDs allows it to report different capabilities to the connected device, enabling the smooth toggling between the two modes.

This technology provides a significant impact on the subjective experience, particularly in fast-paced gaming, by offering outstanding motion clarity and high refresh rates.

Display Performance and Scaling Issues in 4K and 1080p Modes

The display has limitations on refresh rates at different resolutions, with potential issues in scaling and input latency.

The color accuracy is decent in sRGB mode, but gamer mode may not provide accurate colors.

The 4K mode offers great responsiveness, while the 1080p mode has higher latency at lower refresh rates, possibly due to scaling issues.

Modern display scaling is challenging due to the fixed array of pixels, unlike the adjustable nature of classic CRTs.

The Impact of Integer Scaling on Display Quality

Most displays apply a blurry upscaling filter instead of the preferred integer scaling, although LG's 1080p mode offers relatively clean scaling.

However, in 4K mode, the scaling appears to be off by half a pixel, possibly due to an error in the display logic.

This results in a blurred image when using other resolutions, such as 720p, missing out on the potential for perfect scaling.

LG may need to address this issue in the future, and other manufacturers should take note to avoid similar pitfalls.

The Purpose of the 1080p Mode in a 4K 240Hz Gaming Monitor

The 1080p mode exists because the timing controller or TCON needs to be reset to handle the crazy speed of 480Hz.

It uses a technique called line doubling to reduce the processing load, which is why the image is only offset to the right.

This gaming monitor offers impressive technology for a high price, but may not be necessary in the near future as tcons improve.

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Delete Me is now offering family plans for comprehensive privacy protection for all family members.

The family account management allows for personalized protection and individual data sheets for each member.

The service aims to reduce the risk of online exposure to spam and scams while providing simplified privacy management.