"I was really not expecting there to be such a level of parity between the big boi 4K res, and the modern classic 1080p," wrote PC Gamer editor-in-chief Dave James after publishing the results of the outlet's latest reader poll on preferred gaming resolutions.
Here's the lowdown: 6,476 readers responded, and the results tell a story that cuts against what the Steam Hardware Survey has been saying for years.
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1440p wins, but the real story is below it
2560 x 1440 came out on top with 36% of the vote. No real shock there. PC Gamer's readership skews toward enthusiast hardware users, and 1440p has been the sweet spot for high-refresh gaming for the better part of a decade. Good frame rates, great image quality, monitors that don't cost as much as a used car.
But scroll down the results and things get interesting fast.
4K (3840 x 2160) and 1080p (1920 x 1080) both landed at exactly 22% of the vote. In raw numbers, 1,445 readers sided with 1080p and 1,416 with 4K. That gap is less than one percentage point. Statistically, it's a dead heat.
Why 4K at 22% is the number worth talking about
The Steam Hardware Survey consistently shows 1080p as the dominant PC gaming resolution by a wide margin, with 4K sitting in the low single digits. PC Gamer's readership is a self-selected group of hardware-focused enthusiasts, so some upward skew toward higher resolutions is expected. But 22% for 4K, matching 1080p entirely, is still a bigger share than most would have predicted.
The key here is upscaling. DLSS and FSR have fundamentally changed what 4K gaming actually means in practice. A significant portion of those 1,416 4K voters are almost certainly running at a 1440p render resolution and letting the upscaler handle the rest. The image quality is genuinely excellent at that approach, and the performance hit is manageable even on mid-range hardware.
The poll specifically asked about preferred gaming resolution while ignoring upscaling, which means many respondents may have answered based on their monitor's native resolution rather than their actual in-game render resolution. That distinction matters when reading the 4K numbers.
As James pointed out, the 1080p contingent is probably playing at a true native 1920 x 1080. No upscaling tricks, no render resolution offsets. Just straight pixels at full speed, keeping frame rates high. That's a legitimate strategy, especially in competitive titles where hitting 240Hz matters more than pixel density.
The rest of the resolution spread
Here's how the remaining votes broke down:
The ultrawide contingent at 14% for 3440 x 1440 is a solid showing. The 2560 x 1600 result at 2% confirms what most already suspected: very few people are gaming primarily on a laptop display when given the choice.
What most players miss in these polls is the small but committed group gaming at 1280 x 960 or 1920 x 1440. These are competitive players deliberately using non-standard aspect ratios in games like Counter-Strike 2 to stretch character models and gain a perceived edge. Around 181 readers fell into that category, plus a further 1% still holding firm at 1280 x 960.
What the 1440p majority actually represents
If you factor in that a meaningful chunk of 4K voters are rendering at 1440p and upscaling, the true 1440p gaming population is considerably larger than 36%. James made exactly this point: bump up the 1440p number by the fraction of 4K users who are upscaling from 2560 x 1440, and the resolution's dominance among PC enthusiasts becomes even clearer.
The broader picture suggests PC gaming hardware has matured to a point where 4K is genuinely accessible, even if "native 4K" is increasingly a theoretical concept rather than how people actually play. Upscaling technology has made the line between 1440p and 4K blurrier than it has ever been.
For more hardware coverage and the latest gaming news, keep an eye on how this resolution split evolves as next-generation GPUs push 4K frame rates higher without relying as heavily on reconstruction. The gap between 4K and 1080p in PC Gamer's readership may not stay this tight for long, and the latest reviews of new monitors and GPUs will tell that story as it develops.
