4k vs 1080p

So..... Having had the 4k screen on my laptop for about 2 months now, I have been getting more and more fed up with the lack of 60fps on games. Its important to me that the gameplay looks amazing but also runs as smooth as butter.
We all know 1080p dont look quite right on a 4k screen so I thought I would swap back to see how it is.....
I wont be putting my 4k screen back in. It does look better 1080p on native screen and the smoothness is important.
As stunning as 4k screen is and how amazing games look..... Its a faff trying to find a balance to make games run well and also look good!
That being said, I am going to be selling my 4k screen along with the EDP cable for it.

 

1080 on 4k screen looks absolutely perfect, i wont recommend going back to fhd because that panel has bad color reproduction and only 200nits.

 

I did consider a 4K panel but couldn't justify the expense considering I'll be running games at 1080 most of the time. My plan is to wait for the next generation of graphics cards to arrive, come down in price a little along with 4K screen with freesync / gsync and then make the leap. Perhaps Windows apps will finally scale by that time, too. What am I saying, Windows will never scale properly.

The spec on my 17 R3 order says 300nit 1080 IPS panel. Is the quoted spec incorrect?

 

Highly unusual, unless the screen is doing something strange it should look like native 1080p.

 

Ok.... Change of heart. Played Hitman for a while with native 1080p to get used to it and put my 4k back in to check. Actually looks better than native. Slightly more smoothed text in game and overall just slightly better.
I do think it depends on games though as Far Cry Primal did look slightly sharper at 1080p native.
Def noticed the colour difference which 4k wins, hands down!
Think I am going to keep it!
Also desktop icons and text are much, much clearer!

 

4K is amazing on the 17R3. The perfect balance for game play is 1440P on Max Settings. I prefer 1440p over 4K anyway...best of both words of 1080p frame rates + 4K quality.

I would never ditch my 4K screen on the 17R3. Now if I had the 15R2, then yea maybe as IMO 4K isn't as practical on such a small screen like a 15R2, where the 1080p is perfect for a 15.

 

I think it comes down to people's perceptions and possibly the type of games they play. In some games the texture smoothing effect of good scaling you mentioned might be perceived as positive, whilst in other games (say an MMO with tons of small text on the screen) another person might prefer the sharpness of native res, even at 1080. I don't think it's as clear cut as "higher res panel == better" because there are a lot of variables to take into account that can affect your overall visual experience and ultimately enjoyment.