These days, I’ve been playing Stellar Blade at 4K with DLAA. And, for whatever reason, the game suffers from major specular aliasing issues, even at 4K with DLAA. So, you know what? I decided to try the game at 8K, and this is perhaps one of the few games that benefits greatly from 8K.
But what is specular aliasing, some of you may ask. Well, this is aliasing that occurs on metal surfaces. This can affect fences, bars, metal doors, and generally all metal objects.
Here is an example. When you go to the Hall of Records, pay attention to the horrible aliasing that can be easily seen in all metal surfaces there. Sadly, I could not capture 8K and 4K screenshots from it, as you cannot re-visit it. However, the specular aliasing is pretty horrible there.
I should note that these issues are not exclusive to the PC version. The PS5 version also suffers from them. Look at the same exact issues from the PS5 version in the following shot. You can see them in motion in this video.
So, now that we’ve established what this aliasing problem is, let’s compare 4K with DLAA to 8K with DLSS Quality. Here is a video. Pay attention to the bars. As you will see, there are obvious aliasing issues, even at Native 4K with DLAA. By switching to 8K with DLSS Quality, we get a more stable image.
And that’s not all. Let’s take a closer look at some distant objects. Look at how bad and full of aliasing the Native 4K with DLAA shots look compared to the 8K with DLSS Quality shots.
The benefits of 8K can also be seen on Eve herself. Look at her hair and her gear. At 8K, even though we are not running at native res, we are getting a more stable and less aliased image.
And we are not over yet. Look at these metallic stairs. Look how much detail you lose at 4K with DLAA. At 8K with DLSS Quality, you can see all the small metals, fully detailed.
Another thing to note is that HDR worsens those specular aliasing issues, making the game feel awful. The only solution for those who want to game with HDR is to bump their internal resolution.
To be honest, I don’t remember a game that could look so much better at 8K. This is perhaps one of the few in which I immediately saw the benefits of 8K.
So, remember those “8K is useless” comments? Well, those didn’t age well, did they? Unless, of course, you are completely fine with aliasing issues in your games. And, if you are OK with it, why are you demanding more powerful GPUs to game at Native 4K?
The good news is that Stellar Blade is greatly optimized on PC. At 8K/Max Settings with DLSS Quality and Frame Gen, I was getting over 100FPS at all times on the NVIDIA RTX 5090. So, if you own a high-end GPU, you will be able to enjoy it.
Those interested can find some more 8K and DLSS 4 benchmarks here. Be sure to also read our PC Performance Analysis. Finally, you can download these mods for it.
John is the founder and Editor in Chief at DSOGaming. He is a PC gaming fan and highly supports the modding and indie communities. Before creating DSOGaming, John worked on numerous gaming websites. While he is a die-hard PC gamer, his gaming roots can be found on consoles. John loved – and still does – the 16-bit consoles, and considers SNES to be one of the best consoles. Still, the PC platform won him over consoles. That was mainly due to 3DFX and its iconic dedicated 3D accelerator graphics card, Voodoo 2. John has also written a higher degree thesis on the “The Evolution of PC graphics cards.”
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