We all know by now that PS5 can't display at 1440p resolution, despite being technically capable of doing so. Most 4K games are upscaled 1440p, so the only reason Sony has disabled 1440p is to force sales of 4K 120Hz HDMI 2.1 screens that we really don't need for next-gen console gaming. But I digress...
I have one of these lying around -
https://www.marseilleinc.com/mclassic/ and thought I'd give it a try on PS5. mClassic has a 1440p upscaler built-in and is capable of supporting 120Hz games.
I'm happy to report that the mClassic works! I have the PS5 running Days Gone in 1080p 60Hz, but displaying on the Dell at 1440p 60Hz
I have two screens connected to my gaming setup - a Dell 27" 1440p 144Hz and an Asus 43" 4K 120Hz (via DisplayPort 1.4). I also have an Elgato 4K Pro MkII for streaming / video capture, so the screens are connected to my consoles via a
Portta HDMI 2.0 4x2 switch, followed by an
Orei 1x2 HDMI 2.0 splitter.
I slotted the mClassic between the HDMI splitter and the Dell screen at the last HDMI cable in the chain, rather than from the console HDMI port. Neither the switch nor the splitter are required as the mClassic will work straight from the console, but it does demonstrate that mClassic works in more complex setups.
The Dell screen is displaying Days Gone at the screen's native 1440p resolution, but the Asus screen is displaying at the PS5's native 1080p signal. This means the two screens can run at independent resolutions instead of the HDMI signal forcing both screens to 1080p. That's a solid outcome.
mClassic adds smoothing to the 1440p upscaling to fill in the pixels, giving the textures an almost painted or cel-shaded quality with silky antialiasing, which looks very nice. I'll see how it looks in OBS when my RTX 3080 Ti arrives in a week or two.
More testing is needed as I've only tried a 1080p 60Hz game, but mClassic apparently supports 1440p and 120Hz upscaling. My hope is that mClassic can fill in the gap for PS5 gaming at 1440p until Sony adds native support.
As an added bonus, the Orei HDMI splitter provides 4K downscaling to 1440p for the Dell, while simultaneously display 4K on the Asus, so I have the best of both worlds. My PS5 will get more love than I anticipated as I wait it out for native 1440p support
[Update] mClassic supports 1440p 60Hz or 1080p 120Hz. Unfortunately it can't do 1440p 120Hz upscaling
mClassic does provide a 1440p upscaling option for PS5, but I wouldn't recommend it for multiplayer shooters. I got some beautiful results for 1080p 60Hz to 1440p 60Hz upscaling in some games (brighter colours, better depth, smoother aliasing, cleaner separation), but not for all.
I like mClassic, but maybe not enough to use it on the daily. I may try to push mClassic into OBS because the results can be a significant visual improvement in games like Days Gone & Borderlands 3 that benefit from mClassic’s antialiasing and brighter palette.