Is it worth getting a 8K TV for PS5, or should you stick with 4K instead?

PlayStation 5 console positioned next to an 8K TV

(Image credit: Future)

published 25 May 2022

Should you buy an 8K TV for your PS5? Unless you're absolutely made of money, I'd say no: the PS5 only outputs at up to 4K, and while the best 8K TVs have powerful upsampling features the difference really isn't worth spending huge sums on. Sony is promising to increase the output resolution to 8K in a future update, but right now almost every PS5 game is made for 4K, not 8K, and the best gaming TVs are currently all 4K TVs.

That's because resolution is only part of the picture, pun fully intended. There's cost, of course, but there's also performance and next-gen console support to consider too.

How to choose the best TV for PS5 gaming, and for Xbox Series X gaming too

Many of the criteria for the best TV for PS5 are the same as for the best TVs generally: cost, brightness, contrast, HDR support, a Game Mode, surround sound and refresh rate. But there are some console-specific features too, including some that are only available in TVs whose HDMI ports support HDMI 2.1 features.

Game Mode is essential, because it disables the features that get in the way of sheer performance such as image processing. Look for features such as ALLM, which is short for Auto Low Latency Mode and reduces lag to keep your competitive edge. VRR, for Variable Refresh Rate, matters too: it adjusts the display refresh rate to match the console and eliminate on-screen problems as a result.

Some 4K TVs now match the maximum output rate of 120Hz, which is incredibly smooth and fast. We've written an entire article explaining what 120Hz gaming means and why it's so good.

Although Sony labels some of its TVs as Ready For PlayStation 5, you don't need to buy a Sony TV if you don't want one: look for the features mentioned here and you'll be fine. And given the choice between 4K with all the features listed above or 8K without, go for the 4K one every time.

Writer, musician and broadcaster Carrie Marshall has been covering technology since 1998 and is particularly interested in how tech can help us live our best lives. Her CV is a who’s who of magazines, newspapers, websites and radio programmes ranging from T3, Techradar and MacFormat to the BBC, Sunday Post and People’s Friend. Carrie has written more than a dozen books, ghost-wrote two more and co-wrote seven more books and a Radio 2 documentary series; her memoir, Carrie Kills A Man, was shortlisted for the British Book Awards. When she’s not scribbling, Carrie is the singer in Glaswegian rock band Unquiet Mind (unquietmindmusic).