Is there a difference in performance between a the default scaling option and selecting a resolution? I just got a new 27&quot; 4k monitor. At default resolution, text and menu items are too small for me to be usable. In the display settings, there are options to &quot;Scale&quot; the resolution, but this comes with a notice that scaling may negatively impact performance.
I've seen online that one can option-click on the Scaled radio button and get a drop down of resolutions. I've done this and selected 2560x1440 and this is comfortable for me.
My question is: does the mechanism for choosing a different resolution via the drop down not degrade performance the way the default scaling options does? Or is it essentially doing the same thing, just via a different way of selecting the scaling?
In case it's helpful, I have two MacBook computers that I use this display for, with the following GPU information from the system report:

My work MacBook Pro 13&quot;, 2019, with Intel Iris Plus 655 GPU.
My personal 2019 MacBook Air 13&quot; with Intel UHD Graphics 617.
Changing your resolution doesn't really affect performance.  What will give the effect of improving or reducing performance is refresh rate.  A higher refresh rate will smooth things out giving you the &quot;feeling&quot; that things are much faster.  A lower one will make things look more &quot;jumpy&quot; thus giving the effect of lagging performance.
The default scaling is what macOS has determined to be the &quot;best&quot; optically for your particular setup.