One of the promised features of Stadia touted by Google before the launch of the cloud gaming service was that all games would support 4K resolution at 60 FPS. Even after the service became available to the public in November 2019 and reports began to come in to the contrary, Google backpedaled to state that all games could be played at 4K/60 FPS but only if developers chose to optimize their games for it and only certain platforms such as Chromecast Ultra would support it.
Finally, after four months on the market, the promised ability to stream games on PC at 4K resolution in the Chrome browser has been soft released to a limited user base. In other words, 4K support on Chrome will be a slow rollout for testing purposes that will be tied to the monitor Google Stadia members are using.
In order to stream games on the web in 4K resolution, players will of course need a monitor that supports 4K, a GPU capable of decoding VP9 in hardware, and an internet connection of 35 Mbps or higher. According to reports from players over the past few days, monitors that support 1440p resolution will downgrade graphic quality to 1080p by default. But by tweaking some settings, with success dependent on the specific graphics card used, some players report being able to stream 4K even on their 1440p monitors.
The lack of universal 4K resolution game streaming on Google Stadia has been a major weak point since the launch of the service, partly because it was a promised feature that caused many people to pre-order the Stadia Founder’s Edition for $129.99, only to find on launch that they didn’t receive everything that was advertised. One of the perks of choosing a paid Stadia Pro subscription over the free membership is that it supposedly allows up to 4K/60 FPS streaming, but many members have found that they are paying for features that simply aren't available.
Even games that have been confirmed by Google to run at 4K/60 FPS such as Red Dead Redemption 2, Final Fantasy XV, and Destiny 2 have been shown to actually render at 1080p and then be upscaled to improve the graphical quality. Hopefully, if more developers decide to join Google Stadia, games will begin to truly run in 4K resolution as advertised. Either way, the ability to stream in 4K in the Chrome browser is a major step in the right direction towards Google Stadia fulfilling the promises that were made before launch.
Google Stadia launched in November 2019.