• Competitor rules

    Please remember that any mention of competitors, hinting at competitors or offering to provide details of competitors will result in an account suspension. The full rules can be found under the 'Terms and Rules' link in the bottom right corner of your screen. Just don't mention competitors in any way, shape or form and you'll be OK.

1080 - 4K or 1440p ultrawide capable card?

mikelkite

mikelkite

mikelkite

Associate
Joined
21 Jun 2010
Posts
226
So rather than ask the usual pricing or specs or the arguing going on over a 1080 at the moment, I want your opinions on what people think between the 2 options, if a 1080 will do either, or if it is the job of 2 cards.

Some things I know about 4k is that AA is a much reduced requirement, so 2x will suffice but I am aware the savage cost of 4k on resources still. Other things can be tweaked and to be fair I have for years been clocking and benching machines, my current rig is an i5 6600k (at some point the i7 will go in) 16GB ddr4 2400mhz (will go up at some point) and a GTX 970 EVGA SSC.

I'm tempted by an ultrawide as a centre screen so the only one I would get is a 1440p 120hz, seems the best option, until 4k ultrawides make an appearance.

What do people have and what do you call acceptable so far as fps goes? I've seen some 1080 benchmarks with 4k around 50~ fps with 8xAA and some benchmarks at 28fps, so without AA it still looks crisp and will run smooth surely?
 
Question for me is how capable the 1070 will be at ultrawide, but we really don't know how it's going to stack up yet, what it will perform like vs the 980Ti or what price it will come in at. The 1080 undoubtedly will be a solid 21:9 1440p performer, as it should for the price! For 4K, it's still not going to be an ultra smooth everything wacked up to 11 single GPU solution though.

There is no ultrawide at 120Hz yet though. The most you can get is 100Hz with the G-Sync X34 or PG348Q. As for 4K, no monitor can exceed 60Hz yet, and although the 1080 has DP 1.4 connectivity which would be able to push that up to 120Hz, no such monitor yet exists, and I have not yet seen any announced, so we will likely be waiting some time for one to become available. 21:9 is going to be the sweet-spot for a while yet.
 
People have different opinions on how they feel about comfortable frame rates, IMO once it bogs down to 40 and below it's not very good if you are used to higher.. 60+ as a minimum if possible, not going to happen with a 4k screen.

The higher refresh screens are much better for medium/faster paced games too.

You should look at minimum frame rates in test results as well as averages. Especially for 4k performance because that will likely tank often.
 
Ultra smooth maxed out 4K is a dream, will be for a long time yet. Laughable that some people seem to think the 1080 is the single GPU solution we've all been waiting for LOL! Not even close. I feel sorry for anyone who's bought in to the whole 4K marketing gimmick and thinks they'll soon be playing AAA titles maxed out. It's crazy. Even 21:9 struggles in some games, so fuggetaboutit! I doubt even the first HBM2 cards will manage this, and even if it does we'll be requiring 4K 120Hz monitors and a new version of G-Sync to go along with it (start saving yesterday and get ready to re-mortgage lol!). People just need to put a pin in this 4K fantasy for now and focus on what's actually achievable.
 
Legend said:
Question for me is how capable the 1070 will be at ultrawide, but we really don't know how it's going to stack up yet, what it will perform like vs the 980Ti or what price it will come in at. The 1080 undoubtedly will be a solid 21:9 1440p performer, as it should for the price! For 4K, it's still not going to be an ultra smooth everything wacked up to 11 single GPU solution though.

There is no ultrawide at 120Hz yet though. The most you can get is 100Hz with the G-Sync X34 or PG348Q. As for 4K, no monitor can exceed 60Hz yet, and although the 1080 has DP 1.4 connectivity which would be able to push that up to 120Hz, no such monitor yet exists, and I have not yet seen any announced, so we will likely be waiting some time for one to become available. 21:9 is going to be the sweet-spot for a while yet.
Click to expand...

Bah I meant 100hz, its been a long day and I'm old. I guess is 1440p THAT much of an improvement on 1080? 4k seems like its achievable maybe with 2x 1070s then, as SLI 2x is the only option now, sort of.

I'm willing to take some fidelity loss at 4k to get decent FPS, ido 80-90 at 1080 on most games and score like 12k on firestrike.
 
The 1080 will struggle with 4k and won't hold 60fps+ but no AA is not really needed in 4k, 2XAA at most in a few games.
When you've had more than a 60hz monitor it's hard work to go back, a 1080 will however power 3440x1440 very nicely indeed pushing near 100fps in most games and of course the 100hz is night and day compaired with 60.
 
mikelkite said:
Bah I meant 100hz, its been a long day and I'm old. I guess is 1440p THAT much of an improvement on 1080? 4k seems like its achievable maybe with 2x 1070s then, as SLI 2x is the only option now, sort of.

I'm willing to take some fidelity loss at 4k to get decent FPS, ido 80-90 at 1080 on most games and score like 12k on firestrike.
Click to expand...

Hell yeah 1440 is a fantastic improvement on 1080! Best and most noticeable upgrade I've ever made, and could never go back. Also, since going 21:9 with the X34, I could never go back to 16:9 now.

We have no sight of 1070 reviews yet, but it will be interesting to see how it performs. The problem with 4K is not only the cards but the monitors. We NEED 120Hz 4K to really see it in all its glory, and as mentioned no such monitor exists yet. When it does, even x2 1080's aren't going to push 100FPS regularly in the AAA titles. As Jedi says, just forget 4K and go ultrawide... you absolutely won't regret it. Chasing 4K will ruin you, financially and emotionally lol! ;)
 
I wouldn't go Sli, single most power card is the best solution, you open up a whole world of hurt having 2 cards, if you like playing game upon release most of the time the 2nd card is sat there doing nothing, look at Doom 4, plus theres other problems with Sli as well.
 
The 1080 has surpassed the 980ti to become the single card solution for 60+ frames at 2560*1440. I say that because in my experience the 980ti can struggle to maintain 60 at that res in a small number of titles, although most will hit or exceed the target. So, with 25% uplift in performance the 1080 should be consistently above 60.

That's it. Go any higher with your resolution, and you'll need to start compromising with either lower settings or lower frame rates.

As for the 1070, it'll match a 980ti at best. It simply can't outperform it, because if it did then it would be within 10% of a 1080 and therefore compete almost directly with it.
 
Legend said:
Ultra smooth maxed out 4K is a dream, will be for a long time yet. Laughable that some people seem to think the 1080 is the single GPU solution we've all been waiting for LOL! Not even close. I feel sorry for anyone who's bought in to the whole 4K marketing gimmick and thinks they'll soon be playing AAA titles maxed out. It's crazy. Even 21:9 struggles in some games, so fuggetaboutit! I doubt even the first HBM2 cards will manage this, and even if it does we'll be requiring 4K 120Hz monitors and a new version of G-Sync to go along with it (start saving yesterday and get ready to re-mortgage lol!). People just need to put a pin in this 4K fantasy for now and focus on what's actually achievable.
Click to expand...

Couldn't agree more, i always see comments saying "Can't wait for these new cards and a nice new 4K screen to run 60fps" all over the place, YouTube comments and various other places.

4K for even just films is still in its infancy, for PC gaming there is a long way to go to catch up yet to get nice performance in everything.

Of course some people are happy with 30fps or whatever they get, if that's what they are comfortable with then so be it.
 
I'm really tempted to go for a 4K 1080 GTX set-up.

Currently got a Dell 24" 1920x1200 IPS with a 680 GTX, 1440p ultra-wide just doesn't appeal to me. I play mixture of RPG, Strategy, Space and FPS. Don't see why I can't run some games letterboxed at 3440x1440 60Hz on a 40" 4K monitor. Seems not all games I play have good support for ultra-wide anyhow.

Can't afford to go SLI and am prepared to run in letter box / turn down some settings to keep the frames up at 60FPS. Think 4K will work out better for coding, Photoshop and watching video.

Got my eye on the Iiyama ProLite X4071 but will wait for the AIB 1080's before committing to anything.
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQTRlDoCVUw

Look at these benchmarks comparing the 1080's performance at different resolutions and keep in mind that 1440p UW performance is likely in-between 1440p and 4k as shown in the video.

I'd say that of course, no card, not even the 1080 is good enough for 4k max settings. As for ultrawide 1440p? It comes close, maybe with overclocked aftermarket cards it might be able to hold 60fps. But from what I've seen from these reference benchmarks the 1080 is a card for 1440p, being able to maintain 60fps maxed, maybe turning down some settings not so much required at higher resolutions like anti-aliasing.

With 1080 SLI, 4k60 at maxed settings is viable and similarly 1440 UW becomes more viable too. I think if you want a single card for those things or even 1440p at higher framerates than 60 (to make good use of that juicy G-sync), you are better off waiting for the 1080ti or whatever AMD has up their sleeves.

The 1080 is the card to play games 1440p maxed settings and get 60fps, it'll be a while yet before we get something that let's us play 60fps at 4k without having to lower most of the important settings. Maybe watercool and overclock, then perhaps one might come close to 4k/1440pUW at 60fps. Even moreso if one lowers settings like AA (I'd argue that AA is not as important at higher resolutions).
 
I have been contemplating getting a 1080 for the past week. I am looking to make the jump to 1440P currently have a single reference 980. If i add another 980 in SLI will the 4GB Vram be enough at that resolution for a few years? or am i better getting the 1080 for its 8GB?
 
Legend said:
Ultra smooth maxed out 4K is a dream, will be for a long time yet. Laughable that some people seem to think the 1080 is the single GPU solution we've all been waiting for LOL! Not even close. I feel sorry for anyone who's bought in to the whole 4K marketing gimmick and thinks they'll soon be playing AAA titles maxed out. It's crazy. Even 21:9 struggles in some games, so fuggetaboutit! I doubt even the first HBM2 cards will manage this, and even if it does we'll be requiring 4K 120Hz monitors and a new version of G-Sync to go along with it (start saving yesterday and get ready to re-mortgage lol!). People just need to put a pin in this 4K fantasy for now and focus on what's actually achievable.
Click to expand...

Suppose it depends what you're willing to accept.

Not being an action gamer much these days I find I'm happy with 60hz, and in 4k you can generally turn AA down to 2x with no noticeable differences so I'm finding my 2x980s are generally enough. That said, I do kind of wish I'd just gone up to 1440p rather than straight to 4k from 1080p.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom