Will 4k PC gaming become more mainstream in 2018?

WYNIR0 · 8 Dec 2017 at 14:02

With LTT releasing the video above, sponsored by Nvidia; and Xbox One X and PS4 pro offering a form of 4k gaming, I wonder if this signals 4k capable GFX cards dropping to more mainstream prices in 2018. I'm hoping for a 4k capable card for about what I paid for my R9 390 a few years back (£300 - £350).

What do you guys think? will miners mean that the card prices stay over inflated?

Techen · 8 Dec 2017 at 14:13

Considering you can get a 980ti for 250 used now the 1080ti price should fall come nvidias next set of gpus. 1080ti will happily fo 60+fps at 4k

NeverWinter · 8 Dec 2017 at 14:20

Yeah but what about the next generation of games, I think you’ll struggle to see 60fps unless you turn down the beauty a bit.

WYNIR0 · 8 Dec 2017 at 14:28

I suppose another question is will developers start including checkerboard rendering as an option to allow lesser cards to drive games at 4k? Otherwise people like me might jump ship to the consoles

Simon Belmont · 8 Dec 2017 at 14:29

Nope. Were a few years off yet

DELETED_195422 · 8 Dec 2017 at 15:54

This just Nvidia PR ********. Chasing 4K on PC is still a fools errand just now and will continue to be in 2018. It'll be interesting when Next Gen consoles come out with HMDI 2.1 features enabled out of the box i.e. Game Mode VRR (Variable Refresh Rates) and the TV's will be available to take advantage of this by the time these systems launch.

I can see a lot PC gamers jumping over to consoles, if Nvidia/AMD don't get their finger out regarding GPU prices.

NeverWinter · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:00

Rock_n_Roll said:
This just Nvidia PR ********. Chasing 4K on PC is still a fools errand just now and will continue to be in 2018. It'll be interesting when Next Gen consoles come out with HMDI 2.1 features enabled out of the box i.e. Game Mode VRR (Variable Refresh Rates) and the TV's will be available to take advantage of this by the time these systems launch.

I can see a lot PC gamers jumping over to consoles, if Nvidia/AMD don't get their finger out regarding GPU prices.

Maybe, I for one am over consoles (had PS3 and XB 360) and will definitely be sticking with PC as it's also a hobby.

I still think 1440p is the sweet spot for gaming right now.

Kaapstad · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:03

Will 4k PC gaming become more mainstream in 2018?

The simple answer is yes.

Hardware is only going to get faster as time goes by.

DELETED_195422 · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:06

NeverWinter said:
Maybe, I for one am over consoles (had PS3 and XB 360) and will definitely be sticking with PC as it's also a hobby.

Same here, i won't dump PC gaming for consoles. But there are many that will..

jigger · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:08

Xbox one X and the PS5 have/will open 4K gaming. Vulcan and DX12 are lowering the 4K hardware entry level on the PC too.

I'd say 4K gaming is very much with us now.

nzaptx · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:16

Well 4k gaming is already here for some time if you consider 30fps to be adequate. If you are talking 60fps and above well the 1080ti is nearly there but more likely the 1180ti/2080ti would manage it, however that is a price point not viable for the masses.

When you can buy a £200-£300 GPU that is capable of 4k/60fps that is when you can consider it mainstream.

jigger · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:20

Well it very much depends on the game engine as what is playable, but look at Wolfenstein and Doom with Vulcan. 4K is more than achievable with reasonably priced hardware.

DELETED_195422 · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:22

Nvidia/AMD should be doing more in the PC gaming space. Sure, they provide GPU's, etc, but they really should be developing their own games, building their own studios, to take advantage of these GPU's and make them exclusive to PC. Games would be complete different to what we currently get just now.

Maybe then you'd have justification to splash out on that top end £600+ GPU. But spending £600+ just to play better console ports at higher frame rates/4K...nah, never happening.

jigger · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:27

Rock_n_Roll said:
Nvidia/AMD should be doing more in the PC gaming space. Sure, they provide GPU's, etc, but they really should be developing their own games, building their own studios, to take advantage of these GPU's and make them exclusive to PC. Games would be complete different to what we currently get just now.

Maybe then you'd have justification to splash out on that top end £600+ GPU. But spending £600+ just to play better console ports at higher frame rates/4K...nah, never happening.

I don't think that would be a good idea. We need better support for API standards at hardware level form AND and Nvidia. More so Nvidia.

wellibob · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:28

I'm not sure after 4k people will bother with anything more, ie 8k etc. Once 4k is totally playable on a £250 gpu where does it it leave the top tier cards. Must be getting near saturation point soon. Time will tell.

jigger · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:33

wellibob said:
I'm not sure after 4k people will bother with anything more, ie 8k etc. Once 4k is totally playable on a £250 gpu where does it it leave the top tier cards. Must be getting near saturation point soon. Time will tell.

Resolution has a way to go yet and better frame times will always be welcome. Plus image quality has long way to go. But yeah at some point APU's will kill graphics cards.

DELETED_195422 · 8 Dec 2017 at 16:39

wellibob said:
I'm not sure after 4k people will bother with anything more, ie 8k etc. Once 4k is totally playable on a £250 gpu where does it it leave the top tier cards. Must be getting near saturation point soon. Time will tell.

I agree, once it gets to this point, then what justification do they have for these £600+ cards. I can't remember the last time i was blown away, graphically, from a PC game.

jigger said:
I don't think that would be a good idea. We need better support for API standards at hardware level form AND and Nvidia. More so Nvidia.

It wouldn't harm them doing this to sell GPU's and showing off the tech. I was at my mates house last week and seen Horizon: Zero Dawn running at 4K with HDR. It looked great, there is nothing on PC as good looking (there just isn't) and it's running on a £300 silly box.

jigger · 8 Dec 2017 at 17:12

Rock_n_Roll said:
I agree, once it gets to this point, then what justification do they have for these £600+ cards. I can't remember the last time i was blown away, graphically, from a PC game.

It wouldn't harm them doing this to sell GPU's and showing off the tech. I was at my mates house last week and seen Horizon: Zero Dawn running at 4K with HDR. It looked great, there is nothing on PC as good looking (there just isn't) and it's running on a £300 silly box.

The biggest strength of the PC is in industry standards. Moving away from them is not good. The silly little £300 box showing up the PC is of proof that.

Rofflay · 8 Dec 2017 at 17:15

jigger said:
Resolution has a way to go yet and better frame times will always be welcome. Plus image quality has long way to go. But yeah at some point APU's will kill graphics cards.

There is a certain PPI to get no aliasing once you get used to it you find it hard to go back. And sad truth is more detail comes with higher resolution. Try 4k down sampling and add super sample for 8k on a 1080p monitor and you can see the effect on minute details in for honor.

Higher refresh is better though with HDR trust me on this. The future should be dynamic resolution at 1080p with HDR and dynamic scaling not only letting the game choose the resolution on the fly but doing it at the target fps set by you to negate freesync. Sadly only two games use this tech which are titanfall2 and shadow of mordor.

Dicehunter · 8 Dec 2017 at 17:29

Rock_n_Roll said:
This just Nvidia PR ********. Chasing 4K on PC is still a fools errand just now and will continue to be in 2018. It'll be interesting when Next Gen consoles come out with HMDI 2.1 features enabled out of the box i.e. Game Mode VRR (Variable Refresh Rates) and the TV's will be available to take advantage of this by the time these systems launch.

I can see a lot PC gamers jumping over to consoles, if Nvidia/AMD don't get their finger out regarding GPU prices.

4K in some titles makes zero difference over 1080P or 1440P if those games haven't really been designed with super high res textures in mind, But in some games the jump from 1080P to 4K is really quite the eye candy, Although I 100% agree that if the industry does want to make a push for 4K to be more common place then GPU's that can easily power 4K need to come out that don't cost £1000+, While a lot of us on the forum can afford it the majority of the population cannot.