The route to 4K - is it time, and if so, how?

fross · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:28

Hi all,

creating this thread as I couldn't find anything similar on here, though there are some other resources around the net. Looks like 4K gaming is pretty much going to be achievable this year, given what we've seen at E3 and some benchmarks of 4K gaming on current, single-card hardware.

So my question is, how do we get there from where we might be?

- Are current Gen cards going to be enough to drive it, with current games? And if so, how futureproof is it going to be?
- How does 4K scale with crossfire/SLi? Is it worth getting one top end card now, and add a second to it in a year, or wait for the next generation (again)?
- What is going to help the shift to 4k the most - memory, memory bandwidth, shaders, pure CPU grunt, and so on?
-And of course a talk about monitors, which ones are going to be good enough for gaming, and still affordable?

Hope to get some opinions on what is and isn't going to work.

Cheers!

fross · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:33

Some articles on the subject:

http://www.digitalversus.com/graphics-card/4k-gaming-myth-reality-a1769.html

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2429160,00.asp

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7120/some-quick-gaming-numbers-at-4k-max-settings

kefan77 · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:36

it's not the time yet.

/thread

AWPC · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:36

You need to drop around £2-3k on a decent high end PC to handle the extra pixels. Think about it on top of that you need the display so you will not get much change from £4k if your starting from nothing but probably £5k plus for a decent rig & display!

Its not really worth it for the extra pixels wait 2-3 years until the prices come down IMO.

Sin_Chase · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:36

kefan77 said:
it's not the time yet.

/thread

To expand:

Monitor tech needs to advance, prices need to come down.

Supporting technologies such as Freesync/G-Sync need to be fully explored in order to help combat the lower FPS 4K brings.

We need accessible GPU hardware that can deliver playable 4K Frame rates.

Silent_Scone · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:37

Echoed ^

Ragnahex · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:40

Considering how slow anything over 1080 has been I wouldn't get your hopes up for a bit yet

fross · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:46

The benchmarks I linked to showed pretty playable framerates for SLi/Crossfire setups, which should be about £600 of graphics card, and purportedly these are on max settings.

Not sure where a figure of 4K plus monitor comes from, I don't think you CAN make a PC that costs that much

There are cheap 30Hz 4K monitors available now, for like $500 - certainly not good enough for gaming, but that's going to bring the price down for sure.

Any views on what needs to scale up better for 4k, is it everything or just GPU memory, or number of shaders, or something else?

The reason why I ask is I am planning to go to 4k for work (music production), and wondering if it's viable to think of gaming on that sweet screen as well.

Ragnahex · 5 Feb 2014 at 15:58

If you think about it it's only like running 4 1080 monitors... I run 3 at the moment with good fps so you can do it. Just don't expect to max all settings. So yes if you have the screen and a couple of good cards you can do it but you would have to sacrifice some settings

Dicehunter · 5 Feb 2014 at 16:12

I'm betting 2016 will have the GPU horse power to run 4K nicely, Plus 4K panels will be better quality by then.

For now 1440/1600 is plenty

ndaar · 5 Feb 2014 at 16:53

As mentioned there are some cheaper 4K monitors appearing sub £1000, but they are not going to be geared towards gamers and some like the dell offering will only run at 30hz.

For good frame rates your looking at today 3 titans, or 3-4 290xs. Maybe if and when the 790/titan black is released you might have the option of a good solid SLI at great frame rates....However your still saying around £2K on graphics cards minimum.

As echoed I think 1440p will mainstream more this year / next year with a view of 4K been around 2016-2017. When the GPU power of a titan/780ti/290 will be in a mid level graphics card. (don't quote me on this LOL)

Yaayuh! · 5 Feb 2014 at 19:05

I'd wait until HDMI 2.0 is standard and UHD media is generally available, then the amount of UHD TVs, monitors and players will grow and prices decline. Until then, I can't see many more options becoming available outside of Apple and DisplayPort.

It's also worth waiting to see if what happens with 4K, I suspect given the aspect ratio that it'd stay in cinemas and very high-end monitors only. Can't see it hitting our living rooms or general desktop/gaming PC users at a sensible price.

no_1_dave · 5 Feb 2014 at 19:23

ndaar said:
For good frame rates your looking at today 3 titans, or 3-4 290xs. Maybe if and when the 790/titan black is released you might have the option of a good solid SLI at great frame rates....However your still saying around £2K on graphics cards minimum.

Too many people have this view but I don't understand why?
It is wrong and has been proven wrong.

4k is only 2x 1440p monitors.
1 780 or 290X can max almost every game out today at 1440p 60fps even with some AA applied.

Clearly 2x 780 or 290X can run 4k with max settings.
There are sites that have benched 4k which prove this. So in reality, £600-£700 on graphics cards for 4k gaming.

The main issue is as time goes forward new games come out which push the cards so you'll need to constantly upgrade your crossfire/SLI setup if you want to play every latest game with maximum settings. But this may not be a problem, this is an enthusiast forum, many people upgrade on a yearly basis anyway.

Frenzy · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:03

Dicehunter said:
I'm betting 2016 will have the GPU horse power to run 4K nicely, Plus 4K panels will be better quality by then.

For now 1440/1600 is plenty

I pray occulus takes off before that

ancientmariner · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:10

That is what has persuaded me to ignore 4k gaming, at least for a while. I'm hoping the Rift will be enough of a game changer that it will negate my need for a 4k setup.

Kaapstad · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:11

no_1_dave said:
Too many people have this view but I don't understand why?
It is wrong and has been proven wrong.

4k is only 2x 1440p monitors.
1 780 or 290X can max almost every game out today at 1440p 60fps even with some AA applied.

Clearly 2x 780 or 290X can run 4k with max settings.
There are sites that have benched 4k which prove this. So in reality, £600-£700 on graphics cards for 4k gaming.

The main issue is as time goes forward new games come out which push the cards so you'll need to constantly upgrade your crossfire/SLI setup if you want to play every latest game with maximum settings. But this may not be a problem, this is an enthusiast forum, many people upgrade on a yearly basis anyway.

Two Titan's or two 290Xs can not even max Crysis 3 or RTW2 @1600p

Cd0gz · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:25

Looking forward to getting a 4k tv at some point maybe next year, prices should be more reasonable then.

ndaar · 5 Feb 2014 at 20:58

no_1_dave said:
Too many people have this view but I don't understand why?
It is wrong and has been proven wrong.

4k is only 2x 1440p monitors.
1 780 or 290X can max almost every game out today at 1440p 60fps even with some AA applied.

Clearly 2x 780 or 290X can run 4k with max settings.
There are sites that have benched 4k which prove this. So in reality, £600-£700 on graphics cards for 4k gaming.

The main issue is as time goes forward new games come out which push the cards so you'll need to constantly upgrade your crossfire/SLI setup if you want to play every latest game with maximum settings. But this may not be a problem, this is an enthusiast forum, many people upgrade on a yearly basis anyway.

There are some benchmarks in the thread above, and most of them are old games. If your going to the hassle of wanting to play 4K games your not going to be messing with old titles and your not going to be wanting to play with settings turned down. Hence why I was saying in todays technology if you want to stay reasonable and not have to swap out your SLI setup all the time as you suggest then thats about were you need to be.

You could drive 4K with a 660ti in one of the benchmark tests, but why would you. Bottom line is yes you can do 4K today, yes you can do it on the cheap (ie cheap 4K monitor and cheaper GPUs) However to do it justice "I" feel that you need to spend the money.

=XDC=FluphyBunny · 5 Feb 2014 at 21:11

For those who buy 4k monitors they are going to want minimum 60fps and all the bells and whistles - don't see kaapstag turning his eye canding down

~>Dg<~ · 5 Feb 2014 at 21:17

theyll drop like rocks . they need to much hard ware to run great and the monitors are to dear.

that's either going to kill them off before they get started or theyll just drop in price really really fast.

as said by a previous poster no one is going to put on tv 4k stuff either. so it will end up like 3D bit of a miss.