4k gaming != more than 1 card

[Varsh]

I've been hearing everywhere that in order for you to game at 4k you require a 780 Ti or a Titan and I have to say immediately that that's completely nonsense. Since getting the Iiyama B2888UHSU last Thursday I have been putting this monitor through its paces and playing all of the games I have installed at 4k and I am playing them liquid smooth on a single GTX680 reference.

Obviously there will always be some games that annihilate any machine at any resolution (like Total War, Anno, The Witcher, and Civilization) but generally there has been no problems at all with framerates. Is there anyone else that has tried 4k gaming on a single GPU without any problems and with max settings (no AA)? I have tried these so far and all run at a solid 60FPS (or higher):

• Alan Wake
• Assetto Corsa
• DOTA 2
• Enslaved
• GRID Autosport
• League of Legends
• Project Cars (well it does have the occasional dip here and there)
• The Walking Dead: Season 2
• Unreal Tournament 3 and 4

Overall very very smooth. So why do people insist on having multiple GPUs? It can't just be for Battlefield 4 can it?

Edit: I think I should've put this in the GPU section.

 

[eyetrip]

There's a lot of games out there more demanding than those you listed (and outside of bf4) where a single 680 will not max at 4k.

I could just as easily say I am playing bound by flame maxed in Eyefinity with single card at playable frame rates, but it's not very demanding.

Try metro, or Crysis, or witcher 2...

Glad you are happy, and many others would be too, but for recent games, and for what some of us consider playable fps, multi cards probably are a requirement.

 

[llamadal]

People talk about things they do not have first hand experience of, making a load of assumptions.

4k, with the right settings, will run fine on a decent a single card and after seeing 4k on low/medium and high settings, I can say without a doubt it still looks damn impressive.

I find some people ( a few of my friends included) focus more on high numbers rather than just enjoying the game.

 

[Varsh]

Very true too. Some games don't even require a high frames per second like strategy games.

There's a lot of games out there more demanding than those you listed (and outside of bf4) where a single 680 will not max at 4k.

I could just as easily say I am playing bound by flame maxed in Eyefinity with single card at playable frame rates, but it's not very demanding.

Try metro, or Crysis, or witcher 2...

Glad you are happy, and many others would be too, but for recent games, and for what some of us consider playable fps, multi cards probably are a requirement.

I did mention The Witcher and BF already though to be fair most games aren't that demanding. Metro is also another special case true, that game barely ran on a single GPU at 1080P to be fair. Tomb Raider also runs very nicely at 4k without Tres FX too (forgot to mention that). So excluding the CPU intensive games and the obvious BF, Witcher, and Metro, what games really do require multiple GPUs? Certainly not a lot like you said.

 

[Random Guy]

OP it really depends...you are absolutely right that in the majority of cases for games released in the last 3+ years, a single (albeit high-end) card will run about 80% of released games at acceptable frame rates. But 2 important facts:

- We just emerged from a generation where UE3 was dominant and where the reference consoles were powered by 7 year-old hardware. A new console generation brings with it a game-change in terms of multi-platform releases
- As PC gamers, we are notorious for pushing everything to the max, no matter the spec. We will find the limits of our current hardware and exploit any potential routes to maximise performance. We will destroy our performance by modding our games to look amazing, and we will inject our AA, downsample our less demanding games, and apply AA wherever we can - BECAUSE we can. So even though we could argue that a single GPU is sufficient, that very definition of "sufficient" is inherently insufficient for us

Mind you I am amazed that you find a single 680 enough at 4K. I play BF4 at 2560x1440, with SLI 680s, and I still have that upgrade itch from time to time. So kudos to you, and happy gaming!

 

[~>Dg<~]

id listen to people like kaap.

id only run 4k myself on two top end cards minimum.


then again i only like 60 fps mins.

 

[Varsh]

OP it really depends...you are absolutely right that in the majority of cases for games released in the last 3+ years, a single (albeit high-end) card will run about 80% of released games at acceptable frame rates. But 2 important facts:

- We just emerged from a generation where UE3 was dominant and where the reference consoles were powered by 7 year-old hardware. A new console generation brings with it a game-change in terms of multi-platform releases
- As PC gamers, we are notorious for pushing everything to the max, no matter the spec. We will find the limits of our current hardware and exploit any potential routes to maximise performance. We will destroy our performance by modding our games to look amazing, and we will inject our AA, downsample our less demanding games, and apply AA wherever we can - BECAUSE we can. So even though we could argue that a single GPU is sufficient, that very definition of "sufficient" is inherently insufficient for us

Mind you I am amazed that you find a single 680 enough at 4K. I play BF4 at 2560x1440, with SLI 680s, and I still have that upgrade itch from time to time. So kudos to you, and happy gaming!

When it comes to 3ds Max and using UE4 my PC dies, even when I had a triple display setup (I guess in a way it's gone to 5 displays now - 1x 4k and 1x 1920x1080) so I will be picking up the new LGA2011-v3 platform and a GTX9xx series Titan mainly for the rendering and video editing, though at 4k I haven't really seen a need for any AA at all. Unless I'm about 6 inches from the screen you need to squint to see any aliasing at about a metre back on a 28". AA is very costly and removing AA completely has made the games runs massively faster and smoother.

Project Cars and Assetto Corsa surprised me at how well the games ran at 4K at max settings with no AA and these games aren't even released yet. Racing games are just as demanding as FPS games so it's a good reference point too, especially as it's required to have a liquid smooth experience.

 

[Martini1991]

LoL and Dota? It's almost like you're trolling.

 

[Varsh]

I added those two in because most people worldwide actually play those games. Anyway like I said, I have tried it with Rome II (CPU intensive), Civ V (CPU intensive), Anno 2070 (CPU intensive), Project Cars, Assetto Corsa, Unreal Tournament 4, and GRID Autosport. I'll be seeing what Starcraft II, Planetary Annihilation, Guild Wars 2, Borderlands 2, Metro: Last Light (not Redux), and Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion (CPU intensive) play like.

Either way it shouldn't matter what game is played at 4K, if it runs buttery smooth at 4K for the games you play then that is fine. But saying I'm trolling with LoL and DOTA2? Not in the slightest, considering that there are over 560k players playing right now on Steam, are you going to tell them that 4k is worthless and needs multiple GPUs? LoL will most likely have a couple million playing right now.

 

[Sin_Chase]

Single card 4K gaming AKA budget 4K scrub spec.

Your single 680 will be on its knees by the end of the year when Xmas titles launch.

 

[Varsh]

That is still 4 months away and like I also said, Assetto Corsa and Project Cars aren't even out yet and they run very smooth. These titles are out around then and they're not bringing my PC to its knees. Sure some titles will but for the majority of games I highly doubt it. Maybe if you're trying to run a super high FPS for your 144Hz monitor then sure you'll see a difference, but while 4k monitors are at 60Hz then I don't see a problem yet.

Mid to late next year though I would imagine is when the games will totally murder my machine.

 

[Dgibson2011]

I will be able to comment hopefully at the end of the week. Just ordered a new system with a Samsung 28U HD monitor and a R9 295x2 (hopefully it will be good but have read some reviews were a single R9 290x works well in conjunction with the card).

Have you watch any Youtube or films upscaled to 4k? If so what is the quilty like?

 

[AWPC]

OP the games you listed have DX9 game engines & or are well optimised. Try running newer DX11 games maxxed out on any single GPU @ 4K they will struggle to maintain a decent FPS.

SLI GTX780ti or Titans or AMD equivalent is what you need to maintain a smooth FPS experience.

4K=8.3M pixels
1080=2.07M pixels

Pure pixel math science

 

[Born_2_Kill_83]

I like all my settings maxed so I can play the game as the developer intended it to look, my CF290X's chew up every game and at over 60FPS, in fact I never see frame drops under 60 in any AAA titles up to date.
Personally I wouldn't run 4k on anything less though, however some people don't mind turning down settings, so each to their own, one card will run 4k no question, its just how you prefer to game.

Its X4 the amount of pixels, but it doesn't require X4 the amount of GPU power or mean that your FPS will be reduced X4. I saw around a 25% drop in FPS when moving from 1080 all in all.

 

[Bizzie]

I was looking at this monitor http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MO-071-AS&groupid=17&catid=1895

My new system will have a GTX 770 4GB - the gigabyte windforce. Wasnt sure what monitor to go for though. Might try a 4k now?

 

[danny86]

so many different opinions on 4k monitors, some say no single gpu can run games on them, others say they can

 

[spoffle]

OP the games you listed have DX9 game engines & or are well optimised. Try running newer DX11 games maxxed out on any single GPU @ 4K they will struggle to maintain a decent FPS.

SLI GTX780ti or Titans or AMD equivalent is what you need to maintain a smooth FPS experience.

4K=8.3M pixels
1080=2.07M pixels

Pure pixel math science

The performance falloff isn't proportional to the amount of pixels being rendered.

 

[spoffle]

so many different opinions on 4k monitors, some say no single gpu can run games on them, others say they can

If someone says that no single GPU can run games at UHD then they are an idiot and you shouldn't listen to them. Unfortunately there seems to be quite a number of people just like this around here.

The truth is that it depends on the game in question, a point a fair amount of people are yet to grasp.

People's opinions in this situation don't really matter, as games either run properly or they don't.