4K - When will it be mainstream?

[OverDrive]

I've been reading about 4K gaming!

At the moment it seems very expensive, even the monitors are pricey!

When do you think it will become mainstream like 1080 is now?

I noticed in John Lewis the other day that TVs are now widely available with 4K res! How would you use that on a TV?

Incredible how technology is progressing.

 

[Woden]

I think monitors will see it in regular use a lot faster than TVs will. Computers (with a beasty graphics card for 3d) will be able to drive it pretty soon-ish.

4k TV as it stands isn't so great. There just aren't ant 4k sources. Bandwidth an issue for broadcast, and we will need a new storage format to replace bluerays.

 

[OpenToSuggestions]

4k screens do not scale well for current general use.

Games run fine but on my windows 7 no amount of tweaking would stop all icons, taskbars, internet windows etc. from being the wrong size.

4k gaming is awesome though.

 

[Glaucus]

I was looking at monitors yesterday and thought the total opposite, I was like, I can't believe they are that cheap. Half a dozen at £350 or less for 28" 4k. Not that my computer would have a hope in hell off powering it.

 

[Kaapstad]

I was looking at monitors yesterday and thought the total opposite, I was like, I can't believe they are that cheap. Half a dozen at £350 or less for 28" 4k. Not that my computer would have a hope in hell off powering it.

I think 28" for 4K is too small, 32" works much better.

 

[Glaucus]

When you're sat like 2ft away pretty much any screen size will benefit from 4k.

 

[FrankJH]

I think monitors will see it in regular use a lot faster than TVs will. Computers (with a beasty graphics card for 3d) will be able to drive it pretty soon-ish.

4k TV as it stands isn't so great. There just aren't ant 4k sources. Bandwidth an issue for broadcast, and we will need a new storage format to replace bluerays.

New 4k blue's are on their way forc next Xmas

Personally dont think true 4k gaming will ever be mainstream ( ie without upscaling techniques happening in the background).

You have to think about whether the games companies actually want / need to go to that scale in their maps etc - and for such a small percentage of users it isnt justifiable.

PC gamers are already a tiny percentage of gamers as a whole ( and you wont be gaming in 4k on a console for at least onevor two more generations) - and those with the means to go double / triple SLI plus cpu grunt and the monitor (s) is even less.

Personally think there is a lot more interest in the non4k 32/34 inch ultra wide monitors than the smaller and cheaper 4k monitors. Once 32/34 inch 4k monitors come down to the ~£600-800 mark ( and the gpu power to handle these beasts comes down too) then interest will probably grow significantly, but it will still be a relatively small amount of gamers as a whole

 

[andybird123]

It will be a few more years before it is "mainstream" - there is very little content and the vast majority of gamers run a single card setup, so basically there needs to be no other advancements in eye candy tech AND single gpu power has to be roughly 2-3 times above where it is now, plus game developers have to put effort in to 4K textures when consoles are stuck at 1080p or not even in many cases

There are a few games threatening to push 4K textures, so hopefully that will push other devs to follow suit

 

[~>Dg<~]

to be mainstream you need a one card to run that comfortable so seeing as you really need 3 cards at moment to do this id say 2 to 3 years minimum.

thing is it may just die rather quickly as better tech comes through with out the performance hit and i personally think that is what will happen.

look at tv for eg most things arent even streamed at 720 lol nevermind 1080 or 4k. thats along way away if ever.

 

[Saitex]

I'd say that 4k will look more appealing when we will have more horse power to run stuff properly on it. Yes we can do it now, but that means spending a decent amount of money on SLI/CFX build if you want ultra settings at good frames. Maybe next gen with full 20nm chips, which I hope will be a decent step-up from the current gen performance, probably then 4k will be used far more than it is now. I considered 4k, but trading it for a surround set-up just doesn't seem to be worth it considering that I most likely won't even come close to ultra @ 12k ress, so I'll hold off until we got more juice to push it.

 

[bru]

Just a thought for those thinking. 'we need a single card that is 3 times more powerful so it will be a few more years.' 7970 launched nearly 3 years ago and a 290x still isn't anywhere near as twice as fast, let alone 3 times.
My point being that to have single card performance that is 3 times what we have now is going to take way more than a few years, I mean go back 5 years to the 5870 ( Sept 08) and a 290x still isn't really clearly 3 times faster.

To be 3 times faster than what we have now might even take 7, 8 or even 9, 10 years seeing as performance improvements seem to be slowing down.

 

[Kaapstad]

Just a thought for those thinking. 'we need a single card that is 3 times more powerful so it will be a few more years.' 7970 launched nearly 3 years ago and a 290x still isn't anywhere near as twice as fast, let alone 3 times.
My point being that to have single card performance that is 3 times what we have now is going to take way more than a few years, I mean go back 5 years to the 5870 ( Sept 08) and a 290x still isn't really clearly 3 times faster.

To be 3 times faster than what we have now might even take 7, 8 or even 9, 10 years seeing as performance improvements seem to be slowing down.

Worse still games will continue to get more demanding even if the resolution stays the same.

What could run 1080p with ease 2 years ago can not cope with the latest games @1080p now.

 

[MichaelM]

When refresh rate goes up and price goes down. By then memory and single card performance should be in line as well.

 

[bru]

Worse still games will continue to get more demanding even if the resolution stays the same.

What could run 1080p with ease 2 years ago can not cope with the latest games @1080p now.

This is very true, maybe as the speed of the cards performance progression is slowing down the speed that games are advancing isn't slowing to the same degree, if at all.

 

[Calin Banc]

I've been reading about 4K gaming!

At the moment it seems very expensive, even the monitors are pricey!

When do you think it will become mainstream like 1080 is now?

I noticed in John Lewis the other day that TVs are now widely available with 4K res! How would you use that on a TV?

Incredible how technology is progressing.

Around 4-5 years I'd say, probably 3 if you don't mind turning down some settings.

 

[Kaapstad]

This is very true, maybe as the speed of the cards performance progression is slowing down the speed that games are advancing isn't slowing to the same degree, if at all.

My dual GTX 690 system used to get into the futuremark top ten quite regularly now its main function is to play DVDs for my TV as some of the latest games like Watch Dogs and SOM are becoming too much even @1080p, how times change.

 

[the_director]

I think console adoption will be crucial to whether gaming in general becomes 4k as standard. Consoles are lasting a long time so maybe technology would have moved on enough that the next console will be 4k - after all, Sony mobiles can record in 4k.

If graphics cards are becoming limited by physics then the direction of traditional silicone development might change to create the real next generation technology.

 

[NirK]

But graphics will keep getting better as well so I don't think 4k will be normal for at least 10 years because even if graphics stayed exactly as they are now you would need something 3x speed of a 980 to run it properly. I tried running crysis 3 at 4k DSR on my g1 970 and it did not like it at all. So the answer is probably 10+ years, even 1440p is not "mainstream".

 

[IceShock]

tbh, I have a plasma tv 720p and the picture quality is absolutely fantastic, cant imagine how great a 1080 tv looks only ever had 720's because iv only got second hand bargains cant afford a brand new one, but like said before they 1080 is only starting to become the norm for broadcasts because of the cost of streaming the bandwidth for tvs etc. will be yeaaaaars before 4k is broadcast on tvs by then youll be able to buy 8k tvs which is stupid theres nothing even 4k now..

and iv got a 24" 1080 monitor, and everythings small on this compaired to a 1680x1050 that I came from at 22", I cant imagine 4x the pixels on a 24 or 28" monitor, youd need a magnifying glass, for 4k youd need something like a 32" then it would make sense, but I sit about 2 foot away from my screen so if I had anything bigger than 24" id be constantly moving my head, so 24" 1080 will do fine for me ta! + its cheaper hardware wise

 

[TheInspector]

I wouldn't say 1080p is even mainstream yet. Think about these so called "next-generation" systems that have come into play; yet can barely reach 1080p.
If that's the case then I would say 1080p wouldn't even become mainstream until 2016 at least, meaning the majority (if not all) TV channels / general internet videos and whatever else you can think of under the sun also has to hit 1080p.

Despite other countries that are testing out 5K, 8K and maybe even higher resolutions. 4K probably won't be used by more than 50% of a built-up countries populous by 2020...