A quick bit of 4k monitor advice needed...

Tepic

Tepic

Tepic

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I have a system with a GTX 970 installed. It is used mostly for gaming, but also do a fair bit of photo and video editing.

I like the idea of a 4k monitor for the extra real estate while editing, but I am concerned about the gaming side of things.

Will my new 970 be capable of driving a 4k monitor smoothly? I have gotten used to maxing out my games with my 1920x1080 and don't really want to start dropping settings.

Thanks.
 
Just remember on games with no SLI profile you'll be screwed. If you look at the benches a single 970 won't cut it for 4k, full stop (unless you're happy playing on low settings, which kid of defeats the purpose).
 
As long as I back off the odd settings my single 780 handles 4K ok - granted thats merely "playable" fps with the kind of quality settings that don't make the trade off of the higher resolution over settings pointless.

All in all though I'm not convinced by current 4K panels for gaming, the ones I've experience of struggle with anything approaching fast movement, etc.

Most of the 4K panels will do 1920x1080 fine without any distortion of the image as its a straight up even multiple of the resolution, some slight softening of the image in scaling but its not too major more than passable for gaming use.
 
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I'd recommend SLI 980s for 4K and even then you'll still need to compromise in most games! 4K is still very challenging.

1440p is a very nice sweet spot and your 970 would do a decent job at that res. It makes Windows much more readable than 4K for general desktop use too - if you want to use 4K without scaling then you either need great vision or a massive monitor.
 
Tend to agree with Rroff on this, my 290 does ok with 4K gaming on high settings with no AA (not needed anyway), havn't noticed slow down or anything like that but then I've only played Fallout NV and Dishonored, my two favourite games and they were both smooth, but they are RPGs and not hectic at all. I know you were pretty scathing of the AOC 28" 4K Rroff but so far I'm loving it and am very happy. Cant say the same for AOC Europe as they don't answer my email and as for the AOC rep on here.......Mind you my Msi R9 290 Gaming was getting very very hot playing Dishonored, hit 93c.:eek: Thinking about re-applying some decent paste, Msi let you do that don't they? Oh and agree with rroff re 1080p on 4K monitor, looks great on mine too. :)
 
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Glad your happy with it, in many ways its a great monitor but mine falls flat on its face for anything other than casual gaming and likewise the other 4K TN panels like the Asus that I've experience of - all of which are pretty much day 1 monitors though so no idea if there are any revisions or anything that improves things with subsequent batches.
 
Yeh, cant find out anything from AOC Europe as they havnt answered my second email after answering the first, trying to find out about a firmware upgrade, now they asked me which firmware version I had but I don't know where to look to find out, so I asked them but no reply. It was interesting though that there is more than one firmware version. Have read that AOC Europe are mince compared to AOC Usa and are separate entities. Doesn't help the consumer, will try the Usa, maybe they will help. :)
 
The good part of a 4k monitor is that it will scale down perfectly to 1080p resolution if you feel the need for performance + high quality graphics. Personally if you're afraid of losing performance and high quality graphics on a 4k monitor then I'd go with a 1440p monitor instead. Your choice.
 
Thanks for the help guys. As usual the community on this forum is second to none!

The main use for my PC is gaming, and as such I have decided not to go the 4k route as yet. I don't do enough photo editing and video production to make me willing to sacrifice my game quality :)

I can spend the money on something else :D I need a good joystick!
 
Stupid question... But I presume 4k monitors can downscale to 1440p? Can you not use a 4k monitor for extra real estate and video / photo editing and then your games have it at 1440?
 
Games are generally fine at lower resolutions, if you want the 4k for desktop/editing use I wouldn't worry about it; game forumns full of snobs pointing out differences most people can't see without pausing to take screenshots.
 
rolypolyman said:
Tend to agree with Rroff on this, my 290 does ok with 4K gaming on high settings with no AA (not needed anyway), havn't noticed slow down or anything like that but then I've only played Fallout NV and Dishonored, my two favourite games and they were both smooth, but they are RPGs and not hectic at all. I know you were pretty scathing of the AOC 28" 4K Rroff but so far I'm loving it and am very happy. Cant say the same for AOC Europe as they don't answer my email and as for the AOC rep on here.......Mind you my Msi R9 290 Gaming was getting very very hot playing Dishonored, hit 93c.:eek: Thinking about re-applying some decent paste, Msi let you do that don't they? Oh and agree with rroff re 1080p on 4K monitor, looks great on mine too. :)
Click to expand...

Dishonored not hectic?

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Tepic said:
I like the idea of a 4k monitor for the extra real estate while editing...
Click to expand...

It would also be worth first checking to make sure whichever video editing program you're using supports 4k in terms of Windows font scaling as a lot of programs have serious UI and font issues. Try setting your font size to 150% so get an idea of support. Anything that remains at it's existing size and is not larger isn't being scaled so won't be readable on a 4k display!

As others have suggested I'd probably stick with a 27" 1440p display or look at some of the 34" 3440x1440 21:9 displays if you have the extra cash to spare. Both of those options would be better for video editing and gaming IMO.
 
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