Decisions, help? advice? - graphics card or monitor upgrade?

[demonic186]

So, the time has come for me to decide whether or not to opt for a new 4K monitor I've found at a good price (£280) 27" IPS panel - freesync compatible etc.

Or whether I should buy a new graphics card (GTX 1070) and sell my current graphics card the Sapphire R9 390 Nitro and then save up some more cash towards a 4K monitor and of course, one that's not freesync.

If I did go with the freesync one I'd be limited to using it with an AMD card to benefit from freesync and as much as I like AMD cards right now they seem to be incredibly overpriced - or atleast to find one that is an upgrade from my R9 390 - the power-consumption is the only thing that seems to change with minor improvements to the core-clock speed and memory speed and of course, different architecture with the newer cards.

Can anyone weigh in on this? I'm leaning more towards buying the monitor just now and saving up for a graphics card upgrade for the end of the year - current performance of my card is still good as is temperatures etc as I changed the stock thermal pads along with the obvious cleaning and thermal paste change.

 

[southernorth]

What would you mostly using the 4k monitor for?

 

[demonic186]

What would you mostly using the 4k monitor for?

Mainly for my photography work/editing with the odd casual gameplay here and there - I usually play RPG & MMO style of games with the odd intensive one like the witcher series, dark souls 3 etc I'd be fine with adjusting the resolution and/or in game settings though for FPS if needed.

 

[demonic186]

Forgot to mention, current monitor is a rather older AOC 1080p 21" freesync monitor which works fine it's just not exactly great, my secondary monitor is a standard IPS 21" 1080p monitor I use primarily for editing but would like the larger 4k display..

From looking at G-sync or adaptive sync panels those are £500-600 which is pretty pricy considering they're not 4k - for one that is I'd be looking at spending £800 which I grudge spending on a monitor. Looks like I might just opt for the new monitor then save for an RX 570 or wait and see what else AMD release come next year and then sell my current card.

 

[Bumblebox]

you definately wont be able to game at 4k with an r390 and same goes for 1070 really

 

[demonic186]

you definately wont be able to game at 4k with an r390 and same goes for 1070 really

Yeah I understand that, I'm fine with turning it down a notch to 1440p in games, the 4k aspect for now would mainly be used with my photography work and make that a heck of a lot easier.

 

[southernorth]

Mainly for my photography work/editing with the odd casual gameplay here and there - I usually play RPG & MMO style of games with the odd intensive one like the witcher series, dark souls 3 etc I'd be fine with adjusting the resolution and/or in game settings though for FPS if needed.

I agree with the above post about a 390/GTX 1070 struggling at 4k. Although, you do say playing at a lower res would be fine with you, some 4k monitors have issues with downscaling to 1440p/1080p - everything looks blurry.


But, If the main purpose is photo/video editing have you considered an Ultrawide monitor?

Ultrawides are great for productivity and video editing in particular, as well as creating a much more immersive gaming experience. A 75hz 2560x1080 29inch ultrawide would could be a good fit, as it's nowhere near as hard to run as 4k, and most are FreeSync compatible (so can keep your AMD 390).


A 4k monitor would certainly be best for just photo editing, but for games you would need to run it at a sub-native res, which somewhat defeats the point of the monitor. With an ultrawide, you could run at native res all the time.

 

[demonic186]

I agree with the above post about a 390/GTX 1070 struggling at 4k. Although, you do say playing at a lower res would be fine with you.


If the main purpose is photo/video editing, have you considered an Ultrawide monitor?

Ultrawides are great for productivity and video editing, as well as creating a much more immersive gaming experience. a 2560x1080 29inch ultrawide would be a good fit in my view, as it's nowhere near as hard to run as 4k, and most are FreeSync compatible (so can keep your AMD 390).

I've tried ultrawides previously and it's not one I can get used too personally speaking - I did consider it but it's just not for me I'm afraid.

 

[Bumblebox]

Yeah I understand that, I'm fine with turning it down a notch to 1440p in games, the 4k aspect for now would mainly be used with my photography work and make that a heck of a lot easier.

yeah i guess it would be pretty good for photography, but be warned 1440p will not look nice on a 4k monitor

 

[demonic186]

yeah i guess it would be pretty good for photography, but be warned 1440p will not look nice on a 4k monitor

I'd only ever use it in 1440p or 1080p if needed in demanding games - as for desktop resolution it will be running at native 4k settings which shouldn't tax the card so much.

I've made up my mind now with the help of both yours and southernorth's replies and decided that since the 1070 wouldn't be all that great for 4k gaming either that I'll opt for the monitor I've found right now as it's an absolute steal and then just save up some cash towards a new AMD card that can run games in 4k atleast on medium settings but that all depends on what's available come october/november.

Given that my budget right now is limited to £300-350 there's no chance of finding a powerful enough GPU for that price range but the monitor is worth grabbing.

 

[southernorth]

I'd only ever use it in 1440p or 1080p if needed in demanding games - as for desktop resolution it will be running at native 4k settings which shouldn't tax the card so much.

I've made up my mind now with the help of both yours and southernorth's replies and decided that since the 1070 wouldn't be all that great for 4k gaming either that I'll opt for the monitor I've found right now as it's an absolute steal and then just save up some cash towards a new AMD card that can run games in 4k atleast on medium settings but that all depends on what's available come october/november.

Given that my budget right now is limited to £300-350 there's no chance of finding a powerful enough GPU for that price range but the monitor is worth grabbing.

That's a fair decision. When you do come to upgrade the GPU later on, you'll probably be able to find ~GTX 1080ti performance for around £400 (GTX 2070) in a couple years anyway.

Enjoy the monitor.

 

[demonic186]

Cheers for the assistance with the decision, much appreciated!

When it arrives I'll try to let you know how this aging card handles it aha

 

[Quartz]

you definately wont be able to game at 4k with an r390 and same goes for 1070 really

That's complete rubbish. I was gaming at 4k with a GTX 780 Ti. I currently game at 4K with a Maxwell Titan X, which is about the same as a GTX 1070.

@demonic186 will not be able to game at 4K with all the settings maxxed, but will be able to game at 4K with settings set to medium on the 390 and with settings set to pretty high on the GTX 1070.

 

[demonic186]

That's complete rubbish. I was gaming at 4k with a GTX 780 Ti. I currently game at 4K with a Maxwell Titan X, which is about the same as a GTX 1070.

@demonic186 will not be able to game at 4K with all the settings maxxed, but will be able to game at 4K with settings set to medium on the 390 and with settings set to pretty high on the GTX 1070.

cheers for the input Quartz, I ran a few benchmarks quite some time ago using the super-position benchmark program when I was testing temperatures and such and let it run the 4k setting on numerous quality levels, granted only on a 1080p monitor but it taxxed the GPU quite hard and it did run around 40-50fps on the lower-medium settings - who knows if it's all that accurate and we'll soon see when I get to trying out something properly

 

[southernorth]

That's complete rubbish. I was gaming at 4k with a GTX 780 Ti. I currently game at 4K with a Maxwell Titan X, which is about the same as a GTX 1070.

@demonic186 will not be able to game at 4K with all the settings maxxed, but will be able to game at 4K with settings set to medium on the 390 and with settings set to pretty high on the GTX 1070.

What games are you playing at 4k, and what's your fps?

 

[Pocah]

That's complete rubbish. I was gaming at 4k with a GTX 780 Ti. I currently game at 4K with a Maxwell Titan X, which is about the same as a GTX 1070.

@demonic186 will not be able to game at 4K with all the settings maxxed, but will be able to game at 4K with settings set to medium on the 390 and with settings set to pretty high on the GTX 1070.

I agree completely. I have gamed with a 1070 on a 4K monitor, and sure it has it's limits, but t managed to maintain above 60FPS for all the games I have. Depends of course what games you play, but you can always turn the settings down, something that you can do with a 4K monitor and get away with it. It does also depend on your CPU as well. I noticed a fairly healthy difference between a 4790K and an 8700K. The 8700K was much more capable of holding a good framerate at 4K.

 

[demonic186]

I agree completely. I have gamed with a 1070 on a 4K monitor, and sure it has it's limits, but t managed to maintain above 60FPS for all the games I have. Depends of course what games you play, but you can always turn the settings down, something that you can do with a 4K monitor and get away with it. It does also depend on your CPU as well. I noticed a fairly healthy difference between a 4790K and an 8700K. The 8700K was much more capable of holding a good framerate at 4K.

current system specs: Gigabyte Ga-Z170X Gaming 3 motherboard, 16Gb of corsair vengeance DDR4 3000mhz RAM paired with a 6700k Chip which is mildly overclocked to 4.6Ghz and cooled via Corsair H100i GTX AIO in push/pull and of course as you know from above a slightly older sapphire nitro R9 390 card.

it handles all the games I've thrown at it on ultra - 1080p with framerates up and beyond 100+ FPS with the exception of a few like PUBG which is terribly optimized.

 

[demonic186]

So I hate to bump this post however after receiving the monitor I can confirm it's a dream to work on with photography and GPU temperatures are all pretty much the same since the upgrade - photoshop/lightroom etc all run perfectly without too much lag and as for games I can run most games in 4k on a mix of medium-high settings with FPS in the 40s at the lowest and 60s in less demanding scenes - bumping it down to 1440p and I can get away with high-ultra settings in games with frames steady between 50-60 and if I use the freesync option and disable vsync that does sometimes push it upto 70-80 in less demanding scenes at of course, 1440p.

I've been sitting playing a variety of games and tested out the witcher 3, pubg, rise of the tomb raider, bioshock infinite and a few older racing games > Grid autosport/need for speed series - all with similar results mentioned above and temperatures sit around 60-70c on the GPU and GPU VRM's - so it would seem the aging R9 390 can handle some titles in 4k on lower settings and will happily play any more demanding ones in 1440p just fine.

The witcher 3 for example sits at a steady 40fps on medium graphics settings, 4k resolution, post-processing on low and dips down to 30fps at the busiest areas, it will play smoother on lower settings but that defeats the purpose of running 4k in my eyes - if I stick it to 1440p it sits at high settings with mixed post processing settings it plays smooth at 60fps+

 

[Bumblebox]

That's complete rubbish. I was gaming at 4k with a GTX 780 Ti. I currently game at 4K with a Maxwell Titan X, which is about the same as a GTX 1070.

@demonic186 will not be able to game at 4K with all the settings maxxed, but will be able to game at 4K with settings set to medium on the 390 and with settings set to pretty high on the GTX 1070.

at what fps on what game?

 

[Quartz]

at what fps on what game?

On the 780 Ti, I was gaming at 4k on the then current Tomb Raider at a mixture of Medium and High settings. Mainly high IIRC. Not ultra, of course.

I just installed The Witcher 3 and without tuning I'm getting 45-60 fps on its default settings.