Is 16gb GDDR7 enough for 4K gaming in 2025 onwards?

[Nitefly]

I do feel that 4K DLSS looks good in a lot of scenarios, I was quite happy to play 4K maxed out FF16 with DLSS balanced at a constant 60fps. But even with my being happy with DLSS "balanced." I'm still not convinced any card I buy for £1000, with 16gb of VRAM will not be adequate for more than 2 years.

That does assume that you’d keep the 5080 for more than two years.

Depending on costs, you could potentially buy a 5090, or ‘a 5080 and a 6080’.

Not a terrible option, although I think the latter would be a bit more expensive.

 

[Gray2233]

That does assume that you’d keep the 5080 for more than two years.

I'd sure as damnit prefer to do so, I'm tired of chasing the dragon with GPU tech at this point.

At the very best I'd prefer to keep such a card for a console generation, and at worst 3-4 years. That's not expecting constant max settings, just consistent performance with measured settings for newer games.

 

[mountaincow]

Unless you pay the premium of a top tier card, and even then likely playing slightly older games, you're not going to have a legitimately good experience at native 4K.

It's bordering on scam level when we see consoles selling the idea they're outputting 4K but it's poorly upscaled 1080-1440P at best with awful framerates.

I do feel that 4K DLSS looks good in a lot of scenarios, I was quite happy to play 4K maxed out FF16 with DLSS balanced at a constant 60fps. But even with my being happy with DLSS "balanced." I'm still not convinced any card I buy for £1000, with 16gb of VRAM will not be adequate for more than 2 years.

Yeah. It's expensive and the line up from Nvidia this gen looks about as bad as 4xxx so far without seeing the numbers. Worse even as vram has been proven to be a huge issue and nothing much seems to be changing there.

The 7900xtx is looking more attractive than ever, especially on Linux where Nvidia is lagging behind a fair bit.

 

[Hostile_18]

I feel like 4k gaming has been very achievable for years TBH. First with my 3080, when my screen max was 60fps. Then with my 4090 when my screen max was 120fps. And soon again with my 5080/5090 with my screen max of 144fps. Everything maxed I played native with the very odd exception (Alan Wake II and Cyberpunk IIRC).

 

[ooStevo]

Once you go OLED you never go back, much bigger upgrade than any graphics card.

This is true. Even Xbox One (original model) games got a massive clarity and smoothness boost when I was playing on a C9. Night and day difference for real.

 

[Poneros]

I actually think Ultra Wide screens are bit of a scam, pay more for less!

I'm driving a 77" G4 OLED, love playing from a couch in a home cinema. I'm a lazy gamer lol.

Have you tried stretched (meaning into 16:9, not with black bars) 21:9 resolutions on it (f.ex. 3840x1620)? It's absolutely sick for first person games (f.ex. I exclusively play like that for Cyberpunk on a 65", 2m away from it; in fact 3840x1350 is even better, but with fov 85, tho you need a bit longer to get used to it first) and as close to VR as it gets on a flat screen.

 

[chaparral]

Once you go OLED you never go back, much bigger upgrade than any graphics card.

For a TV yes

But a lot of people seem to be returning OLED monitors due to a very bad flicker problem with many of them which you don’t get on OLED TV’s ( or at least not of what I seen)