Is 4k gaming worth the performance hit?

bakes0310 · 21 May 2024 at 13:24

Been thinking about upgrading from 1440p to 4k OLED later on. I feel in black and white terms it's an upgrade due to resolution increase plus the added extra of OLED.

MY question not including price into this, but do you 4k owners feel the drop in performance is fine due to the IQ that 4k brings. Do you genuinely see the difference and are blown away by the image quality in games?

I only play single player games that tend to be RPGs and RTS games like baldurs gate 3, total war. So I feel I don't play massively graphic games. Would I be blown away by 4k in these games?

Captain_Bosh · 21 May 2024 at 14:40

Obviously depends on your setup whether its worth it. I find my 3080Ti gets over 60 FPS in most games, worst case scenario is I have to dial back some ray tracing settings. Personally can't I notice over 90hz so its not really a performance hit for me even though I've got a 165hz 4K screen.

Draw distances are much better at 4k so you would notice it in RPGs and RTS. Whether it blows you away or not is up to you.

Poneros · 21 May 2024 at 14:49

100%

Works better with upscaling anyway so in reality you're not taking that big of a performance hit.

TNA · 22 May 2024 at 11:54

If you sit 4 foot or more away from your monitor like some here seem to do and/or if you insist on playing native and won't use upscaling then no, not worth it.

Otherwise as 100% worth imo.

Jim99 · 22 May 2024 at 12:02

I think it is, yeah. Personally, I find 4K with lower setting looks better than lower resolutions with higher settings.

TNA · 22 May 2024 at 12:03

Jim99 said:
I think it is, yeah. Personally, I find 4K with lower setting looks better than lower resolutions with higher settings.

Yep. I always found that too.

bakes0310 · 22 May 2024 at 13:21

TNA said:
If you sit 4 foot or more away from your monitor like some here seem to do and/or if you insist on playing native and won't use upscaling then no, not worth it.

Otherwise as 100% worth imo.

Sorry don't quite understand your post, what's upscaling and why do I need it on for 4k?

TNA · 22 May 2024 at 13:26

bakes0310 said:
Sorry don't quite understand your post, what's upscaling and why do I need it on for 4k?

Upscaling is DLSS, FSR etc. If you are not aware of those I suggest you look into it as you will get a more thorough explanation.

As for the distance you sit from the screen. If you sit quite far away you won't appreciate the extra resolution.

MatteRB26 · 22 May 2024 at 13:30

I had a 4k monitor and it was honestly not much clearer than the 3440x1440 I've got now. I'd much prefer the UW. Also depends on your monitor size etc too. at 27" (like mine was) you're most likely not going to notice much. Higher resolution at native will always look better than lower resolution with AA tacked on, but there's more factors at play.

bakes0310 said:
Sorry don't quite understand your post, what's upscaling and why do I need it on for 4k?

Upscaling is tech like FSR/DLSS where it takes a lower quality image (like 1080p, 1440p) and then upscales it to 4k. You get 1080p/1440 performance with near-4k visuals depending on the settings.

bakes0310 · 22 May 2024 at 13:38

TNA said:
Upscaling is DLSS, FSR etc. If you are not aware of those I suggest you look into it as you will get a more thorough explanation.

As for the distance you sit from the screen. If you sit quite far away you won't appreciate the extra resolution.

Okay thanks I believe my 7900xtx supports it but I've never turned it on in my games at 1440p. Is it a requirement for most games to have it on at 4k.
I've heard FSR not being very good, is that true or has it gotten better?

TNA · 22 May 2024 at 13:48

bakes0310 said:
Okay thanks I believe my 7900xtx supports it but I've never turned it on in my games at 1440p. Is it a requirement for most games to have it on at 4k.
I've heard FSR not being very good, is that true or has it gotten better?

Requirement no. But at 4K FSR Quality can be good I hear. The problem is more on lower resolutions is my understanding.

Basically if you were to use FSR Quality you would be rendering the game at your current resolution and it would upscale it to 4K. So you should get similar fps and hopefully better image quality if the FSR implementation in the game is decent.

D-Ranged · 22 May 2024 at 14:39

I wasnt/havent been that bothered for a while. I played some stuff through my 4k OLED TV with HDR and it did look great, but i couldnt crank the settings up due to my GPU. Recently got a 4080 Super and an MSI 4k Oled monitor and it has been a game changer, but now also making me want to spend even more money, upgrading the rest of my PC!

Raelgun · 22 May 2024 at 19:46

Depends on the game but able to get 4K120 fps for a lot of the times in WoW, where it drops is really a CPU bottle neck.

Same with Guildwars.

I think BG3 loves CPU like the X3D chips.

I am using native, I don't use upscaling since i can notice the degradation really easily.

TNA · 22 May 2024 at 21:26

Raelgun said:
Depends on the game but able to get 4K120 fps for a lot of the times in WoW, where it drops is really a CPU bottle neck.

Same with Guildwars.

I think BG3 loves CPU like the X3D chips.

I am using native, I don't use upscaling since i can notice the degradation really easily.

Probably using FSR would be my guess

Weird though, at 4K it is meant to be half decent.

humbug · 22 May 2024 at 22:01

If you have the GPU power to run 4K you should, even with a 1440P screen, i do and yes i can see the difference.

Hook · 22 May 2024 at 22:13

bakes0310 said:
Been thinking about upgrading from 1440p to 4k OLED later on. I feel in black and white terms it's an upgrade due to resolution increase plus the added extra of OLED.

MY question not including price into this, but do you 4k owners feel the drop in performance is fine due to the IQ that 4k brings. Do you genuinely see the difference and are blown away by the image quality in games?

I only play single player games that tend to be RPGs and RTS games like baldurs gate 3, total war. So I feel I don't play massively graphic games. Would I be blown away by 4k in these games?

Try Warhammer on 4k 80" oled TV, Oh yeah

dave28 · 22 May 2024 at 22:30

resolution benefits also depends of the size of the screen, on a 27 inch monitor 4K is not a big deal but on a 55 inch TV 4K is really worth it then.

and on my 76 inch projector screen 4K is a total game changer

Raelgun · 22 May 2024 at 23:15

TNA said:
Probably using FSR would be my guess

Weird though, at 4K it is meant to be half decent.

I've owned all 3 vendors, they are all bad, static and in motion.

TNA · 22 May 2024 at 23:29

Raelgun said:
I've owned all 3 vendors, they are all bad, static and in motion.

Will have to agree to disagree. DLSS has been very good for me. Not perfect, but good enough that I always turn it on. Beats going native and using TAA or FXAA or some crap anyway.

Raelgun · 22 May 2024 at 23:37

TNA said:
Will have to agree to disagree. DLSS has been very good for me. Not perfect, but good enough that I always turn it on. Beats going native and using TAA or FXAA or some crap anyway.

Just answer this, you say good enough, so you agree there is image degradation? The actual image degradation actually is far worse then turning down say shadows 1 notch.

I don't think any of the 3 vendor solutions are decent especially when I've spent many years always diving into game settings to dial things in.

and yes I also agree that TAA and FXAA are terrible, good thing I don't turn those on either.

Can I ask why you guys immediately default to that argument of, if you aren't using upscaling, why you think we use TAA or FXAA as the alternative, it feels like you are trying to create a weird argument.

WoW especially has both MSAA upto 8X and even has render scale going to 200%.

Guildwars 2 also has MSAA and supersampling ( granted it doesn't specify by upto how much )