Spec me a comprimise build to support 4K monitor

JGBR

JGBR

JGBR

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I am looking to build a machine purely for gaming so trying to keep it simple and the price down. This partly due to moving between the US and UK a lot so want to be able to ship it easily [small size, weight etc].

The issue i am encountering is that I have a ASUS PB279Q [4k monitor].

I am happy to comprimise on specs, cpu, psu, memory because ultimately i want to game at 4k.

Would recommendations be, a better graphics card, lesser spec cpu etc or more balanced machine etc?
 
I have to keep the IPS 4k panel as it has another machine conencted to it for proffesional reasons.

The debate I am having is between lowering the spec of cpu, ram, etc and get a better graphics card or a more balanced machine.
 
preferably like to keep the base unit - without the graphics card - under £500.

Graphics card to be decided at a later date.
 
At 4K it's usually a safe bet that the GPU will be well-utilised, so start with that by picking one (or two, or three) that gives acceptable performance at 4K in the games you play at the the settings you want.

Then choose the rest based on the available budget. Your CPU will not be the most important thing at 4K, I would hazard an i5-6500 or i5-6600K (depending on overclocking or not) would be sensible, but an i7-6700K has advantages in some games.

The rest (RAM and motherboard) are easy, get 8 or 16 GB RAM depending on budget, and whatever motherboard has the features you need (number of PCIe slots, xfire/SLI, USB3/SATA ports, etc.). Get whatever size SSD you need for OS and games.

At £500 though you'll pretty much have to cut back the CPU to something like an i3 or 860K, which might impact performance depending on games.
 
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My basket at Overclockers UK:

Total: £473.92

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you might want a bigger psu for 2 gpu's at a later date but for 1 980ti the 550w gold is enough.

both the antec high current 750 and cougar gold 800 will keep you around £500

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/cougar-gx-v3-800w-80-plus-gold-modular-power-supply-ca-012-cu.html (£89.99)

https://www.overclockers.co.uk/ante...80-bronze-modular-power-supply-ca-197-an.html (£89.99)
 
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^ Won't do much better than that for the money, nice. ATX doesn't meet the "small" requirements though.

Also be careful Windows doesn't grab any microcode updates and ruin the overclock.
 
 
Some great ideas here, thankyou.
I guess this is the issue with running a 4k monitor. I didnt know if corners can be cut on core compoents and emphasis on graphics card or the other way around...Its a machine purely for gaming and i can only ship something small and one monitor over so I am abit stuck on how to solve it.
 
JGBR said:
I guess this is the issue with running a 4k monitor. I didnt know if corners can be cut on core compoents and emphasis on graphics card or the other way around...Its a machine purely for gaming and i can only ship something small and one monitor over so I am abit stuck on how to solve it.
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Have you looked at 4K performance in the games you're playing? You'll need a lot of GPU power, you're looking at least at a GTX 980/R9 390X level to get 30 FPS high/v high, or a 980 Ti/Fury X level for all the bells and whistles, depending on the game.

The other option we don't hear about much is to play games at 1080p as this stretches perfectly 2:1 to 4K, and get a much cheaper system.
 
joeyjojo said:
The other option we don't hear about much is to play games at 1080p as this stretches perfectly 2:1 to 4K, and get a much cheaper system.
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This is something I've been pondering doing as I'd love a 4k monitor for my graphic design work but can't afford a high end GPU setup for gaming on it. What's the quality like for gaming when upscaling 1080p to 4k?
 
It seems the monitor is really the issue here and im wondering if its cheaper to get a second monitor for an older system then build a new machine but obviously it was easier to use just the one monitor for both proffesional and gaming reasons.
 
Cern said:
This is something I've been pondering doing as I'd love a 4k monitor for my graphic design work but can't afford a high end GPU setup for gaming on it. What's the quality like for gaming when upscaling 1080p to 4k?
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I was reading up on this before I wrote my post, it seems to depend on the monitor whether it looks any good or not.

e.g. http://www.ign.com/boards/threads/how-does-1080p-native-look-on-a-4k-screen.453913993/

Ideally it would just use "nearest neighbour" and show 1 pixel across 4. At worst it might do some filtering and look blurry.
 
I've tried this with a lower spec machine and i thought with scaling and all sorts of alternative settings it always seems blurry. There appears no answer bar super powerful GC. What type of spec of single card are we talking to run 4K gaming smoothly? 1 980 atleast?
 
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You would need a 980ti or fury x for a halfway decent experience at 4k.

I have cf 390x but still need to hold back in some settings to get 60 fps in the latest games.
 
It seems that the 4k is a real issue. It is great for proffesional applications etc but pushing a budget system too much. At the moment is seems cheaper to get a second monitor for a lesser older machine. However. once gone to 4K it is hard to go back!
 
IMHO a lot of games dont really look any different at 4k, its better to run at 1080 with all the effects turned to full running at 60fps than 4k with the effects on low at 60 fps
 
Even with a Fury X or 980 Ti you would still be looking at an average of 40FPS for the newest games on maxed out settings at 4K.

Edit: which is absolutely fine by the way just the current gen tech isn't quite ready for 4K yet. So you could say that there isn't really a compromise build...
 
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