Why do people chase 4K gaming?

[FlyingScotsman]

I love gaming at 4K for certain titles, they just look amazing, but got to say I've not done any driving on my 4K screen since I got my Oculus rift.

 

[bigmike20vt]

What?

I am guessing he is splitting hairs that UHD is not technically 4k but that is pretty pedantic imo

 

[4K8KW10]

I am guessing he is splitting hairs that UHD is not technically 4k but that is pretty pedantic imo

Hey no. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-high-definition_television

Ultra-high-definition television (also known as Ultra HD television, Ultra HD, UHDTV, UHD and Super Hi-Vision) today includes 4K UHD and 8K UHD, which are two digital video formats with an aspect ratio of 16:9. These were first proposed by NHK Science & Technology Research Laboratories and later defined and approved by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU).[1][2][3][4]

The Consumer Electronics Association announced on October 17, 2012, that "Ultra High Definition", or "Ultra HD", would be used for displays that have an aspect ratio of 16:9 or wider and at least one digital input capable of carrying and presenting native video at a minimum resolution of 3840×2160 pixels.[5][6] In 2015, the Ultra HD Forum was created to bring together the end-to-end video production ecosystem to ensure interoperability and produce industry guidelines so that adoption of Ultra-high-definition television could accelerate. From just 30 in Q3 2015, the forum published a list up to 55 commercial services available around the world offering 4K resolution.[7]

 

[nashathedog]

nevermind

 

[Distracted]

I'll hop on 4k gaming once the hardware and standards exist and are available to buy to allow high refresh rates and hdr.

I hope demand from early adopters and improving technology lead to significant price drops vs the current gsync 4k monitors.

 

[clubb699]

My friend who has been playing bfv on 1080p over the last week decided to pop around mine today not to see game, i was playing on bfv at the time with the 28 inch monitor full ultra settings. His instant reaction was omg that looks bloody lovely at 4k. Ater that reaction he said he needs to upgrade his monitor it looked that good lol.

He turned around and also said I used to believe 1080p was anough can't see the point of 4k blah blah blah his now a changed man

 

[HangTime]

Would definitely rather have 4k than ultrawide, assuming the refresh rate wasn't lower. However, the cost both in terms of monitor and gpu required to drive it compared to 2560x1440 is too big at present.

 

[Nexus18]

Meh to 4k on both small and large displays.

OLED > HDR > refresh rate > resolution (within reason obviously)

21.9 > 16.9

Thankfully you can use custom 21.9 resolutions on big 16.9 screens and with OLED, you wouldn't even know there are black bars in a dark room

 

[Neutrino101]

This is a really interesting thread.

Personally i game on a couple of 4K screens, I got an ultra wide 18 months ago but personally I never enjoyed it as you can only ever focus on a small part of the screen at once and it felt like looking through a letterbox.

For me the thing that I really couldn’t do without now is HDR not just 4K. I know HDR uptake has been slow on the PC however when it works it really is a game changer. I currently have an Acer Predator X27 that as everyone is aware can overclock to 144hz however it can’t get true 10 bit colour above 98hz, personally I can’t tell the difference as it looks stunning compared to any other PC monitor I have used regardless of being set at 144 or 98hz. I have this being driven by a single 2080ti so often don’t currently see much above 60-80 FPS so it will probably be a few years before I can get the best out of it.

As to those who say a 27” monitor is too small for 4K I really haven’t found this to be the case. I also have a 75 inch Samasung Q9FN in my sitting room with a media PC attached which I also use to play the same games at 4K. Because of the relative difference in how far I am sat from the screen the actual amount of my viewable area taken up by the 75” and 27” screens is almost identical and I never find myself wishing for the bigger screen when using the Acer X27 despite only needing to walk downstairs if I want to use it.

The common factor between both these screens is that they both offer the Best HDR picture in their respective fields TV/PC and for me that is far more important than 4K and the true groundbreaking advancement we have seen in recent years.

 

[bigmike20vt]

Indeed. It does frustrate me that I have a (fairly) high end pc and a nice gaming TV capable of HDR (Sony 65xe9305) and yet some games look better on console due to HDR... Eg gears of war 4.
Not sure who is to blame for this, whether it is just Devs can't be bothered or if MS/Sony are encouraging Devs to leave some features for the "high end" consoles.

Hopefully going forward this issue will end
(PS I still can't get good HDR on my windows desktop, my PS4 pro frontend with HDR on is just so much more visually impressive than my windows desktop)

 

[TNA]

This is a really interesting thread.

Personally i game on a couple of 4K screens, I got an ultra wide 18 months ago but personally I never enjoyed it as you can only ever focus on a small part of the screen at once and it felt like looking through a letterbox.

For me the thing that I really couldn’t do without now is HDR not just 4K. I know HDR uptake has been slow on the PC however when it works it really is a game changer. I currently have an Acer Predator X27 that as everyone is aware can overclock to 144hz however it can’t get true 10 bit colour above 98hz, personally I can’t tell the difference as it looks stunning compared to any other PC monitor I have used regardless of being set at 144 or 98hz. I have this being driven by a single 2080ti so often don’t currently see much above 60-80 FPS so it will probably be a few years before I can get the best out of it.

As to those who say a 27” monitor is too small for 4K I really haven’t found this to be the case. I also have a 75 inch Samasung Q9FN in my sitting room with a media PC attached which I also use to play the same games at 4K. Because of the relative difference in how far I am sat from the screen the actual amount of my viewable area taken up by the 75” and 27” screens is almost identical and I never find myself wishing for the bigger screen when using the Acer X27 despite only needing to walk downstairs if I want to use it.

The common factor between both these screens is that they both offer the Best HDR picture in their respective fields TV/PC and for me that is far more important than 4K and the true groundbreaking advancement we have seen in recent years.

Yeah. If I could justify the price, that or the asus one would be the monitor I would have right now. I will hold out for a microled version though. By then hopefully we will have proper hdr support on pc

 

[Dirk Diggler]

@Neutrino101 how often are you getting to 144 frames with that monitor? My guess is not very often, if at all. I couldn't justify buying technology that I can't actually use... But, judging by your post you seem to value the IQ over the refresh rate?

 

[Vega]

34/35" 3440x1440p ultrawides are a bit "meh". They are just low resolution 27" 1440p monitors with ears tacked on. Now I could definitely do a 5120x2160 monitor for nice clarity, but they only come in 60 Hz which is a no-go.

I do like my 144 Hz 4K X27, but the 27" size is quite underwhelming. I prefer the 43" 4K 120 Hz Mango the most.

 

[arc@css]

I've not tried either UW or 4K. Well, I have upscaled a few times to 4K but I expect it still looks quite a bit different from the real thing.

I think as long as the scaling e.g. text/interfaces in either scenario works well then I can see me liking both, though I don't know which one I'd prefer.

In fact, this reminds me of when I was looking for my most recent of monitor purchases and noticing a Philips 43" 4K 60hz going for around £500 which was a good deal then, IIRC. I can't deny that I wasn't tempted, but I really wanted to try out a higher refresh rate (an absolute must for me now) and Gsync/Freesync. Again, I don't think I could lose that either. I seem to have gotten more and more sensitive to tearing over time.

 

[Vega]

re: micro-LED's

It will be 5+ years before we even see large micro-LED TV's at consumer prices. There is zero indications out there that micro-LED pixels will ever be small enough for PC monitor sized displays at 4K+ resolution.

 

[Random Guy Esq.]

Horses for courses. I do like ultrawide for driving games, some RTS etc. And for other genres, aspect ratio doesn't have that much of an impact either way. But I actually find it quite immersion breaking for FPS gaming - it's just an unnatural aspect ratio compared to human field of view, especially for games with a lot of verticality. I can't imagine I'd enjoy Doom Eternal on an UW (just as an upcoming example). I'd much rather a large 4K screen for shooters. Having said all that, IQ and fast refresh rates are more important to me.

And yeah, I'm probably repeating points already made ad nauseam.

 

[Howling]

Horses for courses. I do like ultrawide for driving games, some RTS etc. And for other genres, aspect ratio doesn't have that much of an impact either way. But I actually find it quite immersion breaking for FPS gaming - it's just an unnatural aspect ratio compared to human field of view, especially for games with a lot of verticality. I can't imagine I'd enjoy Doom Eternal on an UW (just as an upcoming example). I'd much rather a large 4K screen for shooters. Having said all that, IQ and fast refresh rates are more important to me.

And yeah, I'm probably repeating points already made ad nauseam.

I agree about the point with games that have a lot of verticality, but only on the games that crop vertical instead of giving extra horizontal - ie Overwatch. That's a pretty vertical game and Blizzard in their infinite wisdom crop vertical because "ultrawides would give an unfair advantage." For the most part though, "interesting" stuff happens on the horizontal plane - so having more horizontal works. The only thing down is usually the floor, and up is the sky - you don't really need to be looking at those.. but the stuff at left and right? There's where the magic is

 

[Dirk Diggler]

I thought I was stuck on Ultrawide, and to a certain extent I am, but having added the 27" 1440p 144Hz Acer XB271HU to my setup, I've realised that it's high refresh + Gsync that's important to me. When GPUs can drive 4k @ 100Hz I'll be happy to upgrade to that resolution.

Reading this thread, I suppose there's a reason why there's so many different choices at various price points. It's not like we all eat vanilla ice cream or drive the Ford Focus.

 

[ubersonic]

He’s seen my setup and played Doom on my X34 but he’s still going on about 4K....

He doesn't need a new monitor for Xmas, he needs Specsavers.

I thought people used 2k for 2560x1440 ?

No, 2K is 2048×1080, it's an obsolete resolution that competed with 1920x1080 over a decade ago and lost (I had a Samsung 2K monitor back in the day, was cool). You do however see a few people mistakenly using it to refer to 1080p (because 4K = 2160p so 2K must be 1080p), it's a good way of spotting people who don't know that much about resolutions but talk like they do.

 

[AMB73]

Indeed. It does frustrate me that I have a (fairly) high end pc and a nice gaming TV capable of HDR (Sony 65xe9305) and yet some games look better on console due to HDR... Eg gears of war 4.
Not sure who is to blame for this, whether it is just Devs can't be bothered or if MS/Sony are encouraging Devs to leave some features for the "high end" consoles.

Hopefully going forward this issue will end
(PS I still can't get good HDR on my windows desktop, my PS4 pro frontend with HDR on is just so much more visually impressive than my windows desktop)

I have managed to get HDR on Windows 10 looking very nice but this needs to be done via the nvidia control panel over riding the windows 10 default settings.

On the Change Resolution menu change the color depth to 10bpc and the Output Dynamic Range to Full

Use the -Adjust Desktop Color Settings- and adjust the Contrast to a higher setting, bring up the brightness a bit. Digital Vibrance will boost the colors also. Quick note - Digital Vibrance will also affect your HDR gaming so too high will make the colors bleed and look over saturated in some games, Hitman 2 for instance. I generally leave this alone.
Use the -Adjust Video Settings- These settings adjust the contrast and brightness for HDR content via Youtube and will dramatically improve the overall quality when viewing HDR content from Youtube.

These settings should hopefully give you a better HRD experience in Windows 10