1080 Ti: to 4K, or not to 4K?

[dsc106]

Looking at eVGA 1080 Ti FTW 3 when available.

Debating a large 4K monitor (27"-31"... the LG 31" looks great, but maybe too physically large for my space).

VS

a great 27" 1440p monitor.


I work in video. I also like games. I am nervous about a 4K monitor in terms of gaming prospects... 1080 Ti @ 4K seems to struggle to hold 60p on some titles today... how about this fall? Or in a year or two?

A large 1440p monitor will give plenty of GPU headroom and excellent frame rates on a big, wonderful display for years to come.

On the flip side: I work in video.

Screen real estate, baby. I currently have 2x 2010 Apple Cinema Displays 1920x1200 and want something with just as good of Color Accuracy and quality. Looking for a good pro IPS monitor for accurate video color grading and lots of screen real estate.

I am guessing I have to compromise somewhere, but looking for feedback on if the 4K resolution is really worth it for video work and if so at what screen size (27? Or only 31"?).

 

[ddogg]

If you game infrequently and are going to use the monitor primarily for work get a 4k. On the flip side, get a great 1440p.
My 1080 Ti does 4k/60 if I turn a few settings down. Don't expect 60fps with every setting maxed out as we are probably still 1-2 years away from that kind of power. Also, I doubt it will be able to do 4k/60 on games that release 1-2 years from now without turning even more settings down.
That said, I am a software developer so it's fantastic having all that real estate when programming. You can essentially fit 4 1080s in 1 screen and definitely go 30"+ if you do decide to get one.

Sent from my Nexus 6P using Tapatalk

 

[bystander36]

There is nothing wrong with reducing a few settings. Games these days do not show a lot of difference between high and ultra settings.

 

[alcoholbob]

Depends how well the game is optimized. There's always going to be trash ports that can't even hit 30-40fps at 4K with what look like 10 year old graphics.

But most well optimized games for the next year or so should have no trouble hitting 60fps on a 1080 Ti with a few graphical tweaks--turning down AA, HBAO, shadows, are the easiest ways to get fps boosts with minimal image quality hits.

 

[Grubbernaught]

Perhaps an ultra wide is the compromise you are looking for.

Not as taxing as 4k for gaming, plenty of real estate for editing.

Throw in high refresh IPS and even g-sync and you are heading for a good time.

 

[ZGR]

What games do you play? I game at 2160p on a single 1070! I play R6 Siege, Ghost Recon, Elite Dangerous, Dying Light, ARMA series, and Fallout 4 as my main games. They all can do 60 fps at medium high settings.

A 1080 ti can do high settings easily. My 1070 needs to lower shadows down to medium or high.

60 fps is such an easy target. If you play competetive shooters, go for 3440x1440 @ 100hz instead; but your desk might not fit it.

4k is actually easy to run because 60 hz is such a low hz. Once 4k120hz comes out the 1080 ti will seem pretty mainstream.

 

[[DHT]Osiris]

For what it's worth, 1440p provides great real estate, and you can do 1440p @120+hz on basically everything with a 1080 (non-TI) so you could, in theory, save yourself some cash by getting what are now sub-500 1080's and either push that into a solid 1440p monitor, or just pocket it for something else (like next gen's 2080 or 2080ti for 4k @120hz).

 

[Bacon1]

Perhaps an ultra wide is the compromise you are looking for.

Not as taxing as 4k for gaming, plenty of real estate for editing.

Throw in high refresh IPS and even g-sync and you are heading for a good time.

Yeah there are a lot of nice 100hz 3440x1440 monitors now most seem to use the Samsung VA Quantum Dot panel too so you get very nice blacks and fast response time.

I'd say UW is much bigger improvement over 4k. 1080p -> 4k is just resolution bump. 1080p -> UW is whole new experience.

 

[ZGR]

It's a tough call. I find 1440p to feel cramped and slightly blurry compared to 4k, but 120hz vs 60 hz is night and day.

If your CPU and GPU can run the game above ~80 fps than 4k60 may be lacking in high speed shooters. In games like Fallout 4 with mods where the CPU is taxed at 40 fps, 4k is king.

Why not buy both?

Edit: 3440x1440 100hz is safe bet
Edit 2: Ultrawide is good, but resolution and hz is important too.

I'd take 4k 60 hz over 2560x1080 120hz any day, but would take 3440x1440 100hz over 4k 60 hz most of the time. If it is a cpu limited title, I will always choose the highest resolution.

 

[moonbogg]

3440x1440@100hz all the way, every day, all day, all night, up top, down bottom, in the middle, round the corner and back again.

 

[wanderica]

I love my 4k, personally, but at this point in time it doesn't come without compromise. Lowering a setting or 2 is a given, but even at 1440p, as an enthusiast, I tweaked settings to provide the best performance without sacrificing visual fidelity anyway. The biggest difference is giving up 144 Hz and G-Sync. It is noticeably less smooth on the 4k. We can't yet have everything, so I would say it comes down to personal preference and primary game choice. I'm an 85% RPGer, so 40 inches of 4k eye candy is way more important to me than accurate headshots.

 

[IllogicalGlory]

1440p165 G-sync all the way.

 

[happy medium]

Acer Predator 34-inch Curved UltraWide QHD (3440 x 1440) NVIDIA G-Sync 100Hz

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-X34-UltraWide-Widescreen/dp/B016GNX4SE/?tag=amazon0606-20

A gtx1080ti will runs 60fps+ at this resolution.

 

[tential]

Not sure why you wouldn't just buy two monitors?

 

[Carfax83]

4K is still too much for the Pascal generation to run at max settings and high framerates, so I wouldn't recommend going 4K just now. Hopefully Volta will deliver on that front.

A fast 27 inch Gsync 144hz 1440p display is the best bet. I just bought one of these and so far, it's been awesome. A very good investment for the improvement it gives to your gaming experience.

Playing Doom at 1440p with Gsync made me realize how much I'd been missing by being a Gsync hold out.

 

[bystander36]

4K is still too much for the Pascal generation to run at max settings and high framerates, so I wouldn't recommend going 4K just now. Hopefully Volta will deliver on that front.

A fast 27 inch Gsync 144hz 1440p display is the best bet. I just bought one of these and so far, it's been awesome. A very good investment for the improvement it gives to your gaming experience.

Playing Doom at 1440p with Gsync made me realize how much I'd been missing by being a Gsync hold out.

While I'm not playing 4K, I can say that reducing a few settings is hardly noticeable. If you like the extra clarity of 4K, losing a few settings should not be a big deal. I play at reduced settings all the time when using 3D vision, and the difference between high and Ultra is very small these days.

 

[tential]

Use the monitor you have now OP, and buy the 4k 144hz Gsync monitors when they debut. That's actually the best option.

 

[JoeRambo]

New Use the monitor you have now OP, and buy the 4k 144hz Gsync monitors when they debut. That's actually the best option.

Question is if DP1.3 will still be able to drive those?

EDIT: nevermind, the mind was still stuck on 980ti i had previuosly. Pascal is DP 1.4 stuff and will serve just fine in 4k120Hz era.