Back at it again! 4k or 1440

[BlitzPuppet]

Hello all!

Seems like I'm back at it again. I'm thinking about getting myself a monitor for my bday this month and have been going back and forth on what I want to get.

Current Monitor: Asus 24" 1080P https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0058UUR6E/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Now I game quite a lot and I'm wanting something bigger in the 27-28" range. I'm current running a GTX 980 and will not upgrade to the GTX 1080 for quite some time, and this has me questioning my decisions.

Now if I were to go a 27 or 28" 1440 I'm sure my GPU could run this with absolutely no problem...but would it make sense to even spend money towards a 1440 when there are 4K options out there?

If I were to go with a 27 or 28" 4K monitor I'm afraid I'd lose quite a bit of FPS running the games I play (Flight Sims, RPGs, that sort of thing) and I'd really not like to lose any detail/eye candy that I've enjoyed with my 1080 monitor. Now I've read conflicting reports on whether 1080 running on a 4K looks good or not since it's a direct exponential scale, so I'm not sure what to think or trust? Does 1080 on a 4K look fine or will it be noticeably worse than what I've been gaming on for the past 4 years?

What would make sense in your eyes as far as a bigger screen with higher resolution for this time?

 

[Layer8]

The same decision I struggled with when planning my new rig (due next month). I finally decided to go for a RX 480 and a 4k monitor.

With a 4k, I can decide via the game setting whether I want a high res image with less quality (2160p) or a high quality image at low res (1080p) or something in between (1440p).

The main reason for the decision is that the monitor will have to serve a longer time than the card.
And when I update the graphics card next time, there will be one for me that can cope with 4k at all settings. If not, I can always throw in a second RX 480.

I still hope for a 30-32 inch display to be announced at Computex or E3 that serves my needs. If there is no such monitor, I'll go for the the LG 27UD68P-B (4k, IPS, FreeSync).

Update: See post #10, that 3840x1600 looks nice...

 

[phexac]

I ended up going with 1440 BUT, I went for a the Dell 34" 3440x1440.

Windows support for 4k displays is just too inconsistent for me to go that route.

 

[Brian Stirling]

Yeah, for gaming 4K is still not there. The GPU's struggle to handle the res at modest detail and going to ultra detail and, my 980TI is not up for it and I doubt the new Pascal is going to maintain more than 60fps -- I'd guess even with Pascal you'd see frame rates drop below 40fps. Maybe next year/cycle.

And as was mentioned Windows 10 is still not great with 4K and many programs are actually pretty bad at 4K -- particularly with sub 27 inch displays.

So, give it a year or two for GPU's, Windows and app programs to finally figure out 4K.


Brian

 

[Newbian]

With a 980 stick with 1440p as 4k will have issues for more demanding games and for games coming out that will require even more.

Not to mention anything below a 30 inch or so will be too small for 4k.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Thinking about it more, going by everyone's advice, and hearing that 4K is still too new I will go ahead and go with 1440.

Now to pick which monitor I want

Thanks for the help/input guys!

 

[VashHT]

I'd say it matters how sensitive you are to higher framerates, I can't say I've been disappointed by 4K so far running stuff in the 40s-50s. Can't say I would have done it without Gsync though, that helps make it seem a bit smoother.

 

[Kenmitch]

Thinking about it more, going by everyone's advice, and hearing that 4K is still too new I will go ahead and go with 1440.

Now to pick which monitor I want

Thanks for the help/input guys!

Good luck on your quest.

I'm thinking 1440p 144Hz for me at least. Not much currently on the market with those specs.

I'd say it matters how sensitive you are to higher framerates, I can't say I've been disappointed by 4K so far running stuff in the 40s-50s. Can't say I would have done it without Gsync though, that helps make it seem a bit smoother.

As a current 24" 1080p 144Hz user I can safely say for me at least the higher the fps the better.

 

[tential]

I'd say it matters how sensitive you are to higher framerates, I can't say I've been disappointed by 4K so far running stuff in the 40s-50s. Can't say I would have done it without Gsync though, that helps make it seem a bit smoother.

When you see how sharp 4K image looks, or any of the higher resolutions, you really don't want to go back. I love the sharpness and clarity of 4K and downsampling in general. I never want to go back.

 

[Layer8]

I already decided for a 4k... I might change my mind:
First "super ultrawide" announced Acer 3840x1600 24:10 (2.4:1 to match widescreen)

 

[BlitzPuppet]

I went ahead and went with a 27" Dell 1440 144hz with Gsync.

I'm getting it tomorrow and will let everyone know what I think...definitely looking forward to it!

 

[Headfoot]

I've found higher framerates to be more compelling than higher resolution generally speaking. I play a mix of strategy games and shooters so that's probably why. 3x1080p is wonderful when it works though.

 

[Tweak155]

I went from 27" 1440p to 40" 4K. I am now going back to 27" 1440p as I wasn't too thrilled with the performance hit and don't want to go to mGPU yet.

If I end up being happy with the performance increase on the switch back, I might spring for a 144hz display now that they are starting to hit the market with IPS.

 

[topmounter]

27" 1440p / 144MHz FreeSync

e.g. Acer XF270HU

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Love my monitor that I got, did some adjustments following a guide I found for it and I'm enjoying every minute of it.

Funny story in GTA V, ran a benchmark after applying GeForce Experience settings to see how my framerate suffered..23.9FPS. I was pulling my hair out trying to figure out why my FPS would drop so much from the resolution change + following Geforce's settings.

Turns out Experience set the refresh rate to 24Hz + turned Vsync on. Lovely...changed it to 144hz and all was well. Loving it!

 

[Matt-R]

Sorry if this has been asked already.
Can't I get a 4K display and manually change the settings to 1440p for more demanding games and use 4K for other programs? Or does it not work out that way?

 

[Tweak155]

Sorry if this has been asked already.
Can't I get a 4K display and manually change the settings to 1440p for more demanding games and use 4K for other programs? Or does it not work out that way?

Yes, you can. You will just lose a little bit of quality. Not as noticeable on smaller monitors, but more noticeable as the size of the screen increases.

 

[BlitzPuppet]

Sorry if this has been asked already.
Can't I get a 4K display and manually change the settings to 1440p for more demanding games and use 4K for other programs? Or does it not work out that way?

Yes, you can. You will just lose a little bit of quality. Not as noticeable on smaller monitors, but more noticeable as the size of the screen increases.

That's that I was going over when I was making my decision.

Back when LCDs were first coming out I had no idea how to use them at all, and expected everything to stay pretty no matter what res I was playing at. When I changed from native resolution I was stumped as to why everything looked so blurry. I don't want to go back to any form of that.

Realistically 4K doesn't really make sense to get right now as there will be much better 4K monitors in the future (quicker response, better panels, less bleed on the IPS ones) so I decided to get the 1440 and play at native and be happy.

And I very much am. I feel like I need to tweak the colors a bit because the Witcher 2 looks very odd in some areas, but that may just be the HDR overkill.

 

[Matt-R]

Thank you

 

[Matt-R]

Thanks. That definitely seems the way to go. I've got my eye on an Acer Predator XB271HU.

 

[Genx87]

Im out looking. I have been on a 60in vizio LED for the past 7 months. But at the distance from the TV I find it difficult in games with a lot of text. So I went back to my 10 year old Samsung 24". Everything looks washed out compared to the Vizio. So 1440 or 4K? At 27" size will I notice the difference? Will I even notice the difference between 1080 and UHD on a screen that size for games?

 

[Grooveriding]

1440 with 144hz refresh rate. I've tried several 4K screens and high refresh rate is so much better than the increased resolution. Even with a 980 you'll be able to get high refresh rates in most games. Unless you are only running the latest AAA big titles on maxed settings. Either way, 4K or 1440 @ 144hz are both going to be demanding to run. I think the higher refresh rate is a lot more impactful.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Im out looking. I have been on a 60in vizio LED for the past 7 months. But at the distance from the TV I find it difficult in games with a lot of text. So I went back to my 10 year old Samsung 24". Everything looks washed out compared to the Vizio. So 1440 or 4K? At 27" size will I notice the difference? Will I even notice the difference between 1080 and UHD on a screen that size for games?

27", 1440p. 4K at least 32".

Having owned a 27" 1440p display for 4 years and done extensive 4K research myself, right now best price/quality 4K display is the LG 31" 4096x2160 display. If I hadn't opted for a 55" monitor, this would have been my choice. Microboard uses the same LG's panels from the $1300 31MU97 monitor. No other monitor I found in the 4K market that's at or below it's $559 price point offers even remotely similar image quality. A friend owns the more expensive LG version, it's by far the best looking traditional monitor I've ever seen. My catleap is great but the LG has better image quality.
Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDdBcwvl8eA
LG version review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I4p7b21zUN4

 

[TeknoBug]

I basically have zero interest in 4K, 1440 with 144Hz is the way to go but the two together is hard to find- there's far too many 1080p HDMI monitors out there.

 

[Genx87]

Thanks for the tips. With my desk 27" is the max size.