I recently got a WM UHD490. It is a 4k monitor with 10 bit panel and FreeSync. It is a beautiful monitor. But it is really hard on the video card if you want to game at 4k.
I started with a 290 and it could not handle 4k at all even if I lowered the settings. I scaled down to 1440p and it does a really good job. The 290 can handle it no problems. I got a second 290 for a really good price so I decided to try Crossfire (CF).
I had no used a two card solution since the Voodo 2 days and man it was a pain to set up. It would just not recognize the CF set up but one at a time they would be fine. I swapped the cards and voila it worked (sort of). I had CF enabled but when I started playing either Far Cry 3 or Dying light demo I would get all kind of weird artifacts. Only on the actual game and not on the menus.
Frustrated I decided to uninstall the Video cards and then reinstall them through the device manager. It worked or so I thought until I noticed that for some weird reason the fan on the second card would stop as soon as windows was loaded so it got really toasty. at this point I was ready to give up on the CF but decided to try one last thing since I was not going to reinstall windows just for the CF.
I removed the Catalyst software completely and rebooted the PC and then used the AMD cleanup utility rebooted then reinstalled the drivers. After the required reboot the PC froze (explorer.exe crashed and then the PC froze) . I killed the power and turn on the PC again and then finally it worked (knock on wood). I have been testing CF at 4k with Far Cry 3 at Ultra settings and FreeSync on and man does it look beautiful.
The range for freesync is limited (42-60) But with Far Cry 3 there were no problems it handled the game fine at 4k. Never going less than 42 fps. After 1.5 hours of playing I switched to the Dying Light demo and set everything to high and it looks really really good at 4k. But here something weird happened. Everything is smooth and fine dipping to like 47 or so when I am fighting several zombies but then I noticed something weird as soon as one starts biting you the fps thank badly (20-25) once you repel it the fps shoot back up. I tried it even when there was only one zombie and did it again.
If I do not get bitten by a zombie the fps are fine and the game is really smooth. So far I like a lot playing at 4k and CF make it possible. Will keep trying more games I will try Hitman absolution and will install some of the other games I have.
One thing I noticed is that for a monitor I would not go bigger than the 49-50" with a straight panel. It is just too big. 55 and higher will really benefit being curved. I watched some curved TVs and I thought it was useless from my regular sitting position but being 3 feet away it is really nice if it is curved.
Here are my system specs:
Asus P8P67 pro B3 version
Intel 2500K @ 4.3
16 GB ram
1KW PS
256 GB Plextor M3 HDD as main and 1 TB WD green and WD 750 GB black
No optical drive and using Windows 7 64 but SP1
I started with a 290 and it could not handle 4k at all even if I lowered the settings. I scaled down to 1440p and it does a really good job. The 290 can handle it no problems. I got a second 290 for a really good price so I decided to try Crossfire (CF).
I had no used a two card solution since the Voodo 2 days and man it was a pain to set up. It would just not recognize the CF set up but one at a time they would be fine. I swapped the cards and voila it worked (sort of). I had CF enabled but when I started playing either Far Cry 3 or Dying light demo I would get all kind of weird artifacts. Only on the actual game and not on the menus.
Frustrated I decided to uninstall the Video cards and then reinstall them through the device manager. It worked or so I thought until I noticed that for some weird reason the fan on the second card would stop as soon as windows was loaded so it got really toasty. at this point I was ready to give up on the CF but decided to try one last thing since I was not going to reinstall windows just for the CF.
I removed the Catalyst software completely and rebooted the PC and then used the AMD cleanup utility rebooted then reinstalled the drivers. After the required reboot the PC froze (explorer.exe crashed and then the PC froze) . I killed the power and turn on the PC again and then finally it worked (knock on wood). I have been testing CF at 4k with Far Cry 3 at Ultra settings and FreeSync on and man does it look beautiful.
The range for freesync is limited (42-60) But with Far Cry 3 there were no problems it handled the game fine at 4k. Never going less than 42 fps. After 1.5 hours of playing I switched to the Dying Light demo and set everything to high and it looks really really good at 4k. But here something weird happened. Everything is smooth and fine dipping to like 47 or so when I am fighting several zombies but then I noticed something weird as soon as one starts biting you the fps thank badly (20-25) once you repel it the fps shoot back up. I tried it even when there was only one zombie and did it again.
If I do not get bitten by a zombie the fps are fine and the game is really smooth. So far I like a lot playing at 4k and CF make it possible. Will keep trying more games I will try Hitman absolution and will install some of the other games I have.
One thing I noticed is that for a monitor I would not go bigger than the 49-50" with a straight panel. It is just too big. 55 and higher will really benefit being curved. I watched some curved TVs and I thought it was useless from my regular sitting position but being 3 feet away it is really nice if it is curved.
Here are my system specs:
Asus P8P67 pro B3 version
Intel 2500K @ 4.3
16 GB ram
1KW PS
256 GB Plextor M3 HDD as main and 1 TB WD green and WD 750 GB black
No optical drive and using Windows 7 64 but SP1
Last edited:
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