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Pros & Cons to 4k?

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So I'm thinking about getting a 27" 4k monitor. But I would like to hear what the pros & cons are. I read a lot that the 30Hz is bad but when would I be using 30hz?

Also what is the regular desktop like? Are the icons really small etc? I have read some complaints that the mouse cursor looks distorted on some etc.

What are non-4k games like on it?

I would love to hear more details from people that are using them including which ones you like.

Thanks
 
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oh also I will be using a single GTX 970 with it.
 

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Get something bigger, otherwise you night have some windows scaling problems, and you might want another 970, unless you are okay with dropping settings.
 
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Whatever you do, don't get a 30Hz monitor, there are lots of 4K 60Hz panels out there, and you don't want to go any lower than that if you want a smooth gaming and desktop experience. At 30Hz moving your cursor and windows around will look extremely choppy.

Also, Windows 8.1 scales fine on most apps now at 27", 150% or even 200% scaling will work, personally, I use 150% scaling on my 28" monitor. I agree that if you plan on gaming at 4K and high/ultra settings, you are going to need one more 970, wait till the 980Ti and 390X are released for etailers to try and clear their 970 inventory at a good price.
 
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Yeah my plan has been to buy a 2nd 970 when they come down to about $250.

What is the best size? 28", 30"?
 

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Forst and fore most, you need more GFX power to run at 4K, no current GFX today can do that alone.

the card you have runs almost smoothly at 2560x1440 in every game, but that not enough power to run 4K, it takes at least 2 cards.

I would buy the 2nd card first and then buy the screen. 4K screens are still in the making and for me they are just not good enough yet to even consider.

Yeah I have the "itch" also for it (4K), but I would wait a bit longer.
 
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I am actually using a Dell P2715Q, its a 27" IPS UDH 60Hz SST monitor, and i got to say, probably the best upgrade to my PC in years. Granted, the only game i really play is Diablo 3, and i have no problem maxing that out at 3840x2160, any recent triple AAA title will struggle however.

As for scaling, I have windows scaling set to 150%, and ALMOST everything looks great. There are some things that just won't scale properly, or at all. The BNET launcher looks horrible, text is microscopic. GPU-Z has a few bugs running at this resolution/scalling, and apps that aren't optimized has text which are a little blurry. This will all depend on what programs you use, and how recently they have been updated, or at all.

Given the pros and cons, I would still make the jump to 4K, just because the clarity (even at 150% scaling), looks wonderful.
 
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If you have a display you can get by on till 2016, you may want to wait until Nvidia releases Pascal, who's top single GPU card might be able to drive most games in 4k. Pascal will have 3D VRAM vs GDDR5, unified memory via NVLink, and games will be made more optimized with Dx12 starting end of this year.

To answer your question though, with current tech and products, the downside to 4k is price and complexity of GPUs required (typically 2 hefty cards), price of displays, and limited if any availability of Freesync or G-Sync displays in 4k.

2016 will only be better scenario wise on pricing and tech available.
 

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Y'all forget about the Titan X that can game easily at 4k.

Pros: Looks amazing and is eye candy.

Cons: No more wallet.
 
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I get tired of people saying you need $1000 + in gpu's to run 4k. The companies responsible (techspot for one) for saying this, don't care about your pocket book. They also think you have to have all settings cranked to the max to have an enjoyable gaming experience which you don't (it's all in people's heads).

A single R9 280 can run 90% + games out there a max settings at 4k. When I say max, I mean without motion blur, depth of field and Anti Aliasing.

I ran a 7970ghz crossfired with a oc'ed R9 280 (Rocked 4k) for a short while, then sold my 7970ghz and ran 4k with a single R9 280oc for 1/2 year and since then I've been running it (SeikI 39" 30hz) on a Gigabyte R9 290OC. Don't let the guys with no 4k experience turn you off to it. It's quit frankly awesome and makes alot of older games look better than ever.

30hz isn't bad if you turn off v-sync. I know some people claim to have major tearing, but I'll I've ever had with it off no either no tearing or very light tearing...usually none with Radeon Gpu's. I don't know about Nvidia. That being said 60hz or higher is better.

Everyone is entitled to their opinions, but I have been using a 4k monitor for a year now and and it's been a much more pleasant experience than the game/video card reviewers will admit. I personally would not go down to even 1440p@120hz over 4k with no v-sync.
 
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I tried a 4K screen and after a few days i happily went back to my 1440p screen because 4K doesn't look better enough to justify how much harder it is to run it.

Video cards need to work harder, hotter and louder to power 4K. Also some games had micro stutters when i used 4K, but there was no stutter while in 1440p, GTA5 was one of those games.

And honestly most of the time when i was actually playing a game and enjoying it, 4K looked alot like 1440p, unless i stopped to really look and compare it, 4K just wasn't an amazing quality jump from 1440p as i thought it would be.

When it comes to Windows, i run Windows 7 in 1080p on my 1440 screen, and i also did on the 4K, because personally i don't like how much smaller things become within Windows once you exceed 1080p. There are scaling options and all that but i never liked that stuff, and 1080 still looks fine even though it wasn't the native resolution.

So after actually owning a 4K screen, i can say i don't want to go near a higher resolution screen then 1440p anytime in the near future. Basically because 4K didn't look superior enough then the already great looking and easier to run 1440p. And the whole PC had to work harder, sometimes i had whole system shutdowns when gaming in 4K, but in 1440p its never happened.

Maybe i will try 4K or whatever the new resolution is sometime in 2016/2017, but for now its 1440p all the way. If someone wanted 4K, i would just say get 1440p instead.
 
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A single R9 280 can run 90% + games out there a max settings at 4k. When I say max, I mean without motion blur, depth of field and Anti Aliasing.

At that point people are going to ask you what games you actually WERE playing to come up with that assessment? I play on a single 7970 OC at just 1080p, and I know first hand how even 1/4 the pixels can be challenging in some games at max settings.

Most looking to get high end gaming gear like a 4k display before they've even become mainstream and are still pretty high priced, aren't typically going to be the type to want to be limited to only very well optimized games that don't push the graphics envelope.

Thus I feel your testimonial is very exaggerated and unrealistic. It's also much more of a minority than majority that would say you need $1000 worth of GPUs to run one, even for the most demanding games. There are options in the $600-$700 range for 2 cards that suffice for most.
 
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So is 2560x1440 a good mid point for now? How much better do things look in 2560x1440?
 
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Y'all forget about the Titan X that can game easily at 4k.

Pros: Looks amazing and is eye candy.

Cons: No more wallet.

And What about the "only single 4k card available" in early 2014, the Titan-Z? :p

Pros: It runs some games well at 4k.

Cons: Lifelong buyers regret

PS: Yes, for the dense, this is sarcasm.
 
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64K

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So is 2560x1440 a good mid point for now? How much better do things look in 2560x1440?

I went from a 27" 1080p to a 27" 1440p and I noticed a big difference in how sharp the games look. Had I gone from a 24" 1080p then I probably wouldn't have noticed as much difference.

4K is my next upgrade in maybe 2 more years when Big Pascal is out and I feel confident that I can run almost any game maxxed with no AA with one of those GPUs. G-Sync and FreeSync will be well established and I expect a 4K monitor with one of those features will be a little cheaper in 2 years but there's nothing wrong with grabbing a 4K monitor right now. I would just leave myself room to upgrade the GPU for a few years. Going SLI/Crossfire with 2 GPUs offers the biggest performance bump. If you found yourself in a position where you needed a third GPU then you won't get as much of a performance increase as you did from adding the second GPU and if you had to add a fourth then the performance gain is pretty pitiful. Almost no one runs 4 way SLI/Crossfire so you can probably expect driver issues as well.
 
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30hz is fine! if you don't mind vomiting all over your keyboard :p

what good is a display if everything is a clip show?

it's like counter-strike all over again! do I play 1024x768@120hz or raise the resolution but lower refresh rate lol

I chose refresh rate :p
 
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So is 2560x1440 a good mid point for now? How much better do things look in 2560x1440?
Here is my advice based on my experience with both 4K and 1440p (I am currently and have been for awhile running 4K, but I have a 1440p, 144hz monitor that my friend is letting my use currently as well). As for scaling, I use the default a lot on my 28inch acer monitor and its fine but you run into situations where text is miniscule which is why (as stated above) you may want to do 150% scaling to assist. Personally fro ma gaming point if you play AAA titles your going to need a lot more than a single GTX 970 (I run 3 R9 290X cards and especially at 4K they are above a GTX 970 and it will not do games at ultra by itself even heavily overclocked). For me I found on high settings without MSAA (and similar) I could keep a steady decent fps range but its still not perfect. However if you play games like League of Legends (Or other lower graphical games) it handles it no problem on ultra settings.

Now with 1440p, its a better midway point especially if your on a single GTX 970. It will handle more games than naught at high+ settings or Ultra without MSAA (or similar) 60hz. Playing with one currently (I am using freesync so I am limited to one card) and based on the similar area of power our cards are at you can get away with a lot on that card at that resolution and grabbing a second later would only make the experience better. It will definitely be smoother with a GTX 970 and 1440p over 4k even if you do 2 cards (Unless you opt for G-Sync).

Comparing the screens (4K is 28inch and 1440p is 27inch) the games look very similarly good and the pixel density in both is fine. They both offer comparable experiences especially in game, though I would probably say unless your buying 2-3 R9 290/X's, GTX 980's, or a pair of GTX Titan X's I would say go for 1440p especially a 144hz one with G-Sync as you probably would have a much better time with that and your card would handle it better (Plus with G-Sync its pretty smooth).
 
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Somewhat random thoughts....


Correct, you will need POWER. I have a ZOTAC gtx980 AMP! extreme oc'd afterburner g100,m300 (1505, boost, 7800)


and in GTAV maxed out, VG grass, fxaa on , no AA. on a xb270hu with DSR x2.25 (simulates 4k) i get 31 franes a second... (Can not DSR with SLI on with a GSYNC monitor... damn nvidia, doubt that they will fix that problem)

You will want a powerful card because, gaming at 60fps is so nice. And doing that at 4K requires POWER.


LSS, wait and get a GSYNC 4K IPS monitor. MAYBE a 10 bit TN panel (i don't know though...)

I have a vg278h (original 120hz TN Asus monitor)... The banding in the sky at night (in GTAV) is seriously annoying... (Must be a 6 bit panel)...

On the XB270hu, the banding is minor... i think it is an 8bit IPS panel (BTW, an amazing monitor, a wee-bit-of-backlight-bleed in the corners that is ignorable because the rest of the monitor is genius)

also GSYNC is best on a single card. (On SLI i believe i can see stutters, but with GSYNC off it is worse.)

So you are going to need a TITAN X equivalent to game "smooth-as-silk" on a 4K Gsync monitor...

YET, gaming on a 1920x1080 with DSR (4x) is amazing!... Extremely low line sparkle!... great clarity!...
not as great a difference on a 1440p monitor 2.25x DSR.

IN GTAV you can game at 120 fps on 4K dsr, if you have everything on (normal/low,grass high... PS3 settings lol) with a GTX 980.

So when you are gaming on a 4k monitor you are look at lowered settings...

I think / want to get the philips 4065uc 4K 40 inch monitor because it could be used for desktop work because the dot pitch is not unreadable (a 40 inch 4k monitor has approximately the same dot pitch as a 1440p 27inch monitor..)
 
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I bought a 4K at frys and returned it the next day for a 1440p. Was much happier with the 1440p. Looked just right at 28inches versus the 4K at 28 inches.

Windows didn't scale right on 4K. Playing my favorite game League of Legends was difficult when I thought the extra view space would make things easier. Sure I could see more than the average person but aiming was a pain. I had to move my mouse a mile to get it to go somewhere, upped the speed and accuracy with my clicks fell tremendously. Maybe it needed more getting used too, but It was way to frustrating. Perhaps some games wouldn't have been so problematic.
 
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On a small screen around 27" 1440p is the sweet spot. Like it has been mentioned, scaling is a pain on a 4k screen at that size. Also given the requirements to run 4k the visual difference is not worth it from 1440p to 4k on a screen of that size. Now if you are talking 4k on a 40" or larger display, then that is a bit of a different story.

From my experience 2 970s was simply not enough for 4k at 60fps. You have to compromise too many graphical settings to maintain an acceptable framerate. You are much better off running a 1440p or 1080p display and then running all the graphics settings close to maximum. Even a pair of GTX 980s is borderline for an ideal 4k experience, I think within the next 2 Video card generations 4k will become a much more attainable setup.
 
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4k is mainly for the "oh so trendy" monster big tv screens that need mucho-mucho pixels to look half-acceptable for friends coming to dinner.
4k at a sub-32" screen seems nonsense to me.
 
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Sorry to hijack; how does low resolution content look on a 4K screen? I mean like 480p youtube videos. Cheers.
 
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Pretty much the same as on a 1080p display, crappy.
 
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It sounds like for a lot of reasons its not a very good time to make the change. While I'm sure 1440p looks good it doesn't sound like it looks that much better to justify the change. And for me it would me changing my setup, I have a nice monitor arm with 2, 24" monitors. I would have to take both of those off the arm and I don't think I have the old stands so it would be a major mess just for that one new, larger, monitor.

I think I will wait for 4k to become more mainstream. Probably a year from this holiday season will be the big 4k moment. I think this holiday will be too soon, at least on the PC gaming side of things.

Thanks
 
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