Hey Duders, Im in the process of building a PC, my question is simple do you feel the upgrade to 4k from 1080p is noticeable enough?

Is it only worth it on more graphical demanding games, for example would bioshock infinite or fallout 4 look noticeable better in 4K?

Yes, its honestly more noticeable than 720p to 1080p was to me. That said the jump from 1440p to 4k is not 'as' noticeable. Honestly even the jump from 1080 to 1440p is huge, however all of this also depends on screen size as well. Im gaming at 50inch 4k, typically upscaling between 1440p and 1800p to 4k. Still looks amazing, so i would recommend 1440p as only a new titan or sli 1080's will get 60fps at 4k.

The jump from 1080P to 1440P is extremely noticeable, I imagine 4K would be even better.

Agreed. If you go 1440P, you'll get screaming framerates with high end cards. 1440/144 is the ultimate sweet spot for gaming right now.

@carryboy:

Everything looks noticeably better in 4K.
If you can afford the PC hardware to go 4k, DO IT!
You won't be disappointed.

Switching to 4K gave me a complete "Wow" moment.

Yeah, 1440 or QHD just isn't the home entertainment buzzword 4k is, so most people skip it not realizing how much of a jump it is. I blame TVs. I find 4k excessive for gaming because of how demanding it is. A 4k monitor is something I'd get for viewing high res photos and scans.

What is the best 4K monitor right now? (I understand that tech is changing, but what's the best now.)

i don't notice much of a difference, between my 4k pc and my 1080p, but then again im pretty heavily vision impaired lol. I also don't play too many super new fancy graphically amazing games either.

Is it noticeable? Absolutely. Is it worth it? Probably not.

4k doesn't look better enough to justify running on lower settings or at 30 FPS instead of 60.

You need the new Titan X to get 4k on every game maxed out at 60 FPS+, the GTX 1080 can almost do it but not quite.

It is noticeable in WoW for me on my 4k monitor and my 970GTX, but honestly I'd rather have the framerate at 1440p than the shiny pixels at 4k. I think we're a couple years away from the point where 4k gaming is both completely taken advantage of by developers and accessible to people with anything other than super expensive computers.

I don't know anyone who can afford 4k yet, but seeing games maxed out & running like silk at 1440 made me regret not waiting for the new cards.

Tbh i would have went 1440p but 4k tvs are pretty cheap and bigger. Ive never had issue using a tv as a monitor either and upscaling 1440p and higher looks good. And even with my 1080 im not pushing 140fps at 1440 or even close to it so 144hz doesnt matter to me. Only thing i wish i had was gsync/free sync.

And for anybody thinking of using a 4k tv make sure it has hdmi 2.0 to get 60hz, plus a high quality cord or youll he stuck at 30hz

I have a 43" Vizio 4K TV that I use with my 1080.

It looks better than 1080P no doubt. It's nice to never have to use anti-aliasing too.

It will be nice when graphics cards get a bit more powerful.. I can still play most stuff maxed (or close to maxed) at 4k at 30-40fps.

I can't wait for 4k VR someday.

Recently upgraded to a ASUS 27in IPS 1440 (OC's at 165hz but I stick to 120/144hz). It's the best option for games for the near future. 4k is nice but even with a high end card, performance isn't there.

High frame rates smoothed out by gsync at a crisp 1440p has really made me appreciate PC gaming again and if you have the budget for such a monitor, I can't recommend it highly enough.

It's a lottery finding a good issue free panel, but worth the hassle. Just pick a retailer with good returns policy (Amazon UK have been ridiculously good).

Edit: I would also consider the fact that current 4k monitors cap out at 60hz before taking the plunge. It's an emerging standard, and a few years off due to limitations of DisplayPort etc.

@shinsei_znx:Yeah I have actually never seen anything running above 60, I imagine its an eye opening experience. Unfortunately funds are limited these days (growing up sucks, have to pay for bullshit like a house) the reason I was asking is I guess to get a 1060 or 1070, My PC is hooked up to a 1080p 42 inch tv in the study but could move it to the lounge which has a 65inch 4k tv for certain games IE fallout 4. If im not going to use 4k at all then the 1060 will probably see me plenty.

In an ideal world I think you have convinced me to forgo 4K for now and instead go with the 1440 with high fps something like this monitor? https://www.amazon.co.uk/PG279Q-27-inch-G-Sync-Gaming-monitor/dp/B0168W2524/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1470346971&sr=8-2&keywords=asus+27inch+1440

Unfortunately unless I win the lottery I think the missus might kill me for buying that and building a new computer.

Thanks everyone for the replies

To me it depends on the game but that's me. I think in order to fully see it, you need to have a 4k monitor really, not just using DSR work-arounds for higher resolution. You need a game preferebly that properly supports 4k, ie; 4k textures, otherwise you'll notice a big bump in sharpness, but quality is generally still the same.

@carryboy: you have to make sure that tv has hdmi 2.0 or hooking the cumputer wont get you 60 hz. Also if that tv scales well upscaling from 1400p like i said earlier would be nice. Also with a 1070 you could use dsr on your 1080p which actually looks extremely nice imo.

@oursin_360 said:

Strictly speaking, this isn't entirely true. You can push 3840x2160@60Hz over HDMI 1.4 using chroma subsampling, provided you have a compatible video card, but you'll lose a ton of colour accuracy in the process.

Yeah, this is what's kept me from pulling the trigger so far. I'm going to wait till the ViewSonic XG2703 is released shortly and see what people think about it. I've heard so many people talking about their Asus/Acer panels looking awful, which is scary for a monitor that costs so much.

It depends on the size of your screen and how far away you sit from your monitor. But usually for PC gaming, yes, because you sit close. However, I would gladly sacrifice resolution for framerate.

After using both the Oculus and Vive, I was very disappointed in the visual quality. The optics and resolution need to get much much better. For 4k, remember that you have to run basically 4k x 2 at 45 HZ per eye. This probably means we won't have a 4k headset for another 3 years. My preference would actually be 8k though.

Follow up question, anyone in the Uk know of a shop I could visit that has a 1440p 120hz setup in there to test?

i'm gaming at 1440p now and that already seems pretty sufficient. can turn off AA and it isn't really noticeable at all.

i imagine you wouldn't notice the difference unless you're really close (and probably have fucked up nearsightedness like mine where everything is magnified close up)

I hope that the next gen will have 4k in all games

Thanks, for letting me in this forum .

Currently I play on a Xbox One on a 42" Sony KDL HD TV and I am planning to buy a Xbox X (Scorpio) and was wondering if I will notice the difference.

I sit around 90cm to 1 m so around 45 " (2,95276 ft) from the TV set. I run Windows 10 on HD resolution on it and when I play I swith the Xbox One to this display on HD as well.

My question is now, would I notice a difference on such short distance from the TV set?

Does anybody have experience with this?

Thanks

@hody: So it's not a 4k TV? If you're going to keep using that TV, it's not going to be a massive difference. It will clean up the image quality a little bit though, because it will render at 4k, then downsample it to 1080, which is basically just a fairly intense way to anti-alias an image, softening jagged edges etc. How much of a difference this will actually make differs a little bit from game to game, depending on the general image quality, art style etc.

I imagine there are lots of good examples of downsampling comparisons on PC games if you have a search around, that should give you an idea of what to expect.

@damodar Sorry English isn't my mother tongue, I'll try to explain once more

I am going to buy the Xbox X anyhow (actually just pre-ordered the Scorpio Editon) ;)

My pointed question was, if with the current setup - in regards of the enviroment, so TV in the same place / distance to me I will notice a difference - if i am not only changing the Xbox One to a Xbox X but also the 1080p TV to a 4k TV.

In summary sitting around 90cm to 1 m so around 45 " (2,95276 ft) from the TV set but with both devices so Xbox and TV as 4k models.

The question yields to the experience of you guys in regards to the distance in comparision to 1080p vs 4k

Hope I did explain better this time though

@hody: imo for gaming the difference is huge, especially when closer to the tv.

@oursin_360that's what I had expected. What about Windows 10 or things like Browser, Word, Excel and so on?

@hody: havent tried word or excel but you will likely need to increase your scale to 150-200% in windows or text will be too small. I think 200% scaled most programs to about how they would look at 1080p for me.

I'll say this 4K is great but invest in a really nice looking display with good colors and all that. I had a really really nice 4K Sony TV that I played stuff like Witcher on and the combination of sharpness and color/general image quality really made that game shine. I never though Witcher 3 looked all that great until I was playing it on a gorgeous 65" 4K TV, then suddenly it looked amazing. Probably because a lot of the visual quality in that game comes from very detailed textures that tend to just look noisy on lower res screens and excellent color.

If you mostly play first person games/shooters I still recommend 1440/144. You can get a really nice IPS QHD Gsync monitor that will have great image quality and excellent motion with increased clarity. I had a 27" QHD Gsync 144hz monitor that worked really well but I wish I had invested in an IPS with higher panel quality. I just ended up using the TV for games that I wanted to prioritize eye candy with though so that worked out well enough.

Or if you wanna be super baller spend about 5k on a PC that can run the 4K HDR 120hz monitors and then buy the monitor. It'll be good for a very long time and you can always do 1080/QHD at the higher refresh for games that just will not cooperate.

It took time for 1080p to become a resolution you could play at without crazy expensive hardware and it is the same with 4k. In a few years it should be a resolution most video cards can handle but as of right now you need 800 dollar video cards to even consider 4k unless you plan on sacrificing other things like shadows, shaders and other fancy effects.

@opusofthemagnum well I am gaming on a 42" Sony KDL 42W705B now - a 50 Hz panel I believe. I will go for a 4k model in a similar size (dont have more space than that in my room), probably 43" inch. In order to keep the budget low, I will most likely go for a Thomson, HiSense, LG 50Hz model, else I will put 100 bucks more and go for a Sony again - as I was very pleased with my current model.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01FWIEO2E?tag=rtings-tv-bs10b-20&ie=UTF8

I have the 700d model and am real happy with it, seems like the newer 800e model is a step back so if you are getting one probably go for the 800d. If you don't care about hdr that much then get the 700d, hdr is alright but not great but the actual picture is real good.

Did some research, looks like if I am going for an 43" Hisense H43MEC3050 sooner or later...

Not as noticeable as 144 hz.... :)

I dropped from a 4k monitor to a Acer Predator ultra wide with Gsync and I am finding gaming on that so much better than on a (fairly) early 4k screen that could only do 60hz

I think so