4k, Hz, FPS, & Beyond...

Inviere

Rather than clog up the off topic thread any further, prob better to peel this off into its own thread. Basically, I'm to'ing and fro'ing between buying a 4K pc monitor for use with the pc obviously, but also for use with the upcoming Xbox One X. I can only go up to about 32" due to space limitations, so that essentially rules out a 4k tv (they all seem to be 44" & up). I've a few questions though, on the specifics and gubbins of it all...

1) The 4K panels are all limited to 60Hz, and hardlocked at 60Hz I believe, so I'll need to ensure my gfx card is outputting no higher or lower than 60fps - is that correct? I've an Nvidia card, but likely won't be splashing out the considerable extra for Gsync, meaning I'll have no adaptive sync control.

2) Given I need to lock my fps at 60, without gsync & freesync, will I have to rely on good ol' vsync to do that for me?

3) My 1070 obviously won't handle 4k@60fps, so until I upgrade it, I'll likely run at 1440p. How well would the 1070 fare out with 1440/60, and secondly, how would a 4k panel look just having 1440 pushed to it? Will the image quality be significantly reduced due to a lot of the pixels having no info, or do these panels offer what tv's do re supersampling/upscaling & all that?

4) What about older games that max out at 1080p resolutions within their settings (I'm playing through the Dead Space games at the mo, & they max out at 1920x1080), would they look dire on a 4k panel? Is there a way to push the resolution up on games that don't natively support it?

5) HDMI 1.4, can it offer 60Hz at sub 4k resolutions?

Robert ninja

Inviere wrote: »

2) Given I need to lock my fps at 60, without gsync & freesync, will I have to rely on good ol' vsync to do that for me?

You can framecap via your GPU CP (on AMD cards I can confirm) or use 3rd party software to framecap. Some games have in-built framelimiters, too. None of these are syncing technologies so no worries about input lag.

Also, you don't need to lock your FPS to 60. I blaze intro framerates beyond my monitor's Hz all the time because the games feel more responsive and any small framedrops are not even noticable. I do have a high Hz display which seems to eliminate tearing in 90% games, meaning I use no sync technology, ever.

Inviere wrote: »

rules out a 4k tv (they all seem to be 44" & up

Don't get a TV, then. Look into high-end Korean or not well known brand monitors. There's lots of high-res screens that aren't huge.

Inviere wrote: »

4) What about older games that max out at 1080p resolutions within their settings (I'm playing through the Dead Space games at the mo, & they max out at 1920x1080), would they look dire on a 4k panel? Is there a way to push the resolution up on games that don't natively support it?

Depends how old and if they've gotten any fan patches, engine ports etc. Doom for example probably has more resolution, aspect ratio, refresh rate and even VR support than most modern games, solely due to the modding community, the engine being open source, source ports like gzdoom etc.

Then there's other things like Hitman series which still have aspect ratio issues without some messing around. Dead Space looks great still I think. I don't think higher resolution is going to make it look any worse. How could it? Also remember that max settings are pretty meh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ZsaavKNR8

Inviere wrote: »

HDMI 2.0, can it offer 60Hz at sub 4k resolutions?

I believe it can. However I don't use HDMI because of version differences and premium price to get the latest. I just stick to Display Port and Dual Link DVI because of their no-nonsense support for high resolutions and refresh rates. I connect audio separately.

Inviere wrote: »

Inviere

Robert ninja wrote: »

Also, you don't need to lock your FPS to 60. I blaze intro framerates beyond my monitor's Hz all the time because the games feel more responsive and any small framedrops are not even noticable. I do have a high Hz display which seems to eliminate tearing in 90% games, meaning I use no sync technology, ever.

The monitors I'm looking at are 60Hz panels, so without frame-capping or vsync (and given I can't use Freesync because I've an Nvidia card), would it not be tear city?

As an aside, remember back yonder you could just stroll into a shop, pick up a big VGA monitor to replace your small VGA monitor, & everything just worked!

Robert ninja

Inviere wrote: »

60Hz panels, so without frame-capping or vsync (and given I can't use Freesync because I've an Nvidia card), would it not be tear city?

It might be. I found on 60Hz and even 120Hz that every game is different. Some would tear like hell if I framecapped to native refresh rate, but would have less tearing capped @ 2 frames above the native refresh rate. Other games would be the opposite, always tearing if I let the framerate go above the Hz. I'm not even going to pretend I know why, it's just what I experienced.

So yeah in my experience in general, HDMI, 60Hz, without using sync technologies I always got massive tearing. It's why I got a high Hz monitor, I had enough of that malarkey and didn't want to use vsync because of lag (and I'm all about gameplay & performance being priority) or spend premium or have to worry about brand loyalty due to new syncing technologies. (I've switched between Nvidia & AMD in the last 3 years and it hasn't affected my ability to get the most out of the monitor I bought). I'm a simple man. Turn all these fancy new technologies off and just have the game run as best as it can on a monitor as close to CRT as I could find. (Blur Reduction)

I think I have a small tolerance for tearing now, though. A little bit I'll barely notice and is worth dealing with over all the solutions currently provided.

.G.

I've a 4k screen running off a single 1080 using display port, the 1080 won't get to 60fps on ultra settings in newer games, 54 ish on the Witcher 3 for example. Older ones not a problem usually. I haven't noticed any tearing in any game. I play a lot of driving sims and as they aren't graphically intense the frame rates go way up so I lock them to 60. I've had stuttering in Mass effect Andromeda in a small few busy scenes near the end of the game as my card struggles to keep up. A 1080ti solves that or just lower settings and to be honest i can rarely tell the difference between high, very high and Ultra on any game.

srsly78

Plenty of us now have 4k monitors running at 100hz (with gsync). 4k at 60hz doesn't seem very exciting.

Example: pg348q + gtx1080Ti (gets about 75hz at ultra in most games for me)

edit: May be just below 4k depending on definition, but the ultra wide aspect ratio is superior for gaming.

Inviere

superg wrote: »

I've a 4k screen running off a single 1080 using display port, the 1080 won't get to 60fps on ultra settings in newer games, 54 ish on the Witcher 3 for example. Older ones not a problem usually. I haven't noticed any tearing in any game. I play a lot of driving sims and as they aren't graphically intense the frame rates go way up so I lock them to 60. I've had stuttering in Mass effect Andromeda in a small few busy scenes near the end of the game as my card struggles to keep up. A 1080ti solves that or just lower settings and to be honest i can rarely tell the difference between high, very high and Ultra on any game.

Cheers, & how are you going about locking to 60fps if I might ask?

srsly78 wrote: »

Plenty of us now have 4k monitors running at 100hz (with gsync). 4k at 60hz doesn't seem very exciting.

Example: pg348q + gtx1080Ti (gets about 75hz at ultra in most games for me)

edit: May be just below 4k depending on definition, but the ultra wide aspect ratio is superior for gaming.

Yeah, not at all in a position to drop >€1k on a monitor tbh. 4k@60 will do me nicely for the next while, should be a nice upgrade from the 32" Samsung tv thats doing the job at the mo

srsly78

Samsung have a slightly cheaper version, but no g-sync: https://www.amazon.de/Samsung-LC34F791WQUXEN-Zoll-Monitor-Curved/dp/B01L98A326

Inviere

srsly78 wrote: »

Samsung have a slightly cheaper version, but no g-sync: https://www.amazon.de/Samsung-LC34F791WQUXEN-Zoll-Monitor-Curved/dp/B01L98A326

It's nigh on twice the price of what I'm looking at though - https://www.amazon.de/MG28UQ-Monitor-Reaktionszeit-Displayport-schwarz/dp/B01B6JD2R6/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497972810&sr=8-1&keywords=MG28UQ

I'd prefer go from a 1070 to something more beefy with the additional savings. Plus, spending that kind of coin I'd want gsync

.G.

Inviere wrote: »

Cheers, & how are you going about locking to 60fps if I might ask?

The games themselves have a setting for it. It limits to 60 rather than locks to 60 but the effect is the same cos there's no way any of them are dropping below 60.