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Forums - PC Discussion - When is 4K worth it on a monitor for PC gaming?

^^^^^Question in the subject.  Now sure if this really is an issue or not.

Little by little I've been moving into casual PC gaming.  What I mean by casual is that I've been buying "simpler" games that are not too graphic intensive and are simple to get into.  I understand 4K from an a/v console scene.  But from a PC standpoint, how crucial is 4K?  I normally equate the greater the viewing size, the more 4K is justified.

Currently, I own a 23.8" ASUS VP249H 1080p 5ms.  Nothing real fancy.  Except for the speakers, no real complaints.  Everything appears fine.  Maybe I'll upgrade to a 27" next year.  Do I need to consider 4K?



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Not really necessary at the moment. Maybe in 5 years, maybe in 7. When 4k, 144 hz becomes like 1080-1440 with 144 hz is now.

Rest upto you and your wallet. Am sure there is one guy on the planet who got the 3090 and is gonna be playing Among Us.



green_sky said:
Not really necessary at the moment. Maybe in 5 years, maybe in 7. When 4k, 144 hz becomes like 1080-1440 with 144 hz is now.

Rest upto you and your wallet. Am sure there is one guy on the planet who got the 3090 and is gonna be playing Among Us.

With so many gaming options for PC gaming and setting options within those games, I was wondering whether or not I was missing anything by not have the "latest and greatest."  With that said, my primary choice of genres are survival horror and rpg maker style games mainly from independent developers from a PC stand point.  So very little "AAA" titles that push the envelope spec-wise. 

Yeah, my monitor is just 60hz (I think).  Don't really need a new monitor, but we'll see.



Maybe in 2 years unless you have big pockets. The lower end 4ks aren't bad but I'd choose a lower resolution than those unless you want to play consoles on your monitor. The good 4k gaming monitors are getting cheaper but still not quite there yet. I think in 2 years, there will be a pretty good selection of 4k monitors for a reasonable price.



                  

PC Specs: CPU: 7800X3D || GPU: Strix 4090 || RAM: 32GB DDR5 6000 || Main SSD: WD 2TB SN850

If you're not super heavy into PC gaming, don't do it yet. 1440p with higher frame rates is your friend. To utilize a 4K monitor with high fps, you need hardware that either doesn't exist or simply costs so much that it blows your budget into the stratosphere. A decent 4K monitor alone will cost more than any console, or an entire decent PC. For 1440p though, I'd recommend either 27" or even 32", I'm currently using a 32" display and it has served me well for many years. You can get a really good 1440p monitor for a fraction of the price of a 4K panel.



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green_sky said:
Not really necessary at the moment. Maybe in 5 years, maybe in 7. When 4k, 144 hz becomes like 1080-1440 with 144 hz is now.

Rest upto you and your wallet. Am sure there is one guy on the planet who got the 3090 and is gonna be playing Among Us.

Green sus.



green_sky said:
Am sure there is one guy on the planet who got the 3090 and is gonna be playing Among Us.

Sadly, it's not me :(

@OP, since you are just casual gaming, it would be not worth the money to go full 4k.

A really good monitor in itself for 4k@120hz (144hz with Chroma 4:2:2) will cost you above 2k€. There are also ones below 1k€, but I can't say anything about quality.

The 4 times resolution increase in 4k is something to look out for, but 1440p is way cheaper to get into.

Last edited by Peh - on 28 September 2020

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Are you annoyed about blurred images and huge pixels that hurt your eyes? If not, forget about 4k. It's one of those things where if you have to ask it's most likely not for you.



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Mummelmann said:
If you're not super heavy into PC gaming, don't do it yet. 1440p with higher frame rates is your friend. To utilize a 4K monitor with high fps, you need hardware that either doesn't exist or simply costs so much that it blows your budget into the stratosphere. A decent 4K monitor alone will cost more than any console, or an entire decent PC. For 1440p though, I'd recommend either 27" or even 32", I'm currently using a 32" display and it has served me well for many years. You can get a really good 1440p monitor for a fraction of the price of a 4K panel.

He's right. 1440p is the current sweetspot, since you get a step up from 1080p in res bump and still able to target higher frame rates. For me I'm able to go for higher frame rates with my 1080ti and still go to max settings for most games. 

4k still seems like a waste atm. I'll end up jumping to 4k when monitors are way cheaper than what they are currently at, as well as games sporting more than just 4k textures on character/weapon models.

I'd just go 1440p. You can save money, get higher frame rates and if you really wanna do some 4k, you can downsample if need be. 



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vivster said:

Are you annoyed about blurred images and huge pixels that hurt your eyes? If not, forget about 4k. It's one of those things where if you have to ask it's most likely not for you.

Blurred images is one thing.  But I'm sort of a fan of pixel art.  Not quite the same thing, but still...