1070 @ 1440p 120hz

[Mathew6877]

How well will a GTX 1070 perform on a 120hz 1440p g-sync display? I am looking at getting a new laptop and want to know if the 1070 has enough power to push the display at that resolution and refresh rate at max settings. I am considering the Alienware 17 R4. I know a 1080 would probably be the way to go, but they cost a lot more. I play mainly pubg, wildlands, witcher and wow.

 

[photonboy]

It has GSYNC so you don't need to drive games at 120FPS.

With GSYNC the monitor updates when told to so for example you can run a game at say 50FPS average and the monitor will update at 50Hz (on average).

You simply adjust the game settings for the best experience that matches the optimal FPS.

Maybe 1920x1080, HIGH settings for a shooter that you want 100FPS average in, and 2560x1440, HIGH (or whatever) at 50FPS average for a game like Tomb Raider.

 

[J_E_D_70]

Depends on the game and how high the laptop cpu can stay boosted before heat brings it back down.

I crushed Mordor at 1440p/120fps. Then u have Battlefield 1 at 1440p/70-90 fos but with even lower frames in some situations.

As stated above, the gsync will smooth it out regardless.

 

[photonboy]

In case there's confusion on GSYNC, I'll explain it a bit more simply for those that may be confused.

Normally a monitor (or HDTV) updates the screen at a set interval. Usually 60x per second. However that's fine for movies/TV mostly but a PC will never create a new frame in the same amount of time.

You are thus forced to pressure the PC to finish in a set time (i.e. 1/60th second) which causes problems like stuttering if that doesn't happen (but added lag regardless) or you disable VSYNC and just let the GPU send the new frame to the monitor and update as it gets it which then is not synchronized thus causing mixed pieces of frame that results in screen tearing (generally observed as flashing lines as vertical objects like telephone poles don't line up).

What to do?
Every solution always had a tradeoff which I won't discuss here, but enabling GSYNC is the best of everything. The computer crunches all the data for a new frame, then finishes it, then the GPU sends that new frame to the monitor which then draws it.

Thus there's no backpressure causing added lag, or screen tear, and especially no great hassle trying to carefully tweak the game to hit a specific cap (i.e. stay locked to 60FPS with no drops).

*So even if all that is confusing, what you should take away is:

1) make sure GSYNC is working, and
2) choose an average FPS that makes sense for the type of game (50FPS or so for slower games and maybe 80FPS+ for shooters).

It's usually a tradeoff between visual quality (unless maxed out already) and FPS so that's another decision but you can just focus on getting the AVERAGE FPS in the right ballpark and again avoid the huge hassle of excessive fine-tuning to hit the optimal FPS vs visual quality that non-GSYNC/Freesync requires.

(one example is GTA5.. I have a 60Hz monitor and if I uses VSYNC then many places have SEVERE STUTTERING if I drop below 60FPS with VSYNC on. With VSYNC OFF I get a lot of screen tear... I had two choices finally which was really drop the visual quality or use Adaptive VSYNC to disable VSYNC below 60FPS... thus I get screen tearing but at least not the added stuttering during those FPS drops.

Other games have similar issues such as working fine at 60FPS VYSNC ON but later on the game gets more demanding forcing me to retweak..

But do most people really know how to tweak games well? Or do they just play with sub-optimal experience then buy more expensive hardware hoping that solves the issue? And it may until games get more demanding.

So know WHY your game has issues and what to do about it. Most of the PC GAMERS would serve themselves best to understand the ins and outs of VSYNC ON/OFF/Adaptive, and GSYNC/FREESYNC etc).