1080p or 1440p on my GTX 960 (4GB)

[Gunzar]

Hi guys,

I know questions like this get asked a lot but I wanted some help for my specific situation. I recently purchased a GTX 960 with 4GB of RAM versus the normal 2GB of RAM. My next purchase is going to be a new monitor. Basically, I just want to know if I can rely on my 960 to perform well on 1440p.

I want to be able to run current generation games (Arma 3, GTA V to name a couple) at high or highest settings. I wouldn't mind 1080p except I'm going for a 27 inch display and I personally think it looks much nicer with 1440p instead of 1080p. However, if I can't depend on pushing high settings on anything past 1080p, I'll stick with a new 1080p display instead.

If it helps at all, I like to use MSI Afterburner to overclock the GPU, so maybe between it having 4GB instead of 2GB and the overclock it'll be able to keep up (I would think). What do you guys think?

Thanks!

 

[herrwizo]

Frankly, this GPU is much better suited for 1080p if you want to push high details with good framerates. The issue here is that you are purchasing the monitor based on your graphics card, and it should be vice versa. A good monitor will last you many years and you will change several graphics cards during its life. My vote goes for the best monitor you can afford, regardless of your current card. Stick to medium details, lower the AA and you will be fine for now. Upgrade the card later.

 

[hdmark]

^^^ what he said.

My gtx 960 runs 1080 perfectly with high/ultra settings for the games I play (battlefield/WoW), but that's without AA. Id assume it would run 1440 pretty decently , but probably just high, and definitely not wth AA

I do have the 2gb version tho, not sure how much of a difference that would make

 

[photonboy]

Hi,

I have a 27", 2560x1440 monitor and almost identical GPU performance.

I mostly game at 1920x1080, however I do game at 2560x1440 for several games. It completely depends on the game. For example, Skyrim looks nearly identical at both resolutions (a very small HUD sharpness increase at the higher resolution that you tune out anyway once you stop looking). On the other hand games like CIV5, Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 look a lot better at 1440p.

Here's a quick list of the games I run at 1440p but for the most part it's because I can maintain 60FPS at max or near-max settings while doing so:
- Command and Conquer 3
- Red Alert 3
- Dark Souls 2
- Dead or Alive 5 (and other fighting games)
- Titan Quest
- Company of Heroes 1
- Dirt 2, 3
- Dragon Age Origins
- Dungeon Siege 3
etc...

*Again, resolution is only one factor. There may be much better ways to spend your performance depending on the game.

Other:
You should always have a GOAL for frame rate and vsynch in mind when tweaking. These are mainly:
#1 - VSYNC OFF
#2 - VSYNC ON
#3 - Adaptive VSYNC ON
#4 - Half Adaptive VSYNC ON (mainly for 144Hz monitors so you can synch to 72FPS if you can't output 144+ FPS)

 

[Gunzar]

Frankly, this GPU is much better suited for 1080p if you want to push high details with good framerates. The issue here is that you are purchasing the monitor based on your graphics card, and it should be vice versa. A good monitor will last you many years and you will change several graphics cards during its life. My vote goes for the best monitor you can afford, regardless of your current card. Stick to medium details, lower the AA and you will be fine for now. Upgrade the card later.

Sounds good, I will get a 1440p display then. I will also mix a little of what photonboy said and still run some games at a 1080p resolution if they go a little slow on 1440p.

 

[herrwizo]

Sound like the plan 😉 Performance should still be quite decent. It's only that on most demanding games you'll likely have to settle for slightly lower details than you are used to. But that's not a big price to pay once you have a great monitor in return.

 

[kevrin]

Hey Gunzar.
So how did the performance fair at 1440p. I've got a 1440p display as well and am looking to upgrade my GPU from an aged but very faithful GTS 450. The 960 is the highest one that I may be able to upgrade to so would like to know the real world performance on a 4gb 960.

 

[CodyMondo]

Hmmm depends on what games you play, new games like the mentioned Arma 3 and GTA V are best at 1080p but 1440p will run well at lower settings, however older games like CS:GO, and Call of Duty form Black ops 2 and back will run at flipping 4K highest settings with 2X MSAA and get over 100 FPS