4k UHD monitor or TV for PC gaming? please help :)

[fattyfatchops]

Hello friendly people,


I have an interesting opportunity to upgrade from my Asus 27" 144hz 1080p monitor (great lil unit) to a 4k TV or possibly use a 4k monitor.

Deal is this, I have $3200 store credit ONLY at a electronics store (JB for those that may know of them), I can not get multiple items, I can not get a gift card either, It is from a extended warranty claim that went completely pear shaped. So its either another Laptop to similar value or another big ticket item to the same value, ie a 4k TV

excuse the caps for the answers here, it just appeared easier to read, well for me anyway, Sorry if anyone struggles.

1. What Is Your Country Of Origin? AUSTRALIA

2. What do you plan to do with this monitor? GAMING, MOVIES

3. What resolution and screen size do you want? 27" and above + 4K,, PREFER 30" - 32"

4. What refresh rate do you want? AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE, ALTHOUGH OBTAINING 100 FPS AT 4K RESOLUTION WILL BE PRICEY (GPU UPGRADES). 60hz AS A MINIMUM

5. How much are you looking to spend? $3200 - ONE ITEM ONLY

6. Brands Preferred? AS LONG AS ITS A REPUTABLE BRAND AND AVAILABLE THROUGH JB HIFI , ANY DELL, ASUS, SONY.... SO ON AN SO FORTH
http://www.jbhifi.com.au/tv-lcd-led-plasma/3000-4000-price/

7. Brands Not Preferred? SEIKI, AND ANY OTHER "CHEAP" BRAND, YEAH JUST NO, PLUS THEY ARENT AVAILABLE TO ME

8. Are You Buying More Than One Monitor? POSSIBLE IF THE 4K AVENUE DOESN'T PAN OUT

9. How Many Displays Can Your GPU Support Maximum? And what GPU and driver version are you using if applicable? ONLY HAVE AN ASUS 2gig 770 DCU2 (WILL SELL AND UPGRADE TO 4GIG SLI 770 OR GO 780/ti WITH SLI OPTION FOR LATER, ALTHOUGH WHEN I HAVE MONEY FOR THAT THE NEW 8xx SERIES MAY BE OUT OR NEWS OF RELEASE SHOULD BE HERE)

10. What Port Do You Want To Connect To? DISPLAY PORT SEEMS TO BE MY ONLY OPTION FOR TRUE 60hz 4K CONTENT, UNLESS I AM MISTAKEN

11. Is This Monitor A Primary Display Or A Secondary Display? PRIMARY

12. Is This A Secondary Display For A Laptop? NO, DESKTOP SPECS BELOW


I'll try and stop yelling at you all now

Specs at present are
i5 4670k - @ 4.6 Ghz
MSI gd65 Z87 mobo
16gig G.Skill ripjaw Z 2400 memory
Asus DirectCU2 GTX 770 OC'd maxing at 1254Mhz
Samsung 840 ssd 250g - OS boot
WD blue 1T HDD
thermaltake toughpower gold 750W
LG Blu ray/DVD combo
8 x fans, 120mm + 140mm mix
Running Windows 7 premium


So, as I need to get the one item as close to the value as possible, a multi 1080 screen setup is not being looked at yet. If the single 4k solution doesnt pan out I'll just find someone that wants a new TV or laptop and trade for cash, although I will have to take a large hit as the $ amount for refund purposes is only $1600. its a massively long and complicated story that I wont go into any further than I have to, basically the lesson here is, always build your own

I have looked at a couple of TVs that I could pickup tomorrow, although I have a couple of concerns.

The following TVs look good with good refresh, but no Display port inputs 🙁 unless there is some other way of getting 4K res @ 60hz I am not aware of these could be a problem.
www.lg.com/us/tvs/lg-55LA9700-led-tv
www.sony.com.au/product/kd-55x8504a
www.samsung.com/au/consumer/tv-audio-video/television/uhd-tv/UA55F9000AMXXY-spec

And the monitors I MAY be able to order in, as long as they are available at the time for the store.
www.asus.com/Monitors_Projectors/PQ321QE/#overview
accessories.ap.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=au&cs=aubsd1&l=en&s=bsd&sku=210-ACBW&redirect=1

Main concerns for TVs are;
1) No display port connections
2) Size, Not that its a deal breaker I will have to re arrange and get a new desk to accommodate a 55" screen
3) The 100hz refresh rate is only on 1080 content and drops to 30hz for 4k viewing

Monitor issues
1) refresh rates
2) input lag
3) stitched 1920 x 2160 screens, atleast with the Asus it is, not sure if that just adds an extra point of failure or is it all good.

Concerns for both,
1) Is 4K just too new for any major kinks to have been ironed out.
2) Waste of money just yet
3) What is the noticeable difference between 3840 x 2160 and 2560 x 1440 displays


Any advise you can give or any experiences with the tech you can share would be fantastic beyond belief,
Im not in a massive rush so can hold off for another month or two, which may change the outcome.



Hopefully Ive got everything and if I havent, please feel free to ask

Many thanks in advance and I appreciate the time you would have spent reading my novel

 

[Blubberykollis]

If you are planing to buy a 4K monitor, you will need a lot of v-ram. Personally, I have the Asus vg278h monitor.

It's great for playing games.

The noticeable difference between 3840x2160 and 2560x1440: The screen will look "clearer" the higher resolution you have. Also more demanding for you computer.

For PC gaming, I would rather use a Gaming monitor with 1920x1080.

I don't know what else I should say.

 

[RaiCoss]

No current single card can run high-end games at 4k on high settings. You're going to need at least 2x 780 Ti or 2x R9 290X to get anything near decent FPS. A monster gaming laptop might be a better idea.

 

[Blubberykollis]

No current single card can run high-end games at 4k on high settings. You're going to need at least 2x 780 Ti or 2x R9 290X to get anything near decent FPS. A monster gaming laptop might be a better idea.

You can't upgrade laptops.

And about SLI, The V-ram still remains the same.

 

[RaiCoss]

No current single card can run high-end games at 4k on high settings. You're going to need at least 2x 780 Ti or 2x R9 290X to get anything near decent FPS. A monster gaming laptop might be a better idea.

You can't upgrade laptops.

And about SLI, The V-ram still remains the same.

Not completely true. Some laptops have replaceable CPUs & GPUs. Most however don't have that option.

In regards to SLI/XFire, I was talking about the sheer grunt to run decent FPS at that resolution, not VRAM. I perfectly aware that SLI RAM isn't doubled.

 

[fattyfatchops]

Hey peoples,

Thanks for the responses,

Yes I am aware that to game to any sort of acceptable level on a 4K monitor I will need to update graphics massively, Idea is to SLI 3 x 4gig gtx770s for this if I go ahead, or SLI 2 x 3gig GTX780s, depending on price and any new news of GPUs from the green team.
And nope, sorry, no hope of going back to a laptop, desktops are so much more fun to tinker with

However I am still curious on the actual monitor / TVs themselves, not the grunt it will take to power it, and all the connections, restrictions and the likes.

Does not having a displayport input negate any benefit of the 4K TVs?
The Dell 32" IGZO 4K model seems to look ok but its only hitting 60hz, is that an issue? and does it hit 60hz at 4K resolution?

Thanks 😀

 

[caj]

you can go 4k. however your gonna need a powerful cpu, change in mb & possibly 2 titans black edition in sli mode.

 

[RaiCoss]

you can go 4k. however your gonna need a powerful cpu, change in mb & possibly 2 titans black edition in sli mode.

Are Black Edition Titans the new unreleased versions?

 

[Blubberykollis]

No current single card can run high-end games at 4k on high settings. You're going to need at least 2x 780 Ti or 2x R9 290X to get anything near decent FPS. A monster gaming laptop might be a better idea.

You can't upgrade laptops.

And about SLI, The V-ram still remains the same.

Not completely true. Some laptops have replaceable CPUs & GPUs. Most however don't have that option.

In regards to SLI/XFire, I was talking about the sheer grunt to run decent FPS at that resolution, not VRAM. I perfectly aware that SLI RAM isn't doubled.

you can go 4k. however your gonna need a powerful cpu, change in mb & possibly 2 titans black edition in sli mode.

Are Black Edition Titans the new unreleased versions?

Yes they are.

 

[RaiCoss]

No current single card can run high-end games at 4k on high settings. You're going to need at least 2x 780 Ti or 2x R9 290X to get anything near decent FPS. A monster gaming laptop might be a better idea.

You can't upgrade laptops.

And about SLI, The V-ram still remains the same.

Not completely true. Some laptops have replaceable CPUs & GPUs. Most however don't have that option.

In regards to SLI/XFire, I was talking about the sheer grunt to run decent FPS at that resolution, not VRAM. I perfectly aware that SLI RAM isn't doubled.

you can go 4k. however your gonna need a powerful cpu, change in mb & possibly 2 titans black edition in sli mode.

Are Black Edition Titans the new unreleased versions?

Yes they are.

Ok thanks.

 

[bystander]

You can run 4k on a single 780 ti with high settings in most games, not Ultra, not with AA, but at high settings. On the real cutting edge stuff, you may have to drop things a little more. This is a thread where someone tested this out: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2364951

There were plenty of doubters, as many of the first people thought "high" meant "maxed out", but the fact is, you can use a single card and get decent performance on a 4k monitor. Of course 780 SLI would be better, or something similar.

As far as the monitor/tv decision goes, almost every 4k TV is limited to 30hz. Get a 60hz monitor. Asus has one, one mentioned in the post I linked.

 

[fattyfatchops]

You can run 4k on a single 780 ti with high settings in most games, not Ultra, not with AA, but at high settings. On the real cutting edge stuff, you may have to drop things a little more. This is a thread where someone tested this out: http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=2364951

There were plenty of doubters, as many of the first people thought "high" meant "maxed out", but the fact is, you can use a single card and get decent performance on a 4k monitor. Of course 780 SLI would be better, or something similar.

As far as the monitor/tv decision goes, almost every 4k TV is limited to 30hz. Get a 60hz monitor. Asus has one, one mentioned in the post I linked.

Thanks Bystander,

Yeah ive struggled to find the refresh at full spec info for the TVs, although the samsung 55" ( UA55F9000AM ) has an external input box that can be upgraded later on, so HDMI, displayport could be added later? if they actually update that way 🙁 and not sure if its the actual panel that restricts it to 30hz or if its the input cable.

Leaning more towards the dell ATM as the asus' stitched screen has me a little concerned from a driver perspective, have read someone had a little issue with it initially.

 

[bystander]

The only problem is that Dell is 30hz, if it is the monitor I read about.

 

[fattyfatchops]

The only problem is that Dell is 30hz, if it is the monitor I read about.

Nahh, I wasn't looking at the cheaper one, twas the full blown Dell Ultrasharp model that tickled my fancy
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&cs=04&l=en&sku=210-ACBL

Anyone used this for gaming?

 

[heydan]

Hi!, I think that here are 2 important things to considerate if you deciding between a TV or a monitor, even the GPU power is not important at this moment, because you can buy your 4k device and game at 1080p at 60fps while waiting for new more capable 4k GPUs or to get SLI/CrossFire configuration, even for the 60fps on the tv have a solution I'm gonna mention here:

-Where are you gaming?, if you´re gaming at a desktop and can´t move to a more open space I think you should go for the monitor, is the best solution for desktop gaming because a tv might be too big even at 32", but if you are planing or have the option to put your tv in front a couch and have at least 1.5 mts (like 5 fts I think) of distance between the coach and the tv, I definitely go for the TV, about the 60hz display, you should check Panasonic´s tvs there´s some panels with display port, the only ones that have it I think, or even another option would be to check with the manufacturer for other brands because newer 4k tv´s already have the new revision for hdmi 2.0 and just with a firmware update it would be available of course when hdmi 2.0 be released.

-Considerate that if you go for the TV for gaming, you will need to play with a controller or get a table or another kind of solution so you can bring your mouse and keyboard, I start gaming on a tv without considering this and realized that for some games, you definitely need your mouse and keyboard so I buy a table in order to use them, so you need to considerate a way to bring them as much as I can tell if you don´t have the option to game with them on your TV you better go for the monitor.

 

[DSBsky]

I actually feel like the higher resolution, will allow you to negate the need for anti-aliasing.
The jaggys would be likely gone, so there would be little to no use of it, hence saving you a lot of resources on that end.
So how much it would actually affect performance is valid a question.

 

[ThorAxe7]

Just be aware that most, if not all TVs do not have a display port.

However, some TVs support HDMI 2.0 for 4K at 60Hz such as the SONY 55X8504.

The catch here is that you need a video card that supports HDMI 2.0 and none of the current generation do this without reducing image quality:

http://www.anandtech.com/show/8191/nvidia-kepler-cards-get-hdmi-4k60hz-support-kind-of