I was on a 75hz 1440p ultra wide screen for a couple years, and strategy and management games looked great on it with all the real estate. But I could never play FPS or other graphically intensive games at native resolution without sacrificing quality or frames, even with a Titan X. I occasionally would connect to my 60hz 4k TV for couch gaming, although in most cases had to upscale from 1080p to maintain decent frame rates.
During the pandemic I’ve only used an integrated graphics laptop and 75hz 1080p ultra wide screen (2560x1080). I can’t tell much difference in visual fidelity for productivity or strategy/management games, and the current laptop isn’t beefy enough for higher end games.
Given how respectable this newer but lesser screen has been for other uses, I think I’ll stick with it and buy my next graphics card calibrated to playing max settings on it for the next 3-5 years. I just don’t notice enough improvement from 1080p UWD to justify the bleeding edge costs. And I’ve never been able to tell much difference in frame rates above 60/75hz.
Wonder what this means as far as purchasing - maybe a 3060? Or a 20xx? Or even 1660 super? I would like to have the gee-whiz RTX features maxed out, even at my puny resolution. And I do wonder if HDR will get good enough that I end up getting that feature in a new monitor eventually, even if still in the 1080p ultra wide resolution.
In short, that bleeding edge card was always a bad investment, which arose from not having bought a good PC in nearly 15 years and feeling giddy about maxing out on my first home built. But I’m unclear what is most appropriate below that level of stupidly expensive…
HDMI 2.1 can handle 4K@120Hz. I want my graphics card to keep up!
That’s what the current Titan RTX cards have, can’t see why they’d ship less on the new ones!
Thraeg
5055
Yeah, I think 1440p (ideally in ultrawide configuration with 100Hz+ refresh rate) is probably the sweet spot in terms of the tradeoff between performance and sharpness. 4K at typical monitor sizes/viewing distances is hard to justify.
But that said, I’m gaming on a 4K OLED TV since the image quality works out to be way better for the cost/size than anything in the dedicated monitor space (and it’s more flexible in terms of being able to use it for TV watching/console gaming too).
I don’t always use the full 4K resolution, but it makes things really flexible depending on the game in question and how well my system can handle it. For KB/M, since I’m sitting too close to the screen to see it all at once, I’ll sometimes use 3440x1440 or 2560x1440 unscaled (with black bars around it) as that still works out to the size and sharpness of a good-size monitor. And 1080p and 1440p both scale nicely, especially when I’m sitting a bit further away and want to prioritize framerate over detail. Looking forward to HDMI 2.1 to support 4K/120Hz to simplify things.
stusser
5056
Anything over 8gb is probably overkill for 4k, honestly. You only need more if you’re doing high performance computing or deep learning.
I’m also considering this, with a very vast CPU (but basic GPU) laptop as the base. With a decent external monitor this could be a good way to minimize down to a single device. Still doing research on how feasible it is, cost/benefit, etc. Share any notes you come up with!
stusser
5058
Still doesn’t really make financial sense versus building a cheap computer and putting your GPU inside that, but you can certainly do it if you want to.
I already have a laptop with a 2080 to be clear. Nice to be able to bring the laptop with me AND have the power of a 3090 at home. I don’t want to manage another computer… I already manage 11 across the family.
mono
5060
I built a mini-PC the size of an eGPU case that normally houses a 1080-Ti, and I leave it attached to the living room TV. It’s awesome, but I must admit, it doesn’t get a ton of use. My son plays almost exclusively on the PS4 and dominates the living room.
Further, Steam’s Big-Picture mode is great, but Windows itself, and the other digital game platforms, don’t have controller friendly interfaces. I have a small wireless keyboard w/ an integrated trackpad, but it always seems more of a hassle than simply using my normal desktop PC.
Curious what case you used? I’m also looking into a mini case option, although that seems a little more intimidating.
mono
5062
This one.
Definitely a PITA to route some of the PSU cables through the tiny spaces, but worked out well. I built it a couple years ago, so it has my hand-me-down Ryzen 7 1700X, a 1TB SSD, and 16GB of RAM.
Along with the 29 graphics card SKUs MSI has registered, apparently now they’re getting into the PSU business and will ship their models with 12-pin adapters. This seems to further support the notion these will be huge power leeches, at least enough so that MSI thinks they’re going to inspire people to buy larger and newer PSUs.
stusser
5064
From that Nvidia video, it looks like the new 12pin connector was required for space reasons. They didn’t really explain it clearly, but it doesn’t provide more power than two standard 8-pin connectors.
They aren’t getting into the PSU business, they’re just shipping 8pin (or molex) to 12pin adapters.
abrandt
5065
stusser
5066
Yes very nice, and EVGA already sells them, but that is not a universal thing across Nvidia’s AIB partners.
I am fine using an adapter if needed, who looks inside a computer case.
Yeah, sorry for the confusion post; my takeaway is the timing of MSI getting into the PSU business isn’t likely to be coincidental, but if course it’s just speculation on my part.
Editer
5069
With the Reverb G2 pushing 4320x2160 pixels – higher resolution than 4K – I can’t imagine any model will be “overkill” for VR flight sim users.
Looks like my 850W/1000W power supplies are no longer overkill! (80Plus Platinum supplies I reviewed for Computer Shopper years ago…) No issues with the 12-pin if an adapter is included.
Didn’t we used to do molex to 6/8-pin adapters ages ago?
Yep! Molex gives 11 amps * 12 volts = 132 watts, so two of those more than covered the 150 needed for the 8-pin.
