Hi everybody, been watching the channel for a while. It seems the hosts are quite genuine in a user-first approach.
I presume they've fostered a similar community here as well.
Currently running an aging system: i7-950 XFX 6950 2gb pushing a pair of Samsung T240 (1920x1200) panels.
Slowly building a new i7 6700k system between now and Christmas. I'm hoping for some guidance in the graphics/monitor department.
My computer is sort of my do-it-all daily driver. I do CAD/modelling from home part time. TV, Movies, it's all on my PC. I game a fair amount.
Graphics-wise, I'm looking to upgrade to a 4k budget setup, I realize that I won't be able to crank the settings, I just want to push some pixels and real estate.
Wanted Setup: - 1x 4k panel - 2x 1920x1200 panels Would it even be possible to run a 4th monitor? (Another 1920x1200? would be niiiice)
I think these are my criteria:
Maximum screen size 30"+ mandatory. 40" would be wonderful.
Matte - Must (Semi-matte maybe?)
IPS - Maybe?
FreeSync - wanted
VESA - Must
Refresh - no idea :/
Warranty (dead pixel protection, willing to pay for peace of mind).
I really don't have an idea what to look for in terms of refresh/freesync.
I just know that the hosts here have reviewed a number of large panels here. These seem like quite the steal, but I presume there is no warranty or dead-pixel protection?
I would only be gaming with the 4k panel, not surround. I am currently happily playing Overwatch with low settings to max my FPS.
What sort of graphics card will I need to push that many pixels? And what sort of panel would suit my needs/budget?
Thank you for your help! I wish you guys all the best.
You could do the same nonsense as I do and throw an R9 Fury for gaming and a W8100 for work related tasks into the rig.
My reason for the Fury: $310 on Amazon right now.
My reason for the FirePro: None. I got mine for 500€ used from work. There are more reasonable options in case you only do light CAD work and wanted a dedicated card for doing so.
Yes. My setup could run 8 screens. 4 of the Fury, 4 of the FirePro.
I'm currently really only doing Revit and AutoCAD. Unless I'm mistaken, they don't need dedicated workstation card to drive them. Even my 6950 is handling Revit ok.
Should I be looking at a Radeon 480? Or can I make due with at 470 or less?
I never looked into it too much, but outside running the main 4k panel for gaming, When running windows and chrome in the background, How much does each additional 1080p panel affect the performance?
a 480 will get you around 30-40 fps avg with some bad dips.
unless you are using them for gaming, not significantly. i have 3 1080 monitors and my frame rates dont take a noticeable hit from running a game on just one.
big questions are whats your budget? what games besides overwatch? when you say
General rules of thumb for gaming: 1) A 480 or 1060 is good for gaming at 1080p and can handle some 1440p games with lowered settings/frames 2) A 1070 is good for gaming at 1440p and can handle some 4k games with lowered settings/frames 3) A 1080 is good for gaming at 3440x1440 and can handle 4k games with medium settings.
These aren't perfect statements but are mostly true.
So my advice to you is to decide if you want to game at 4k, 3440x1440 (ultra widescreen), 1440p or 1080p. There are good and bad ways to do this with a 4k monitor, just be sure to run 1:1 pixels except for 1080p which scales perfectly.
As for the monitor, most 40" 4k options are incredibly hit-or-miss. I don't like any of the available Korean options right now (none of the ones reviews by Tek Syndicate are available these days). I eventually went for a 43" Sony 4k IPS TV and I'm very happy with it (got it from Dell and it came with a $300 gift card that helped purchase a 1070).
Yikes. I haven't really been following gaming benchmarks much, I'm currently playing Overwatch. on minimum @ 1920x1200, my HD 6950 2gb is pushing A pretty steady 70-75 FPS.
Will be revisiting Fallout 4, then likely the Witcher series and Deus Ex.
I was under the impression a 480 could run most 4k games a minimum settings. I guess I'm wrong.
Can I just lower then render resolution, then upscale it? Is that even a thing?
I actually don't quite have a rough budget yet, Gaming shiny visuals isn't all that important to me as long as it's smooth.
I'm in Canada, the RX 480 starts at $330 CAD, which is $250 USD. I'd say that's prettyyyy close to my video card budget.
I didn't really have a set budget for a panel either. I was thinking you guys would have a shortlist of 40" 4k that might meet my criteria, then I would just pick from among those?
Going by those reviewed panels from a year ago, I was under the impression that now would be a good time to pull the trigger on a 40" 4k panel? Should I bide my time and wait for new panels to release, if any would even come out?
The panels available a year ago are loads better than what's available today, if you're shopping the Korean market. I tried finding a 40-43" IPS with Freesync and DP1.2 with good enough colors and input lag for 6 months. I finally compromised on Freesync and DP, and bought that Sony IPS TV. I'm upset that I had to compromise but they were there best compromises for me. Other options to consider were either way too expensive (some good $2k options exist), had bad burn-in problems, or weren't IPS (which is a requirement for my needs as primarily productivity and secondarily gaming) - non-IPS just looks terrible at this size/distance imho. (I actually tried an MAVA panel and I returned it due to tons of dead pixels but it definitely convinced me not to compromise on IPS, or at least IPS-equivalent like AHVA.)
As for the 480, if you want to game at 4k on the lowest possible settings with 20-30fps, it's possible but that wouldn't be pleasant. But don't take my word for it - I don't have one. Go read some reviews of people gaming on it at 4k and see what they say. If you get a 480, I think your best bet is to game at 1080p scaled up or to game at 1440p with medium settings on your 4k screen but don't scale up, just have black borders on all sides to be at 1:1 pixel scaling. I have a 1070 that overclocks well but I usually game at 1440 with max settings because that's nicer to me than 4k with reduced settings. I'll occasionally go 4k but I always come back to 1440p or 3440x1440 ultrawide.
So I can get a bigger panel, and not game at native 4k? That seems like an acceptable compromise to me.
I've been reading some posts over at OCN and another couple here where @Jaxidian your name popped up. From what I gather, supply for the FreeSync panels dried up a while back. And while there are still IPS options, the lack of FreeSync might be because the manufacturers are between panel generations? And I should just sit and wait?
Is there a good guide on which place to buy them? Like, a shortlist of trusted ebay suppliers? Peace of mind and warranty is pretty important to me.
Pixel perfect versions = they double check before shipping them off?
There are a few eBay sellers that are a bit more trusted than others but to be honest, I think they're really the same company that uses multiple accounts to their benefit and all of them are only of any value for the first 30 days until you can't get eBay to refund your money back to you. I'd pressing only covariate going with an eBay panel if I also bought a SquareTrade warranty to go with it.
But as I said before, I think the current Korean 40"+ panels are crap and not worth buying. I thought the wait it out plan would work but that was 6 months ago and nothing has shown yet. But if you are torn between buying a current Korean panel or waiting, I'd wait. I was done waiting though, which is why I caved and bought the TV. Very happy with my decision.
Some think Pixel Perfect means higher quality but I don't believe they check them. I think they just bank in random luck and if they have bad luck then they'll offer you a partial refund of the difference in price. But if that's the case, you might as well just start with the non-Pixel Perfect option to begin with. Unless you're really planning to ship it back, which is quite the hassle.
Pixel perfect usually means the panel wasn't marked as off-grade, which means the odds of dead pixels is far lower but it's still possible, just like its possible with any monitor.
Im going to buy a RX 480 8G card tomorrow. Ill wait for zen to decide on CPU / MB and Ram.
On the display side I I have been running a 42" TV HD and my old 24" panel in portrait besides it. It's grown on me a lot so I do want to get 4K TV with freesync myself. That seem to be the harder decision finding a good display. Ideally OLED HDMI 2.0 with native 60Hz of faster. UHD color space 4/4/4 chroma Gaming mode to reduce latency Freesync.
Freesync seem be be ideal if you can get a display that supports faster than 60Hz because if your card drops below or above the Freesync range you will get tearing again etc. Something like 35-120 would be ideal. Not sure that is out there yet in TV size displays.
I have a 4K panel (Microboard, not available IFAIK) and play a lot of Fallout 4. With an optimised ENB I get acceptable frame rates at 2160p with an over-clocked water-cooled 390X crossfire with a 290X. That is 50-60 FPS for the most time, dips to 40 in thunderstorms/rain. I have some mods that adds volumetric fog, that steals some, maybe at most 5 FPS. Vsync off and using ENBs FPS limiter. Edit: And my settings, all pretty much at max except God rays and Shadows at medium. The latter tend to limit FPS a lot at higher settings in more dense areas.
Playing games at 1080p and using GPU scaling for full-screen works. It gets a bit fuzzy as scaling is far from perfect. There are some panels with decent scalers, but no look as good as native 4K. At least none I know of, can't claim to be some expert. I think the best scaling is integer nearest neighbour, but not used by Radeon or Nvidia for GPU scaling. https://forums.geforce.com/default/topic/844905/geforce-drivers/integer-scaling-mode/
I have to say the combo of a Fury and a korean 1440p panel is a sweet match. So for 310 for the Fury aircooled and 200 to 250 for a 1440p korean panel makes for a decent experience in my book.