High End Graphics Cards Tested At 4K Resolutions

Vigile writes "One of the drawbacks to high end graphics has been the lack of low cost and massively-available displays with a resolution higher than 1920x1080. Yes, 25x16/25x14 panels are coming down in price, but it might be the influx of 4K monitors that makes a splash. PC Perspective purchased a 4K TV for under $1500 recently and set to benchmarking high end graphics cards from AMD and NVIDIA at 3840x2160. For under $500, the Radeon HD 7970 provided the best experience, though the GTX Titan was the most powerful single GPU option. At the $1000 price point the GeForce GTX 690 appears to be the card to beat with AMD's continuing problems on CrossFire scaling. PC Perspective has also included YouTube and downloadable 4K video files (~100 mbps) as well as screenshots, in addition to a full suite of benchmarks."

Comments

Now where's the cheap monitors?

[Kjella]

I've done the distance/size check, I don't need an UHDTV from where I'm sitting. There's not content for it anyway. But I would like a 27-30" 3840x2160 monitor for my computer.

Re:Now where's the cheap monitors?

[PhrostyMcByte]

4K/8K will sell UHDTV. But the best benefit, a gem rarely mentioned: it features a hugely increased gamut and 10 or 12-bit (10-bit mandatory minimum) component depth. The image will look more life-like than any of the common TVs available today, and it won't be relegated to photographers and graph designers: it'll be standard.

Re: Now where's the cheap monitors?

[crdotson]

Thank you. Most people just don't seem to understand that monitors aren't done until you can't tell the difference between a monitor and a window! It's "1920x1080 should be enough for anybody" mentality. You'd think people would learn after a while.

Re:Now where's the cheap monitors?

[dfghjk]

"The image will look more life-like than any of the common TVs available today..."

Not because of the wide gamut it won't. Having the gamut on your output device doesn't mean you have it on your input device. Content won't exist that uses it so it WILL be "relegated to photographers and graph (sic) designers", standard or not. The value is suspect and the cost is mandatory extra bit depth leading to higher data rates.

The side effect of wide gamut displays displaying common content in non-color managed environments is that it looks worse, not better. This is television we are talking about, not Photoshop. Today's HD content won't look the least bit better on a wide gamut display, it could only look worse.

Re:Now where's the cheap monitors?

[JanneM]

It's different for different parts of the business of course, but the graphic designers I know personally (through a family member) don't care about monitor gamut or colour fidelity at all. Sounds odd, perhaps, but there's good reason for it.

Most graphic design is not for the web, but for physical objects. Anything you see around you that's printed or patterned - kitchen utensils, tools, and household objets; clothes and textile prints; books, calendars, pamphlets; not to mention the cardboard and plastic boxes it all came in - has been designed by a graphic designer. And it's all printed using different kind of processes, on different materials, with different kinds of inks and dyes.

A monitor, any monitor, simply can't show you what the finished design will look like, since it can't replicate the effect of the particular ink and material combination you're going to use. So they don't even try. Instead they do the design on the computer, but choose the precise colour and material combination by Pantone patches. We've got shelves of sample binders at home, with all kinds of colour and material combinations for reference. As an added bonus you can take samples into different light conditions and see what they look like there.

The finished design is usually sent off as a set of monochrome layers, with an accompanying specification on what Pantone colour each layer should use. They do make a colour version of it too, but that's just to give the client a rough idea of what the design will look like.

Re:Now where's the cheap monitors?

[flargleblarg]

It's not double, it's quadruple, which is why it's called 4k.

Quadruple is ***NOT*** why it's called 4k.

"4k" is short for 4000, e.g, pixels. The "4" in 4000 has absolutely nothing to do with the quadrupling. It's merely a coincidence.

No

[bhcompy]

One of the drawbacks to high end graphics has been the lack of low cost and massively-available displays with a resolution higher than 1920x1080.

Really? You've never heard of the Dell U2410? Fuck 16:9

Re:Meh

[ChrisMaple]

For people who do technical work with a computer, the ability to have several high definition windows open at once is a tremendous benefit. Integrated circuit design, programming, CAD graphics, etc.

Re:4k for games?

[Keith Mickunas]

A 4K 50" display 4' or 5' away would give you a pretty damn immersive experience. Wouldn't that be nice?

I'm sitting with my eyes about 3' from my 27" 2560x1440 display with about 108ppi. I can make out some pixels as it is in the text. I'm not wearing my glasses, so that helps some. If this was a 4K 27" display, that would be 163ppi. That's a 50% increase right there.

Wasn't that long ago that running 1280x1024 on a 17" LCD was pretty damn nice, and that was 94ppi. So for a decade we've barely improved when it comes to density. Hell, a 24" 16:10 display that so many people love so much has the same density as a 17" LCD.

Of course my very first PC games ran in CGA, and I thought VGA was a huge step up. But at no time have I ever thought to myself "Nope, more wouldn't be better". Not when it comes to graphics, RAM, harddrive size, etc. Give me more and I'll use it.