Brief overview of my LG 42" ips 4k tv for gaming with GTX 980.

[Davehaslanded]

Whilst researching 4k TVs for playing pc games on with a controller, I found there was a real shortage of available experience of people having actually gamed on large 4k TVs. So here's a brief overview of my experience so far:

The tv is the LG 42UB820v. It's a 42", LED, IPS UHD, smart television with a 60hz refresh rate. The image is incredibly sharp as could be expected and has amazing black levels thanks to local dimming. The Lag was not noticeable to me at all with game mode activated. I'm not a twitch gamer anyway and playing with a controller, I'm not really after precision. The TV is connected to the PC via HDMI 2.0.

The PC is an ITX build featuring an Intel i5 4670, 8gb of 1600mhz ddr3 ram and a GTX 980 with a minor overclock.

There are some oddities when connecting a PC to this 4k TV which I'm going to relate to driver issues. The mouse icons seem squished vertically and the TV shows up as having a native resolution of 1080p, yet shows as supporting resolution of upto 4096 x 2160p, despite 3840x2160p being the actual native resolution.

Generally all games are played at 2160p with AA and motion blur disabled. So far I've played Far cry 4, red faction Armageddon, assassins creed unity, batman arkham city and train simulator 2015. A mixed bag of old and new games and a mix of game engines.

The first thing to hit you is the image quality. Just wow! I sit quite close to my tv while gaming, but even if I sit further back, the image quality is noticeable past the 'limits of the eye' that are often thrown around in forums. And it's not just me that thinks this. A blind test was done a few mo this back that found approximately 80% of people could see the difference between 1080p and 4k at around 7-9ft: http://www.hdtvtest.co.uk/news/4k-resolution-201312153517.htm

You do not need anti-aliasing at 4k at all. It's redundant at 4k in my opinion. The GTX 980 was able to average 60fps in most gameplay at highest settings. All games other than Assasins creed stayed about 40fps at all times (to be fair Unity is a mess at 1080p). In far cry 4, I was noticing details I'd never seen before like the fabric texturing on clothing. The view distance seems increased as items in the distance are now far more detailed.

In summery, I would never go back to 1080p gaming. I've had a 28" 4k monitor for a few months now, and I wasn't expecting to be blown away by the jump in resolution as much as I was. The larger screen size really shows off the advantages of 4k displays.

[TarPitGaming]

Nice rig seems amazing

[Davehaslanded]

Nice rig seems amazing

Thanks

[LarsReviews]

My reaction: Ohhh! *_*

[Aniallation]

Looks fun. I used my PC with a 40" 1080p TV for a while and it was great, I'd imagine 4K is even better.

[Davehaslanded]

Looks fun. I used my PC with a 40" 1080p TV for a while and it was great, I'd imagine 4K is even better.

It is. It's irritating the amount of people who think you can't tell the difference after 3 feet away. Most people haven't actually experienced proper high quality 4k content. Usually they base their assumptions on the terrible, compressed, stop motion, videos they have on the TVs in shops. It doesn't even compare. It's like the 4k video on YouTube. It's so compressed, that even in side by side comparisons between 4k PC and 720p Xbox, it's genuinely hard to see a difference.

But once you see the real thing and play the games, you will appreciate the jump in quality.

[Wingfan]

Good overview. Ive been debating on upgrading from 1080, prices seem a littl ehigh still. Or would it be worth it? that is the question

[Davehaslanded]

Good overview. Ive been debating on upgrading from 1080, prices seem a littl ehigh still. Or would it be worth it? that is the question

I got my TV for £400 on Tesco's own eBay outlet store. Shop around and you can get some amazing deals now.

[s3ns3]

The image is incredibly sharp as could be expected and has amazing black levels thanks to local dimming.

no it does not have amazing black levels . lg ips tvs sucks at picture quality .they have poor contrast ,around 1000:1 but cheaper models even lower. i can`t watch a movie in those conditions

i have seen many lg tvs but this one i didn`t see in person but this review of its bigger brother confirms its poor blacks(for other ppl,i already know how bad ips tvs are) .

 

also for just gaming i wouldn`t pick an lg,the input lag is preety high but i guess for casual gaming would work. sony tvs are good for gaming

[Davehaslanded]

S3ns3 Well that's your opinion. I upgraded from a Samsung 1080p TV, and it's drastically better when it comes to contrast ad black levels. Also I'm a freelance photographer, so colour reproduction is very important to me. IPS displays are always preferred by those doing colour work. Also the lag in game mode is around 50ms which is about on par with most its 4k competitors on the market at this time.

Also I read this review. Did you read to the bottom? It's a recommended TV after the software upgrade.

[Ertman]

I am with you on the whole being able to see the difference between 1080p and 4k. I don't own a 4k tv myself. At certain distances and screen sizes, you can see the difference, once you get far enough away, the differences dissapear.

[Davehaslanded]

I am with you on the whole being able to see the difference between 1080p and 4k. I don't own a 4k tv myself. At certain distances and screen sizes, you can see the difference, once you get far enough away, the differences dissapear.

I completely agree with you. At distance there is a loss of definition. That distance is greater than has been widely reported though. You might not be out to see individual pixels from a further distance, but the picture just looks sharper with greater clarity. Games look amazing. Often you can still see jaggies from a distance of playing games at 1080p without anti-aliasing. You simply don't need that anti-aliasing at 4K.

[Psykomantis00]

Came here to say 4k is totally worth it. It's the next mainstream format and anyone that says they can't tell the difference is either blind or lying. 

[Guest]

did you play any twich games like shooters? If so did you notice any responsiveness issues. Im between a large tv like this and a high quality monitor right now and the question I just asked is the deciding point.

[Davehaslanded]

did you play any twich games like shooters? If so did you notice any responsiveness issues. Im between a large tv like this and a high quality monitor right now and the question I just asked is the deciding point.

I certainly didn't play anything like counterstrike, but playing games like Batman Arkham origins, far cry 4 and FIFA felt responsive enough. I'm not really a competitive player. The last game I enjoy playing online was Titanfall. Are used to play that on my old 1080p television with a controller and I personally used to find that playable.

[wolfsbane3083]

Nice review. Think I'm still going to wait it out for a decent 4k gaming monitor. For those wondering about the input lag on the TV btw google reports 66ms in game mode, so just over 4 frames

.

[Davehaslanded]

Nice review. Think I'm still going to wait it out for a decent 4k gaming monitor. For those wondering about the input lag on the TV btw google reports 66ms in game mode, so just over 4 frames

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The review i read also found you can drop the input lag even further by renaming the source to PC, turning off further Post processing. 50-50ms i believe. But ive got no way to test this myself. lol I'm happy with what ever it is anyway.