Will a new monitor require a new card?

[MartinTheActor]

So, I'm looking at buying a new ultrawide monitor. I've used two screens for as long as I can remember, but find myself with some spare funds and so am considering investing in a curved ultrawide. Specifically: AOC CU34G2 34" which has a max resolution of 3440x1440.

At the moment I run two 1920x1080 displays (AOC E2270S) the most work that gets done graphically is either gaming with a video or podcast on screen two. Being honest, I've been quite happy with 1080 gaming and frankly rarely go for games that hugely hammer the graphics card. The attached image is a snapshot of the types of stuff I play. If video editing then main display is the timeline, second display is notes and preview window. 

The thing holding me back from actually investing in this new monitor is my graphics card is an Asus TUF GTX 1650 Super OC. So the question is if I am going to degrade my experience by getting a display that my card may not be able to drive.

[Sealance]

Running at the monitors preferred resolution will, depending on the games you run, lower your performance because it is higher resolution than your old monitor.

[iMxmo]

1650 Super is not a 1440p card. You will most likely have to adjust in-game settings 

[Aaron_T]

A single 3440x1440 display is only ~19.5% more pixels to drive than two 1920x1080 monitors.

 

So if you intend to play games full screen on your new monitor, then there will be a huge difference in demand on the GPU. However, if you intend to run the game on half the new monitor and have a browser or video on the other half of the monitor then it will be a relatively small increase on GPU demand.

 

So the answer to your question depends on how you think you'd want to use the new single larger monitor.

[MartinTheActor]

12 minutes ago, Sealance said:

Running at the monitors preferred resolution will, depending on the games you run, lower your performance because it is higher resolution than your old monitor.

I mean, that's kinda obvious.

10 minutes ago, iMxmo said:

1650 Super is not a 1440p card. You will most likely have to adjust in-game settings 

Cheers, that's what I was concerned about.
 

9 minutes ago, AaronThomas said:

A single 3440x1440 display is only ~19.5% more pixels to drive than two 1920x1080 monitors.

 

So if you intend to play games full screen on your new monitor, then there will be a huge difference in demand on the GPU. However, if you intend to run the game on half the new monitor and have a browser or video on the other half of the monitor then it will be a relatively small increase on GPU demand.

 

So the answer to your question depends on how you think you'd want to use the new single larger monitor.

I mean given how funky I imagine some games might be on an ultrawide, I'm thinking mainly of split screen where possible. 


The other option I have is that the only graphics card within budget I could find here that might be an improvement is an RX 6600 or 5500 XT. How do we think that would work?

 

[GuiltySpark_]

Long time 3440x1440 UW user here and that 1650 may struggle on a few of those game. I'm really not super familiar with most of them. Granted, based on that list of games, you and I play very different types (as of late, Metro 2033, Division 2, New World, Outriders, etc..) When I got this display I had a 1070, wasn't happy, then a 2080 Super and wasn't happy and I'm now on a 3090 and am quite happy. 

 

Its a lot more pixels to push than even standard 1440p and the 1650 is a budget 1080p card. 

[Aaron_T]

18 minutes ago, MartinTheActor said:

The other option I have is that the only graphics card within budget I could find here that might be an improvement is an RX 6600 or 5500 XT. How do we think that would work?

the 5500xt would be a small improvement, but the 6600 can be up to twice as fast as the 1650s depending on the title, so that would likely be a good option.

[MartinTheActor]

13 minutes ago, rickeo said:

Long time 3440x1440 UW user here and that 1650 may struggle on a few of those game. I'm really not super familiar with most of them. Granted, based on that list of games, you and I play very different types (as of late, Metro 2033, Division 2, New World, Outriders, etc..) When I got this display I had a 1070, wasn't happy, then a 2080 Super and wasn't happy and I'm now on a 3090 and am quite happy. 

 

Its a lot more pixels to push than even standard 1440p and the 1650 is a budget 1080p card. 

Cheers, it's good to hear your thoughts. I won't lie, the situation with GPUs is what has me unsure about pulling the trigger on a new display.

3 minutes ago, AaronThomas said:

the 5500xt would be a small improvement, but the 6600 can be up to twice as fast as the 1650s depending on the title, so that would likely be a good option.

Wow, that's a pretty significant improvement potentially then. The Sapphire Radeon RX 6600 8GB PULSE is running £450 at the moment, and the Sapphire Radeon RX 6600 XT 8GB NITRO+ is running £530 or so on eBuyer. So, looking at nearly a grand for a monitor upgrade. 

Might hold out for a little longer I guess. Thanks for the info all.

[mariushm]

Hardware wise, the 1650 can do that resolution using DisplayPort or maybe even HDMI outputs.

 

From a performance point of view, you could just play at 3440 x 1080 ,  or you could play at 2560x1440 ( with black bars around the actual image) or you could configure games to render at 50-75% the actual resolution and let the video card upscale to that resolution  - for example you set the game to render at 1720 x 720 (50%)  or 2580 x 1080 (75%)  and upscale it to 3440x1440

[Bobbysixjp]

I’d say that the minimum you need to run a 3440x1440 ultrawide at reasonable frame rates is a 3070/6800. Anything lower than this will be too much of a compromise in terms of settings. Having said that, that list of games doesn’t seem to be too demanding so you might be ok with a 2060 or card with similar performance. 

[Action_Johnson]

7 hours ago, Bobbysixjp said:

I’d say that the minimum you need to run a 3440x1440 ultrawide at reasonable frame rates is a 3070/6800. Anything lower than this will be too much of a compromise in terms of settings. Having said that, that list of games doesn’t seem to be too demanding so you might be ok with a 2060 or card with similar performance. 

Pfft get real, you really think someone looking at an AOC monitor is going to blow $1000 on a 3070 or 6800? 

 

Your 1650 should do just fine, just lower the settings. A 6600XT or 3060 would of course be more ideal, but not required. You're playing D&D, not MSFS or CP2077. 

[ewitte]

On 1/10/2022 at 1:18 PM, AaronThomas said:

A single 3440x1440 display is only ~19.5% more pixels to drive than two 1920x1080 monitors.

Except the game is only running on a single screen the video running on the 2nd screen isn't going to take all that much away.

 

3440x1440 on a 1650s is going to either take running older games or serious decreases in settings.  The card doesn't support DLSS either which would have helped a lot in games that support it.

[ewitte]

On 1/11/2022 at 12:20 AM, Action_Johnson said:

Pfft get real, you really think someone looking at an AOC monitor is going to blow $1000 on a 3070 or 6800?

That is the monitor I have with a RTX 3080 (which was less than $800 minus what my 2080 sold for).

[MartinTheActor]

So, to resolve this I did in fact pull the trigger on the monitor. And the framerate drops weren't terrible using similar quality settings but higher res. Even when rendering video it wasn't all that bad. The performance impact was pretty negligible in truth. However, I did pick up an RX 6600 which was more than I wanted to spend in total. Sadly, it was literally the only card I could get my hands on from an actual retailer (rather than scalper or second hand). Felt terrible but I sold my old GTX 750ti, GTX 980, and the 1650 Super and just about made my money back for the 6600.

Thanks to those of you who offered useful advice.

To those who didn't, maybe consider both the current issues with supply of GPUs and the fact that brand snobbery is often what deters people from asking for help when they operate on limited budgets.

[ewitte]

On 1/15/2022 at 6:44 PM, MartinTheActor said:

To those who didn't, maybe consider both the current issues with supply of GPUs and the fact that brand snobbery is often what deters people from asking for help when they operate on limited budgets.

I care mostly about speed but Nvidia keeps on releasing features that tip the scale.  DLSS makes a HUGE difference in playability for instance.  Also the last time I gave AMD a chance (5700XT) I had all kind of driver issues.  Not little ones.  There was a bug where the computer would show the fan at something like 99999 RPM but it actually had turned completely OFF and ran until it overheated and crashed.