4k PC gaming on a budget, is it possible?

[RVRY]

I'm a film student at my school and recently got a monitor for 4k mastering. -& the gamer in me is currently wondering if 4k gaming is a thing thats possible on a budget. Does anybody have any gpu suggestions right now or should I wait a while for the new Intel cards to come? Thanks!  Edit: I have a $500 budget for the card.

[darknessblade]

Regarding a System/GPUS that depends on what your total budget is.

 

 

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

27 minutes ago, MoonMaroon said:

I'm a film student at my school and recently got a monitor for 4k mastering. -& the gamer in me is currently wondering if 4k gaming is a thing thats possible on a budget. Does anybody have any gpu suggestions right now or should I wait a while for the new Intel cards to come? Thanks! 

Sub 1000 Gaming pcs aren't a thing anymore. A decent gpu will almost run you that by itself 

[RVRY]

I have a $500 budget so that’s definitely not happening then. Lol

[chocolatekarma]

2 minutes ago, MoonMaroon said:

I have a $500 budget so that’s definitely not happening then. Lol

A $500 rig won't even be able to do 1080p gaming in many modern titles.

[RVRY]

2 minutes ago, chocolatekarma said:

A $500 rig won't even be able to do 1080p gaming in many modern titles.

$500 for the GPU

[chocolatekarma]

Just now, MoonMaroon said:

$500 for the GPU

That puts you in 3050 or 6600 territory.  1080p gaming. 

[RVRY]

Just now, chocolatekarma said:

That puts you in 3050 or 6600 territory.  1080p gaming. 

So is it a good idea to get something last gen used or wait for Intels cards? 

[chocolatekarma]

5 minutes ago, MoonMaroon said:

So is it a good idea to get something last gen used or wait for Intels cards? 

Even a 2080 Ti can barely do 4K gaming.  At least not much above 60fps, and no one even knows how well those coming Intel GPU's will perform, or how much they will cost.  A 2080 Ti is going to cost well above 500.  More like 900-1100 US.

[YoungBlade]

What framerate are you targeting and what games are you hoping to play?

 

At 4K, the RX 6600 can do 60fps+ in a lot of eSports games, and generally gets around 20-30fps in AAA titles. Most people would not like a 30fps experience on PC, but some folks are okay with it.

 

Here's a video showing the performance in a number of games. If you're comfortable with it, then yes, 4K gaming on a sub-$500 graphics card is possible for you.

 

 

However, I would advocate for running the games at 1080p, since the monitor upscaling to 4K should be decent, as there's a perfect 1:4 ratio for the pixels from 1080p to 4K.

[RVRY]

53 minutes ago, YoungBlade said:

What framerate are you targeting and what games are you hoping to play?

 

At 4K, the RX 6600 can do 60fps+ in a lot of eSports games, and generally gets around 20-30fps in AAA titles. Most people would not like a 30fps experience on PC, but some folks are okay with it.

 

Here's a video showing the performance in a number of games. If you're comfortable with it, then yes, 4K gaming on a sub-$500 graphics card is possible for you.

 

 

However, I would advocate for running the games at 1080p, since the monitor upscaling to 4K should be decent, as there's a perfect 1:4 ratio for the pixels from 1080p to 4K.

I have a 32inch monitor so I don't know how good the pixel density would be... Is DLSS a valid option to get 4k on a 3050 or 3060?

[RVRY]

OR is FSR valid even?

[YoungBlade]

4 minutes ago, MoonMaroon said:

I have a 32inch monitor so I don't know how good the pixel density would be... Is DLSS a valid option to get 4k on a 3050 or 3060?

DLSS and FSR aren't magic. They usually give about a 40-50% boost in framerate before they start tanking visual quality. That's nothing to sneeze at, but if we assume a game gets 25fps without it, you'd be going from 25fps to around 34-37fps. Only in the "Performance" modes do you sometimes get a doubling of the framerate, but the result is that the image quality is noticeably hurt.

 

Another issue is that, while DLSS supports around 150 games, it isn't universal by any means. If a game doesn't have it, you're going to have to go with regular upscaling.

 

The 3060 might be an option if you happen to play DLSS compatible games, but you'll be struggling to hit 60fps still. The 3050 is even weaker than the old RTX 2060, so I wouldn't recommend trying 4K on that.

 

The takeaway is that something's gotta give. You want three things: cheap, good visuals, and reasonable framerates. You can only have 2. If it's cheap, you can either get good visuals or reasonable framerates, not both. If you want both, it won't come cheap.

[maximumzero]

1 hour ago, Ryan829 said:

Sub 1000 Gaming pcs aren't a thing anymore. A decent gpu will almost run you that by itself 

Well this is patently false. Not everybody needs a 3080/6800XT level card and you can easily put together a $800 build that will play games just fine.

[Shreyas1]

Unpopular opinion maybe, but at this point you might want to consider a console or streaming if you want to play 4K on a budget

[Deadpool2onBlu-Ray]

2 minutes ago, Shreyas1 said:

Unpopular opinion maybe, but at this point you might want to consider a console or streaming if you want to play 4K on a budget

Yup. Decent 1k builds are over. Even the 3060 which is a crappy card is $600 practically 

[RVRY]

27 minutes ago, Ryan829 said:

Yup. Decent 1k builds are over. Even the 3060 which is a crappy card is $600 practically 

After doing some research 3060s are going for around $400-529 USD new in my area.

[RVRY]

4 minutes ago, MoonMaroon said:

After doing some research 3060s are going for around $400-529 USD new in my area.

So that's probably what I'll have to go with and use DLSS for 4k 60fps output.