Should I choose 1440p or 4k?

[HighIQDuck]

Hi LTT

I'm in the market to buy a new monitor, but I can't decide if I should go with 1440p or 4k.
My concern is that I won't be able to run at least 60 fps in games in 4k.
The display would be used for gaming as well as media consumption

My specs are as followed:

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Nvidia GTX 2070

Would buying a 4k monitor be a waste in this case?
Would I be able to run 1440p on a 4k monitor and be just fine with more taxing games?
Any monitor recommendations would be great as well!

[191x7]

1440p does not scvale well to 4K. 1080p does, (4 4K pixels become 1 1080p pixel) but that looks terible, like using 720p on a 1440p display.

 

Go with 1440p high refresh. Your system can handle it, and, as time progresses, it will be easier to upgrade the parts to have decent performance on 140p than it would 4K.

 

[Bombastinator]

4k is 4 1080ps (unless it’s not really 4k which is a major problem with TVs) 1440p is 4 720ps.  So it sort of comes down to how much video card you want to buy.  Even a iGP will push multiple 4k monitors at good rates in 2d.  It’s the 3d gaming where it turns into a problem. My personal plan is to get something in the 6700xt/6800 range and pair it with a 27-28” 4k.  Which is to say sort of really too small for 4k.  If I can run 1440p at good rates I’ll FSR/DLSS up to 4k.  If I can’t I’ll run 1080p.  It will probably depend on the game.  For browsing and whatnot it will probably be solid 4k

[matt4realz]

My previous build was a 3700X and 2070 and it could run 1440p@144hz at a rather stable way with some overclocking.

 

I wouldn't suggest 4K with your current build, it might just barely make the cut. If you're playing FPS games competitively, 144hz will always outperform the 4K60.

[Bombastinator]

37 minutes ago, matt4realz said:

My previous build was a 3700X and 2070 and it could run 1440p@144hz at a rather stable way with some overclocking.

 

I wouldn't suggest 4K with your current build, it might just barely make the cut. If you're playing FPS games competitively, 144hz will always outperform the 4K60.

I sort of would if you like frs upscaling.  You could probably make 4k 100fps upscaled from 1440p. If you DON’T like upscaling though 4k is I think probably out.  You can’t do DLSS with a 2070 but the AMD thing will still work for you. Nvidia has some other FRS like thing too.  I don’t know what it’s limitations are.  I should probably find out.

[e22big]

4 hours ago, HighIQDuck said:

Hi LTT

I'm in the market to buy a new monitor, but I can't decide if I should go with 1440p or 4k.
My concern is that I won't be able to run at least 60 fps in games in 4k.
The display would be used for gaming as well as media consumption

My specs are as followed:

AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
Nvidia GTX 2070

Would buying a 4k monitor be a waste in this case?
Would I be able to run 1440p on a 4k monitor and be just fine with more taxing games?
Any monitor recommendations would be great as well!

1440p is good if you mainly do gaming, 4k is more versatile for both work and media consumption (most content are made in 4k and 1080p but 1440p but that's also begin to change)

 

It depends on your priority, if game (and especially high refresh rate game) is more important to you then no doubt, 1440p would have been the best pick but if not getting a 4k monitor also wouldn't be a bad choice.  I used to run 4k game on my old 1070ti, it's fine even then, just have to optimise the setting a bit and I can run even AAA on 40-60 mostly high setting (so long as it's not Cyberpunk, that game literally become a slide show.) I imagined it would be even easier today with various upscaling option available

[Osaka]

Honestly, i would go for 1440. You have a 2070 so i'll take a chance and guess that you're using It for gaming.

 

In that case, id say that 1440 looks good enough and a high refresh would be better. Try to get a G-sync compatible panel too, It will make up for sub-native (below Max refresh rate) framerate

[ewitte]

I'm about to go back to 4k (had one when I had a GTX 970 years ago) with a 42in LG C2.  There are a few things you can try to get a bit extra performance at 4k such as DLSS/FSR or run ultrawide at 3840x1600.  Its bigger than a normal UW (almost 40 inch diagonal) but still cuts off about 2 million pixels.  It could potentially look good at 1920x1080 as well.