Watching 4k

[LakeeZdino]

What would be a minimum system specs for watching 4k video  

[PlayStation 2]

Via YouTube? Via a straight H.264 file? Something else?

[M.A.P]

G4560(I think 2c/2t is enough but still 2c/2t is preferred as it is only 10-15$ more) and a GT 730(GDDR5), GT 740(GDDR5), R7 360 or R7 370 but you can get RX 460 or GTX 1050 by spending bit more. So the bare minimum I think is a 2c/2t pentium or celeron of LGA 1151 socket and a GT 730(GDDR5), GT 740(GDDR5) or their R7 3XX series counterparts.

[ArduinoBen]

For 4k files it is very easy, but 4k YouTube is actually surprisingly difficult to push.

[Wolly9102]

Watching 4k is easy. Even the Intel HD graphics since the broadwell series (all CPU's) can play 4k video

[LakeeZdino]

52 minutes ago, Dan Castellaneta said:

YouTube

yes

[PlayStation 2]

Just now, LakeeZdino said:

yes

Well if we're talking 2160p30/24 video, you could probably get away with an i5 and something like a GTX 950/960 if YT doesn't wanna be bitchy.

[mathijs727]

To watch 4K, YouTube requires VP9 decoding.

Doing this on the CPU scales pretty well over cores.

A better alternative is to buy a GPU that supports VP9 hardware decoding.

If you dont use a dedicated graphics card than you need to get a Kabylake processor (its integrated graphics support hardware decoding).

Nvidia supports VP9 decoding on the GTX950, GTX960 and the complete Pascal lineup (GTX10xx).

AMD supports hardware decoding on Polaris (RX460/RX470/RX480).

 

In my experience hardware decode in Chrome is pretty broken and the best option is to use MS Edge (google on how to enable VP9 in Edge).