GTX 1070 with 4k monitor?

[NinjaSandvich]

I am almost certainly going to buy a new 4k monitor (as I have found one for only £215) however I currently have a 970 and know I would need to upgrade.

I was considering getting a 1070 to go with it (as 1080s are rather expensive) and I was wondering how well 1070s can be overclocked and how well they perform on 4k with about medium settings.

 

Another possibility I thought of, is using the 4k for videos, movies, desktop use etc. and then just gaming at 1440p / 1080p. Does anyone have any experience with this method and if so what are your opinions on it?

[ShadySocks]

I have a friend that has a 1070. He plays games at 1080p and it is fairly smooth because the games remember your resolution settings.

[Unimaginative Name]

Check out this article:

https://techgage.com/article/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1070-review-a-look-at-1440p-4k-ultra-wide-gaming/

and keep in mind that gaming in higher resolutions is more dependent on the CPU than lower resolutions.

 

I have played around with downscaling. I was downscaling from 1440p to 1080p and experienced mixed results. Some games looked fine, others really didn't. I'd imagine that it would work better from 4K -> 1080p because of the pixel configuration.

Ex:

[NinjaSandvich]

2 minutes ago, ShadySocks said:

I have a friend that has a 1070. He plays games at 1080p and it is fairly smooth because the games remember your resolution settings.

He games at 1080p on a 4k display? 

I have found some articles giving mixed results on downscaling how does he find it?

[NinjaSandvich]

2 minutes ago, Unimaginative Name said:

Check out this article:

https://techgage.com/article/nvidia-geforce-gtx-1070-review-a-look-at-1440p-4k-ultra-wide-gaming/

and keep in mind that gaming in higher resolutions is more dependent on the CPU than lower resolutions.

 

I have played around with downscaling. I was downscaling from 1440p to 1080p and experienced mixed results. Some games looked fine, others really didn't. I'd imagine that it would work better from 4K -> 1080p because of the pixel configuration.

Ex:

Would I run into any bottlenecks with a 7700k with a 1070 or not?

What about with a 1080, because it's not out of the question for me, I'd just prefer not to go that high if at all possible.

[Unimaginative Name]

1 minute ago, NinjaSandvich said:

Would I run into any bottlenecks with a 7700k with a 1070 or not?

What about with a 1080, because it's not out of the question for me, I'd just prefer not to go that high if at all possible.

You need to be more concerned with bottlenecks when running hardware at extremes (old vs. new/enthusiast vs budget). The 7700k and 1080 are a good pair. That is what I have. At this moment, I would suggest an R5 1600 or an 8600k for a new build (but it appears you already have a 7700k) and a 1070ti (cheaper than a 1080 and can be overclocked very close to a 1080). The 7700k is now on a dead platform and there is no reason to buy Kaby Lake anymore.

[Liquid_Z]

Having a 1440p monitor, I can confirm that downscaling does not look great when I downscale to 1080p. Downscaling on computer monitors in my opinion have never looked that great when it comes to PC gaming. So if I was looking at getting a 4K, I would definitely look at what it would be like to play at 4K.

 

This guy/gal captured their gameplay of playing Watch Dogs 2 in ultra settings with a 1070 with a 4K monitor. Got an average of 31-35 fps. 

 

Another guy/gal captured their gameplay of playing Assassins Creed: Origins with a 1070 with a 4K monitor. They got an average of 35-45 fps with a mixture of low and very high settings.

My thoughts are that if your playing at 4k with a 1070, you shouldn't expect a 60fps or higher gaming experience in demanding AAA titles. That said you could always SLI later when you have more funds available and get a big boost in performance in compatible titles. 

[Yatys 93]

I have a 7600k and a 1070 on a 4K TV, some games run extremely well and some need some tweaking to get them to run smooth

[Unimaginative Name]

1 minute ago, Liquid_Z said:

That said you could always SLI later when you have more funds available and get a big boost in performance in compatible titles. 

 

SLI really does not add that much performance and doesn't even work in some games and a single stronger card is always a smarter investment than two weaker ones. I would say use a 1070ti, play with settings, and then when the next big breakthrough in architecture releases (maybe Volta, maybe later), but a stronger card.

[Billy_Mays]

A 980 can play games at 4k, seen it in person and played BF1 on it seemed really smooth my friend said he got 90fps on low-medium settings.

[NinjaSandvich]

2 minutes ago, Liquid_Z said:

This guy/gal captured their gameplay of playing Watch Dogs 2 in ultra settings with a 1070 with a 4K monitor. Got an average of 31-35 fps. 

 

Another guy/gal captured their gameplay of playing Assassins Creed: Origins with a 1070 with a 4K monitor. They got an average of 35-45 fps with a mixture of low and very high settings.

My thoughts are that if your playing at 4k with a 1070, you shouldn't expect a 60fps or higher gaming experience in demanding AAA titles. That said you could always SLI later when you have more funds available and get a big boost in performance in compatible titles. 

I've found a lot of benchmarks on ultra settings but, as I know I wouldn't get around 60FPS with a 1070 on ultra, I was more looking for medium settings.

 

[Liquid_Z]

3 minutes ago, Unimaginative Name said:

SLI really does not add that much performance and doesn't even work in some games and a single stronger card is always a smarter investment than two weaker ones. I would say use a 1070ti, play with settings, and then when the next big breakthrough in architecture releases (maybe Volta, maybe later), but a stronger card.

First I want to quickly point out that I said SLI can give you a big boost in compatible titles. What kind of boost? Well, enough a boost enough to out preform a 1080ti in certain games. I think that performance gain would certainly qualify as a "big boost". 

It's important that the OP consider whether the games they play a lot of support SLI if they decide to go that route.

[NinjaSandvich]

3 minutes ago, Billy_Mays said:

A 980 can play games at 4k, seen it in person and played BF1 on it seemed really smooth my friend said he got 90fps on low-medium settings.

That is reassuring, a 1070 is supposed to be slightly better than a 980, right?

[NinjaSandvich]

8 minutes ago, Yatys 93 said:

I have a 7600k and a 1070 on a 4K TV, some games run extremely well and some need some tweaking to get them to run smooth

What settings do you usually need to run at to make it smooth?

[Liquid_Z]

5 minutes ago, NinjaSandvich said:

I've found a lot of benchmarks on ultra settings but, as I know I wouldn't get around 60FPS with a 1070 on ultra, I was more looking for medium settings.

 

Not too sure, but at least you know what the worst case scenario is.

[NinjaSandvich]

Just now, Liquid_Z said:

Not too sure, but at least you know what the worst case scenario is.

I suppose, I am however now being shifted towards a 1070 Ti, however I am looking on Newegg UK (as that is by far the cheapest) and the only 1070 Ti in stock is an MSI one with mixed reviews, however there is a Gigabyte AORUS 1070 on there with much better reviews, so I'm just scared I might end up regretting if I go for the 1070 Ti from there.

[Unimaginative Name]

2 minutes ago, Liquid_Z said:

First I want to quickly point out that I said SLI can give you a big boost in compatible titles. What kind of boost? Well, enough a boost enough to out preform a 1080ti in certain games. I think that performance gain would certainly qualify as a "big boost". 

It's important that the OP consider whether the games they play a lot of support SLI if they decide to go that route.

1

But before we get into a huge argument I'll leave on this. Why buy two 1070's? They'll cost as much as a 1080ti and will be outperformed by the 1080ti most of the time. SLI is only ever useful in getting extra life out of an older system when you don't have money form a full-fledged GPU upgrade. 

970's in SLI don't equal a 1080. With that logic applied. Don't buy a second weaker GPU and just buy the newer stronger GPU as long as the architecture is reasonably improved, like Maxwell -> Pascal was a large jump. 

6 minutes ago, NinjaSandvich said:

That is reassuring, a 1070 is supposed to be slightly better than a 980, right?

The 1070 beats out the Maxwell (9 series) Titan X.

[Zeitec]

45 minutes ago, NinjaSandvich said:

I am almost certainly going to buy a new 4k monitor (as I have found one for only £215) however I currently have a 970 and know I would need to upgrade.

I was considering getting a 1070 to go with it (as 1080s are rather expensive) and I was wondering how well 1070s can be overclocked and how well they perform on 4k with about medium settings.

 

Another possibility I thought of, is using the 4k for videos, movies, desktop use etc. and then just gaming at 1440p / 1080p. Does anyone have any experience with this method and if so what are your opinions on it?

Yeah you could play most AAA games at 60fps with medium settings at 4k with 60fps. I wouldn't count on that lasting very long though, because within a year you'll need to drop to low settings. You'd be much better off running games at 1080p ultra for the next 2 years with a 1070 as it's a perfect 4:1 scale. Then again, you could just do that with the GTX 970 too. Honestly the 1070 isn't doing 4k anyways, and the 970 can do 1080p just fine. I'd wait for Volta Gaming in the summer unless you really want to upgrade now. The 2070 will probably be between 1080 and 1080ti performance which wil let you do native 4k much better than the 1070. 

[Yatys 93]

41 minutes ago, NinjaSandvich said:

What settings do you usually need to run at to make it smooth?

as I said it varies, destiny 2 runs great on high at 58-60fps, GTAV is medium at best and even then it dips to 40 fairly frequently, wildlands never gets higher then 40 on medium, changing to low doesn't help a whole lot

[Princess Luna]

1 hour ago, NinjaSandvich said:

I currently have a 970 and know I would need to upgrade.

You don't really have to upgrade lol

Just try it out first.

[Billy_Mays]

1 hour ago, NinjaSandvich said:

That is reassuring, a 1070 is supposed to be slightly better than a 980, right?

Its on par with a 980ti 

[Liquid_Z]

2 hours ago, Unimaginative Name said:

But before we get into a huge argument I'll leave on this. Why buy two 1070's?

As I said in my original post, it's something they can choose to do later on. Maybe a year or two down the line he gets a sick deal on a 1070, he could buy it, regardless of brand (MSI, EVGA, etc) and SLI it with the 1070 he previously purchased. All I'm saying is that it's for some, a viable option and a possibly upgrade path.

[Liquid_Z]

2 hours ago, Princess Cadence said:

You don't really have to upgrade lol

Just try it out first.

As someone who came from a 970, upgraded to a 1080ti and has a 144MHz monitor, I can say for sure that I absolutely love it. Some tell me that for my 1080p G-Sync monitor that it's overkill, but games like Watch Dogs 2 still struggles at maintaining above 60FPS in Ultra settings. I not only want the best looking game, but also want the best performance. As a person who not only has the funds, and who finds that gaming is a big part of their life, I think that it's completely worthwhile to have a higher performing card.

 

Now each gamer is different. Some prefer a high FPS, no matter the cost visually. Some only care able the visuals and are fine with 30fps and above. Others find themselves somewhere in between. Now there's a significant difference between the 1070 and 970. The OP recognizes that he's not going to get the performance he wants out of the 970 and looking to upgrade. A pursuit that's totally fair.

[Liquid_Z]

1 hour ago, Billy_Mays said:

Its on par with a 980ti 

They're pretty close. The 1070 does out preform the 980ti though by 4-8fps in many games though.

 

[Princess Luna]

2 minutes ago, Liquid_Z said:

.

Did you bother watching the video? the whole point is how ultra settings are completely pointless, a 970 can play plenty games at 60fps on 4k if you bother tweaking the quality enough to where hardly looks lesser visually.

 

Never talked about 30fps.