Hardware & Technical GTX 1060 - 4k or not

[Arnoldo]

Hi folks, just seeking clarification on whether my GTX1060 6Gb will handle Elite at 4k on Ultra settings? Birthday at the weekend and looking at the possibility of a new monitor..

Appreciate thoughts of any GTX 1060 users on whether its up to the job and, if so, what monitor recommendations anyone wants to share..

Thanks Cmdrs,

 

[Moonax IRL]

Hi folks, just seeking clarification on whether my GTX1060 6Gb will handle Elite at 4k on Ultra settings? Birthday at the weekend and looking at the possibility of a new monitor..

Appreciate thoughts of any GTX 1060 users on whether its up to the job and, if so, what monitor recommendations anyone wants to share..

Thanks Cmdrs,

On ultra, no. 1070 minimum.

 

[Arnoldo]

Thnx Cmdr; what card are you running?

 

[Moonax IRL]

Thnx Cmdr; what card are you running?

Zotac 1070 amp extreme. Its the planets where you`ll find the fps drop below 60. The 1070 oc will hover at the 60 fps planetside on ultra 4k but I`d imagine the 1060 would struggle. If you tweaked the setting around high it may be possible.

 

[Jon flint]

Yeah, I'll just echo what everyone else has said, a 1070 is the bare minimum for an acceptable 4k/ultra experience. Even then you'll see drops entering stations and on planets. My 1070s are overclocked about as far as 1070s will go (2100MHz core/9GHz mem), even then I wouldn't call 4k truly playable on a single card, unless you can tolerate drops to mid 40s on occasion.

You should be good for 1440p/ultra/60fps with a 1060 though

 

[Arnoldo]

Cool; currently at 1080p with 60fps (60Hz display) on Ultra - solid 60 even on surface apart from extremely brief drops during transitions... I was hoping to get ultra out of the card but 1440 in a window would be okay

 

[Jon flint]

Cool; currently at 1080p with 60fps (60Hz display) on Ultra - solid 60 even on surface apart from extremely brief drops during transitions... I was hoping to get ultra out of the card but 1440 in a window would be okay

No need to go windowed, you can use the in-game supersampling option to lower the internal rendering resolution.

For instance, running the game at fullscreen 3840*2160(4k) but setting the supersampling to 0.65 would be equivalent to 1440p, okay it's actually 2496*1404, but it's close enough

I have to do something similar as I play on a 4k TV that doesn't support a wide variety of resolutions, it supports 1080/60+ and 4k/60 but only supports 30hz at 1440p, so for me I run at fullscreen 4k/60hz, but drop supersampling down to 0.85 to keep things playable.

 

[MikeHawk]

or nah

 

[ChopperGreg]

I wouldn't call 4k truly playable on a single card, unless you can tolerate drops to mid 40s on occasion.

You should be good for 1440p/ultra/60fps with a 1060 though

This statement implies that 2 video cards can be used, and to be honest I have heard rumors of such things but I don't know how it works ( for that matter I don't even know where to start looking ).
Do you know how it works?

 

[Patrick_68000]

This statement implies that 2 video cards can be used, and to be honest I have heard rumors of such things but I don't know how it works ( for that matter I don't even know where to start looking ).
Do you know how it works?

I believe that I read that Pascal GTX are not really made for the SLI

 

[MickyG1982]

I believe that I read that Pascal GTX are not really made for the SLI

The 1060 isn't at least, it doesn't even have the connector for it.

 

[ChopperGreg]

I believe that I read that Pascal GTX are not really made for the SLI

The 1060 isn't at least, it doesn't even have the connector for it.

I guess what I'm trying to do is find out about tech, that I'm hearing about.
My last computer build was ~8-10 yrs ago, and it was just a GP machine - as such it's been little effort to keep it running and it's not been stressed as far as effort is concerned - replace a couple of power supplies, updated the OS, that is all it's needed.

Most of my gaming in the last ~7 yrs, has been on a console, mostly due to a couple of specific games ( think LAN parties of 5-8 people at a buddy's house) so I have not been paying much attention to the computer building side of things. Now I tried ED on console and I like it, but find it a bit more limiting than I like, so I'm looking into building an entertainment PC, that will replace the console.

The concept of SLI ( or at least from what I'm understanding it to be ), is something I was wondering about ~10-15 yrs ago, but to be honest, since this is the first computer build I'm doing in ~8-10 yrs, I'm not totally sure what it is, and how it works, or where I might start. Does my previous post, now make more sense?

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I play on a laptop with a GTX 1060 6 GB at 4K. I doubt I'm on Ultra but it runs smooth and looks great. I do know I have antialiasing and supersampling off, not much need for them on a 40" 4K IMO.

 

[ChopperGreg]

No need to go windowed, you can use the in-game supersampling option to lower the internal rendering resolution.

For instance, running the game at fullscreen 3840*2160(4k) but setting the supersampling to 0.65 would be equivalent to 1440p, okay it's actually 2496*1404, but it's close enough

I have to do something similar as I play on a 4k TV that doesn't support a wide variety of resolutions, it supports 1080/60+ and 4k/60 but only supports 30hz at 1440p, so for me I run at fullscreen 4k/60hz, but drop supersampling down to 0.85 to keep things playable.

Question...
How does dropping supersampling down, help?
( I'm new to gaming computers and trying to learn the hows and whys ).

 

[Patrick_68000]

I guess what I'm trying to do is find out about tech, that I'm hearing about.
My last computer build was ~8-10 yrs ago, and it was just a GP machine - as such it's been little effort to keep it running and it's not been stressed as far as effort is concerned - replace a couple of power supplies, updated the OS, that is all it's needed.

Most of my gaming in the last ~7 yrs, has been on a console, mostly due to a couple of specific games ( think LAN parties of 5-8 people at a buddy's house) so I have not been paying much attention to the computer building side of things. Now I tried ED on console and I like it, but find it a bit more limiting than I like, so I'm looking into building an entertainment PC, that will replace the console.

The concept of SLI ( or at least from what I'm understanding it to be ), is something I was wondering about ~10-15 yrs ago, but to be honest, since this is the first computer build I'm doing in ~8-10 yrs, I'm not totally sure what it is, and how it works, or where I might start. Does my previous post, now make more sense?

It seems in fact, that the GTX Pascal 1070 and 1080 works very well with the SLI, but mainly for two cards. You must to buy a special SLI bridge (50 euros) which doubles the transfer rate compared to the previous generation of Maxwell GPU.

 

[MickyG1982]

I guess what I'm trying to do is find out about tech, that I'm hearing about.
My last computer build was ~8-10 yrs ago, and it was just a GP machine - as such it's been little effort to keep it running and it's not been stressed as far as effort is concerned - replace a couple of power supplies, updated the OS, that is all it's needed.

Most of my gaming in the last ~7 yrs, has been on a console, mostly due to a couple of specific games ( think LAN parties of 5-8 people at a buddy's house) so I have not been paying much attention to the computer building side of things. Now I tried ED on console and I like it, but find it a bit more limiting than I like, so I'm looking into building an entertainment PC, that will replace the console.

The concept of SLI ( or at least from what I'm understanding it to be ), is something I was wondering about ~10-15 yrs ago, but to be honest, since this is the first computer build I'm doing in ~8-10 yrs, I'm not totally sure what it is, and how it works, or where I might start. Does my previous post, now make more sense?

Basically, certain graphics cards are able to work together to increase performance / resolution, enable more screens etc. To be able to use it you would need to own a motherboard that is capable of supporting it i.e has more than one PCI Express slot and supports the correct technology (AMD has their own method called crossfire).

The basics is this - plug 2 (or more) cards into the relevant ports, connect them using an SLI/Crossfire bridge (depending on AMD or Nvidia card) install the relevant drivers & enable the function through their control panel. In theory that is all you need to do and games should work just fine, in practice it can be a mixed bag however.

Many games do not scale well to SLI / Xfire setups & actually lose performance as a result (ED can be counted in that category).
Adding two cards does not mean that graphics memory is increased - two card each having 4Gb graphics RAM will still only have 4Gb of RAM in an SLI setup - not 8. Pairing a 2 Gb card with a 4 Gb version will mean that the cards will only be able to use 2Gb, not 4 (as the card with the lowest memory determines how much memory each GPU can use).
Cards can struggle to stay in sync - causing certain graphical issues most notable in EDh being on planets where the ground flickers, planetary lighting can flip slowly between bright & dark, the skybox can display half of one picture, half another looking odd. Nvidia at least have also had some rather significant issues with drivers affecting SLI setups in the not so distant past.

There are various other things that crop up, but in general when it comes to SLI / Crossfire configs unless you really need it you would be better off buying one more powerful card - say picking a 1080 or 1080ti over 2 1070's and running with that instead.

It's worth noting that Windows 10 & DX12 does allow for Hybrid multi card setups between different cards (even different makes of cards) working independently - though this is very much in it's infancy & very few games support it.

 

[MickyG1982]

Question...
How does dropping supersampling down, help?
( I'm new to gaming computers and trying to learn the hows and whys ).

Supersampling at 1.0 means that the card is rendering & displaying at the same resolution. Dropping to .85 means that the card is displaying at the same resolution but is only rendering it at 85% of that resolution - reducing the workload & memory requirements of the card.

 

[xondk]

Personally I'm hoping nvidia Volta will be released and keep up with rumours, from what is read at various places, Volta will aim to be equivalent in 4k to what 1070/1080 is in 2560x1440, meaning if you get 60 fps in a game at that resolution currently, you'd get 60 fps in that game with the new cards respectively, and supposedly 1070 would scale to its new upgrade xx70 and same with 1080, but who knows, here's hoping though, though random rumours are random rumours. It doesn't seem like that far of a stretch.

 

[ChopperGreg]

Supersampling at 1.0 means that the card is rendering & displaying at the same resolution. Dropping to .85 means that the card is displaying at the same resolution but is only rendering it at 85% of that resolution - reducing the workload & memory requirements of the card.

Thanks.

The reason I ask, is because the current TV is a 48" 1080, and I'm thinking of upgrading to a 55" 4K, and it seemed like their be an issue with the 4K screen, judging from Jon Flint's post.
I bought the 48" 1080, several years ago, and the money we have saved by waiting until movies are out on DVD / Blu-Ray, has more than already paid for the TV - and now 55" 4K TV's are costing less than what I paid for the 48" 1080.

 

[popuptoaster]

Thanks.

The reason I ask, is because the current TV is a 48" 1080, and I'm thinking of upgrading to a 55" 4K, and it seemed like their be an issue with the 4K screen, judging from Jon Flint's post.
I bought the 48" 1080, several years ago, and the money we have saved by waiting until movies are out on DVD / Blu-Ray, has more than already paid for the TV - and now 55" 4K TV's are costing less than what I paid for the 48" 1080.

You'd be better off with a dedicated gaming monitor if you can afford it as well as a TV, the bigger screen isn't as useful or pleasant as the higher picture quality I find (lumping everything in to that, resolution, clarity, refresh rates etc etc), not had much luck getting a decent picture out of TVs so far although I admit I haven't tried on anything released since about this time last year.