recommend Video card for 4K

[CrowBarHero]

This is probably lifting the lid on a can of worms, but can people share the spec of their 4K setup?

I've just got a new 4K monitor, for ahem work purposes. Naturally it would be prudent to see how well E: D looks on it

Well lets just say that compared to my old 1280x1024 monitors, it's night and day. Naturally whilst my GTX750Ti ran E: D at 1280x1024 on Ultra without breaking a sweat, it could barely manage 12fps at 4K - I can't blame it to be honest.

So it's apparent I'll need a new video card for, er, work purposes (obviously).

What do I need to be looking at? My PC is a couple of years old, running an i5 4690K (quad core). I figure it'll be a little longer before the processor/Mobo is the bottleneck. However the PCI-E slot is G3, so any brand spanking new G4 cards won't fly obviously.

And before anyone suggests I buy a Titan RTX -No. If I had that sort of money to throw around I'd just buy it, and not bother asking anyone.

What will work now, and will still work in a couple of years time? I want to enjoy the beauty of E: D, so quality setting need to be pretty high - the monitor is 60hz, so I don't need super high frame rates, i've not got the time or pockets for VR, so it's simply driving a 4k monitor at 60hz.

Nvidia/AMD -not fussed. Thoughts pleas?

 

[60mm]

Decide how much you would like to spend on a new card and buy the most powerful one you can get for that $. Unless you are going high end, you can probably make just about any card drop below 60fps with ED @4k and everything maxed.

 

[CrowBarHero]

Decide how much you would like to spend on a new card and buy the most powerful one you can get for that

A wise strategy for anything. However it's a case of time, if I can put aside £100/month then how many months do I need to save before I can have what I want - given the law of diminishing returns, the price/performance ratio is always curved in favour of the cheaper cards, however there's a most likely a threshold I shouldn't be dropping below. Where do I need to aim to get my foot in the door? What do other folk out there use?

 

[60mm]

Unless someone responds with roughly the same CPU/Ram/HD who runs ED @4k 60fps, you not going to know exactly what will fit the bill. Hopefully that happens, but unlikely. Your best bet is just deciding what you'd like to drop on it and going from there. Worse case scenario, you buy something too powerful and have headroom without spending more than you'd like to.

 

[Crimson Echo]

PCIE Gen 4 vs Gen 3 is all but irrelevant. You so rarely saturate Gen 3, and i believe PCIE is backwards compatible (at least it used to be).

If you want to turn every thing up at 4k you will likely have CPU issues. (some of elites graphics options can hit the cpu kinda hard) I ran ultra settings on 3 1080p monitors with a gtx 1070. Running at 4k was an issue. So you will likely be looking for gtx 1080 or better performance.

This thread may be helpful: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/can-i-run-elite-at-4k-ultra.434954/

 

[Morbad]

What do I need to be looking at?

For new parts you'll want to be looking at an RTX 2070 Super or a (preferably non-reference) 5700XT for 4k ultra with a minimum frame rate target in the ballpark of 60 fps. Obviously, anything faster would also work.

A used GTX 1080 Ti would also suffice.

My PC is a couple of years old, running an i5 4690K (quad core). I figure it'll be a little longer before the processor/Mobo is the bottleneck.

A quad core with no SMT is already going to be a limiting factor, but depending on how high you have this part clocked, it should still suffice if ED is the only thing running.

However the PCI-E slot is G3, so any brand spanking new G4 cards won't fly obviously.

PCI-E is backwards/forwards compatable and PCI-E performance generally has a small impact on the performance of single GPU setups.

 

[CMDR-ss47ply]

I found a msi gtx 1660 ti for like 280 usd and love it with my old dell i5 2400 16gb ddr3 and 7500 rpm hard drive the game really doesent need high end pc to run well I play 4k most high and ultra settings at .75 supersampleing get from 50 to 120 fps the card never gets hot. But my system does have a hard time with newer games 1440 is what I run on AAA games they need more cpu. o7 good luck shopping

 

[Morbad]

I play 4k most high and ultra settings at .75 supersampleing

This is a 2880*1620 internal resolution, which won't be anywhere near as sharp as true 4k.

 

[VR Jay Le Chardon]

I rock a similar vintage of PC, an i7-4770k, I was running a gtx970 with that CPU and it could just about pull off vr with some compromises in acuirt to enhance frame rate, but when I upgraded the monitor for a 65" 4k screen it fell flat on its rectum. Being me I saved up and bought a gtx1080ti the minute the asus strix one came out, and it absolutely monsters 4k. So somewhere in that envelope, between a 970 and a 1080ti, will do you nicely, and I wouldnt worry too much about the CPU being a bottle neck.

Used 1080's can be had fairly reasonably priced these days, that would probably be my recommendation.

 

[Veladarius]

I am running a 4k monitor with an i5 9600k (stock speed still), 16gb DDR4 ram and an AMD 590 w/ 8gb ram and have no issues maintaining 60 fps.

 

[AdmiralXanos]

I was running a i5 7600k, 16gb memory @ 3000MHz, Zotac GTX 1070.
which could handle 4K @ 60hz Max settings in space (no super sampling or down sampling) but had to keep the terrain work slider at midway to keep planetary flight smooth.

I upgraded to the RTX 2070 and play on the Rift max settings (no super sampling but I do have the HMD quality at 1.50) and again midway for terrain work slider.