Which GFX card would be good for these monitors?

[Munster]

I currently have a AMD hd7950 Boost 2gb and gaming at 1920x1080.

I'm looking at upgrading to a:

• LG 34" UM65 2560 x 1080 (21:9)
• LG 34" UM95 3440 x 1440 (21:9)
• Samsung 28" U28D590 3840×2160 (16:9)

So, I'm guessing that the 7950 would struggle. I could choose a gtx 770 2gb, I know 4gb will be better (with free Watch_Dogs), or some other 3gb AMD gpu.

Advice welcome.

 

[Dicehunter]

For 4K 2GB is not enough !!!

You will need 2 fast cards like 780 Ti's in SLI.

But if your getting the 2560x1080 from LG then a single 770/780 should be great, Get the best you can afford

 

[LynxGb]

What will you be using it for? Gaming, videos etc?

 

[Meladath]

For 4K 2GB is not enough !!!

You will need 2 fast cards like 780 Ti's in SLI.

But if your getting the 2560x1080 from LG then a single 770/780 should be great, Get the best you can afford

This a pretty extreme comment. You only need 2 780Ti's in SLI for 4K if you expect to play crysis 3 at maximum with 4xAA or something like that. A 7950 should handle the majority of games made before 2013 at high at 4K and most games made after at medium at least.

I remember seeing that a single 280X can play most things at 4K at high/maximum settings at 60FPS. It's only if you expect to be playing the very newest games at the very highest settings you have to worry about 4K really.

Something like a 7950 could actually handle a hell of a lot at that resolution assuming you are willing to play the settings down in accordance with the games you are playing.

On the other side, if he DOES expect to play crysis 3 at maximum at the resolutions hes talking about, then yeah, he needs a lot more power.

Personally OP I would wait a while to see how the market goes if you expect to play at resolutions like those, and then upgrade both your GPU and your monitor at the same time. Your GPU right now isn't amazing for those resolutions, and all the monitors with the resolutions you have stated are all quite expensive now, however the prices of 4K are dropping a hell of a lot, and the next generation of GPU's will be much much better price/performance for 4K playing than anything now.


However, if you are willing to upgrade both right away and you absolutely want a new monitor/GPU right now, I would go 4k and either an R9 280X or an R9 290, at high resolutions at low prices nvidia trails to AMD equivalents because of memory size + bandwidths of most nvidia cards, its only the nvidia flagships that can contend with AMD flagships for high resolutions really. If you have more of a budget go for an R9 290, best high performance price/performance card.

 

[theDTP]

Something with 4GB as BF4 uses 2.3GB on a single 1080p. Single 7950 at 4k is going to be painful.

 

[Kushiro]

to be honest your only real options are the following:

AMD:
- 290x
- 290
- 295x2
- 280x
- 7990

Nvidia:
- Titan
- Titan Black
- Titan Z...
- GTX 780ti 3GB
- GTX 780 3GB
- GTX 790?
- GTX 690 2x2GB

Note that the ones highlighted are ones that I would have trouble reconmending, due to barely sufficient memory, bandwidth, not yet released or requiring SLI/CFX just to run a game decently at 4K (295x2, Titan z and 790 are exceptions ), though 3GB would be fine for just one 4K monitor, note that by fine I mean it will work...

It would be much easier to provide advice if you could perhaps provide us with a budget and/or whether or how long you would like the GPU(s) to theoretically last for.

Also there are supposed to be 780ti's with larger memory due to be released if I remember correctly, however I would honestly recommend that you wait if you can, as this gen of GPU arent really anything worthwhile.

If you purchase the most expensive and powerful GPU, namely the R9 295x2 or the Titan Z (delayed) they will be overtaken by the next gen cards that are due to be released hopefully by the end of the year, and if you go for value cards like the r9 290, your electricity usage is simply going to make that savings disappear, especially compared to Maxwell (unless of course you get free electricity)

There are definitely flaws in my post though lol, anyways good luck with your upgrade, I was recently deciding whether or not to move to 4k myself, however decided to put it off for a while.

 

[Dicehunter]

4K at the moment is just not worth it, You will have to turn quite a few settings down and the overall experience wont be that good.

Yeah sure you'll have a nice high resolution screen but all the details will have to be turned down to actually be able to get playable frame rates so it's just not worth it at this moment in time.

 

[jameyscott]

I'll throw my opinion in here. If you have the money to upgrade both at the same time, I'd suggest getting the monitor first, and if you can't play the games you like at the settings you want, look into a 290 or above.

Sadly, for those kind of resolutions, if you plan on playing the latest and greatest, crossfire or SLI is pretty much required. Luckily, you have an 850w PSU, so pretty much any sli or crossfire set up will be just fine unless you try to push the cards with an overclocked processor.

 

[Kushiro]

For the grunt the OP will need to run 4k, 850W aint gonna cut it lol

 

[Damien c]

At the moment there really isn't a setup that will give 60fps solid with everything maxed out in every game out there, but it's getting close.

2x R9 290X's will cope with most games but seem to get out performed by 2 780Ti's in most games, according to the video I have seen.

The Titan Blacks cope better than the 780Ti's and 290X's, but only in the minimum frame rate and are pretty much only a couple of frames ahead in terms of average.

As Tom has not done a video on 4K with a gpu round up, this is one that Paul did from Paulshardware.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA2pfk_L9dU

It's quite interesting to see that as long as you have at least 2 cards you can run most games at the max settings and, have it be playable just like the old days when Crysis 1 came out and most people, played with a frame rate of around 28fps or at least I did anyway.

I am going to be looking at getting a 4K screen within the next couple of months, and if some games need a few settings turning down then so be it but the other advantage to a 4K screen is that, if I wanted to keep the details turned up I could always just lower the resolution in the game to 1600p or 1440p, until the cards come out that will cope with 4K alot better such as the 900 series from Nvidia and possibly the 3/400 series from AMD.