That's wrong.
Max details will trump high resolution every time. Because 4K with no detail is still a picture with no detail.
And minor FYI, 60 fps at 4K is already happening. Maybe not across the board, but it's a thing.
Yeah, I've found this to pretty much never be the case. Higher res has always trumped higher settings for me.That's wrong.
Max details will trump high resolution every time. Because 4K with no detail is still a picture with no detail.
And minor FYI, 60 fps at 4K is already happening. Maybe not across the board, but it's a thing.
That's wrong.
Max details will trump high resolution every time. Because 4K with no detail is still a picture with no detail.
I would rather have high quality textures, draw distances, and effects at 1080p than medium textures, draw distances, and effects at 4K.
Yeah, I've found this to pretty much never be the case. Higher res has always trumped higher settings for me.
You can have high quality textures at 4K. Textures are probably the single least taxing area of graphical focus to turn up; they only really impact VRAM, and if you're gaming at 4K, you should have at least 4 GB which is enough for high textures in almost any game out today (a notable exception would be Shadow of Mordor, but good luck spotting the difference between High and Ultra, especially if High is being rendered at four times the resolution). Shaders and LOD have a far greater impact on performance, so you generally need to turn those down at higher resolutions, yes, but not textures.
Again, that wasn't the question. 4K MEDIUM, or 1080p HIGH. And then you go and throw in high setting textures to 4K. I understand that they only cost VRAM. I also understand that there's no real difference in the textures at 1080p or 4K. I don't need that information repeated.
Well then let's focus on Crysis 3, the game the OP specifically mentioned. Here's Crysis 3 at Medium: here it is at Very High. Now there's obviously better IQ in the second screenshot in terms of LOD and Ambient Occlusion, no question. But I have a feeling that if you had two similar-sized monitors side by side, one running Medium at native 4K and the other running Very High at native 1080P, the vast majority of people will identify the Medium one as having better quality.
Well then let's focus on Crysis 3, the game the OP specifically mentioned. Here's Crysis 3 at Medium: here it is at Very High. Now there's obviously better IQ in the second screenshot in terms of LOD and Ambient Occlusion, no question. But I have a feeling that if you had two similar-sized monitors side by side, one running Medium at native 4K and the other running Very High at native 1080P, the vast majority of people will identify the Medium one as having better quality. Resolution matters. Would you suggest someone would have better IQ playing at 800x600 with max details over 1600x1200 with medium details?
I prefer gaming at 1080P with max details because I do like the ambiance that is evoked through things like ambient occlusion, light shafts, soft shadows and shader effects; I'd personally opt for ultra water quality over just about any other graphical improvement because I'm a sucker for realistic water effects. But the reality is that the crispness offered by 4K, even without all the bells and whistles, is generally going to be more visually striking than subtle improvements gained through special effects. If you don't have a 4K monitor, it's hard to demonstrate; it's like when they advertised Blu-ray on old DVDs but they literally could not show you the actual resolution Blu-ray ran at so they had to simulate it. It's basically like saying "ok, now imagine everything you're looking at is twice as sharp." But when you get a chance to see it in person, it's really striking.
Again, that wasn't the question. 4K MEDIUM, or 1080p HIGH. And then you go and throw in high setting textures to 4K. I understand that they only cost VRAM. I also understand that there's no real difference in the textures at 1080p or 4K. I don't need that information repeated.
It's not like I think high settings at 4K is worse. I'm simply answering the question as asked. Medium is medium. If OP wanted a better discussion, they could chime in and elaborate.
Also, there is no difference between High and Ultra. Ultra is just extra caching. It's been like that.
The native resolution of the monitor is more important than anything else. A 4k monitor is going to look like crap at 1080p, unless scaling has come a long way in the past few years and I was not aware.
If you're considering between buying two different monitors (or TVs) at 1080p or 4k, my bet is that 1080p maxed is going to look better. Remember that there's more to it than just pixels - shadow quality, reflections, fancy lighting, etc. You're going to have to turn those details down at 4k.
4k scaling to 1080p should be 100% unnoticeable. It's a direct 4:1 pixel match.
You have to read the context of the question. Or the spirit of the question. The question the OP really posed is what is better, "4K at reduced settings or 1080p at maxed settings". The question for him is whether it is worth getting a 4K monitor and reduce some settings or stick with 1080p and play maxed.
From my experience, games that really push the limits of a GPU, tend to look good at medium and high settings with little loss in IQ. I remember playing Metro 2033 at medium to play with 3D Vision at a solid 60 FPS. When comparing medium to maxed, there was very little lost in IQ, yet the typical game, which has no issues with FPS, you might see a large difference.
If you are going to be using a 980ti, you should be happy with 4K, as long as you will reduce the settings as needed, but I'd personally go 1440p @ 144hz.
Your subjective opinion is just that, subjective. In many games, the ones that would force you to use medium on a 980ti, I completely disagree with you. In games which you can maintain 60 FPS at high or very high, then medium may look worse.
And this statement of fact takes physics and draw distances and filtering into account, I'm sure. Because seeing 50 feet in front of you with pop-in as you play is better than draw distances of effectively forever because textures trump all.4K with Ultra Textures and Low/Medium effects no AA is better than 1080P Maxed with High AA.