What resolution do you feel your graphics card performs best at?

Peter_Brosdahl

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I think most of us have either wondered, read a review, or at least read someone posting a question like "will xxxx card run xxxx game at xxxx resolution?". Of course, trick question is "how many frames per second" does a user consider acceptable. For me it's usually a minimum of 60 fps with those occasional 45-55 dips and most happy at 80-110+.

I spend a lot of time reading card reviews even after I bought said card I keep reading them just to see other people's experiences with them. I also regularly bench different games on different rigs just to see how things are faring. I've found that most cards generally like a specific resolution.

Post your experiences. Doesn't matter what side of the fence and please don't turn in this thread into let's bash each other because of what brand or gen we like or don't like. I believe every card, or most, can have a sweet spot. Sure CPU's, and other factors, can have a major impact on the goal but generally speaking most cards will have that sweet spot no matter how fast the rest of the rig is.
 
It will also depend what display you use for what res you prefer.
My 1080ti is awesome at 1080p, great at 1440p and some games are good at 4K.
I'm using a low lag Samsung UHD QLED TV which does 1440p @ 120Hz and looks pretty good.
Its a real tossup between 1440p and UHD.
Racing games always get 1440p120 though, it really helps.
 
All depends on settings, I guess ideally 1440P for my 1080 but I'm using it at 4K. Sometimes I use 3200x1800 or 2880x1620 if I need more FPS.
 
All depends on settings, I guess ideally 1440P for my 1080 but I'm using it at 4K. Sometimes I use 3200x1800 or 2880x1620 if I need more FPS.

That's interesting about you mentioning 3200x1800. What inspired me to create this thread was John P. at DSOG saying how he thought that 3325x1871 was great for the 2080TI. Not sure how he got that number but it got me thinking how we each 'tune' our settings with different resolutions for different needs. Want the faster frames then it's usually dropping it a bit. Want as much eye candy as possible and something normally has to be compromised.
 
It will also depend what display you use for what res you prefer

Man that is such an understatement. I've had to cut myself off from buying displays every time I read about one that checks certain feature boxes and recently the one's I'd really like cost more than the rigs they'd be attached to. I've been truly amazed how upgrading displays can make rig feel brand new, but then sometimes expose the limitations of a rig. I'd really like a 1440p/144hz/G-Sync/HDR1000/99% Adobe RGB that doesn't cost an arm and a leg at this point.
 
Man that is such an understatement. I've had to cut myself off from buying displays every time I read about one that checks certain feature boxes and recently the one's I'd really like cost more than the rigs they'd be attached to. I've been truly amazed how upgrading displays can make rig feel brand new, but then sometimes expose the limitations of a rig. I'd really like a 1440p/144hz/G-Sync/HDR1000/99% Adobe RGB that doesn't cost an arm and a leg at this point.
Yeah, I went through that a lot.
I'm golden until HDMI 2.1 displays and new tech that uses it has settled, this QLED is so good.
I'm waiting for micro LED to hit sizes under 100" at decent prices, then I'll have the screen I always wanted.
OLED has stalled unfortunately, they have to decrease quality to attain high enough brightness for HDR.
And it still suffers burn in problems.
I want no worries if I'm going to put serious cash down for a display.
 
OLED has stalled unfortunately, they have to decrease quality to attain high enough brightness for HDR.
That had a play in a large series of upgrades I did last winter which pretty much completed the 'cave's' 4k upgrade.
1. 2080TI-To escape SLI madness, finally have a fairly solid 4k gaming experience, and get a decent taste of RT and happy to say it's achieved all those goals. Spent more than I ever have on a card but don't regret even though I question my sanity at this point.
2. 65" Sony Z9D-It was my dream t.v. and finally got a good deal thru BB when they price matched Amazon during some significant price drops($2k) back in November. I was weighing getting something with OLED but happy I got this. In terms of brightness, colors, quality, it's blown away every other display I've ever owned. Only real limitations are 60hz, response time. Here's the review from rtings. Turning off some stuff helped with motion blur issues and the response is pretty good. It's become the reference t.v. for movies and gaming has raised the bar to a whole new level. The Samsung's were a very, very, close second as I've read many good gaming reviews but we watch a lot of movies on this too. It got software updates adding DolbyVision thru streaming in the new year.
3. This madness from NewEgg which at the time was on sale and with a $200 gift card. Been patching hi-fi stereos to v.c.r's and computers since I was a kid and got into 6.1 systems around 10-13 years ago. Read the specs and decided this was much more than just a 'in a box' setup. High end could be a little better, remote is functional but not as complex as their normal ones, but otherwise it's been great. That's my review on it.

Back to topic. BTW I usually game with V-sync on. Sure it's a resource hog but screen tearing for me can wreck immersion just as much as low frames per second.

1. 2080TI: Rocks most newer games at highest settings at 4k/60hz with occasional dips. Older games are 70-90 fps. Using DLSS at 4k for RT has been a nice combo but depending on the game or section I might turn them off if the dips get too low. I've done some testing hooking up the 1440p monitor to it and it was almost overkill but for those really wanting 120-160 fps all the time, with highest settings, it will do it. It was also the first time I saw my 4930k @ 4.3GHZ really hitting 70-80% usage in gaming. I figure that's a good indicator that when I do finally have a card that can hit 120+ fps in 4k I'm going to need to upgrade this rig.

2. 1080TI: I got it for 1440p and that's pretty much what it's succeeded with. Rarely, if ever, see it go below 60 fps and usually averages 70-110+ for demanding games in 1440p. This is paired to a 2600k @ 4.2 Ghz and recently I'm seeing regular peaks in the 70-90% range with newer games. This is the rig I'm currently in early stages to upgrade to something AMD in the next 12-18 months.

3. Don't use these any more but have 2x 1080's which were my previous 4k solution with the 4930k. Problem was that their v-ram became an inhibiting factor for a number of games. I'd say they're happiest at a 1440p. They were replaced with the 2080TI. Edit: It's because of these that I've been recommending to people that have anything older or less than a 980 to get a 2080S for 1440p gaming. 8GB seems to be the sweet spot for vram at 1440p, it's more than needed for most games, and from there faster clocks and more cores really help.

4. Oddball rig that's mainly used for media management now. MSI GT80 Titan laptop w/ 2x 980m's. These 980m's are unusual critters in that they have 8GB DDR5 of vram. Slightly overclocked. The laptop came with a 60hz 1080p that is visually nice but for games that support SLI they easily go past. Using an active DP to dual DVI-D adapter I've got it connected to a 120hz Asus 27" 3d monitor. They will easily hold 50-60+ for even the most demanding games(SOTTR), Metro Exodus(had to watch a vid to learn how enable the bits for this one) with max settings. Witcher 3 will play 70-90 fps.

5. Honorable mention as my favorite past SLI. 2x G1 970's. Started at 1080p and crushed it holding 110-130fps back in the day. Moved up to 1440p and they dropped to 70-90 fps. Tried some 4k and with significant compromises held 35-45 fps. At one point paired with a SC 780 for PhysX and the few games that supported it managed 50-60 in 4k. For the money and performance these will likely always be the best deal I experienced. They were replaced with the 1080TI.
 
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Well, seeing as all my monitors are 1080p... I chose that :). Of course, my ultrawide is 2560x1080, so... That's the highest I need.

AMD rx570
2x rx560
Radeon Fury
 
My 2080Ti plays at 2560 X 1440 just fine. My 1080Ti does as well but hooked that PC up to my 4k TV and it does fairly well , but should be more suited for 2560 x 1440 or 1080P.
 
I've never been that fussed about resolution. I ran 1080 on a 27" for years and never had a problem with it. I'm at 1440 now on a 32" and it looks just as good.

My RTX 2070 FE handles 1440 just fine so far. My monitor only does 70 Hz but the 2070 has been able to maintain ~70 fps on all the games I've tried so far at max settings.

That said, I've actually considering going back to 1080 along the lines of a 27" 240 Hz panel. I do play Fortnite a lot as well as a little PUBG and while I'm nowhere near an elite or pro level gamer (actually I suck pretty bad) I still really like the smooth motion of 144+ fps and think that it's worth the trade off for a little less pixel density and at 1080, my 2070 can run most games well over 144 fps.
 
I run my 2080 at 1440p and generally all game settings maxed out and I'm happy with that. I'm keeping an eye out for a good deal on a free or gsync monitor about the same 27 inches I have now.
 
I have yet to find a game where my watercooled 1080ti won't give great performance at my main monitor's native resolution (2560x1440 at 144Hz). And having gsync helps if I should ever run into low-ish fps. So I never fiddle with the resolution in my games.
 
I have an older Asus 23" 1080p 144hz 1ms monitor .. sooooo ... 1080p :unsure:
 
This is kind of a ridiculous question. The GPU demand goes up with the resolution, but you will produce higher frame rates at lower resolutions. Obviously, there is a tipping point where the GPU is doing very little, but your frame rates will still go up. On the higher end of the spectrum, the GPU does more, but the FPS will drop with the increased demand.
 
With my ancient Radeon HD5770 I try to aim for 640x480@30fps but sometimes I have to drop down to 320x200...

:D
 
980Ti with a 1080p 144Hz monitor. It's a great combo, but I'm wanting to upgrade my GPU and move to a 1440p 144Hz IPS someday.
 
1920x1080 240+ frames as the goal and keep dips above 200 (if can't hit goal) using 240Hz IPS Monitor right now - I'd love to see video cards improve to be able to do 2560x1440 at 240+ frames.
 
1440p for the 5700 XT AE -> great frame rates with very high to maxed out settings.
1080Ti, the same

Vega's 1080p/1440p depending upon game

Have an ultrawide 3440x1440p, have not gamed on it lately but the 1080Ti did extremely well there.

As for 4K, not even the 1080Ti, unless the game SLI/mGPU well. As for 4K, I just want a 100hz+ HDR gaming monitor to begin with. FreeSync works extremely well but you need a sufficient monitor refresh rate band for it to work. Basically waiting for a 5K, DP2.0 120hz, HDR1000, FreeSync/Gsync compatible monitor to become available.
 
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