Been out of the game a while - Card for 1440p 120hz?

Joined
May 2, 2006
Messages
565
I'm looking to upgrade in the near future and I haven't been paying a lot of attention. It seems like the 1070 8gb is the best reasonably priced option. My worry with the RX480 is that it wont' have the staying power at high resolution. I've heard rumors of AMD dropping higher end cards some time this spring, but not sure if it's worth the wait. Looking for something for general gaming (BF1 & 4, Rust, Rocket League - gotta have them FPSs for that one!). I don't really NEED the card, but I feel like upgrading and want something that will last a couple generations.

Current rig is in my signature.
 
My 1070 struggles with 1080p 144Hz in most games, unless I turn down a few of the worst eye candies. Can't imagine a 1080 coping with maxed out games at 1080p/120FPS, much less 1440p.
 
Last edited:
since you mention rocket league specifically, my old 980ti would run at a constant 144fps with everything turned up. Not a hard game to run IMO.
 
I do not see 1080 maintaining that 120FPS at 1440p thing for very long. It can struggle at that resolution in some games already.
 
I do not see 1080 maintaining that 120FPS at 1440p thing for very long. It can struggle at that resolution in some games already.

It's definitely not struggling anywhere, but certainly doesn't provide 120 fps in every game on highest settings.
 
I dunno, WD2 is beating the hell out of pretty much all hardware right now

When the game is not optimized - it doesn't matter. And still you can get around 60 fps with 1080 at 1440p with almost everything at max. Which is fine for this broken game.
 
It's definitely not struggling anywhere, but certainly doesn't provide 120 fps in every game on highest settings.
I own one and for certain modem games i cannot crank everything up as far as I like. And i was speaking to maintaining 120fps in everything.

Edit. Mine is clocked at 2.1 ghz as well, although during gaming i often see 2066mhz.
 
I do not see 1080 maintaining that 120FPS at 1440p thing for very long. It can struggle at that resolution in some games already.
Yeah.
To me it also seems you need a Pascal Titan these days even for 1440p and sustaining high fps while using the higher game options (specifically those 'next gen' AAA multi-platform ones).
Imagine what AAA games are going to be like in another 6-8 months.
Seems the best optimised games with max settings are around 100fps these day on a custom AIB Nvidia 1080, the poor optimised games (can also be down to post processing options being greater than designed with console) and down in the 60-80s.

On a positive the Nvidia 1080 will still look better than consoles when options are lowered to achieve 100+ range.
Cheers
 
Last edited:
Yeah.
To me it also seems you need a Pascal Titan these days even for 1440p and sustaining high fps while using the higher game options (specifically those 'next gen' AAA multi-platform ones).
Imagine what AAA games are going to be like in another 6-8 months.
Seems the best optimised games with max settings are around 100fps these day on a custom AIB Nvidia 1080, the poor optimised games (can also be down to post processing options being greater than designed with console) and down in the 60-80s.

On a positive the Nvidia 1080 will still look better than consoles when options are lowered to achieve 100+ range.
Cheers
Exactly. I enjoy all my games but I'm not ever getting quoted as saying I'm hitting 120 fps in everything.
 
All of those cards are fine at 1440p, but you might have to turn down the settings, depending on the game. IMO, chasing the highest settings is never worth it, because the next game around the corner will put the max settings out of reach again. So pick a card in your budget, settings that look good, and move on with it. The 120 Hz/FPS is often CPU bound.
 
I currently own an EVGA 1080 and the Dell S2716DG (1440p 144hz Gsync) and it's a great combo IMO. If a game is not optimized well, my (and everyone else's) FPS will suffer, not much you can do about that (other then go buy a Titan...), but if it is well optimized (Witcher 3 for example) It ran so smoothly! I was getting between 85-115 fps in a majority of the areas in the game, sometimes higher. All settings maxed with hairworks off. 0 complaints here, the game looked stunning.

In RL, I get around 230-250 depending on the map. GTAV was around 70-80 fps in most areas, sometimes dipping down to the 60's outside of town in certain spots with 2x-4x AA (kept going back and forth, never settled on one, and honestly, I don't think I ever got that game really dialed in, I'd say my results are an outlier). Killing Floor 2, maxed everything, 90 when zeds are are all over the place, in between rounds it jumps up to 135-140 fps.

All said and done, I was very happy with this $1300 combo and continue to be.
 
Last edited:
My Gigabyte Gtx 98p G1 still does that just fine. Granted I got a golden die card, and have it stable 24/7 at 1704 core, default memory with its boost setting disabled through a custom bios I made. But pretty much a Gtx 980 ti will still do this, but no reason not to spend money on a newer card, even some of the 1070s will do that without breaking a sweat.
 
I currently own an EVGA 1080 and the Dell S2716DG (1440p 144hz Gsync) and it's a great combo IMO.

I got the exact same combo and I agree, you'll want Gsync or ULMB or both to really appreciate the power of a card like the gtx1080 at 1440p.
 
All of those cards are fine at 1440p, but you might have to turn down the settings, depending on the game. IMO, chasing the highest settings is never worth it, because the next game around the corner will put the max settings out of reach again. So pick a card in your budget, settings that look good, and move on with it. The 120 Hz/FPS is often CPU bound.
Honestly, I'm 100% on board with this. I guess I should have been more specific, but I have no need to max every setting in every game just to say I did it. I'm mostly concerned with texture and post processing quality (although I always turn off DOF and Motion Blur). With most games right now, I would rather have the higher frame rates than having AA, so I'm used to playing without AA turned on at all. At 1440p it's not really an issue in most games.
 
I'm an AA junkie playing a lot of older MMO's that are showing their age. Not sure who even enables motion blur anymore, except maybe in a racing Game?
 
Honestly, I'm 100% on board with this. I guess I should have been more specific, but I have no need to max every setting in every game just to say I did it. I'm mostly concerned with texture and post processing quality (although I always turn off DOF and Motion Blur). With most games right now, I would rather have the higher frame rates than having AA, so I'm used to playing without AA turned on at all. At 1440p it's not really an issue in most games.

Yup. If you're sticking with Nvidia, just use GFE to roll back settings until you get the performance you're looking for. You can do that with your 780 today; moving up to a 1070 (what I'd recommend) would mostly just be about boosting said settings considerably.

Also, having just moved off of a 2500k myself, I have to say that if you're chasing higher framerates, it's time to move on. You're not going to get consistently higher framerates regardless of settings- missing hyperthreading is one part of the equation, and lower RAM speeds is another, when talking about limiting frame dips that stand out glaringly when playing at 100FPS+.
 
Yup. If you're sticking with Nvidia, just use GFE to roll back settings until you get the performance you're looking for. You can do that with your 780 today; moving up to a 1070 (what I'd recommend) would mostly just be about boosting said settings considerably.

Also, having just moved off of a 2500k myself, I have to say that if you're chasing higher framerates, it's time to move on. You're not going to get consistently higher framerates regardless of settings- missing hyperthreading is one part of the equation, and lower RAM speeds is another, when talking about limiting frame dips that stand out glaringly when playing at 100FPS+.
You're saying that upgrading from a 2500K to a newer processor is a good idea if I'm reading this correctly? My plan is to upgrade to a 6600k while I'm at it.
 
My recommendation aside from my replies below is to wait until Zen and Vega have their effects on the market. Your current rig is decent.

And, while you're throwing money at the GPU down the line, get a monitor the corresponds to the selected flavor's adaptive frame rate technology (G-Sync/FreeSync). Even if a game is killing your rig (as many future titles will if you're keeping the same build a while), it'll look decently smooth.

You're saying that upgrading from a 2500K to a newer processor is a good idea if I'm reading this correctly? My plan is to upgrade to a 6600k while I'm at it.

If you're already going this far, get the 6700k or 7700k. The hyperthreading and increased cache will help with some high demand tasks and futureproofing.

I got the exact same combo and I agree, you'll want Gsync or ULMB or both to really appreciate the power of a card like the gtx1080 at 1440p.

While I concur with the recommendation, there sadly is no simultaneous "both". G-Sync and ULMB are mutually exclusive as there's no way to predict the required duration of backlight. If it were somehow forced, it would result in some super painful flicker in situations of varying frame rates.

That said, I'm fairly sure if a monitor has G-Sync, it also has the ULMB option....

For OP's benefit, and expanding KIAman's recommendation: If I'm playing something that is easy on the GPU (OP Mentioned Rocket League, which is where I do this), then go with ULMB. If you're doing something graphically intensive, then ULMB can cause some double rendering of individual frames that actually looks worse. That's when I switch over to G-Sync, and enjoy the smoothness.
 
Get the CPU with Hyperthreading.

Really.

It will help keep things smooth in the background, and it will give you more longevity.

When we bought our 2500k's, this wasn't the case; HT did very little for games, and sometimes hurt. But the quick thing you learn is this: benchmarks are done in austere operating environments, but we don't game (well, most of us) in those environments, and so even if a game doesn't benefit from HT, your system will, by using it to keep background stuff from taking over a core and stalling the engine for fewer hiccups.

And you'll notice them at higher FPS!
 
I'd wait and see what Zen is all about before thinking about a CPU upgrade, honestly. Zen looks to be disruptive, at least in the mainstream market.
 
Yeah I've been Intel for awhile now since I got tired of cracking Athalon cores back in the day, but damn thanks to Kyle and the gang showing us the pencil trick, those were good times. Kinda tempted to see what AMD can finally bring to the table, be nice if it really is worth buying, to add competition back to the market.
 
If you're wanting to get something now then go with a GTX 1070 which is what I'm currently using at 1440p and it's able to do most everything maxed over 100fps. If you can wait a bit for the 1080Ti to drop then grab a GTX 1080 when those prices plummet. Right now the 1080 isn't the best price to performance ratio like the 1070 is.
 
As an Amazon Associate, HardForum may earn from qualifying purchases.
At 3440x1440 the 1070 was good but even 60 fps is hard to maintain in a number of games at max settings -> SLI which for games it works in is great.
 
We have similar systems, so I'll toss in my $0.02

I'm waiting a few more months to upgrade. Like you, I don't NEED to upgrade now. The only strenuous game I play is TW3 and it gets acceptable framerates (35 - 50 fps) at high settings on my 780 Classified. The rest of desktop work is fine with the 3770k

I want to see what Vega and Ryzen have to offer before I drop serious cash building a new system. Nothing worse than jumping the gun only for prices to drop later, or something much better to come out a few weeks down the line.

If you do decide to upgrade now, just get the 1080. If you only upgrade every few years, you might as well spend a little more coin to get better performance and a bigger margin.
 
When the game is not optimized - it doesn't matter. And still you can get around 60 fps with 1080 at 1440p with almost everything at max. Which is fine for this broken game.
Game isn't broken for me and at fully maxed out settings I'm hitting 44 to 60fps at below 4K resolution.
 
I just replaced my Gigabyte 980ti G1 Gaming with a Titan XP and am using a 1440p, 144hz monitor. Most titles now run around or over 144 fps. So I could say for certain a Titan would work for you. However, the cost is exceedingly high.

Alternatively, I have a 980ti for sale ;)
 
I just replaced my Gigabyte 980ti G1 Gaming with a Titan XP and am using a 1440p, 144hz monitor. Most titles now run around or over 144 fps. So I could say for certain a Titan would work for you. However, the cost is exceedingly high.

Alternatively, I have a 980ti for sale ;)

Buy a second Titan XP :D
 
To mimic the voice of the crowd wait for the new amd cpu to maybe disrupt the 7600k pricing and maybe just maybe the rumored 1080ti or Vega will drop the 1070s to a decent price point. With all that though I would personally look at the best bang for the buck when you get there, which right now is probably the 1070gtx for $350 and the 6700 or 7700k. I think though Nvidia is smart with channel control and amd has a long road to be competitive.
 
I have the dell 27" 144 Gsync, a 6700k @ 4.6, and a 1070 slightly OC'd, this is the closest to gaming heaven I have ever had. If the card can't hit 100Hz (which I have it set to), then the gsync just smoothes it out. It is truly beautiful.
 
you should buy GTX 1080 for 1440p @120.

i'm using acer predator x34 ( 3440x1440 @100Hz ) with ASUS GTX 1080 Strix. and getting near 100 fps in Battlefield 1. :)
 
Back
Top