Videocard Needed to push 1080 to 55" 120hz LCD?

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XvMMvX

[H]ard|Gawd
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Jan 13, 2005
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Anybody have any recomendations on what Videocard I would need to push 1080P to a TV of that size?

I do not play many games on PC, mostly older stuff, BF2, might try some COD4 with keyboard and mouse. I do a lot of emulation NES all the way to tinkering with PS2. I will be playing SC2 and Diablo 3 if I still have this PC when they come out. I do not mind lowering settings and tinkering as long as I can stay at 1080P, might try 720P if I really wanted to play the game.

PC will be an i7 with 4gbs of ram running win7, was going to get a GTX 260 as it seems it would suffice but wanted to get you guys thoughts. I have thought about SLi but dont know if I want to take on that headache, not much of a tweaker anymore...I like plug and play.

edit: Money is not an issue but I am not going to waste it on something I do not need.
 
first thing i would do is get 6gb ram kit instead of 4. that way your still running triple channel.
 
you wont be pushing 120hz, the "120hz" TVs receive a 60hz signal, and through frame interpolation refresh @ 120hz

either way you need 1080p 60hz which anything in the $100-$150 range would be more then enough, currently a 4870 1GB is $150, a GTX 260 is about $170 and a 4890 is about $200

(canadian prices)
 
first thing i would do is get 6gb ram kit instead of 4. that way your still running triple channel.
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Good catch, didn't even realize it, making the change.
 
1920x1080 is exactly the same whether the screen is 15 or 155 inches. Pretty much any mainstream card will work well.
 
1920x1080 is exactly the same whether the screen is 15 or 155 inches. Pretty much any mainstream card will work well.
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Question, why do I see people here on the forum talk about needing better video card/sli etc. to go from a 22" to a 30"?
 
XvMMvX said:
Question, why do I see people here on the forum talk about needing better video card/sli etc. to go from a 22" to a 30"?
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They are talking about computer monitors and not tv screens. There is a difference going from 22" (1680 x 1050) to 30" (2560 x 1600) on a computer screen than going from a 40" TV LCD 1080p (1920 x 1080) to a 60" 1080p (still 1920 x 1080).
 
XvMMvX said:
Question, why do I see people here on the forum talk about needing better video card/sli etc. to go from a 22" to a 30"?
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Because 30inchers have a resolution standard of 2560x1600 which is offers a much higher pixel density than 1080p. Size matters not in terms displays for it is the resolution that merits the extra horsepower. A 30in @ 2560x1600 will be much more difficult to render than a 200in 1080p screen.
 
Size is not what matters, pixels are what matter. A 30" Computer Display is (as already posted) 2560x1600 pixels or 4,096,000 total pixels. On the other hand a normal 22" has a resolution of 1680x1050 or 1,764,000 pixels, well under half that of the 30". The 1080p tv's that you see advertised are very close to the 22" resolution with 1920x1080 pixels or 2,073,600 pixels. As of right now this is the highest mainstream TV resolution used.
 
gtx260 or 4870 is more than enough for ur needs.
you can even get away with a 4850
 
I would recommend a GTX260 or 4870 as a minimum, although a 4890 or GTX275 would be preferred. Those would allow you to run maximum or near-maximum settings in most games at 1080p.
 
When playing games on a 120Hz HDTV don't forget to switch it back to 60Hz otherwise you will experience increased input lag.

In 120Hz mode HDTV electronic creates an interpolated frame for every two actual frames and inserts the newly created frame in between the two real frames. This "improves" image quality and smoothness. But will increase input lag for games.
 
XvMMvX said:
Question, why do I see people here on the forum talk about needing better video card/sli etc. to go from a 22" to a 30"?
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to rephrase what the others have said you can look at as how many dots have to be pushed, a 22" is 1.7mp, a 24 - 28 is 2.3mp (for a 10:16 screen) and a 30" is 4mp. so going to a 30" is going to require the video card handle almost twice as many pixels as a 24"
 
My Evga GTX 260 runs my games on my 1920x1200 monitor just fine. Diablo 3 and Starcraft 2 will most likely run great, I think the most demanding game the op lists is COD4 and the GTX 260 has no problem with that.

btw I'm running on a stock Q6600. But what I would also recommend that the op get a video card with a native HDMI port...instead of a DVI->HDMI adapter.
 
as long as his mother board supports spdif with a 2 pin connector and he gets a video card that comes with a DVI to HDMI adapter then it will be just as good as a single HDMI to start with.
 
When playing games on a 120Hz HDTV don't forget to switch it back to 60Hz otherwise you will experience increased input lag.

In 120Hz mode HDTV electronic creates an interpolated frame for every two actual frames and inserts the newly created frame in between the two real frames. This "improves" image quality and smoothness. But will increase input lag for games.
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Can you turn it off? I am glad you mentioned this because this may be affecting my buying decision.
 
^^^
Yes it can be turned off in most HDTVs and they may even offer a "Game Mode" which mean it will be set to 60Hz.

For example, I am currently evaluating the LG 47LH90, there are various modes to set the picture to which includes "THX", "Movie" and "Game". In the advanced options there is something called "Tru-Motion" (if I remember correctly) which has the following settings:

- Off => 60Hz
- Low => 120Hz
- High => "240Hz Tru-Motion" - Basically 120Hz + backlight strobing for this particular HDTV. It is not a true 240Hz HDTV.

True 240Hz HDTVs inserts 3 interpolated frames in between every two actual frames, thus increasing input lag even more.
 
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Smiththers2 said:
as long as his mother board supports spdif with a 2 pin connector and he gets a video card that comes with a DVI to HDMI adapter then it will be just as good as a single HDMI to start with.
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On paper, but from my experience keeping things simple is the best way to go.
 
kuyaglen said:
On paper, but from my experience keeping things simple is the best way to go.
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no doubt, but you still might need to run that 2 pin on a card that has HDMI built in. i have no [H]ard evidence on this because i havnt used one though.
 
Smiththers2 said:
no doubt, but you still might need to run that 2 pin on a card that has HDMI built in. i have no [H]ard evidence on this because i havnt used one though.
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That's with nVidia cards only (you need to connect the SPDIF to the card and then it'll pass the audio over HDMI). Current-gen ATI cards have native HDMI audio passthrough over the PCI-E bus.
 
Just picked up a 24" monitor yesterday (1920x1200) and my GTX260 runs everything maxed fine. Nice and smooth. I'd imagine a 4870 or 260 (or higher) would be fine.
 
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