Sapphire 7870 XT for 1440p?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
RubberSalad

RubberSalad

Honorable
Apr 3, 2013
25
0
10,530
Hello, I'm looking to upgrade my monitor (currently at a 1680x1050 res) to a 1440p one. If i disable AA (which some people claim it's not entirely necessary at 1440p) will the performance drop be too much? Could i handle games like BF3/4 and titanfall?

My CPU is a FX-6300, i could overclock both if necessary (Already have a 212+ for the cpu anyway)
 
Solution
DarkSable
Of course, happy to help!

If you do play a lot of shooters, then a high refresh rate monitor is the way to go. It's going to feel like you're suddenly playing with cheat codes. :)
I don't think it's going to be absolutely necessary by any means, no. I currently have a GTX 650 in my media PC (which I'm using as my main computer while I overhaul my gaming rig), and as long as I remember to have reasonable expectations of it, it does perfectly fine with both 1440p or 120Hz while gaming. It can sustain a decent fps on medium, medium high settings at 1080p. (I only use my 1440p monitor for strategy games anymore, so I can't comment there.) The 7870 XT is considerably more powerful than that little thing, so I wouldn't expect you would need...
Sort by date Sort by votes
RubberSalad

RubberSalad

Honorable
Apr 3, 2013
25
0
10,530


The performance difference isn't that big between the two cards, if i were to aim for a new card i'd go for the 770-780 range
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DarkSable

DarkSable

Judicious
Sep 27, 2012
8,890
1
34,965
I have a 1440p monitor, and I can tell you that you're still going to want AA. Yes, you can do without it, but it's still going to make a noticeable difference.

First of all, don't buy a new card yet. That would just be kind of foolish. Go buy the monitor, and overclock your CPU and graphics card. See if it makes a difference in if your games are enjoyable. If you can't get acceptable performance, well, you have lots of options. You can run the games in 1080p, if you wanted, or you could upgrade your graphics card.

Let me also just throw out there a couple points... I have a 1440p monitor and a 120hz, 1080p one. Both are flagship items, not budget monitors. I find myself using the 120Hz monitor far, far more than the 1440p one, because the refresh rate is noticeable, and the smaller size is actually much nicer for doing office work with. When I play games on the 1440p monitor, I notice the 60Hz refresh rate, and because it's an IPS monitor, the colors are actually worse than the 120Hz monitor when the brightness of each is set to very low, which I have it at, since I mostly game at night.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RubberSalad

RubberSalad

Honorable
Apr 3, 2013
25
0
10,530


Hmmm, I'm not a 100% sure but I'm pretty sure maintaining 1440p/60fps is much easier than 1080p/120fps, performance wise. I'm still unsure because i have yet to find a 1440p benchmark with my card. I've only found one but the guy had an APU and that's a bit of a bottleneck. Wont 1080p in a 27" monitor would look too "stretched"? But it seems my best bet is to go with a regular IPS-1080p monitor. Dunno if i will see a big improvement from my current resolution.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
K

KieranDavidW123

Honorable
Apr 28, 2013
532
1
11,060


Overclocking his GPU would provide no performance increase, maximum optimal resolution depends on the memory interface.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DarkSable

DarkSable

Judicious
Sep 27, 2012
8,890
1
34,965



...sure, if it were the VRAM bandwidth that was holding him back. (Which overclocking would help with anyways, by increasing said bandwidth.)

And how in the world would you think that overclocking wouldn't provide performance increase? That's nonsense - of course it provides a performance increase; it's not like the 7870 XT is powerful enough to chug through 3.5 million pixels without sweat.

The only time what you say would be true is if the VRAM were too small to act as a frame buffer - so small that it was prohibiting any further performance. That might be true if it were a 1GB card we were talking about, but 2GB is more than enough for 1440p.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DarkSable

DarkSable

Judicious
Sep 27, 2012
8,890
1
34,965


It's really not much easier. 1080p at 120fps is 1,920 x 1,080 x 120, or 2,073,600 (number of pixels in a 1080p frame) x 120 (number of frames per second) which equals 248,832,000 pixels per second.

1440p at 60fps is 2,560 x 1,440 x 60, or 3,686,400 (number of pixels in a 1440p frame) x 60 (number of frames per second) which equals 221,184,000 pixels per second.

That's really not that big of a difference - it's only 1/9th harder (11%) to keep a game at 120fps at 1080p than it is to run it at 60fps but 1440p.


Now, as for 1080p in a 27" monitor, it won't look "stretched," per say, but the pixels will be a bit bigger, and so you might want to sit a little further away. (I sometimes run my 1440p, 27" monitor at 1080p when it's hooked to my media PC, and there isn't that big of a difference in quality between it and a native 1080p monitor when the larger size is adjusted for.)

I strongly, strongly suggest you avoid a regular IPS monitor. They have a number of issues, including input latency, backlight bleeding, low response times, horrible colors when the brightness is turned low (i.e. if you were gaming at night), they run hotter and are many times more likely to suffer from noticeable coil whine.

If you want a nice monitor upgrade, go for it... if you tend to play mostly strategy games, mmos, more casual racing games, or other games where reflexes aren't as much of an issue, the 1440p monitor is a great option.

If you want smoothness, an incredible refresh rate, an advantage in shooters or twitch games, go with a 120Hz monitor. I would also strongly, strongly recommend getting the Asus G-sync monitor. You can't use it with your AMD card, no, but when you upgrade, it'll be there waiting for you. The reason G-sync is so desirable is that it perform's vertical sync's job of removing screen tearing without the issues of input lag or the requirement of factors of 60.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
RubberSalad

RubberSalad

Honorable
Apr 3, 2013
25
0
10,530

Thanks for all your help. I play a lot of FPSs so 120hz is definetly a plus. And I'm not really planing to upgrade becasue i just built this pc in July and seems way too soon, i just said i would if it were absolutely necessary.

I've been thinking about it and i think i'll go for a 1080p 120hz monitor. Seems like a win-win situation for me. If i can't hit 120fps there really isn't no problem, but i play a lot of shooters in which i can achieve 120fps (Like CS:GO).

Any recommendations for a 1080p-120hz monitor? A friend has the asus 144hz VG248QE and he says the image quality is "okay" but the refresh rate is really nice. I'm considering that at this point.

Also, when you said "avoid a regular IPS monitor" do you mean getting a TN panel monitor instead? or...?

 
Upvote 0 Downvote
DarkSable

DarkSable

Judicious
Sep 27, 2012
8,890
1
34,965
Of course, happy to help!

If you do play a lot of shooters, then a high refresh rate monitor is the way to go. It's going to feel like you're suddenly playing with cheat codes. :)
I don't think it's going to be absolutely necessary by any means, no. I currently have a GTX 650 in my media PC (which I'm using as my main computer while I overhaul my gaming rig), and as long as I remember to have reasonable expectations of it, it does perfectly fine with both 1440p or 120Hz while gaming. It can sustain a decent fps on medium, medium high settings at 1080p. (I only use my 1440p monitor for strategy games anymore, so I can't comment there.) The 7870 XT is considerably more powerful than that little thing, so I wouldn't expect you would need to upgrade at all. (Though a mild overclock can never hurt.)

That was my logic when buying a 120Hz screen, and I'm glad I talked myself into it. The 1440p screen came a year and a half later, but was a disappointment to eyes that had gotten used to a 120Hz refresh rate.

As far as I know, all the 144Hz monitors are using the same panel, which is fast but can have some color issues even after calibration. I'm personally using BenQ's flagship 120Hz, 24" monitor (they've updated the model number, but it should be easy to find), and absolutely love it for color, especially when the brightness is down low. [One of the thing that bothers me is that so many monitors brag about being so incredibly bright, when that's the opposite of what I'm looking for, and they don't bother to talk about the minimum brightness or the color at said settings.]

I mean either getting a TN panel for speed, or if you absolutely have to have an IPS panel, shelling out for the flagship models. IPS panels, especially the "cheap" ones, just have issues. Buying a flagship monitor can help with many of these, but even my $600 Iiyama has severe coil whine (to the point of giving headaches to some people) and a tiny bit of bleeding.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
Solution
RubberSalad

RubberSalad

Honorable
Apr 3, 2013
25
0
10,530

You sure know monitors. Anyways, thanks for your help again. Guess I'll have to do some research about which monitor i should buy now.
 
Upvote 0 Downvote
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom