Best 4K Graphics Cards - Buyer's Guide

In Part 3 of the 4k gaming series we are looking at the best graphics card that can do job done. Keep in mind 4k resolution gaming is gruesome on gpu and some beefy GPU’s still fails to do the job done. For 4k gaming we need at least one (or 2) monster GPU that won’t cripple. Here’s the carefully picked 4k GPU’s to push pixels on screen without getting tired or getting hot.

TITAN X

If money is not a problem then its the way to go. price is too steep, but hey its destroys all other GPU in one shot.Limited availability though

Nvidia Geforce GTX 1080

Released in May 2016, GTX 1080 can do smooth 4k. Its most modern GPU from the gpu making king nvidia’s arsenal. It’s the fastest single GPU that allowe you to play 4K 60FPS Eye candy Gaming. It gives gigantic performance leap over the previous generation cards. Notably the temperature is also quite low when running eyecandy 4k resolution. Further, the clock speed and overclcoking headroom push the game beyond the limit of pixels.

Have a look at the spec

GTX 1080 (pascal)

SMS	20
Cuda cores	2560
Base clock (MHz)	1607
Boost clock (MHz)	1733
TFlops	8.873
Texture Unit	160
Texture fill rate (GTexel/sec)	277.3
Memory clock (MHz)	10Gbps
Memory Bandwidth GB/sec	320
ROPs	64
TDP	180W
Transistors	7.2 Billion

Display Support:

7680x4320@60HzMaximum Digital Resolution2

DP 1.43, HDMI 2.0b, DL-DVIStandard Display Connectors

YesMulti Monitor

2.2HDCP

Nvidia Geforce GTX 1070

If you don’t mind tune down the setting to medium attain 4k glory then GTX 1070 can do this do it as well. It beats older 980 and 980ti and even Titan The stocks are slim but surely worth its price. Not fast or overclockability as the big brother 1080, but indeed packs the punch for its price. You might need double of these two get the 60 fps in recent games.

Have a look at the spec

GTX 1070

SMS	15
Cuda cores	1920
Base clock (MHz)	1506
Boost clock (MHz)	1683
TFlops	6.46
Texture Unit	120
Texture fill rate (GTexel/sec)	202
Memory clock (MHz)(data rate)	8Gbps
Memory Bandwidth GB/sec	256
ROPs	64
TDP	150W
Transistors	7.2 Billion

Display Support:

7680x4320@60HzMaximum Digital Resolution2

DP 1.43, HDMI 2.0b, Dual Link-DVIStandard Display Connectors

YesMulti Monitor

2.2HDCP

4K gaming Graphics Card: Short Buying Guide

Raw performance and raw power doesn’t incredibility transfer into real performance. So you might want to check some other things for 4K gaming

4 Monitor vs. 4k Television

If you opt for a 4k TV over 4k Monitor (4k content at 60HZ) and going with Amd cards then get display port 2.0 converter because most 4K TVs lack Display port and relying upon HDMI 2.0 Port. Older Amd cards don’t have  HDMI 2.0 port.

High VRAM

Get GPU with High VRAM (6GB at least) possible. Else it may cripple your visual experience.

Wrap-up

There are still alternative cards from the rival amd and nvidia. The dual gpu monster RX R9 295X2, R9 fury, 980, 980Ti, TitanX, all can do 4k gaming at some cost and performance. But since the suggested mentioned cards offers best/price performance sweet spot and are top of the older generation cards, it’s the way to go. Those can be paired later on the road as well and more feature proof.