Do I truly need the GTX 1080 for 1440 gaming?

[rajadd]

Hi all,

Thanks to the helpful community here, I decided to not go for 4k gaming and instead go for 1440 @ 144hz refresh using this monitor: Dell S2716DG 27-Inch with Nvidia G-Sync QHD (2560 x 1440DP) 144Hz - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dell-S2716DG-27-Inch-LED-Gaming/dp/B016QR3NR2/ref=s9_simh_gw_g107_i1_r?_encoding=UTF8&fpl=fresh&pf_rd_m=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE&pf_rd_s=&pf_rd_r=C7BS3J6JYKRBTB6N7HS4&pf_rd_t=36701&pf_rd_p=16f14aeb-bd11-4e9e-8c26-9ca0139074ee&pf_rd_i=desktop

Given that I've gone from expecting 4k to 1440, will I benefit from a GTX 1080 or should I instead downgrade to the GTX 1070? I wanted to be able to play on Ultra settings for at least the next 3 years on AAA games, so is that realistic with a GTX 1070?

Thanks for your thoughts in advance!

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NZXT S340 MID TOWER GAMING CASE (BLACK/BLUE)

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[Oussebon]

Would you benefit from a 1080 over a 1070? Yes. Would that be worth the extra cost? That's up to you.

If your criterion is that it must be able to run the most demanding modern games for the next 3 years at ultra 1440p, I doubt the GTX 1070 will be doing that. But it's quite possible the 1080 would start to prove inadequate for some titles in that timescale as well (if we use the GTX 780's performance at 1080p high/ultra in The Division as a guideline).
http://www.techspot.com/review/1148-tom-clancys-the-division-benchmarks/page2.html

 

[rajadd]

Thanks, Oussebon. I'll go with the 1080

 

[rav007]

Just to piggyback onto this thread because I don't know if this comment is worth a thread of its own; do you think future game demands will increase significantly? From what I can gather, the biggest implementation in games has been physics based rendering of things like particles, hair, smoke, etc. It seems like these are already becoming utilised fairly efficiently. So I can anticipate more of that being added in the future and applied more globally, but beyond that, where else will the computational demand come in on GPUs? I want to take a risk and say that at 1080p at least, we have pretty much reached our "quality" or "visual acuity" limit, or will have in the next couple of years?

 

[Oussebon]

I'm no expert on the computer games industry, but it has always seemed that PC games get more and more demanding. If they didn't, I guess manufacturers wouldn't sell many new GPUs.

Developers seem to play with new ways to do shadows (e.g. Deus Ex) and these can be incredibly demanding - we're probably lucky that at least the load is on the GPU these days rather than the CPU. Probably one of the best things about Skyrim Special Edition is moving the shadow rendering load to the GPU.

And then there's plain lack of optimisation (console ports) that might end up accounting a great deal for higher demands.

Bethesda's textures for FO4 were apparently so poorly optimised that one of the first mods for that game was one that increased fidelity while reducing performance impact. Bethesda are about to release a new ultra texture pack for FO4 with the following recommended system requirements:

Windows 7/8/10 (64-bit OS required)
Intel Core i7-5820K or better
GTX 1080 8GB/AMD Radeon RX 490 8GB
8GB+ Ram

It's being released with a PS4 Pro update apparently...

So I'm sure there will be some driving force pushing us towards GPU upgrades.