Friday, November 9th 2018
TechPowerUp Survey: Over 25% Readers Game or Plan to Game at 4K Resolution
More than a quarter of TechPowerUp readers either already game at 4K Ultra HD resolution, or plan to do so by next year, according to our front-page survey poll run over the past 50 days. We asked our readers if they are gaming at 4K. Among the 17,175 respondents at the time of this writing, 14.5 percent said that they are already gaming at 4K UHD (3840 x 2160 pixels), which includes not just a 4K display, but also having their games render at that resolution. 3 percent say that while they have a 4K display, they game at lower resolutions or with reduced level of detail, probably indicating that their PC hardware isn't yet capable of handling 4K.
Almost a tenth of the respondents (9.5 percent to be precise), say that while they don't game at 4K, they plan to do so in the near future. 1.6 percent responded that they expect to go 4K within 2018, and 7.9 percent in 2019. The majority 73 percent of our readers neither game at 4K nor plan to any time soon. These results are particularly encouraging as a reasonably big slice of our readership is drawn to 4K, the high-end gaming resolution of this generation, which can provide four times the detail as Full HD (1080p). Of the 9.5 percent lining up to upgrade, a near proportionate amount could upgrade not just their display, but also other hardware such as graphics cards, and perhaps even the rest of their platforms, to cope with 4K.
Almost a tenth of the respondents (9.5 percent to be precise), say that while they don't game at 4K, they plan to do so in the near future. 1.6 percent responded that they expect to go 4K within 2018, and 7.9 percent in 2019. The majority 73 percent of our readers neither game at 4K nor plan to any time soon. These results are particularly encouraging as a reasonably big slice of our readership is drawn to 4K, the high-end gaming resolution of this generation, which can provide four times the detail as Full HD (1080p). Of the 9.5 percent lining up to upgrade, a near proportionate amount could upgrade not just their display, but also other hardware such as graphics cards, and perhaps even the rest of their platforms, to cope with 4K.
99 Comments on TechPowerUp Survey: Over 25% Readers Game or Plan to Game at 4K Resolution
But farcry 4, doom , Wolfenstein (all) , forza horizon, gtaV ,are my recent list of gamed at 4k ultra game's.
I agree with your point of view on perception though ,so all in ill concede that others might reach different conclusions, but there are few games that can't be ran at 4k with just Antialiasing switched off today on my system , a few more would require slight adjustment ,not running low or medium though just down to high bar dues ex latest.
YMMV but don't look at reviews for video cards and expect those FPS results, they represent the worst-case scenario. In an action packed game you're not actually going to notice a 3 second drop from 60-45 FPS, and in most scenes your FPS is going to be much higher.
Do not like 4K60hz for gaming at all...
As for sample size: anonymous and one click away versus forum readers that support their vote with a post and some context... I know what I value more.
So no, not buying it.Agreed on the takeaway of this poll. Not agreed on your conclusion as to what this points out. This poll says nothing about stagnation in the DIY PC hardware industry, that industry is dominated by very different factors. Proof of that can be seen in how long we've been stuck at 1080p and how poor native 4K support really is in content, both in games and in visual content as a whole. Another proof can be seen in the number of GPUs capable of 4K at decent framerates, you can literally count them on one hand and their market share is FAR below 15%.
As for the headline, of course. But a headline is not necessarily the best representation of reality, its purpose is to attract readers.
It's not the majority that want highest IQ, or high Fps or 4k at this moment but it's not going down.
Only the smallest proportion of gamer's want high fps or 4k at high IQ in reality or both but regardless imho 4k will be a bigger hit than high fps iver time it's at least in the majority's vision unlike high hz due to the console's.
73% don't game nor plan to @ 4K while all the rest either already do game @ 4K (even if @ lower quality) or plan to do so either this year or next year.
Conventional wisdom tells us, with good reason, that 60fps is a reasonable minimum. However, there have been suggestions that 4k with variable refresh rate tech (FreeSync / G-Sync) can allow for lower frame rates that actually empirically look smooth to the eye.
If you look here, scrub to about the ~5:35 mark, you'll see just about as much was said there:
Now this defies logic, we can all agree there I'm sure. However, without experimentation I can't say for sure either way. So theoretically the idea that a sustained ~45fps to ~50fps would looks as smooth as 60fps (which is admittedly a low bar) might seem counterintuitive but I would need to see it for myself firsthand either way.
"Dont'game at 4k" 73% + "Will upgrade next year" 7,9% = 80,9%. I rounded it off to 81%.
I did not add the 1,9% of players that "Will upgrade this year" because there is only 1 month remaining, so it is a safe guess those people really plan to buy that equipment (or maybe they already placed an order for a new TV or VGA).
Why did I add the 7,9% instead? Let me make an example: I am not dating Kendall Jenner at the moment. But I want to date her next year. Sadly, I don't think I will. At least as long I remain a poor guy writing on TPU and she stays in LA. Those 7,9% people ore on my same condition, just replace "Kendall Jenner" with "4k". They wanted to, but they don't - and they probably won't.
p.s. My total doesnt' add at 100% because I wanted to be easy on the TPU editors, so I used their estimate for 4k (they took that 7,9% for granted).
According to the pie chart provided in OP, there's a total of 82.5% that don't play @ 4K right now (73% + 7.9% + 1.6%): the remaining 17.5% already play @ 4K, regardless of the image quality being used to do so.
Of the 82.5% mentioned above, 9.5% plan to be playing @ 4K either this year or next year.
I'll quote your original post:Notice the underlined bit: that's your mistake in the calculations. Had you not said the underlined bit, it would still be wrong because it would be 82.5% instead or nearly 81%.
I'm sorry to say OP's title is correct but you are not.
For example, I don't necessarily care if I buy an AMD or nVidia video card. I just want a video card that has the features that I want and at the best price. Not too long ago I would have bought an AMD card but opted not to because AMD offerings did not have HDMI 2.0 / 2.x support. Whereas nVidia cards at the time did. I had 4K UHDTVs and a couple of 4K PC displays. Thus I wanted video cards that could work properly with a 4K UHDTV via HDMI 2.0 for 60hz (desktop use).
It didn't necessarily matter that the given video card didn't have the prowess to game at 4K resolution (none really did at the time). What really mattered was that the hardware would work together properly the way necessary for general computing functionality at 4K 60Hz. I could always lower the resolution for gaming.
Eventually video cards will be able to push 4K and become cheaper. Just like not all video cards in the past could support HDMI 2.0 / 2.1 / HDCP 2.2.
I love Borderlands 2 and like Bioshock Infinite, and now playing Doom 2016 it's beyond amazing, only at the Argent Tower, I keep falling off the tower and the bridge. My double jumping boots aren't working so well. lol :roll:
Should I stay with 1440 and go with a higher refresh display for Borderlands 3 and Doom Eternal for 2019? OR go 4K?
Right now, I only have a work display that's truly been created for super clear and accurate text, not for gaming. But I could use a 55in 4K Samsung TV we are moving into the guest room. :D
I know I'll need to replace the underpowered 1050Ti, with a 2080. :)
Im still on 1280x1024.
Planning on 2K
I deal with loads of text in my day to day, so I'm waiting for 8K to get affordable enough to buy in. I am more than aware my 1080Ti will not be able to put out 7680x4320 60fps, but that's perfectly fine: running 3840x2160 or 2560x1440 scaled up to 7680x4320 is perfectly fine to me. Really, 1920x1080 would be enough for me for games based on my experiments with the laptops (1600x900 and 1920x1080 scaled to 3200x1800, and 1920x1080 scaled to 3840x2160) and desktop (including the not perfect scaling 1920x1200 up to 2560x1600).
75% of those responding currently have no interest in 4K.
Don't get the need to try and spin it in the other direction.