1440 or 1080?

[jetlag 65]

Anticipating a system upgrade for MSFS2020, I am starting to gather some info. 

My video card (GTX460) is clearly a goner but I am not sure what the replacement should be.  I am on 1080p with a 27" monitor and doubt I will go for a much larger monitor. 

So my question is:  would I see a noticeable difference between 1080p and 1440p on a 27" display?  4k is a non-starter (over budget).

Thanks for sharing your experience and insight.

[Chock 17,769]

Yes, it would be a noticeable difference, but to be fair, 1080P is okay, it is after all made up from well over two million pixels. However, see what you think if I put it this way...

1080P images are made up of 2.07 million pixels, whereas 1440P images are made up from 3.68 million pixels. That's about 43 percent more pixels making up a 1440P image. So you could kind of say that its visual acuity is nearly half as good again, if you want to put it in simple terms.

Edited August 10, 2020 by Chock

[jetlag 65]

I do understand the arithmetic of it all.  My query is more about what is actually discernible at that size.  Say you throw a 4k image on a 2.5" phone screen.  Would you really appreciate it?

PhT

[Chock 17,769]

Not on a phone since there is an excess of pixels which would simply be downsampled, but on a 27 inch monitor, yes you would see a difference.

[fppilot 4,371]

43 minutes ago, jetlag said:

So my question is:  would I see a noticeable difference between 1080p and 1440p on a 27" display?  4k is a non-starter (over budget).

 

I just upgraded both graphics card and monitor.  The used GTX 1070ti 8 GB GPU as a stopgap until a new system build this fall. Need for this pandemic to ease off. 

I am space limited so just purchased an LG 27uk850 27" IPS monitor, which can go to 3840 x 2160, and supports HDR, freeSync, and gSync.  I will likely fly with it for a good while.

The answer from me is I cannot tell yet.  The only gaming I do is flying and I am using FSX-SE with a large number of addon GA airports and Megascenery.  My upgraded GPU and monitor setup is amazing when watching hi res steaming video, but my sim environment cannot produce where it appears MSFS is going to take us.  I will say some of my addon FSX-SE aircraft look stunning in exterior views.

Edited August 10, 2020 by fppilot

[vortex681 806]

On 8/10/2020 at 1:23 AM, jetlag said:

So my question is:  would I see a noticeable difference between 1080p and 1440p on a 27" display?

I looked at 27" monitors before I upgraded to my current display. From a purely subjective point of view, I definitely saw a significant difference between the two resolutions at 27". The QHD monitors had sharper, more detailed images.

[TurboKen 221]

Yes. You will definitely see a difference between the two. 1440P will be much sharper. You might even want to look into an ultrawide, they are great for flight sims.

[Ray Proudfoot 8,961]

Frank, the only comment I would make is that the 1070Ti is wasted in FSX. When I swapped from a 3Gb 780GTX to a 8Gb 1080 in FSX the frame rates never increased because the sim couldn't take advantage of the more powerful graphics card.

Switching to P3D gave me a big boost in performance because it could take advantage of the GPU. FSX never will.

[787flyer 633]

I would agree with Ray and TurboKen that a 1070 TI doest make a huge difference wrt  FPS increase, however stability/FPS fluctuations will be somewhat improved and display quality also better e.g. I found I could ramp up the AA setting.

 

Anyway, I would say 1440p is a good step up from 1080p. I moved from a 24" 1080p to a 32" 1440p about 3 years ago and I saw a big improvement in terms of more cockpit viewing area and I can run both P3Dv4.5 and v5 really well /fluid motion, minimal stutters) with my current 1070Ti.

What I would say is, 4K is achievable if you have a "meaty" GPU because the increase in the # of pixels going from 2K to 4K is significant. Then you can take better advantage of the power/bandwidth/speed those top-of-the-line GPUs offer to output 4K.

 

IMHO, choice of graphics card has to match/balance what display you plan to be pushing the pixels to or vice versa. One choice drives the other.

 

My suggestion would be: Consider replacing your GTX 460 with something more mid-range in the current GPU offerings on the market and shoot for a 1440p monitor with 27" or greater if you are limited in budget.You wont be disappointed.

What may be worth investigating are monitors that are larger in size but may offer a similar dpi to your 27" choice in order to maximize screen detail and similar in price.

For MSFS their recommended GPU is RX590 or GTX 970 with 4Gb VRAM. this is a  good starting point for your GPU market investigations.

 

Happy shopping! 🙂

Regards,

[jetlag 65]

Thank you all for your advice.  I will be aiming for 1440p. 

I am considering the GTX1660 Super which seems to be good value and would likely be sufficient for 1440p.

Phil 

[vortex681 806]

On 8/15/2020 at 2:36 AM, jetlag said:

I am considering the GTX1660 Super which seems to be good value and would likely be sufficient for 1440p.

If you can, it may be worth waiting for the new cards from NVIDIA which will supposedly offer much better performance for your money than the existing cards.