Hardware for 4k recommendation please

M

mefizto

Greetings all,

it appears that after my main monitor died, and I have been using a secondary one, my video card is dying too. As I am using the computer for writing and drafting, I would like to upgrade both the video card and the monitor to 4k.

Regarding the combination, I do not play or plan to play any games, but I do watch high-resolution, high data rate movies. I would also prefer a monitor with the least eye strain, I understand that this is achieve by high refresh rate and flicker free technology.

Any advice in this regards, including a specific card and monitor recommendation would be appreciated.

Kindest regards,

M
 
Do you prefer AMD or NVidia. Two different camps.

I can say for a monitor I use a 32" Vizio TV. I think TV has reached parity with computer monitors.
That is subjective.

What is your budget? I don't care but it usually guides my choices.
You want 100 dollar video card or 300 dollar card? Maybe top end at $800?

Need more details.
 
Hi Phishfry,

regarding the video card brand,I have had both. My understanding is that Nvidia has better drivers, the problem as I see it is that the drivers are closed, thus if/when Nvidia decides that the market is not worth it, . . .. The AMD drivers do not appear to be as good, but AMD is more open with providing information to developers. So I really do not know.

Regarding the budget, again my understanding is that for the card, one is paying for speed needed for gaming. As this is not my issue, any card that will satisfy the resolution and high refresh rate will be fine. Consequently, I would shift the budget to a nice monitor. So let us say $700-$1200 for a 27"-32" monitor.

Kindest regards,

M
 
mefizto said:
thus if/when Nvidia decides that the market is not worth it
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I've used NVidia FreeBSD drivers for the past 20 or so years. FreeBSD even has a bigger market share now. So I don't think you have to worry about this.
 
I can't comment any more. I do not run at 4K.

I think the question has to be asked:
Is anybody running a 4K FreeBSD desktop?
 
I've got a curved UWQHD monitor (3440 × 1440) connected to an Nvidia GeForce GT 1030 card. Works perfectly fine with FreeBSD. This is not exactly 4k, but 4k is also supported, of course (the card even has two connectors and supports 2 × 4k).

There are several vendors that offer GT 1030-based cards, mine is from MSI. They are low-power, available with a small fan or even fanless. These are office-grade cards that also work perfectly well for video applications. Of course they decode common video codecs like h.264 and h.265 in hardware, and also scaling is done in hardware. I can play videos full-screen while the processor is nearly idle. However, these cards are not suitable for high-end 3D gaming stuff (although games/crack-attack works fine in highest resolution, but I wouldn’t call this high-end).

As for the monitor, I opted for 34” UWQHD because I have limited space. I wanted the width of a 4k monitor, but I didn’t want its height, so UWQHD is perfect for me. It can display cinema movies (21:9) without any black bands. The model I have is a Samsung CF791, but there are many others.
 
Hi SirDice,

thank you for the comment re card brand.

Hi shkhln,

could you please clarify your, rather cryptic comment?

Hi olli@,

thank you for the detailed reply. I will look for that card.

Kindest regards,

M
 
Hi shkhln,

the term cryptic means "having a meaning that is mysterious or obscure". Since I am asking for an advice, it follows that I do not have much knowledge in this area.

I am not quite sure how your link showing a ~$900 clarifies your previous post. I can post a link to a $70 card.

So, I wonder why are you responding if you are unwilling to help.

Kindest regards,

M
 
Honestly, I don't think it's possible to help you. Stay away from hardware purchases. (I wasn't even talking to you in the first place. Your question was answered previously anyway.)
 
Well, what shkhln was meaning, is that right now graphics cards are overinflated on prices right now, due to shortages and a high demand from bitcoin miners buying the newer cards. The ones that are available, are often sold at a over inflated prices. As with anything, consider what kind of budget are you looking to spend around, and what are your needs.

I personally considered 4k before, but chose to go with 2k instead. The downside of 4k that I didn't want to deal with, is that by default everything is super small (as the resolution goes up everything gets smaller). Sure, there is the HiDPI setting, but that isn't a good solution. The reason, is that it does not work the same way on everything; some programs it doesn't work at all.
 
Hi shklhn,

In my linked post, where do you see 4k mentioned? And, if you were not talking to me, why post in the thread I initiated?

Hi ct85711,

thank you for the explanation. Even considering, arguendo, that your interpretation is correct, how does it help me? I need the card now or in a near future.

Kindest regards,

M
 
mefizto said:
Any advice in this regards, including a specific card and monitor recommendation would be appreciated.
Click to expand...
I have RX 570 card with maximum resolutions by specification DP: 7680 x 4320 and HDMI: 4096 x 3112. I do not have 4K monitor, but works fine with two HD monitors. Should be good for you. Few steps behind the latest series and not expensive these days.

Personally I prefer AMD, however used Nvidia for 10 years.
 
mefizto said:
In my linked post, where do you see 4k mentioned? And, if you were not talking to me, why post in the thread I initiated?
Click to expand...
Let me spell it for you: the thread is relevant because it shows that you still haven't bought the damn card in 2 years. Otherwise you would know that any modern GPU is perfectly capable of UHD output. They also have public specs that you can read on the internet.
 
Like Argentum mention, it just depends on how set you are on having a 4k monitor. You could get 1-2 generation older than the newest set of cards considerably cheaper, and have 2-3 monitors for less than a newer card is going to set you back. Like I am running a 1070 with 2 2k monitors without any difficulty (I could have ran a 3rd 2k monitor if I had desk space). Just a quick search, if your target budget is about $1k (US) for both the card and monitor; you'll easily exceed that budget quickly to get the card alone.
 
mefizto said:
thank you for the detailed reply. I will look for that card.
Click to expand...
I don't think the MSI brand is so important as they all use an NVidia reference design.
Sure some overclocked boards do deviate but most follow the reference design.
So any GT 1030 is probably OK. Do make sure it has GDDR5 as there is some cheapened versions out there with GDDR4.

Looking at newegg there does not seem to be many GT 1030 in stock. These are around 3-4 years old release.
I don't see a successor model. The next series is GT2xxx and they are costly. Heck even jump to GT 1050 is high.

So these cards do support HDMI 2.0 and should provide 4K@60FPS if I am reading the literature right.

And my old advice from that old thread still stands true.
You need to consider the VGA power connectors needed before buying.
Otherwise a power supply may be needed too. There are Molex to 6 pins commonly available though.
 
ct85711 said:
Like Argentum mention, it just depends on how set you are on having a 4k monitor. You could get 1-2 generation older than the newest set of cards considerably cheaper, and have 2-3 monitors for less than a newer card is going to set you back. Like I am running a 1070 with 2 2k monitors without any difficulty (I could have ran a 3rd 2k monitor if I had desk space). Just a quick search, if your target budget is about $1k (US) for both the card and monitor; you'll easily exceed that budget quickly to get the card alone.
Click to expand...
And I was just looking that a brand new RX 550 with warranty is on sale for EUR 95 in the nearest computer shop. It supports 5120 x 2880 maximum resolution. I use to keep one RX 550 as a backup in my drawer. In fact it is a very good card, stable and not power hungry. There are even low profile models of RX 550 available (and passive cooling models also).
 
ct85711 said:
Well, what shkhln was meaning, is that right now graphics cards are overinflated on prices right now, due to shortages and a high demand from bitcoin miners buying the newer cards. The ones that are available, are often sold at a over inflated prices. As with anything, consider what kind of budget are you looking to spend around, and what are your needs.
Click to expand...
This is right on.

I would even consider upgrading everything and use On-CPU video. AMD has a radeon right on chip.

I have no idea if the FreeBSD radeon drivers work at 4K
 
Hi shklhn,

shkhln said:
Let me spell it for you: the thread is relevant because it shows that you still haven't bought the damn card in 2 years. Otherwise you would know that any modern GPU is perfectly capable of UHD output. They also have public specs that you can read on the internet.
Click to expand...

Did you even read what I wrote: ". . .my video card is dying too"? So, if I did not buy a damn card, why is it dying?

In any event, have a last word.

Hi Argentum, ct85711,

thank you for the recommendation to look at a different resolution monitor. I was contemplating 4K monitor because I experience it at my landlord, and both the movies (blu-ray) and drafting is much nicer than my Acer AL2216W.

Hi Phisfry,

thank you for the memory recommendation. I can always look on e-bay.

Regarding On-CPU video, this does not appear to be an option, I have a nice Supermicro/Xeon combination that works great.

Kindest regards,

M
 
mefizto said:
Did you even read what I wrote: ". . .my video card is dying too"? So, if I did not buy a damn card, why is it dying?
Click to expand...
I did in fact read a few of your threads (I always do) and, no, "RS780 Radeon 3000" doesn't match my recommendation of < 10 years old video card (counting from 2019, of course). It doesn't match any other recommendations in the thread for that matter. You seem to take a lot of pride in having no idea what you are doing.
 
Hi shkhln,

First, I do not understand your animosity and need to use invective.

Second, the Radeon is a card a friend gave me for the interim replacement of the dying card.

Kindest regards,

M
 
Yes, indeed, prices have gone up somewhat. When I bought my GT 1030, I spent around 80 €. Right now the prices start at 100 €; I just checked some online shops in my country (Germany) that have GT 1030 based cards in stock. I have no idea how much that would be in US$ these days, though.
 
Hi olli@,

I have checked several places that allegedly have new card in stock, and the prices range from about $115 to $240.

e-bay from $34 to $300.

Kindest regards,

M
 
mefizto said:
I have checked several places that allegedly have new card in stock, and the prices range from about $115 to $240.

e-bay from $34 to $300.
Click to expand...
If you can get a used card for $50 or less, that would be a bargain, I think.

Make sure that the card that you buy has the appropriate connectors that you need. These cards come with different combinations of connectors. For example, some have HDMI + DVI, some have HDMI + DisplayPort, some have 2 × HDMI. There are even variants with three or just one connector, but these are rare.
 
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