4K or QHD?

[lwalter]

I'm trying to figure out if in DCS, the difference between 4K with max settings and QHD with max settings is really worth the big price difference between the NVIDIA 3070 and 3080 graphics cards.

Are there any screenshots or even videos of the same locations in DCS in 4K and QHD, which I could download or view to compare?

 

[PhotoFrank]

Hi Iwalter.I have a recently self built Gaming rig. Ryzen 5800X with a used RTX 2080ti. I'm not subsidizing scalpers. I had a 2080 Super and after selling it I moved up for $150.00. Depending on scenery I can run from 50 to 90 FPS at 4K.  I have a 27 inch 4K  Dell Ultrasharp that I used with my photography work. Stunning monitor, but does not have adaptive sync. So I bought a Dell S3220DGF 32 inch, 165 hz Free Sync VA panel monitor. I hated it Not sharp at the edges at all. Although the experts tell us that 110 pixels/inch is sufficient for the human eye, I disagree. Nothing was sharp on it. QHD on a 27 inch monitor is borderline and absolutely not enough resolution for a 32 inch monitor.

 

So I bought a 38 inch LG Ultra Gear LG 38GL950G IPS display with G-Sync. This had 3840 x 1600 resolution, but those 1600 lines where spread on a taller screen and still only produced 110 pixels/inch. This was a ridiculously expensive monitor and I tried to love it but I returned it. I don't fly air to air online combat and I may not for a while as I am new to DCS World and this is a big learning curve. I realized that at high settings I hover between 50 and 80 FPS and 60 FPS is just great for single player. So I bought an LG 32UN650-W 4K- 32" UltraFine IPS UHD Monitor with FreeSync. Free Sync works just fine with My RTX 2080Ti. I now have 135 pixels/inch. Clear crisp cockpit details and great color and detail everywhere. Yes I am stuck at 60 FPS, but I have true 4K, a big screen and I only paid $500.00 vs the $1700.00 that the 3840 x 1600 LG gaming monitor cost.

 

So if you are going 4K at high settings,  at 60 FPS I think the 3070 falls short of the 2080Ti, which is necessary to run 4K at 60 FPS. So the 3070 will not make 60 FPS at 4K high settings and the 3080 is overkill for 4K 60 FPS, but gives you the option to upgrade to a faster 4K Free or G-Sync monitor although they are really pricy now. Optionally, the rumor is that DCS World is in the near future moving from DX11 to the Vukcan API and if that happens then framerates should go up considerably and then the 3070 will run 4K at 60 FPS, but there is no verified timeline that I have seen.

 

My take on DCS World or any flying sim, is that the quality and clarity of the display is the biggest part of the enjoyment. It is what immerses us and nothing does it like true 4K.

So these are my observations and I offer them as food for thought and in no way suggest that there aren't other points of view to consider. Hope you are lucky enough to get a new 30 series RTX at a good price.

 

[C3PO]

At 4k, it's all about pushing pixels and that means holding as much in memory as possible. Here's what my 3090 Ultra is doing at 4k in a MP Syria mission (all settings high, except pre-load radius which is set to 60%) ... VRAM is king...and 10GB cards aren't enough, IMO, even with the 3080 RTX.

 

Edited March 17, 2021 by C3PO

[Dudikoff]

13 hours ago, PhotoFrank said:

So I bought a 38 inch LG Ultra Gear LG 38GL950G IPS display with G-Sync. This had 3840 x 1600 resolution, but those 1600 lines where spread on a taller screen and still only produced 110 pixels/inch. This was a ridiculously expensive monitor and I tried to love it but I returned it. I don't fly air to air online combat and I may not for a while as I am new to DCS World and this is a big learning curve. I realized that at high settings I hover between 50 and 80 FPS and 60 FPS is just great for single player. So I bought an LG 32UN650-W 4K- 32" UltraFine IPS UHD Monitor with FreeSync. Free Sync works just fine with My RTX 2080Ti. I now have 135 pixels/inch. Clear crisp cockpit details and great color and detail everywhere. Yes I am stuck at 60 FPS, but I have true 4K, a big screen and I only paid $500.00 vs the $1700.00 that the 3840 x 1600 LG gaming monitor cost.

 

I have a 32" 4K screen with GSync and am very happy with its sharpness (though, in Windows I've increased the DPI to 150% so it's effectively like a QHD screen, except that everything is super sharp) and was considering to "upgrade" to the 38" screen, but was worried about how I would feel about the lower DPI, especially in DCS.

 

There are some 5K 40" screens becoming available now which are basically 21:9 widescreen variants of the 32" 4K monitors. The refresh rate is not high, though and I'll have to find one with FreeSync, but that size might be the logical upgrade from 32" 4K.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Dudikoff

[Wali763]

Ive had  this thought quite often lately, if 4K would be much better than 1440p but decided (for now) to stay with my 32inch 1440p 144fps monitor.

 

First reason is, that in the past with DCS expensive upgrades mostly rendered small changes in experience. IMO they almost never justified the investment.

 

Second reason is, that even that I cap my FPS in DCS to 60 because of TrackIR, I do not want to give up the high refresh rate for other games. And there are no suitable 4K-panels with over 60hz refreshrate and 32-38 inch.

 

Third reason, which is very personal, is my fading eye-sight. Approaching 50 much too fast, my eys-sight has somehow weakened, so for reading and using my smartphone some reading-glasses (1,0 or 1,5 diopters right  now) are of some help. And when using it while DCS I can witness a higher crispness too. 

But then I again I quite often forget to use them and the experience is still the same. So why should I go to 4K, if the experience between sharp 1440p (with glasses) and slightly less sharp 1440p (without glasses) does not change the overall experience for me?

 

Thaty why I decided to stay at 1440p right now.

 

But once good 4K-options (eg 35inch with 100Hz  refresh rate) become available, I for sure will reconsider.

 

I also thought about that  37,5inch-LG-panel in the past, but feel, that a wide-screen in DCS is not that helpful, since I feel the hight of the image is as important as the width. But this monitor also would have meant a big investment (expensive monitor and need for a high-end GPU), which still would have given me probably (see reason 1) only a little gain in experience.

[Dudikoff]

1 hour ago, Wali763 said:

But once good 4K-options (eg 35inch with 100Hz  refresh rate) become available, I for sure will reconsider.

 

There are new IPS 32" 4K panels with 144Hz refresh rate coming this year, but not 35". AFAIK, the only 35" panels are those VA 21:9 widescreen 1440p ones.

Edited March 17, 2021 by Dudikoff

[C3PO]

On 3/17/2021 at 9:26 AM, Wali763 said:

Ive had  this thought quite often lately, if 4K would be much better than 1440p but decided (for now) to stay with my 32inch 1440p 144fps monitor.

 

First reason is, that in the past with DCS expensive upgrades mostly rendered small changes in experience. IMO they almost never justified the investment.

 

Second reason is, that even that I cap my FPS in DCS to 60 because of TrackIR, I do not want to give up the high refresh rate for other games. And there are no suitable 4K-panels with over 60hz refreshrate and 32-38 inch.

 

Third reason, which is very personal, is my fading eye-sight. Approaching 50 much too fast, my eys-sight has somehow weakened, so for reading and using my smartphone some reading-glasses (1,0 or 1,5 diopters right  now) are of some help. And when using it while DCS I can witness a higher crispness too. 

But then I again I quite often forget to use them and the experience is still the same. So why should I go to 4K, if the experience between sharp 1440p (with glasses) and slightly less sharp 1440p (without glasses) does not change the overall experience for me?

 

Thaty why I decided to stay at 1440p right now.

 

But once good 4K-options (eg 35inch with 100Hz  refresh rate) become available, I for sure will reconsider.

 

I also thought about that  37,5inch-LG-panel in the past, but feel, that a wide-screen in DCS is not that helpful, since I feel the hight of the image is as important as the width. But this monitor also would have meant a big investment (expensive monitor and need for a high-end GPU), which still would have given me probably (see reason 1) only a little gain in experience.

How do you cap FPS in DCS?

 

[Lange_666]

Through either add the maxFPS setting in the autoexec.cfg file like this:

 

C:\Users\<YOUR-LOGIN>\Saved Games\DCS\Config\autoexec.cfg

and place your changes there.

Note:
 - autoexec.cfg settings will override the options set via GUI.
 - Graphic options in autoexec.cfg should be prefixed with options.graphics.
 - file encoding should be UTF-8 without BOM

Example autoexec.cfg:

options.graphics.maxfps = 30

 

or

 

use the nVidia NCP, select the DCS profile an set Max Frame Rate setting to what you want.

 

or

 

MSI Afterburner.

Edited March 19, 2021 by Lange_666

[Wali763]

Sorry, saw that too late. See the pic to cap 60fps. Its in german but should be understandable.

 

Thx for the info about upcoming displays. This might change my opinion......

[Aluminum Donkey]

On 3/16/2021 at 1:37 PM, lwalter said:

I'm trying to figure out if in DCS, the difference between 4K with max settings and QHD with max settings is really worth the big price difference between the NVIDIA 3070 and 3080 graphics cards.

Are there any screenshots or even videos of the same locations in DCS in 4K and QHD, which I could download or view to compare?

 

 

If you're buying a new GPU don't bother with the 3070. DCS needs all the silicon balls it can get, the 3070 is too wimpy for the price. It's not that it's a bad card--it's just that the price of any new GPU is gonna suck no matter what, so I'd get one that will have great performance and suit your flight simming needs for years to come instead of being a bit of a disappointment and always leave you wanting for more and wishing you could upgrade.

 

Keep using what you have for now, save your bread, and get the 3080 instead.

 

AD

[Wali763]

On 4/15/2021 at 4:00 PM, Aluminum Donkey said:

 

If you're buying a new GPU don't bother with the 3070. DCS needs all the silicon balls it can get, the 3070 is too wimpy for the price. It's not that it's a bad card--it's just that the price of any new GPU is gonna suck no matter what, so I'd get one that will have great performance and suit your flight simming needs for years to come instead of being a bit of a disappointment and always leave you wanting for more and wishing you could upgrade.

 

Keep using what you have for now, save your bread, and get the 3080 instead.

 

AD

 

Thats the general problem of DCS, that no matter what hardware you throw at it (even in 2D), you still will have to make compromises. At least, if you match the hardware correctly, meaning, getting a 3090 for a 4K and not for a 1080P monitor eg.

 

Anyway. We got our son a few days ago a 32Inch-4K-monitor for his Switch/PS5 and I also tested it with DCS instead of my normal 144Hz-1440p-monitor. I have to state first though, that Im capping fps with my monitor to 60 for best TrackIR-compatibility, which also makes this comparison kind of more even. 

 

IMO 4K looks crispier than 1440p, still the difference being far from big. Most visible to me is the difference on dials ans screens. I mostly did not have problems reading them with my 1440p-monitor, but going to 4K it suddenly seems much clearer. Genral textures look a bit finer, but there the difference is much smaller.

But there are also certain drawbacks, first of course hardware-wise. I have a 6700XT (which is supposed to be 5-10% slower than a 2080Ti/3070) and I cant drive the montior in a way I would like it to. I found a setting (no MSAA and medium textures) that is getting fps-wise to a spot, where it gets ok for me, but what is the use of having 4K, if you have to look at poor textures and some aliasing? Even when I was having 55-60fps (freesync enabled) constantly, is felt more stuttery than on my 1440p-monitor with 60fps.

 

Overall Id say, if you got the hardware, and Id say a 3070/2080Ti is not enough, go for 4K. It is definitly a increase in visual fidelity. If you have to make compromises like I do, I dont think its worth it.

Still Id not expect a big increase in overall experience. Especially if your concentrated doing things like flying, dropping bombs etc, the difference will get even smaller. But I guess that is very much dependable of the individual user.

 

What I also found out it, that I do prefer curved monitors. Going from my curved to the flat 4K at first was a bit strange and even after 2-3hours is still did not feel "right".  But again, thats mostly personal preference.

 

Edited May 6, 2021 by Wali763