Is 4K screen on a 17 inch laptop worth it?

[Kellitt]

Hi all,

Apologies if this has been covered before. But I can't seem to find any info on this since the gtx 1080 release. All Internet discussion regarding this are subject to the inferior GPUs. Since the new 10 series are desktop equivalent that argument no longer stands. I have recently ordered an Octane III with GTX 1080. However I am still troubling over weather I should have the 108p screen or 4k? I've tried popping to a local retailer to check the difference myself but no one stocks a 4k laptop so I have to go on advice. From what I gather, these are the negatives; £100 more expensive, slightly heavier, reduced battery life, not all games run smoothly on Ultra at 4k even on a GTX 1080, so as games become more graphically demanding, surely that will just get worse? So there's the lifespan to consider. Ive also read 1080p and 2k don't look as good running on 4k screen as they do on native screens? Also what about other software such as photoshop, 3dsmax and cinema4d? Are there scaling issues there? I have noticed the latest GTX laptops are sporting 4K screens so I guess I'm trying to work out if my doubts are correct about this or maybe I'm wrong? I just think if the GTX 1080 is struggling with 4K on some titles I would guess that as games get ever more demanding I will be needing to downscale in the near future to maintain that smooth frame rate and ultra quality. If downscaling means viewing 1080p which doesn't look as good as on a 108pp native then what's the point? Is it all worth it?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers,

Darren

 

[mantadog]

With displays its almost always down to personal preference, even with a gtx 1080 I would be wary of having a 4k screen for a laptop if you wanted it to have some longevity as many games are only just above the 60fps most people consider to be a minimum and as you say the games will only become more demanding. With a desktop you could easily swap out the 1080 for a future generation card but it isn't that simple on a laptop as I'm sure you are already aware.

In terms of scaling it is very application dependant, windows 10 is better at managing the whole thing than previous versions ever were but when it comes down to individual apps you are in the developers hands. Generally I think by now most of the big players have got it sorted.

What you can do now is have the GPU render at 4k and then downscale it to fit on a 1080p display which can result in a sharper looking image than a native 1080p render.

My personal view is we are a little away from gaming on a laptop at 4k, not least because you will not be able to take advantage of the boosting capabilities of a true desktop 1080 due to the cooling capacity of a laptop.

 

[Retron]

With displays its almost always down to personal preference, even with a gtx 1080 I would be wary of having a 4k screen for a laptop if you wanted it to have some longevity as many games are only just above the 60fps most people consider to be a minimum and as you say the games will only become more demanding.

I went for a 3K screen on my 15" Defiance and it's wonderful - ever so sharp. I have now gone for an Octane with 4K display and - once it arrives - I'm sure it'll be just as sharp as that 15" 3K screen is. I use 4K 28" screens at home and am equally happy with them.

I wouldn't actually go back to standard HD any more, you really notice the difference with text in particular.

Scaling is a non-issue these days in the things I do / games I play, although a couple of years ago it was a bit worse.

As for the 1080, of course in 3 years it won't be able to run stuff in full detail at 4K. You can then run at 1080 instead, or simply drop detail down a bit. Either way, you'll still benefit from the sharpness on the desktop and for general browsing / productivity use.

 

[mantadog]

I went for a 3K screen on my 15" Defiance and it's wonderful - ever so sharp. I have now gone for an Octane with 4K display and - once it arrives - I'm sure it'll be just as sharp as that 15" 3K screen is. I use 4K 28" screens at home and am equally happy with them.
.

More pixels = more better for pretty much everything apart from gaming if you don't have the hardware. So its really down to how big a priority 4k gaming on ultra is for OP.