4k at high settings or 1080p at ultra?

[mikesaa309]

I've purchased an Octane 3 with a gtx 1080 and while I wait for it to be built I'm wondering how it would do with 4k gaming but most of the benchmarks I see on YouTube show that the 1080 still isn't great for 4k gaming at ultra or maxed out settings. So I'm wondering if 4k gaming with graphic settings turned down a bit to achieve 60 fps is better than running 1080p or even 1440p at a higher setting?

I've opted to have the 1080p panel so I'd have to use the down sampling to get 4k but wouldn't mind playing at that res if the gtxx 1080 can get 60 fps by turning down just a few settings.

 

[Oussebon]

Quite a few reviews of performance at 4k seem to have various levels of AA. This might be to make them consistent with the kinds of settings used at 1080p so you can see relative performance as you increase resolution, however at 4k you're not going to want as much AA as at 1080p or 1440p. The idea is that at 4k you have so much more detail/sharpness that you don't need to literally max out the settings as you might want to at 1080p to boost fidelity.

This site has a bench of a desktop 1080 in various games at 4k with the exact settings spelled out: http://www.babeltechreviews.com/titan-x-vs-gtx-1080-25-games-tested-4k-2k-1440p/3/

I've opted to have the 1080p panel so I'd have to use the down sampling to get 4k but wouldn't mind playing at that res if the gtxx 1080 can get 60 fps by turning down just a few settings.

I'm not sure what your question is. Are you asking
A) "Should I use DSR / Render Scale / SSAA to fake 4k when I get the laptop with my 1080p screen?" or
B) "Should I upgrade my screen to 4k?"

If A then while SSAA / rendering the image at 4k and then downscaling it can add a bit of fidelity, it doesn't really do all that much at 1080p (in my opinion, from the examples I've seen personally). It's a costly form of AA. Just try it and see the performance hit it has vs the improvements you get. It's not worth spending much thought on before you get the machine though
If B) then that's your call. If you get a 4k screen and then in 2 years the games are too demanding to run at 4k with settings you're happy with then at least 1080p divides evenly into 4k so shouldn;'t be quite as bad as downscaling 1440p to 1080p for example.

 

[mikesaa309]

That part wasn't a question lol was just saying that as I've opted for the 1080p screen I'd have to use DSR to use 4k or buy an external 4k monitor. Only chose the 1080p monitor as unless I'm mistaken the 4k screen doesn't have g-sync support yet and also seems like it won't be able to play 4k games at a high fps. Might just settle for DSR at 1440p as it's higher res than 1080p but still with pretty good frame rates.