Graphics card for 4K TV

[ellspeedy]

Hey guys,

I’ve just purchased a new 4K TV (LG 49SJ81) and plugged in my pc via HDMI as I used to with my old TV however when I do, it won’t let me go above 1920x1080 resolution.
I have a GTX 570 graphics card and from research it seems this doesn’t support 4K?

I’ve also read it may be because my HD cable doesn’t carry 4K (it’s a 7.5m £10 cheap cable)?

I’m a little unsure on how to proceed here, I’m not looking for 4K gaming (although I’m sure I’ll dabble!), it’s more just so I can output to 4K on my TV.

Do I need a new graphics card for this?

Thanks in advance!

 

[smallkube]

Hi there,

I have my desktop running into my 4K tv with a GTX1080ti and while it will play most things at fairly high settings even it can struggle to play full 4K on really intensive games (warhammer II, Witcher 3). That said, it will play anything i throw at it as 2560x1440 with maxed settings and still looks fantastic and that could probably be achieved with a GTX1070, which is a lot cheaper. They may get even cheaper when the next gen are released later in the year.
I picked up a 4K HDMI cable on amazon for a £9 (allegedly reduced from £50) and it does the job perfectly.

 

[jerpers]

With the cable, the key thing I found was to get a certified high speed cable. Anything over 10-15m you might need an active cable to get over signal degradation.

I think the issue for you is the generation GPU you are using does not have the bandwidth for 4k. You'll need a 9xx or 10xx GPU for that. For gaming, like smallkube stated, you will really need a 1080ti (or equivalent in the next gen) If just using as a monitor, a 1060 6gb plus should suffice

 

[ellspeedy]

Thanks for the very quick response guys!

Smallkube, great to know at what level I can expect things to run at at 4K. I'll likely not be gaming that much on my PC but will definitely give a few games a go to see what they look like, most likely Skyrim as I can imagine that will look stunning!

Jerpers, I would be looking for a 5m or 7.5m cable (depending if I can re-arrange things at home) so would you think something like this would work: HD Cable ?

So from what you're both saying it seems to get output at 4K from my PC to my new TV I will need a new graphics card.
In terms of recommendations what would you suggest? As I said, I very much doubt I'll be gaming hardcore on it so it's more just so that when it outputs to my TV it runs in 4K.

 

[polycrac]

It would be helpful to know what the rest of your PC specs are, so we don't accidentally recommend a card that wont fit in the case or that's incompatible with your current mobo etc.

 

[jerpers]

That cable looks fine. Don't get bamboozled by 1.4, 2.0 etc. It is the high speed bit you are interested in.

As polycrac said, your existing spec including case and mobo will help to give advice.

 

[ellspeedy]

Sorry, that would definitely have helped!

So here was the spec from when I created it way back when (2012!). The only change I've made was adding an SSD for OS and applications etc.

Case Model: NZXT Phantom 410 Midi Tower Chassis - Black
Processor: Intel® Core™ i5 Quad Core Processor i5-3550 (3.3GHz) 6MB Cache

Motherboard ASUS® P8Z77-V LX: USB 3.0, SATA 6GBs, ATI®CrossFireX
Memory (RAM) 8GB SAMSUNG DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 4GB)
Graphics Card 1.25GB NVIDIA GEFORCE GTX 570 - 2 DVI, HDMI, DP - 3D Vision Ready

1st Hard Disk 1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk NONE
1st M.2 SSD Drive NONE
RAID NONE
DVD/BLU-RAY Drive 24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
2nd DVD/BLU-RAY Drive NONE
Memory Card Reader NONE
Power Supply CORSAIR 650W ENTHUSIAST SERIES™ TX650 V2-80 PLUS® BRONZE (£69)
Processor Cooling SUPER QUIET 22dBA TRIPLE COPPER HEATPIPE INTEL CPU COOLER (£19)
Fan Controller NONE
Sound Card ONBOARD 6 CHANNEL (5.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Wireless Router/HomePlugs 2 x 200Mbps HomePlug AV - Create a Wired Network Using Electric Sockets! (£38)
USB Options 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD

 

[Oussebon]

If you're gaming, a GTX 1080 ti would be strong advisable. Skyrim Special Edition can be pretty demanding on the GPU, so there is a strong case for the 1080 ti even if Skyrim itself has been around for a while.

You may want to hold off on your purchase. It's rumoured a new gen is coming out soon, which would offer better performance. And the only rumours contradicting that to the effect that there is a large stock of current gen GPUs to shift before the new ones get launched say that GPU prices will come down sharply in the coming month or two.

 

[ellspeedy]

In all honesty, I doubt I’ll be gaming too much on it, I much prefer console gaming at the moment (hence the tv) but use my PC to link to he tv for films (I use a software called Kodi which I really love).

So in reality I guess my question is more, do I need a 4K capable graphics card to get the true beauty of a 4K film when connected to my tv?
Ie if I watch a 4K quality film now, using my gtx570, would I see a noticeable difference if I upgraded to a 4K got? ��

 

[jerpers]

For me, 4k is much better than 1080p visually and sound is far superior if you have a home cinema system. If you are mainly using it for that, a 1050 would be fine, move up to the 1070/1070ti if you can afford to and want to dabble in some gaming with settings turned down.