STACK #183 Jan 2020

GAMES FEATURE

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resolution

With an investment in the right gear for 4K PC gaming, this is one New Year’s resolution that’ll pay off with delicious eye candy for a long time. Words Nathan Lawrence

4K, kay The average gaming monitor has a

T here’s been a lot of chatter about 4K gaming in recent years. This is mostly because of the launch of the Xbox One X and PlayStation 4 Pro, not to mention their respective 4K-standard younger next-gen siblings that’ll launch later this year. But like most console advancements, they’ve already been available on PC for quite a while. Admittedly, it’s a little more costly to tap into the ocular perks of 4K PC gaming, but it’s also an investment in unprecedented quality that the dedicated PC gamer should absolutely consider. Best bit: you don’t need to spend $4K to immerse yourself in the high-fidelity realities of 4K PC gaming.

resolution of 1920x1080 (or 1080p), where those numbers refer to the total number of

horizontal and vertical pixels, respectively. More pixels equals higher-quality images. The current PC gaming trend is towards 1440p resolutions and monitors: so, 2560x1440. But 4K pushes that to 2160p or 3840x2160

resolution. More pixels also means more processing power is required for playable frame rates (30 frames per second or, ideally, 60fps).

The heart of 4K First things first, you need a 4K-capable rig. Thankfully, manufacturers aren’t shy when it comes to advertising whether a gaming desktop or laptop is ready for 4K gaming. For those seeking a desktop solution, you might start with the MSI Trident A or step up to the next level with the MSI Trident X Plus. The most critical innards component you’re seeking is a graphics card that’s high-end enough to handle the 4K-gaming load. The more recent the graphics card, and the more onboard memory it has – 8GB should be considered minimum for contemporary

4K gaming – the smoother your 4K gaming experience will be. Like the consoles, you can treat 4K as 30 frames-per-second (fps) – good enough. But, really, 4K 60fps is the goal. Games that use mouse aiming in particular feel a lot better at 60fps. 4K on the go While desktops give you the flexibility of choosing the right monitor to match your gaming preferences, gaming laptops come with one. And if you want 4K gaming on the go, it gets a little trickier. This is because there’s a push towards making gaming laptops a competitively viable piece of kit. Any time you see ‘competitive’ in relation to PC gaming, that’s shorthand for ‘high refresh-rate screens’. While 4K gaming monitors that also offer high-refresh-rate panels do exist, they’re incredibly expensive and cost-prohibitive in laptops. That’s why a lot of the recent-model gaming laptops are geared towards high- refresh-rate Full HD (1080p) panels. Look to something like the Razer Blade Stealth with the 4K screen.

The cost of 4K Given the thousands of dollars required to buy a 4K-capable PC and monitor, it’s easy for the console crowd to throw shade at the cost-prohibitive nature of 4K gaming on PC. But is it really? Well, kinda. While a 4K-capable console is cheaper, it still requires ownership of a 4K TV. Like anything, you can skimp on a cheap 4K TV to get the job done but, really, you’d want a gaming-focused 4K TV brand to get the most out of the visuals. This is, after all, the pursuit of fidelity gains. Remember you’re only a really long HDMI cable away from PC gaming on a 4K TV, too.

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JANUARY 2020

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