How much do you have to spend approx to play current games at 4k 120mhz refresh rate?

peppergomez

2[H]4U
Joined
Sep 15, 2011
Messages
2,123
I've got a several year old Alienware laptop with a 2070 in it. It doesn't have the ability to drive my LG 48CX 4K tv at the native 120 mhz refresh rate and can't run any recent games at 4k with high settings even at 60mhz with good frames.

I've been considering maybe building a desktop system from scratch and have been waiting for the new AMD cards to come out since Nvidias 40 series prices are too high for me to consider. I was wondering what approximate minimum price would be I need to spend in building a new system to game at 4K at 120mhz refresh rate with at high (not maxed) settings on todays series of games. Pretty sure ill never be able to afford $1200-1600 on just a video card alone. And AFAIK the 30x series of NVidia cards r AMD's prior gen wouldn't offer enough power to game at 4k at 120mhz w high settings. So maybe it's wait and see when AMDs latest cards come out, in order to determine cost?

Thanks
 
$2000
and it's 120hz, not 120mhz, as that is basically 120 million frames per second.
 
I would say closer to $3k if you want to have near max settings. You will need a 4090. I don't think the 7900xtx will have the grunt to push 120 high settings even with FSR.
 
Thanks all OK sounds like I may have to wait another year or so for prices to come down before I build
 
Nothing can play games at 120 MHz.

Since the CX supports G-SYNC, I wouldn't worry about games running at 120 FPS. Since you're not concerned about "max" settings, a 3080 12GB could get you within reach of 120 FPS in a lot of games, but I would do a 3090 at minimum. WIth that much GPU you're going to need an equally powerful CPU to keep up with it. With a 3090 2560x1440 was shown to be a CPU-bound resolution. A 3080 Ti or more is going to creep into 4K becoming more CPU-dependent. A Ryzen 7 5800X3D or Core i7-12700KF is where I would start.

Breaking that down would be:
Code:
       CPU = $350-400
CPU Cooler = $100-200
       GPU = $800-1,600
        MB = $140-200
    Memory = $100-150
       PSU = $150-200
      Case = $50-200
     TOTAL = $1,690-2,950
Add incidentals you need like keyboard & mouse, controller, etc.
 
Nothing can play games at 120 MHz.

Since the CX supports G-SYNC, I wouldn't worry about games running at 120 FPS. Since you're not concerned about "max" settings, a 3080 12GB could get you within reach of 120 FPS in a lot of games, but I would do a 3090 at minimum. WIth that much GPU you're going to need an equally powerful CPU to keep up with it. With a 3090 2560x1440 was shown to be a CPU-bound resolution. A 3080 Ti or more is going to creep into 4K becoming more CPU-dependent. A Ryzen 7 5800X3D or Core i7-12700KF is where I would start.

Breaking that down would be:
Code:
       CPU = $350-400
CPU Cooler = $100-200
       GPU = $800-1,600
        MB = $140-200
    Memory = $100-150
       PSU = $150-200
      Case = $50-200
     TOTAL = $1,690-2,950
Add incidentals you need like keyboard & mouse, controller, etc.
Thanks Armenius.
The system would be the only thing I would need I've got a bunch of peripherals.
I think I'll be waiting to see what AMD's upcoming generation of cards offers and at what price points. I've never used ray tracing so I don't know how big a deal it is but from what I've been reading about it seems like that's really the only serious advantage the NV cards have over AMD's.
 
Want to add that my memory price is based on the recommendation of dual channel DDR4 16GB 3200 MT/s sticks for 32GB total. I would not recommend any less than 32GB these days. If you go AMD for the CPU it generally benefits more from memory bandwidth, so you may want to look into sticks with a higher transfer speed than 3200 if you go that direction.

My PSU price is for a recommendation of a good 1000W unit from Seasonic, EVGA, or Corsair.

CPU Cooler is for something like a Noctua DH-15 up to a 360mm AIO.
 
1669914720770.png

~3kUS
 
I play games in 4k/ultra settings on my 3080 and get 60 to 75fps. That is good enough for me. Gears 5 on max settings in 4k gets me 68 fps average on the benchmark. And in game I'm getting 70 73 fps. What should I do? Spend freaking 1600$ and get 120 fps? LOL NO.
 
I play games in 4k/ultra settings on my 3080 and get 60 to 75fps. That is good enough for me. Gears 5 on max settings in 4k gets me 68 fps average on the benchmark. And in game I'm getting 70 73 fps. What should I do? Spend freaking 1600$ and get 120 fps? LOL NO.
Gears 5 is 3 years old at this point. That's like 20 in PC years.
 
Gears 5 is 3 years old at this point. That's like 20 in PC years.

Exactly. Soo for my use case, I would be nuts to buy a 4090. Cause the games that I play in 4k ultra are all 60fps and above...for me for my money. I think newer games suck ass. And the certainly without a doubt do not need a 4080 or 4090 to play them. People are acting like games are not possible without 4 series. Sorry that just ain't the case. I need to spend 1600$ or 1200$ just so I can get an extra 40 to 50 fps in 4k? Hell no freaking way. Just not worth it at all. Maybe 5 series maybe 6 series. But at this rate those cards will cost 2 thousand dollars plus. PC gaming it is becoming a rip off.
 
Exactly. Soo for my use case, I would be nuts to buy a 4090. Cause the games that I play in 4k ultra are all 60fps and above...for me for my money. I think newer games suck ass. And the certainly without a doubt do not need a 4080 or 4090 to play them. People are acting like games are not possible without 4 series. Sorry that just ain't the case. I need to spend 1600$ or 1200$ just so I can get an extra 40 to 50 fps in 4k? Hell no freaking way. Just not worth it at all. Maybe 5 series maybe 6 series. But at this rate those cards will cost 2 thousand dollars plus. PC gaming it is becoming a rip off.
Well OP is asking what it takes to play at 120 fps, so your opinion that 60 fps is "good enough" isn't really relevant to the topic at hand.
 
Well he did say "even at 60mhz with good frames."

And my 3080 gets more than that at 4k ultra.
 
Nothing can play games at 120 MHz.

Since the CX supports G-SYNC, I wouldn't worry about games running at 120 FPS. Since you're not concerned about "max" settings, a 3080 12GB could get you within reach of 120 FPS in a lot of games, but I would do a 3090 at minimum. WIth that much GPU you're going to need an equally powerful CPU to keep up with it. With a 3090 2560x1440 was shown to be a CPU-bound resolution. A 3080 Ti or more is going to creep into 4K becoming more CPU-dependent. A Ryzen 7 5800X3D or Core i7-12700KF is where I would start.

Breaking that down would be:
Code:
       CPU = $350-400
CPU Cooler = $100-200
       GPU = $800-1,600
        MB = $140-200
    Memory = $100-150
       PSU = $150-200
      Case = $50-200
     TOTAL = $1,690-2,950
Add incidentals you need like keyboard & mouse, controller, etc.

In Canadian dollars, I spent close to $4,500 for my most recent rig (see sig). Must be nice to be American....

Notably, cost of my motherboard was $700 after tax, RTX 4080 was just over $2k after tax and I also have 6 Corsair RGB fans which costed more than I expected.
 
That looks like a killer system. I'm hoping I can build something that will enable me to game at 4k for about $2500-3000 some time this spring. We shall see.
 
Basically you need a 4090 and a 10 core CPU made in the last 3 gens on Intel or 5/7 series on AMD to get you there.
If you don't need to buy a monitor or peripherals, but need all the other hardware bits, I'd say you'd want to spend no less than $2500 for a system where you've specifically chosen parts that aren't the "minimum" necessary. That bit extra for RAM made by good manufacturers. A nicer cooler, getting in good case fans. Spending the money on a Seasonic Platinum PSU. All that kind of stuff.
$3000+ if you want full blown premium GPU/CPU/Mobo/RAM. Mobo prices for the absolute top end have skyrocketed. And DDR5 is still unreasonable in terms of cost currently.

Still won't get you to 4k 120 in every title though. We're still GPU limited on top end games that have heavy raytracing requirements.
 
Save money and strike on a used 3080Ti on eBay. That's would def do the trick. I just bought a used 3070 for 325. You can def find killer deals if you look. The rest of the system doesn't have to be bleeding edge to run 120 depending on the game. Some games run crappy no matter what hardware you have.
 
Buying 2nd hand components can give you a great gaming rig build
I have 11700K, RTX3080 12 gig Eagle 32 gig memory 3 TB’ of SSD’s
$1800
 
Randy did you buy your 2nd hand equipment from the forums here?

I can't think of any other place I would want to buy used Since I wouldn't trust anyone outside of this forum.
 
Randy did you buy your 2nd hand equipment from the forums here?

I can't think of any other place I would want to buy used Since I wouldn't trust anyone outside of this forum.
I purchased parts from forums I have been on for years some parts from ebay
Motherboard

Gigabyte Z590 AORUS PRO AX
$106.01 Tax$6.48 Shipping $14.85
Handling $2.00
* $129.34
CPU Intel 11700K
*$250.00
MEM.G.Skill Trident Z Neo DDR4 3600
*$179.13
GPU Gigabyte Eagle OC RTX 3080 12GB
*$525.00
Samsung 980 PRO 2TB PCIe Gen 4 x4 NVMe Gaming Internal SSD M.2
*$209.88
AORUS NVMe Gen4 SSD 1TB M.2 2280 PCI-Express 4.0x4, NVMe 1.3
*$107.47
EVGA SuperNOVA 1000 G6, 80 Plus Gold 1000W, Fully Modular 220-G6-1000-X1
*$93.40
[2-PACK] CORSAIR ICUE SP140 PRO PERFORMANCE RGB 140MM LED PWM CASE FAN + SCREWS
*$31.75
Corsair SP120 RGB 120mm Triple Fan Kit & Lighting Node Core Bundle
*$52.99
Corsair 4000D case

I purchase a lot of open box from ebay seller with great rep.
And long time members on the forums with good rep and feed back and heatware
 
Thanks Randy appreciate it when it comes time for me to look toward buying my build I'll probably PM you for buying advice
 
You can get such a good deal when buying used. Stuff works as new in my opinion. Very nice price you got for those items.
 
If you play on medium/High settings you can get 120fps without much difficulty. Reccommend a 3090 or 6900XT for recent games. You could get a 3080 12GB or 6800 XT for older games at 4k.
 
If you play on medium/High settings you can get 120fps without much difficulty. Reccommend a 3090 or 6900XT for recent games. You could get a 3080 12GB or 6800 XT for older games at 4k.



And that's without raytracing I assume right?
 
What is up with the reply feature on his forums? It continually puts my response in line with the reply
 
Here's an article I found benching some games at High settings at 4k using a 3080. Cyberpunk 2077, MS flight Sim, and Assassin's creed odyssey are the games that still get mediocre performance granted he only tested down to high / very high on a lot of the games but you can see the performance increases he gets.
https://www.techspot.com/article/23...aw distances,closer objects compared to Ultra.

4k RT 120fps would definitely need a 4090 i'm guessing. Theres a good amount of games where the 4090 is around 90-120FPS with RT + DLSS quality at 4k.
 
The good thing about getting a 4k tv or monitor is now that you have one and plan to stay with 4k gaming for a while is that now all you have to upgrade is the GPU. Not even the 4090 will play all games at 120Hz at 4k so you can start with something as low as a 3080 or whatever you can afford then each year or every other year you can get something more powerful to run games at 4k. You don't have to buy the latest gen GPU. Stay a year or two behind the curve and just buy the older line as you go. It will be cheaper than the latest best GPU every year so it saves you lots of money in the long run. For example say you get a 3xxx series. When the 5xxx series comes out pick up a 4xxx series and just go at it like that. That's my plan now that I got into 4k gaming in late December and I plan to stick with 4k for a long while. Quite happy with it.
 
I've got a 3090 and it'll max out most games at around 100fps as long as you're willing to use DLSS. If Gsync is available, I think you'd actually be hard pressed to notice a ton of difference between 100 and 120fps. I've been rocking a 4K setup for long time (7'ish years), and it's actually been viable since the beginning. There were a fair number of games you could max out at 4K 6-7 years ago because they simply weren't all that advanced. We got a spike of games that started pushing boundaries 4'ish years ago and we're starting to get a push of some more right now. There are always going to be games you can't max out with almost any hardware, so sometimes you just have to compromise a little. For me, that's usually in the form of AA, shadows, or fog.
 
I've got a 3090 and it'll max out most games at around 100fps as long as you're willing to use DLSS.

Key aspect here. You'll have to buy the top line GPUs and a good CPU to pair with it. To keep up you'll need to upgrade every generation. Seeing the cost of modern GPUs it can actually get fairly expensive.
 
Back
Top