What graphics card do I need for 4k and 60fps?

[Lelek Group AG]

So I recently upgraded from an 1080p Monitor to a 4k Monitor and tested the performance of all my games on higher resolutions. I soon realized that I would have to upgrade graphics card, if I want some smooth 2k or even 4k gameplay, depending on the game.

(My current specs are Nvidia GeForce 1060 (6GB), i7-7th Gen 4.2GHz and 16GB RAM.)


But I was kinda surprised when I tested my two trucksims.
ATS ran more or less smooth on 2k resolution, max settings, 200% scaling. I had constant 60fps only some rare frame drops. But totally playable. I also played it with 3-4 mods, the most notable one was a traffic mod.

Then ETS2: Nvidias GeForce Experience suggested to me that my PC should run it on 4k resolution, max settings and 400% scaling. I ended up with 15 FPS. I removed the mods, it improved by 5 FPS. I ended up having 60FPS on 100% scaling, but i had frame drops everytime I moved the camera with my mouse. I lowered the resolution and to 2k and 200% scaling (just like ATS), it performed worse than ATS.
And I'd rather continue playing ATS than ETS2 on 1080p on a 4k monitor, just looks terrible.

What do I need to play ETS2 (the oldest game in my library) on max settings? Why does it perform worse than ATS, despite having lower hardware requirements? And lastly, do you even need high scaling on 4? I had the feeling it looked crispier on 100% scaling than on 400% scaling (or was this because it was on low FPS?!).


I know for sure that I'll have to upgrade my GTX 1060, I have other games that are completely unplayable on higher resolutions than 1080p. But I'm surprised that I can't run an 8 year old ETS2 on my current hardware.

[🍋 Lemonfed 🍋]

400% scaling mean the game render at 4 time your screen resolution then scale it down for your screen , It's act like anti-aliasing on turbo so you don't really need it.

since the recommend spec is a gtx 760 for 1080P any gpu like a gtx 1060 should be able to run the game in 4K since it's more then twice the performances (In theory) and if you ran the game at 2K + 200% mean you where rendering the game at 4K.

when was the last time you've updated the drivers ?

[Lelek Group AG]

I'm updating it regularly, but I just saw that there was an update that came out 3 days ago. I was just experimentng in ATS as well and tried 4k with 100% scaling. It runs fine on 60fps and looks better than 2k on 200%. But since i tried ETS2 first on 4k I assumed that the newer ATS wouldn't run on 4k either. Seems like I was wrong and seems like ATS is better optimized than ETS2.

But yeah ETS2 on 4k 100% scaling has frame drops in cities, when I turn the camera when taking corners or outside of towns when I enter forrest and/or there is rain. I think I'm gonna try lowering some of the ultra settings to high and see how it does.

[Wolfgang]

Originally posted by Lemonfed:

since the recommend spec is a gtx 760 for 1080P any gpu like a gtx 1060 should be able to run the game in 4K since it's more then twice the performances (In theory) and if you ran the game at 2K + 200% mean you where rendering the game at 4K.

Both the minimum and the recommended specs on the Steam Store page are outdated since 1.36.

@OP: I think you need a 1080 or a 1080ti to get it working without problems. But since the RTX30 Series came out lately you might be able to get a used 2080ti or a 2060 super pretty cheap.

[Lelek Group AG]

Yeah I was playing it on high settings and 100% scaling for a while and with no mods with significant performance impact like traffic mods. It ran fine outside of towns while cruising on motorways. But as soon as I hit some traffic or a toll booth, the frames dropped massively for a couple of moments, making it difficult to avoid collisions in some cases.

But as I said in my original post anyway, I intend to upgrade my graphics card, so I'll be able to solve this problem soon hopefully. It just bothers me that the older ETS2 runs worse than the newer ATS.

[adios]

Previusly i was playing on 1080 Ti, which can comfortably do 4K at 200% and everything maxed out. Now with RTX 3080 i can go as far as 400% and maintain 60 fps, but honestly the difference between 200% and 400% is so miniscule it makes no sense.

[boneys26]

2080Ti runs with max settings 3840x2160 400% with mods, only time I had issues was with lighting mods for both city lights and realistic headlights they caused big fps drops.

But as adios said in the above post the difference between 200 and 400% is barely noticeable in fact if you're not looking for the difference you won't see it. I personally have mine set at 200% with everything maxed for that reason. No point in working the card a little more for almost no gain visually.