GPU for 4K movie viewing

Daniel Gibbons · 19 May 2018 at 07:02

Hi
Firstly I'm not sure if this should've been in graphics card or home cinema, please move if necessary.
I have purchased the 55" LG OLED television. I have a number of UHD movies on my hard drive. My graphics card is old (radeon HD6900) and maximum output is HD resolution. There is no way I've found to force the higher 4k resolution.
So if I want to watch 4k from pc, I conclude I need a new GPU. Am I wrong?

However, if I were to put the films on an external hard drive, connect to TV and play from the TV, then I would get UHD resolution. Again is this conclusion correct?

If both conclusions correct, my dilemma would be deciding if investing in external hard drive that I can connect to television or upgrading GPU is the better option.

My gaming days are all but over, so I really just need my GPU to handle the UHD resolution for movie watching now. I suppose if any new GPU was benchmarked against my current HD6900, then just to be better than that would be suffice.

Is this possible on a budget???

Ive seen some Radeon cards at £59 that say will play 4k, but unsure if the other specs are better than my hd6900, but it has been discontinued and regarded as legacy for a year or two now.

Any and all advice welcome. Thanks.

z10m · 19 May 2018 at 08:19

Both of your conclusions are correct but you have at least two more options.
You can use DP to HDMI 2.0 adapter or stream your videos to your tv over home network using media servers like Kodi or Plex.
Watching your videos directly on the TV ( usb playback or network streamin) is the best option if you want to watch HDR videos but this way You will not be able to playback lossless audio ( DTS HD MA and DD True HD) and only lossy DTS and DD.
Watching HDR videos using Nvidia cards is broken ( colour banding and some colours are off).
I’m not sure about AMD cards tho.

Daniel Gibbons · 19 May 2018 at 08:28

Thanks for that. I have kodi, on the computer though, so will still have same issue. However, are you suggesting that be better off connecting external hard drive to tv via home network rather than wired with usb?

If so, then no need for external hard drive as can source movie files on computer from TV via home network.

However still have restriction on streaming anything on computer from Netflix, YouTube, or any source in 4K, so still leaning towards upgrading graphic card solution. Just want to get it at cheapest as not gaming.

Also, I don't think sound is major issue yet as just using sound from TV as no speakers or similar connected.

z10m · 19 May 2018 at 10:27

You can use Kodi on your PC to share your videos over home network and directly play them on your TV with built in video player.

4K8KW10 · 19 May 2018 at 10:50

Daniel Gibbons said:
Hi
Firstly I'm not sure if this should've been in graphics card or home cinema, please move if necessary.
I have purchased the 55" LG OLED television. I have a number of UHD movies on my hard drive. My graphics card is old (radeon HD6900) and maximum output is HD resolution. There is no way I've found to force the higher 4k resolution.
So if I want to watch 4k from pc, I conclude I need a new GPU. Am I wrong?

However, if I were to put the films on an external hard drive, connect to TV and play from the TV, then I would get UHD resolution. Again is this conclusion correct?

If both conclusions correct, my dilemma would be deciding if investing in external hard drive that I can connect to television or upgrading GPU is the better option.

My gaming days are all but over, so I really just need my GPU to handle the UHD resolution for movie watching now. I suppose if any new GPU was benchmarked against my current HD6900, then just to be better than that would be suffice.

Is this possible on a budget???

Ive seen some Radeon cards at £59 that say will play 4k, but unsure if the other specs are better than my hd6900, but it has been discontinued and regarded as legacy for a year or two now.

Any and all advice welcome. Thanks.

Hi,

It really depends on your decision. Radeon R9 270 is the lowest-end graphics card with support of 3840x2160 and higher http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=32973A29-62EF-4BED-A065-971EE29FE1B7&lang=eng

And it is faster than HD 6970, if you have HD 6970 and not 6950 or lower.

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/1578148 5465 3DMarks

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/3001137 3407 3DMarks

chroniclard · 19 May 2018 at 11:01

Bearing in mind you will need a wired or very good wifi connection to stream 4k content.

4K8KW10 · 19 May 2018 at 11:25

chroniclard said:
Bearing in mind you will need a wired or very good wifi connection to stream 4k content.

He just wants to use the TV as a monitor for movie watching - this is via an HDMI cable.

voidshatter · 19 May 2018 at 11:38

I also have an LG TV (55" OLED 4k). I use Plex to play native 4k format files. Plex Media Server is running directly on my NAS.

chroniclard · 19 May 2018 at 11:38

4K8KW10 said:
He just wants to use the TV as a monitor for movie watching - this is via an HDMI cable.

Yes but kodi, plex and streaming were mentioned.

Daniel Gibbons · 19 May 2018 at 11:58

chroniclard said:
Yes but kodi, plex and streaming were mentioned.

Thanks. I will be doing both as computer is ethernet not WiFi and sits in main room behind TV. WiFi speed 78 Mbps.

Daniel Gibbons · 19 May 2018 at 12:00

4K8KW10 said:
Hi,

It really depends on your decision. Radeon R9 270 is the lowest-end graphics card with support of 3840x2160 and higher http://www.sapphiretech.com/productdetial.asp?pid=32973A29-62EF-4BED-A065-971EE29FE1B7&lang=eng

And it is faster than HD 6970, if you have HD 6970 and not 6950 or lower.

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/1578148 5465 3DMarks

https://www.3dmark.com/fs/3001137 3407 3DMarks

It is the hd6950. At time of purchase was a great card, hoped it would have lasted longer before AMD retired it to legacy.

Daniel Gibbons · 19 May 2018 at 12:04

z10m said:
You can use Kodi on your PC to share your videos over home network and directly play them on your TV with built in video player.

I have all my movies on pc and use Kodi as media player. I used home network to access the files from TV in bedroom and tablets with VLC. However I may be missing a trick here I feel regards best/easiest way for these to be accessed from other devices. If you have any links or page recommendations for guides they would be very welcome .thanks .

4K8KW10 · 19 May 2018 at 12:25

Daniel Gibbons said:
It is the hd6950. At time of purchase was a great card, hoped it would have lasted longer before AMD retired it to legacy.

You would notice even larger performance difference if you go for a R9 270.

The thing is that these Radeons, right now or like in your case, do not support higher resolutions, for example RX Vega 64 doesn't support 7680x4320, even though there are already available displays on the market.
Have no idea why Radeon group behaves in this way regarding this so important issue.
Technical problems?

edit: I was with HD 6870 and one of the reasons why I bought the R9 380 4GB is because of its 4K support.

Daniel Gibbons · 19 May 2018 at 13:53

4K8KW10 said:
You would notice even larger performance difference if you go for a R9 270.

The thing is that these Radeons, right now or like in your case, do not support higher resolutions, for example RX Vega 64 doesn't support 7680x4320, even though there are already available displays on the market.
Have no idea why Radeon group behaves in this way regarding this so important issue.
Technical problems?

edit: I was with HD 6870 and one of the reasons why I bought the R9 380 4GB is because of its 4K support.

The 290 suffice or recommend the 390 to
ensure hassle free playback?

4K8KW10 · 19 May 2018 at 15:33

Daniel Gibbons said:
The 290 suffice or recommend the 390 to
ensure hassle free playback?

290 and 390 is one and the same thing, the Hawaii chip, like 480 and 580 is one and the same thing too, the Polaris 10 chip.
Take the one that you can find cheaper

Daniel Gibbons · 19 May 2018 at 15:35

4K8KW10 said:
290 and 390 is one and the same thing, the Hawaii chip, like 480 and 580 is one and the same thing too, the Polaris 10 chip.
Take the one that you can find cheaper

Good man, thanks.

voidshatter · 20 May 2018 at 10:10

Daniel Gibbons said:
Thanks. I will be doing both as computer is ethernet not WiFi and sits in main room behind TV. WiFi speed 78 Mbps.

Say, a typical 4k 24fps 8-bit movie has 17 GiB size and 2h43min length. That translates into 1.78 MiB/s or 14.2 Mbps. WiFi is more than enough to stream such movies. The only cable connected to my 55" LG OLED TV is the power cable, and the only connection is via WiFi. Never had a single issue.

Nexus18 · 20 May 2018 at 11:16

A 290 does not support HDR playback (so it will be useless for UHD), also, a 290 struggles with HEVC/UHD (at least when using the recommended player MPC HC with madvr)

I know vega and 4xx series support HDR, no idea about nvidia cards, except for the 10xx series.

Daniel Gibbons · 21 May 2018 at 14:08

Nexus18 said:
A 290 does not support HDR playback (so it will be useless for UHD), also, a 290 struggles with HEVC/UHD (at least when using the recommended player MPC HC with madvr)

I know vega and 4xx series support HDR, no idea about nvidia cards, except for the 10xx series.

Thanks, I'll look at the higher spec.

melmac · 21 May 2018 at 14:56

Between the two options, The cheapest would be the external drive.