Even though 4K monitors are becoming more and more affordable, if you want to enjoy smooth gaming performance at 4K, you will need an expensive high-end CPU/GPU build to properly power it up.

You will need at least an RTX 3060 or 6600 XT to get a reasonable framerate at 4K, and that’s with a lot of settings turned down.

For both high picture settings and high framerate at 4K in the latest titles, you will need to invest in at least an RTX 3080 or 6800 XT.

Pairing your AMD or NVIDIA graphics card with a FreeSync or G-SYNC monitor respectively, can also significantly help with the performance.

A benefit to this is that the picture is amazingly crisp and sharp, so you won’t need to use anti-aliasing to remove the ‘staircase effect’ like it’s the case with the lower resolutions. This will also save you some extra frames per second in video games.

In essence, gaming at 4K means sacrificing gameplay fluidity for better image quality, at least for now. So, if you play competitive games, you’re better off with a 1080p or 1440p 144Hz gaming monitor, but in case you prefer better graphics, 4K is the way to go.

To view regular 4K content at 60Hz, you will need to have either an HDMI 2.0, a USB-C (with DP 1.2 Alt Mode), or a DisplayPort 1.2 connector on your graphics card.