With the recent launch of Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 30 series graphics cards, it is now possible to build an 8K gaming PC.
At least, this is according to the projected performance of Nvidia’s new, top-of-the-line gaming GPU – the GeForce RTX 3090.
“The GeForce RTX 3090 is the world’s first GPU able to play blockbuster games at 60 fps in 8K resolution, which is 4x the pixels of 4K and 16x the pixels of 1080p,” Nvidia said in its launch announcement for the new graphics cards.
Whether the display quality bump of an 8K screen is worth the significantly increased demand on your PC’s hardware and the extra expense is open to debate.
Nvidia showed 60fps gameplay to PC game streamers, and it said that they were left impressed by the technology.
“This feels like a Disneyland experience,” one streamer said.
8K does offer a much higher resolution than 4K, making it the new benchmark for top-of-the-line PC gamers and hardware enthusiasts.
8K gaming PC build
To see how much an 8K gaming PC costs in South Africa, we put together a build on paper.
The build includes a single Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090, which is currently only listed at a single South African retailer – Evetech – and is priced at R39,499.
We chose a top-of-the-range AMD Ryzen 9 processor to reduce any potential performance bottlenecks, as well as a chassis and motherboard combination large enough to accommodate the powerful hardware we need.
An SSD and mechanical hard disk are both included in the build to reduce boot times while offering large storage for games.
The 8K PC component prices are listed below.
| 8K PC Build | Component | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Motherboard | ASUS ROG Strix X570-F Motherboard | R7,999 |
| Processor | AMD Ryzen 9 3950X | R15,799 |
| RAM | 2x 16GB G.Skill Ripjaws V 3,200MHz | R2,419 |
| Storage | Samsung 970 EVO Plus 500GB NVMe SSD | R2,799 |
| WD Blue 4TB HDD | R1,999 | |
| Graphics | MSI GeForce RTX 3090 Ventus 24GB | R39,499 |
| Power Supply | Corsair RM1000X 1,000W Modular PSU | R3,999 |
| Chassis | Gamdias Argus M2 | R1,199 |
| Total Price | R75,712 |
Content and performance
While the gaming PC above would – according to Nvidia’s assessment of the RTX 3090 – be able to deliver 8K gaming at 60fps, this technology is not yet widely supported.
8K gaming monitors are exceedingly rare, especially in South Africa, and you could plug your PC into an 8K TV from Samsung or LG, but this extra cost would increase your expenses to over R100,000.
Additionally, many games may not support 8K resolution and even this powerful PC may not be able to run certain titles at decent frame rates.
Platforms such as Netflix and YouTube also do not offer a wide selection of 8K content.
Between performance constraints and a lack of 8K-compatible games and shows, an 8K gaming PC may spend the majority of its time driving 4K content.
This build would deliver great performance for 4K gaming, however, and its powerful GPU would ensure a future-proof configuration.