For gamers who buy the high-end RTX 5090 graphics card, they’re surely used to jumping straight to 4K resolution when playing games, and current 3A titles all run smoothly without any issues. And after Samsung recently released the world’s first true 6K gaming monitor, it naturally makes you wonder—does that mean current GPUs can handle 6K now? Recently, foreign media outlet TechSpot ran real-world tests on this very topic, and the results were somewhat surprising. While the RTX 5090 can indeed run 6K resolution, compared to 4K, performance in many 3A titles was cut in half, making gameplay less than smooth—let alone other graphics cards.
Image source: TechSpot
8 games tested: With the same settings, performance drops by half after upgrading from 4K to 6K.
TechSpot said in a report.They originally didn’t plan to cover this topic, but after publishing the Odyssey G80HS gaming monitor review, so many people were asking to see “what 6K gaming actually looks like” that they went back and did this additional test. Since it’s a 6K test, the graphics cards they picked were naturally mid-to-high-end. They tested two GPUs: the RTX 5090 and the relatively cheaper (but still very expensive) RTX 5070 Ti, running a total of 8 games.
Image source: TechSpot
Many people might not have a clear idea of what 6K means. 6K resolution is 6144×3456, which works out to 21.2 million pixels; the 4K we’re familiar with, on the other hand, is 3840×2160, only 8.3 million pixels. That means 6K has to render 2.6 times as much content as 4K. This multiplier doesn’t just demand more from the GPU’s compute cores—whether there’s enough video memory is also critical. In other words, going from 4K to 6K isn’t just slightly harder to run; it’s a difference in magnitude.
TechSpot’s testing method first determines “reasonable usable settings for the RTX 5090 at 4K,” then raises the resolution to 6K without changing anything else to see how frame rates change. The table below shows the test results (same settings, same card, only the resolution differs):
| Game | Image quality settings | 4K | 6K | Decline range |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cyberpunk 2077 | Overdrive Path Tracing + DLSS Performance | 86 FPS | 42 FPS | -51% |
| Crimson Desert | Cinematic + Ray Reconstruction + DLSS Quality | 63 FPS | 29 FPS | -54% |
| Doom: The Dark Ages | Ultra Nightmare + Path Tracing maxed out + DLSS Performance | 85 FPS | 43 FPS | -49% |
| Forza Horizon 6 | Extreme＋RT＋DLSS Quality | 99 FPS | 56 FPS | -43% |
| Battlefield 6 | Overkill + DLSS Quality | 137 FPS | 78 FPS | -43% |
| Marvel Rivals | Ultra + DLSS Performance | 124 FPS | 77 FPS | -38% |
| Brothers in Arms: Homeland | Epic + DLSS Quality | 85 FPS | 54 FPS | -36% |
| Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Sync Reset | Ultra High + DLSS Quality | 88 FPS | 57 FPS | -35% |
It can be seen that Cyberpunk 2077 has the steepest drop. Using the highest Ray Tracing Overdrive preset with DLSS Performance mode, the RTX 5090 gets 86 FPS at 4K. Switching the same settings to 6K drops it all the way to 42 FPS. To make it smooth, you’d have to turn off ray tracing entirely and use the regular Ultra preset, which gives 72 FPS. TechSpot believes that rather than playing at 70 FPS in 6K, it makes more sense to enjoy high frame rates at 4K:
Image source: TechSpot
The performance gap in DOOM: The Dark Ages is even more notable. With the Ultra Nightmare preset, path tracing fully maxed out, and DLSS set to Performance, 4K hits 85 FPS, but dropping to 6K yields only 43 FPS—practically unplayable for a fast-paced shooter. Of course, turning off path tracing brings 6K back up to 82 FPS, which sounds reasonable. But the same settings at 4K deliver 167 FPS. In other words, you’re sacrificing high refresh rates for just a marginal bump in visual quality.
Image credit: TechSpot
What about the RTX 5070 Ti? TechSpot says it’s basically out of contention—if you maintain the high-quality settings used in the earlier RTX 5090 test, none of the 8 games can hold 60 FPS.
| Game | Image quality settings | 4K | 6K | decline |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Battlefield 6 | Overkill + DLSS Quality | 89 FPS | 33 FPS | -63% |
| Cyberpunk 2077 | Overdrive Path Tracing + DLSS Performance | 45 FPS | 20 FPS | -56% |
| Crimson Desert | Cinematic + Ray Reconstruction + DLSS Quality | 32 FPS | 14 FPS | -56% |
| Doom: The Dark Ages | Ultra Nightmare + Path Tracing Fully Enabled + DLSS Performance | 47 FPS | 22 FPS | -53% |
| Forza Horizon 6 | Extreme＋RT＋DLSS Quality | 61 FPS | 31 FPS | -49% |
| Marvel Rivals | Ultra + DLSS Performance | 88 FPS | 47 FPS | -47% |
| Mafia: The Old Country | Epic + DLSS Quality | 55 FPS | 30 FPS | -45% |
| Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Synchronization Reset | Ultra High + DLSS Quality | 55 FPS | 33 FPS | -40% |
All 8 titles run below 50 FPS at 6K, with the best performer, Marvel Rivals, only hitting 47 FPS. The games with ray tracing enabled are even lower: Cyberpunk 2077’s Overdrive mode only gets 20 FPS, Doom: The Dark Ages with path tracing gets 22 FPS, and Crimson Desert with Ray Reconstruction drops to 14 FPS. At these maximum quality settings, it’s no longer a matter of smoothness—it’s nearly unplayable.
TechSpot also noted in the article that the RTX 5070 Ti is actually faster than the RTX 3090. If even the 5070 Ti can’t handle 6K, then what about the 3090, which was marketed as an 8K graphics card back in the day? They originally planned to test the RTX 5070 as well, but scrapped that idea after seeing the 5070 Ti’s results.
So, with current graphics cards, running 6K games is still too demanding, which may also be why the world’s first 6K gaming monitor has only just now appeared.
Image source: TechSpot
Source: KOCPC Chinese