Selecting a $2,000 gaming monitor as my decide for 2023 is not precisely democratic, even when the monstrous Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 G95NC is already $500 cheaper than after I reviewed it earlier this yr. However it’s a type of uncommon circumstances the place a premium priced product provides you one thing genuinely particular.
At 57 inches, the G95NC is a beast. And the issue with massive screens is often fats pixels. That is why 4K TVs do not make nice desktop screens. Certain, you get lots of sheer show panel in your cash. However at ‘regular’ monitor viewing distances, the sub-100 DPI pixel density of an enormous 4K TV is terribly ugly.
Textual content seems blocky and blurry even on TVs with the proper subpixel construction. It is even worse with OLED panels and their bizarre RGB subpixel preparations.
Furthermore, you do not get any further desktop actual property to work with over a smaller 4K monitor. And customarily the crispness, the sharpness, the picture element suffers.
Certain, it is all dandy considered from 10 toes away, which is what TVs are designed for. However up shut as a monitor? Not a lot. Which is the place the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 G95NC slaps. It is mainly two 32-inch 4K screens welded seamlessly collectively.
Meaning the pixel density is strictly the identical as a 32-inch 4K monitor, which I occur to assume is a superb compromise between visible sharpness and body charges. No less than, I do on a 32-inch panel.
With this Samsung, it is a bit extra sophisticated. With the dual-4K decision comes actually twice the GPU load of 4K. And, let’s be trustworthy, plain previous 4K is demanding sufficient for even probably the most highly effective graphics playing cards. Twin-4K is a little bit of a nightmare.
So, to be clear, for gaming functions, you are going to want no less than an AMD Radeon RX 7900 XT or Nvidia RTX 4080, and ideally an RTX 4090. However then when you can afford this monitor, you may most likely afford a type of GPUs.
Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 G95NC
Display dimension: 57-inch
Decision: 7680 x 2160
Brightness: 420 nits “typical”
Coloration protection: 95% DCI-P3
Response time: 1ms
Refresh fee: 240Hz
Distinction ratio: 2500:1
Options: VA panel, adaptive sync, 1x DisplayPort 2.1, 3x HDMI 2.1, USB-C hub, 1000R curve
Worth: $2,499 | £2,199
The slight catch is that even the quickest GPU on the market—and thus the one you’d assume can be the perfect match for this Samsung—cannot truly hit its full 240Hz refresh. Nvidia has but to assist DisplayPort 2.0, so its GPUs are restricted to 120Hz at dual-4K.
Truthfully, that is an instructional shortcoming provided that even with an RTX 4090 you are not going to be hitting 200+ fps in Cyberpunk, or no matter, at dual-4K decision.
Anyway, we’re barely deviating from the purpose, which is how beautiful this factor is. As soon as you’ve got skilled high-DPI visuals on such a big scale, properly, there’s sort of no going again. All the pieces else seems both miserably small or blurry and blocky.
It is also a aid to search out that Samsung has mainly sorted all the problems that blighted its different high-end mini-LED screens. Oh yeah, this is not an OLOED panel. It has VA LCD tech and absolutely array native dimming with 2,392 zones.
All of the bizarre strobing, the backlight zones clearly popping on and off, all that nonsense has been solved for this show. So that you get real HDR efficiency with out all of the clumsiness of earlier Samsung mini-LED shows.
To make certain, by way of lighting management a per-pixel OLED panel continues to be far superior. However present me an OLED gaming monitor with this pixel density at any dimension, not to mention this scale. They do not exist.
Admittedly, the primary 32-inch 4K OLED gaming panels ought to be with us by mid 2024. And TCL has introduced a full 8K panel that ought to be with us by the top of 2024 that can provide comparable pixel density. Nevertheless, for all-round PC utilization versus pure gaming, OLED nonetheless has loads of shortcomings, not least of that are burn-in and restricted full-screen brightness.
Anyway, these screens are all guarantees for tomorrow. The Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 G95NC is right here right now. And it’s very superior.