Let’s lower to the chase—Samsung’s newest QD-OLED pc monitor is totally superior, and I’ve liked having it at my desk for the previous month or so. Each sport I play on it seems to be unbelievable, and it has rapidly change into the centerpiece of my battle station.
Even so, I am nonetheless having hassle recommending 4K high-refresh screens to individuals who have to purchase and construct their very own programs. Having a monitor with some room to develop is the suitable selection, however the hole between efficiency and functionality could be irritating in the event you’re on in any other case budget-friendly {hardware}. If you happen to’re pondering of creating an improve, very nice 1440p screens can be found for below $400, and so they may be a greater efficiency match for most individuals.
However, in the event you’ve already acquired essentially the most highly effective gaming PC in your buddy group and also you’ve acquired the money to spare, you’ll be extraordinarily happy with the Samsung G81SF. It affords one of the best panel kind within the class, the best decision and refresh fee fashionable programs can fairly handle, and the suite of options to match.
Quick Refresh, Excessive Decision
The G81SF options Quantum-Dot OLED know-how. (We have now an in-depth explainer about panel varieties in order for you the technical particulars.) The result’s nearly one of the best gaming monitor expertise you possibly can have in the mean time. Colours are tremendous brilliant and vivid, and shadows and darkish areas completely disappear into blackness. It makes me need to flip off the lights, placed on some headphones, and settle in for too many hours of some deeply cinematic sport.
For most people, the QD-OLED screens are going to be the best possible gaming expertise you’ll find, however there are options. If you happen to’re simply set on 4K and 240Hz, the Mini LED model of the identical display screen from Samsung has a slower response time, and received’t have the identical lovely Quantum Dot-powered colours, however could be discovered for $700 or much less. If you happen to’re contemplating this display screen, I don’t assume that one will impress you just about as a lot, nevertheless it does point out the form of premium you’re paying for the latest tech.
Given the excessive refresh and backbone, leveraging adaptive refresh right here might be essential for stopping tearing, and the Samsung options FreeSync Premium Plus, slightly than Nvidia G-Sync. Probably the most noticeable benefit to doing so is that it saves you some bucks, with FreeSync screens typically being a bit cheaper than their counterparts. The opposite benefit is that it really works with each Nvidia and AMD playing cards, so that you received’t be tied to 1 or the opposite when searching for GPUs.
The difficulty for most individuals will simply be getting video games to run easily. I’m fortunate sufficient to have an RTX 5090 (7/10, WIRED Recommends) for evaluate functions. Even with Nvidia’s present top-end, lately launched card, most fashionable video games received’t get anyplace near 240 FPS at 4K with out vital settings tweaking and liberal use of body technology. If you happen to’re on a lower-powered or older card, you would possibly get annoyed to search out that solely Terraria runs at full decision and refresh fee. Individuals with playing cards older than the RTX 20 Collection ought to avert their eyes, as a result of it’s possible you received’t even be capable to output at 4K and 240Hz, not to mention sport.
Tech and Stand
It has a easy platform stand, which is sufficiently sturdy given the comparatively heavy display screen, with a primary cable loop on the base. It additionally has RGB lights in a small ring across the again, however so as to see them your room will must be darkish and your monitor pretty near the wall behind it. You may set them from the on-screen show, so no additional software program wanted.
New screens typically come out of the field with the display screen brightness turned means up, and I like to recommend turning it right down to anyplace from 20 to 30 %. You may be stunned how a lot it spares your eyes over the course of some hours of gaming, and it’ll prevent a couple of bucks in your energy invoice. I tweaked a number of different settings as effectively, together with turning down the distinction to 40 and the colour to twenty.
It’s actually necessary to the touch on the ports, as a result of each DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 depend on Digital Stream Compression to succeed in 4K at 240Hz. Compression would possibly sound like a scary phrase right here, however based on the VESA the results shouldn’t be visually obvious. Technically, the HDMI port has a better bandwidth, however I couldn’t inform the distinction when switching backwards and forwards between them.