Let’s minimize to the chase—Samsung’s newest QD-OLED pc monitor is completely superior, and I’ve cherished having it at my desk for the previous month or so. Each recreation I play on it appears to be like unimaginable, and it has shortly turn 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 methods. Having a monitor with some room to develop is the appropriate alternative, however the hole between efficiency and functionality may be irritating for those who’re on in any other case budget-friendly {hardware}. When you’re pondering of constructing an improve, very nice 1440p screens can be found for below $400, they usually could be a greater efficiency match for most individuals.
Alternatively, for those who’ve already received essentially the most highly effective gaming PC in your pal group and also you’ve received the money to spare, you’ll be extraordinarily happy with the Samsung G81SF. It affords the perfect panel sort within the class, the best decision and refresh fee fashionable methods can fairly handle, and the suite of options to match.
Quick Refresh, Excessive Decision
The G81SF options Quantum-Dot OLED know-how. (Now we have an in-depth explainer about panel sorts if you would like the technical particulars.) The result’s nearly the perfect gaming monitor expertise you possibly can have in the intervening time. Colours are tremendous vibrant and vivid, and shadows and darkish areas completely disappear into blackness. It makes me wish to flip off the lights, placed on some headphones, and settle in for too many hours of some deeply cinematic recreation.
For most folk, the QD-OLED screens are going to be the very best gaming expertise you could find, however there are alternate options. When you’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 may be discovered for $700 or much less. When you’re contemplating this display screen, I don’t suppose that one will impress you almost as a lot, however it does point out the type 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, reasonably than Nvidia G-Sync. Essentially 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 overview functions. Even with Nvidia’s present top-end, just lately launched card, most fashionable video games received’t get anyplace near 240 FPS at 4K with out important settings tweaking and liberal use of body technology. When you’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. Folks with playing cards older than the RTX 20 Sequence 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 recreation.
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 in an effort to see them your room will have to be darkish and your monitor pretty near the wall behind it. You’ll be able to set them from the on-screen show, so no further software program wanted.
New screens typically come out of the field with the display screen brightness turned method up, and I like to recommend turning it all the way down to anyplace from 20 to 30 p.c. You could 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 just a few different settings as properly, 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 in response to the VESA the results shouldn’t be visually obvious. Technically, the HDMI port has the next bandwidth, however I couldn’t inform the distinction when switching backwards and forwards between them.
