Considering the popularity of the Samsung Odyssey Ark, which was released just recently in Australia, there seems to be a growing market for ultra-high-resolution gaming displays. It’ll be welcome news, then, that 2023 is shaping up to be the year brands like Samsung, Dell, Acer and, LG move beyond 4K gaming monitors and start doubling down on what should be the new standard: 8K. Announced by AMD this week at the company’s RX 7000 GPU launch, the first official 8K ultrawide gaming monitor will be the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9.
This is a public service announcement so any serious gamers can start saving up. Given the price tag of the Samsung Odyssey Ark is $4,499, there’s little doubt the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 will be a punchy prospect. And that goes for all the other 8K ultrawide gaming monitors that’ll be – likely – dropping throughout the year.
And if you take your gaming seriously, you will want likely want to throw yourself at these displays. AMD’s new GPUs are able to output 8K video at higher refresh rates, but that’s only if you have a display advanced enough to handle the uptick in performance without imploding. Samsung’s next-generation Odyssey Neo G9 promises to be such a display, so it’s likely that’ll be one of the major draws at CES 2023 in January.
AMD has listed 7,680 x 2,160 as the standard resolution for these 8K displays, although the company has not yet confirmed if these gaming monitors will support refresh rates higher than 60Hz. From what we know about the technology, anything up to 165Hz is certainly possible for ultrawide gaming monitors so it’s unlikely gamers will have to stick with 60Hz once they get their hands on the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9.
In terms of connectivity, the higher refresh rates should be supported by DisplayPort 2.1 which is advanced enough to move a 1440p display from a max of 480Hz to 900Hz. There’s little doubt we’ll see a similar bump up here so it’s safe to expect just as much fluidity to the gaming experiences as vibrant colours, detailed textures and an uptick in immersion.
Not convinced it’s a big deal? Most PC gamers are still playing with 1080p monitors. Higher resolutions like 1440p and 4K are only now starting to really pop up around the world and become a bit more affordable so your average PC gamer to grab one. But the price tags are still quite high, which is why announcements like this are important. Anyone thinking of grabbing a 4K monitor to help dust up their gaming experience might want to hold on and save a bit more for next year.
As for how much to save, you’ll need to factor in CPU as well. While it’s well and good that AMD has a fancy new series of GPUs to put into these displays, they will mean nothing without a PC that’s also able to handle the graphics. It’s more than likely that with a new display like the Samsung Odyssey Neo G9, you’ll need to fork out for a new PC as well.
Gaming is an expensive habit when you’ve got high standards.
