Samsung’s 500Hz OLED gaming monitor has a need for speed

I was really expecting Samsung to go bigger with its OLED gaming monitors this year. Not so, at least not yet. Instead, the company is focusing on blazing-fast speed.

Like MSI and Asus previously announced, Samsung has new offerings that can hit as much as 500Hz of refresh. There’s also a new 27-inch 4K panel, if you’re more interested in high-res gameplay.

The newest Odyssey OLED G8 is the headliner, showing off a 4K OLED panel in a relatively small form factor of 27 inches. That makes the G81SF ideal for a desktop with a lot of power and not a lot of space. At “just” 240Hz, it isn’t the fastest thing around, though it should still be more than adequate enough for all but the most demanding of esports fanatics.

For said fanatics, there’s the OLED G6 (G60SF, in the header image). Using the same 27-inch 2560×1440 panel as MSI and Asus revealed earlier this week, it’s hitting an incredible 500Hz. That’s the kind of pixel-pushing power that only the most powerful gaming PCs on the market can manage, at least with the latest 3D games. Other highlights include 0.03ms response time and support for the highest levels of AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync.

Samsung is also showing off the ViewFinity S8, a larger-format 37-inch monitor with a 4K resolution. This one’s definitely more of an all-rounder than a gaming display, with a certification from Germany’s TÜV Rheinland for “Ergonomic Workspace Display.” It also packs an integrated KVM switch, 90 watts of charging over USB-C, and various options for eye fatigue reduction.

Samsung wheeled out its latest attempt at glasses-free 3D, but this is something we’ve seen before, specifically last September. Weirdly, for this pre-CES press push, the company is only mentioning the 27-inch (G90XF) model, which uses front-facing stereo cameras to adjust its lenticular display for the user’s eyes. The monitor can “analyze and convert 2D video into 3D” using AI, something that wasn’t in the press release last year. We’ll see if this one makes it out to consumers.

As Samsung is wont to do, none of the new displays have prices or release dates available at the moment.