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

I’m really looking forward to Samsung going bigger with OLED gaming monitors this year. Not so, at least not yet. Instead, the company focuses on blazing speeds.

As previously announced by MSI and Asus, Samsung has also launched new products with refresh rates up to 500Hz. If you’re more interested in high-resolution gaming, there’s also a new 27-inch 4K panel.

The latest Odyssey OLED G8 is the protagonist, showing a 4K OLED panel with a relatively small form factor of 27 inches. This makes the G81SF ideal for desktop computers that pack a lot of power but don’t have a lot of space. At “just” 240Hz, it’s not the fastest, but it’s still more than enough for all but the most demanding esports fanatics.

For the aforementioned enthusiasts, there’s the OLED G6 (G60SF, in the header image). Using the same 27-inch 2560×1440 panel as MSI and ASUS earlier this weekit reaches an incredible 500Hz. This kind of pixel push is only possible with the most powerful gaming PCs on the market, at least in the latest 3D games. Other highlights include a 0.03 millisecond response time and support for the highest levels of AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync.

Samsung also showed off the ViewFinity S8, a large 37-inch monitor with 4K resolution. This monitor is definitely more versatile than a gaming monitor and has received the “Ergonomic Workspace Monitor” certification from Germany’s TÜV Rheinland. It also comes with an integrated KVM switch, 90W charging via USB-C, and various options to reduce eye strain.

Samsung has unveiled its latest attempt at glasses-free 3D, but it’s nothing we’ve seen before, Especially last September. Oddly, in this pre-CES press conference, the company only mentioned a 27-inch (G90XF) model, which uses a front-facing stereo camera to adjust its raster display to the user’s eyes. The display can use artificial intelligence to “analyze 2D video and convert it to 3D,” which wasn’t mentioned in last year’s press release. We’ll see if this product works for consumers.

As Samsung is wont to do, no price or release date has been announced for any of its new monitors at this time.