Samsung Odyssey Neo G9 57" 7680x2160 super ultrawide (mini-LED)

[improwise]

I'm on the fence if I want to spend the money too. I have a dual 4K 144 Hz 28" setup already that works well enough for work so putting down over 2000 euros for this might not be worth it. Black Friday sales and whether the 240 Hz issues are fixed will determine what I'll do.

Been just gaming on PC in the living room with my LG CX 48" so might consider spending my money on a new 50-55" TV next year instead, if LG or Samsung release anything relevant. 4K 240 Hz would be nice.

Price is of course always an important factor. I had the OLED G9 for a few weeks but in the end found that for the price it had at launch, it really didn't offer enough extras compared to my C2s at something like 1/3 of the price of the OLED G9. Also not in love with the limited vertical resolution. And since then Samsung has capped the brightness even further on the OLED G9 according to Rtings etc.

I am now back to considering the QN900C, which is surprising as it has twice the number of pixels with half the number of zones compared to the G95NC, yet I felt that it was much closer to the same C2 in side by side. Yes, the difference was still there (both pros and cons) but with much less apparent blooming/haloing (at the same distance). That might in part be due to it "limiting the processing" in game mode, but still found the black levels to much closer. It is always tricky to compare things based on memories of perceived black levels etc. but still what had me return the QN900B was actually the undefeatble upscaling rather than PQ. Of course, the rumored 32" 4K OLEDs might be end game (at least if they are glossy) but they only seem to exist in EVE/dough marketing so far...

 

[vulcan78]

Here's my G95NC review!

Preface:

I've own the original G9 which was replaced by the G9 Neo roughly 2 years later. I've always loved the G9, the original did have quite a few issues, notably a 2x6" glitch strip lower left of center that would appear for a split second every 4-6 hours and it had extremely muted / washed out HDR so it was always a choice between decent SDR colors or amazing brights via HDR.

The original G9 Neo addressed these issues offering vastly improved SDR and HDR color performance. Initially HDR was similarly broken on the G9 Neo but this was fixed roughly 4-6 months into it's life cycle with a firmware update and then HDR had nearly as good color reproduction as SDR.

I was initially on the fence with the Dual 4K G9 Neo proposition, for one, I had just upgraded to the Neo in 2021 and I was extremely worried that an RTX 4090 under WB would be able to drive double 4K resolution as the math put the pixel count at 2.25x more than 5120x1440. At the time of it's release I just so happened to be in the market for at least one 8TB Samsung 870 QVO ($400), with my Military veteran discount bringing the price down to $2250 and the $500 promotional credit I was lured into a purchase.

I purchased the monitor on the 22nd of Sept and it was delivered on the 28th and yes the box is massive, but not as big as a refrigerator as many are claiming. The panel arrived with no defects, on the day of setting up I had quite a bit of buyers remorse and anxiety that there would be a dead pixel or two, or some other issue, or that I would damage it while transferring the original G9 Neo off the Ergotron arm + HD pivot, luckily no issues whatsoever. My initial reaction after powering it up was.....disappointment. It took some fiddling around with the color profiles to get the image to an acceptably satisfactory appearance while web browsing, viewing windows and other media content. I initially settled on the RPG profile @ 40 Brightness and 30 Contrast, Local dimming to High and Contrast Enhancer disabled. I wanted to see how HDR appeared and the first few games I tried it did not look right at all, in fact, it suffers from the same problems the original G9 did, HDR is COMPLETELY broken on this panel and yes, I've basically fiddled with everything. I managed to get it to look barely acceptable using the Gaming Standard preset with Brightness @ 50, Contrast @ 45, Local Dimming to High and Contrast Enhancer to High. The issue with HDR is multifold, not only is it completely washed out just like the original G9 in terms of color but it also has a really annoying bug where the "HDR Tone Mapping" resets to Static even the UI says it's Active and the end user may be unaware of this. The solution is to set it to Static and then back to Active. This is extremely annoying as you must navigate like 15 button presses with the unergonomic monitor interface to accomplish this and it basically must be done every time you start a game, or if you change the render resolution. Simply changing DLSS quality in Cyberpunk 2077 will induce this bug.

So my initial day with it, I wasn't happy, I would give the monitor maybe 3 out of 5 stars, it is sharper that's for sure.

But having patience I stuck with it and eventually out of curiosity while playing Assassins Creed Valhalla in HDR (washed out!) I wanted to see how the game looked in SDR so I disabled HDR while the game was running and this was when I discovered a valid workaround, no not just a workaround, a DRAMATIC improvement in the image compared to the G9 Neo. What I discovered was that the panel was in this weird place where it was still using the HDR "Gaming Standard" preset with High Local Dimming, Contrast Enhancer and brightness and contrast nearly maxed out and the peak nits were about 80% of that of an HDR image but with SDR color! Having a Eureka moment two weeks after getting this monitor was euphoric. I closed down the game disabled HDR within windows, fired it back up, and this time used the HDR "Gaming Standard" profile and MY GOD, it was like HDR but with SDR color! In fact, it's so good it's better than G9 Neo in HDR after they fixed it with the firmware update! I was so impressed with the result that I was STUCK in the game for an additional 3 hours until like 4 am!

The next day I woke up and couldn't wait to try all of my other games and sure enough, they all looked absolutely AMAZING in SDR faking HDR via this method. I swear to you, light sources are about 80% as bright as in HDR but with amazing SDR color with this method. Upon further experimentation I realized that the presets actually tint the image in a manner that cannot be adjusted within the GUI and I realized that "Gaming Standard" applies a bluish / nearly greenish tint to whites whereas "RPG" applies a very sublte red to whites and is maybe 5-10% dimmer. I have now settled on the RPG profile with the following settings:

Brigtness: 50
Contrast: 40
Sharpness: 10
Color: 30
Local Dimming: High
Contrast Enhancer: High

I use this profile for web browsing / outside of gaming:

Profile: RTS
Brightness: 45
Contrast: 30
Sharpness:10
Color: 30
Local Dimming: High
Contrast Enhancer: Disabled

Having solved the image issue I can say WOW, seriously, textures the entire image, I've been on 1440p for the past decade and WOW 2160p absolutely is sharper at 2-3 ft viewing distance. Games look INCREDIBLE. This monitor absolutely destroys the G9 Neo. In fact, I've gone back to revisit games I recently played and WOW the colors, the crispness: Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy, Spiderman Remastered, Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077, The Ascent, Sekiro, Forza Horizon 5, my god this monitor is GORGEOUS faking HDR brightness with this workaround.

Performance:

I was expecting crippling performance, oddly the 2.25x increase in pixel count does NOT translate into a 2.25x reduction in performance with the 4090. I'm seeing a 2x reduction in games on average. Having also upgraded from a 3090 to a 4090 my performance is about the same as driving the predecessor panel with the predecessor GPU. Yes 4090 absolutely rips at this resolution, and VRAM usage, it's above 15GB on avg now so don't try to drive this panel without at minimum a 4090!

Here's a performance run-down:

System:
i9 12900k @ 5.1 GHz @ 1.375v, E-Cores disabled
MSI 4090 Gaming X Trio @ 2700 MHz core @ .970v undervolt, +600 MHz memory
4x8 4000 MHz Trident Z Royal DDR4 15-16-16-36
Windows 10
G95NC firmware update 1003 (no difference to the power on / wake from sleep handshake / latency issue nor the windowed app G-Sync induced momentary black screen problem. Haven't checked if HDR was fixed, with this SDR hack I could care less!)

Cyberpunk 2077: 65-75 FPS all settings maxed, Path Tracing enabled, DLSS 3.5 enabled, DLSS FG enabled, DLLS: Performance
The Witcher 3: 75-80 FPS all settings maxed, RT on and maxed, DLSS FG enabled, DLSS: Balanced
Guardians of the Galaxy: all settings maxed, DLSS: Quality 70-80 FPS
Spiderman Miles Morales: all settings maxed, RT on and maxed, object distance: 10, DLSS FG: enabled, DLSS: Quality: 90-110 FPS (sadly the snowfall midgame breaks DLSS FG and FG must be disabled, still seeing 60-75 FPS no FG!)
The Ascent: all settings maxed, DLSS: Quality: 75 FPS
Forza Horizon 5: all settings maxed, DLSS FG enbled, DLSS: Quality: 110 FPS
God of War: all settings maxed, DLSS: Quality: 120 FPS
Jedi Survivor all settings maxed, DLSS FG enabled, DLSS: Quality: 80-90 FPS
Sekiro:, all settings maxed, 90-120 FPS
Red Dead Redemption 2: all settings maxed, DLSS Quality: 90-110 FPS
Far Cry 6: all settings maxed, FSR enabled: 90-110 FPS
Watch Dogs Legion: all settings maxed, additional detail: 0, RT quality: High, DLSS: Quality: 70-80 FPS (WOW)
Doom Eternal, all settings maxed, DLSS FG on, DLSS: Quality: 120 FPS everywhere

To sum up, my performance did not necessarily halve, for example previously my FPS in both Forza Horizon 5 and Spiderman Remastered with FG enabled was roughly 160-180 FPS whereas now it's more than half of that. I want to say the performance hit is closer to 80%? Really pleasantly surprised with this, and with as good as the VRR works 75 FPS feels fantastic on this monitor and is perfectly playable. Hell 65 FPS on this panel feels good.

Positive observations:

Although this panel is not G-Sync certified the VRR works better than it did on the G9 Neo before it, previously G-Sync / VRR would not work @ 120 Hz, and one had to enable 240 Hz mode before firing up a game. I ran the former panel @ 120 Hz because I didn't want to burn it out prematurely and this was always a hassle. It also seemed to stumble a bit down low @ 60-70 Hz. This is no longer the case, there is zero stutter even as low as 60 Hz, under 60 Hz is problematic but it seldom if ever dips under 60 Hz.

Negative observations / ongoing issues:

Certain windowed apps such as Asus Crate Armoury, Razer Synapse, and Reshade cause the panel to turn off for 3-5 seconds with G-Sync enabled, the solution is to disable G-Sync before attempting to use these apps.

The monitor has a handshake issue at present and will not wake when waking the PC. I've gotten in the habit of timing turning on the panel a few seconds after waking the PC from sleep. If you turn the panel on too early and there is no signal it goes back to sleep, too late and then there is severe input latency in Wndows on the desktop etc and the PC must be restarted.

I have occasional popping noises, but WAY less than the G9 Neo before it, as others have noted they seem to come from the upper left of the panel.

I have no dead pixels or other issues.

My initial review of 2-3 stars is now easily 5 stars even with the issues. The SDR image of this panel in dual 4K, with about 80% of the brightness and contrast of an HDR image with non of the drawbacks, it's utterly hypnotizing, any game I fire up I prepare to sit there for 4 hours or more because it's pure eye candy revisiting all of my recent titles, the texture clarity, the image sharpness, the colors and contrast, my god, this is visual crack.

5 stars hands down.

Here's to hoping they resolve the power on handshake issues, the HDR, and the G-Sync stuttering of windowed apps but to be honest, HDR being broken was the best thing that could have ever happened as SDR with the aforementioned HDR hack makes results in an image that is vastly superior to the HDR on the predecessor panel even after they fixed the washed out colors problem. To be honest, I could care less if they fix HDR, to all of those curious, please do try these settings and tell me your thoughts. Totally, completely blown away with this panel. Oh and the best part is that my Ergotron's HD pivot is JUST strong enough when completely tightened to hold the panel without drooping. You're going to want this arm if you get this panel as the factory stand puts the panel right in your face. I have an Ikea Bekant with a depth of 31.5" and the factory stand put's it right in your face. With the Ergotron arm if you completely loosen the screw at the base you can push the panel nearly all the way back and it's infinitely more comfortable. I pull it in roughly 6" when I game. I also managed to put the $500 credit towards a pair of 8TB 870 QVO drives while they were on sale, putting the total to $120 after applying the promotional credit making this a $2375 purchase for this monitor and $800 worth of storage. I am incredibly happy with this monitor. Words cannot describe how incredible games look on this faking HDR whilst retaining the color of SDR.

I highly recommend this monitor IF:

You can swing it's purchase price.
You have at minimum an RTX 4090
You have the patience to tinker and mess around with settings as I did (but I basically did the work for you with this review)
You have an Ergotron Arm + HD mount or a massive desk.

Anything less than an RTX 4090 you're going to be in for an unpleasant experience.
4090 can handle this monitor! 75 FPS on this panel all settings maxed feels great!

The cherry on top of this upgrade is that with the 4090 I was starting to see a bottleneck in some select titles, i.e. Watch Dogs Legion, and was contemplating an entire chipset upgrade which is a hassle with a full loop, not just an expense. I nearly upgraded to a 13900KS last year and I'm glad I held off (only a handful of titles were exhibiting a CPU bottleneck) well, now I no longer have a CPU bottleneck anywhere! As long as more developers and modders continue to implement Frame Generation in newer titles I may be relatively future proof with the 4090 going forward.

Thanks for reading.

 

[vulcan78]

So, I finally got around to doing some gaming on the G95NC, Doom to be more precise as that of the games I know of have some eye candy and nice colors (probably better ones but seldom have time to game these days so not that updated). Would have hoped to be really impressed in a side by side with the OLED with its much better brightness and improved FALD but to be honest, I wasn't.

No matter how I tried to adjust it I just could not get it to look as good or even close to it, and even running att 240 hz (4K with no scaling, ie a virtual 32" monitor with blackbars) the motion clarity etc. on the OLED just felt better (probably due to pixel response time). And even with improved local dimming, in a side by side it was still very apparent that FALD at Standard and High still has some catching up to do with noticeable haloing and blooming. Still really good for being an LCD though and probably not as noticeable without an OLED right next to it.

Perhaps this isn't all that surprising, as even with 2000 local dimming zones (from what I have heard, true?), it is still about one per 8000 pixels compared with the OLEDs 1:1. The matte filter of course did not help either I would assume with regards to punchy colors etc.

Compared with my previous rant about the matte AR filter, this made me ultimately decide that all in all, this isn't the monitor for me and I have scheduled a return for it. Perhaps I will give it another try when GPUs etc have caught up so that the full potential of the monitor can be unleashed, and Samsung perhaps have tuned the performance with some future updates etc.

Now, remember that these are just my personal opinions and based on very limited testing. I am sure that for sim racing etc the G95NC would probably come out on top, or just if you happen to prefer a different kind of "look" to the picture. Of course there are many advantages of the G95NC compared to OLED as well. I am not here to tell you what to like, just sharing my personal opinions.

The hunt for an ideal monitor continues

Try these settings, from my review:

"But having patience I stuck with it and eventually out of curiosity while playing Assassins Creed Valhalla in HDR (washed out!) I wanted to see how the game looked in SDR so I disabled HDR while the game was running and this was when I discovered a valid workaround, no not just a workaround, a DRAMATIC improvement in the image compared to the G9 Neo. What I discovered was that the panel was in this weird place where it was still using the HDR "Gaming Standard" preset with High Local Dimming, Contrast Enhancer and brightness and contrast nearly maxed out and the peak nits were about 80% of that of an HDR image but with SDR color! Having a Eureka moment two weeks after getting this monitor was euphoric. I closed down the game disabled HDR within windows, fired it back up, and this time used the HDR "Gaming Standard" profile and MY GOD, it was like HDR but with SDR color! In fact, it's so good it's better than G9 Neo in HDR after they fixed it with the firmware update! I was so impressed with the result that I was STUCK in the game for an additional 3 hours until like 4 am!

The next day I woke up and couldn't wait to try all of my other games and sure enough, they all looked absolutely AMAZING in SDR faking HDR via this method. I swear to you, light sources are about 80% as bright as in HDR but with amazing SDR color with this method. Upon further experimentation I realized that the presets actually tint the image in a manner that cannot be adjusted within the GUI and I realized that "Gaming Standard" applies a bluish / nearly greenish tint to whites whereas "RPG" applies a very sublte red to whites and is maybe 5-10% dimmer. I have now settled on the RPG profile with the following settings:

Brigtness: 50
Contrast: 40
Sharpness: 10
Color: 30
Local Dimming: High
Contrast Enhancer: High"

Adjust brightness in-game to your liking.

 

[improwise]

Try these settings, from my review:

"But having patience I stuck with it and eventually out of curiosity while playing Assassins Creed Valhalla in HDR (washed out!) I wanted to see how the game looked in SDR so I disabled HDR while the game was running and this was when I discovered a valid workaround, no not just a workaround, a DRAMATIC improvement in the image compared to the G9 Neo. What I discovered was that the panel was in this weird place where it was still using the HDR "Gaming Standard" preset with High Local Dimming, Contrast Enhancer and brightness and contrast nearly maxed out and the peak nits were about 80% of that of an HDR image but with SDR color! Having a Eureka moment two weeks after getting this monitor was euphoric. I closed down the game disabled HDR within windows, fired it back up, and this time used the HDR "Gaming Standard" profile and MY GOD, it was like HDR but with SDR color! In fact, it's so good it's better than G9 Neo in HDR after they fixed it with the firmware update! I was so impressed with the result that I was STUCK in the game for an additional 3 hours until like 4 am!

The next day I woke up and couldn't wait to try all of my other games and sure enough, they all looked absolutely AMAZING in SDR faking HDR via this method. I swear to you, light sources are about 80% as bright as in HDR but with amazing SDR color with this method. Upon further experimentation I realized that the presets actually tint the image in a manner that cannot be adjusted within the GUI and I realized that "Gaming Standard" applies a bluish / nearly greenish tint to whites whereas "RPG" applies a very sublte red to whites and is maybe 5-10% dimmer. I have now settled on the RPG profile with the following settings:

Brigtness: 50
Contrast: 40
Sharpness: 10
Color: 30
Local Dimming: High
Contrast Enhancer: High"

Adjust brightness in-game to your liking.

Thanks, but I don't see how settings could change the physical aspects of this monitor. But glad that you like it and I agree it is a really good monitor even though it turned out not to be the one for me. Which exactly does not make it unique, unlike you I probably never will find the perfect monitor no matter how good they actually are

 

[improwise]

Tempted to try to remove the AR filter, the manual even say you shouldn't do it so I guess it is possible, but from what I have read online, it isn't possible on the G9 series like with some other matte monitors (wet towel method etc). Anyone tried it?

 

[kasakka]

Try these settings, from my review:

"But having patience I stuck with it and eventually out of curiosity while playing Assassins Creed Valhalla in HDR (washed out!) I wanted to see how the game looked in SDR so I disabled HDR while the game was running and this was when I discovered a valid workaround, no not just a workaround, a DRAMATIC improvement in the image compared to the G9 Neo. What I discovered was that the panel was in this weird place where it was still using the HDR "Gaming Standard" preset with High Local Dimming, Contrast Enhancer and brightness and contrast nearly maxed out and the peak nits were about 80% of that of an HDR image but with SDR color! Having a Eureka moment two weeks after getting this monitor was euphoric. I closed down the game disabled HDR within windows, fired it back up, and this time used the HDR "Gaming Standard" profile and MY GOD, it was like HDR but with SDR color! In fact, it's so good it's better than G9 Neo in HDR after they fixed it with the firmware update! I was so impressed with the result that I was STUCK in the game for an additional 3 hours until like 4 am!

The next day I woke up and couldn't wait to try all of my other games and sure enough, they all looked absolutely AMAZING in SDR faking HDR via this method. I swear to you, light sources are about 80% as bright as in HDR but with amazing SDR color with this method. Upon further experimentation I realized that the presets actually tint the image in a manner that cannot be adjusted within the GUI and I realized that "Gaming Standard" applies a bluish / nearly greenish tint to whites whereas "RPG" applies a very sublte red to whites and is maybe 5-10% dimmer. I have now settled on the RPG profile with the following settings:

Brigtness: 50
Contrast: 40
Sharpness: 10
Color: 30
Local Dimming: High
Contrast Enhancer: High"

Adjust brightness in-game to your liking.

If you are running the game in SDR (and it doesn't go to AutoHDR in Win11), you are not making proper use of HDR capabilities. Remember that HDR is not supposed to "pop" or be somehow dramatic, but better represent dynamic range in real life.

My experience with the Samsungs is that they can make SDR content in HDR mode look washed out but in actual HDR content work just fine. Make sure you don't have by accident the Eco mode left on because at least the one I tried in a store defaulted to Eco mode enabled and turning that off made it much brighter.

 

[Heligrin]

I just received this monitor and have having serious flicker issues with adaptive sync and gsync on.

I have a 3080ti and with VRR on all my games flicker like crazy. Disabling gsync solves the issue (or adaptive sync on the osd).

I'm not aure what to do. This is on windows 10. 120hz hdmi and displayport

 

[kasakka]

I just received this monitor and have having serious flicker issues with adaptive sync and gsync on.

I have a 3080ti and with VRR on all my games flicker like crazy. Disabling gsync solves the issue (or adaptive sync on the osd).

I'm not aure what to do. This is on windows 10. 120hz hdmi and displayport

Make sure you install the latest Nvidia drivers as they should have fixes for that.

 

[Heligrin]

Make sure you install the latest Nvidia drivers as they should have fixes for that.

I have the latest from Oct 17 I believe. If I can't find a remedy this thing has to go back

 

[vulcan78]

Thanks, but I don't see how settings could change the physical aspects of this monitor. But glad that you like it and I agree it is a really good monitor even though it turned out not to be the one for me. Which exactly does not make it unique, unlike you I probably never will find the perfect monitor no matter how good they actually are

If you can't see the difference in brightness and contrast of light sources between this panel at 1k nits and the G9 OLED then you need to see an optometrist. Ditto the difference in clarity and sharpness between 2160 and 1440p, to say nothing of the 1000R curvature. As far as the matte coating goes, I am on team matte, I have a bright apartment and I love not having mirror-esque reflections on my display. OLED looks clear! But you better be in a dark room to appreciate it. I have no problem with the matte coating.

If you are running the game in SDR (and it doesn't go to AutoHDR in Win11), you are not making proper use of HDR capabilities. Remember that HDR is not supposed to "pop" or be somehow dramatic, but better represent dynamic range in real life.

My experience with the Samsungs is that they can make SDR content in HDR mode look washed out but in actual HDR content work just fine. Make sure you don't have by accident the Eco mode left on because at least the one I tried in a store defaulted to Eco mode enabled and turning that off made it much brighter.

Do you actually own this monitor? I understand what HDR does, I've been using it for 3 years since acquiring the original G9, the HDR on this panel is completely broken, "real life" isn't a grey sunglasses filter that mutes all of the color out of the image. I stated in my review that the original G9 had the same problem and it was never fixed, it may be a limitation of the display, the G9 Neo had the problem and it was fixed with a firmware update, G95NC has the same problem again. I'm not running SDR content in HDR mode, I'm running brightness, contrast and local dimming settings nearly maxed out in a particular color profile in the monitor itself and running pure SDR content through Windows. The SDR image has peak nit brightness for light objects, be it headlights, fire sources, the sun, the skybox, etc that is 80% as bright as that afforded by HDR but without the completely broken colors. HDR enabled content on the G9 Neo 1440p panel does not completely desaturate the colors, IT DID when it was first released, just as the original G9 before it. On the G95NC HDR is currently broken, this is NOT how HDR should look and yes Samsung CAN fix the problem just as they did with the predecessor G9 Neo, or at least I'm hoping they can and that the issue is not limited to the panel. But actually, I could care less, SDR with "HDR" hack / brightness and contrast settings looks night and day better than HDR even on the predecessor.

And yes HDR is completely broken, anyone with a muted image, navigate the panel's GUI to Menu > Picture > down 8x (boy this is fun to do every time you launch a game with HDR enabled) to HDR Tone Mapping, it will indicate "Active" but it's absolutely NOT active, switch up to Static and then back down to Active and watch the panel come alive. THAT'S BROKEN HDR. Fundamentally, completely broken HDR. And turning on actual Active Tone Mapping and it still looks washed out and you must still max out brightness and contrast. Reds? They look orange! Try to fix it playing with the color tone as I did to make reds appear actually red and you will wind up with a circus cartoon image. BROKEN!

I forgot to add to my review that 4K media content looks incredible on this monitor (in SDR! HDR is broken on the PS5 as well, meaning it's not a Windows issue! G9 1440p did not have this issue!). I have accumulated a lot of 4K video that I just ran at 1440p on the previous panel because it's still better than 1080p, and WOW I'm seeing details that I didn't even think were possible now. Also, content on the PS5 looks better with the increased vertical real estate and the fact that the PS5 runs older titles at 4K @ 60 FPS, i.e. Ghosts of Tsushima, Until Dawn, Infamous Second Son etc.

 

[vulcan78]

I just received this monitor and have having serious flicker issues with adaptive sync and gsync on.

I have a 3080ti and with VRR on all my games flicker like crazy. Disabling gsync solves the issue (or adaptive sync on the osd).

I'm not aure what to do. This is on windows 10. 120hz hdmi and displayport

Try clean uninstalling the display driver in safe mode with DDU, try 537.42, I'm on that with a 4090 and don't have the issue either with Displayport or HDMI. Try HDM in a different slot on the panel. Try completely power cycling the monitor by unplugging and replugging it. Ensure that G-Sync is set for both full-screen and windowed mode. Some games display as full-screen but are actually windowed and unless you know this and set G-Sync to both full-screen and windowed there will be stuttering, I believe Forza Horizon 5 does this. Try disabling Geforce Experience.

I've seen the flickering you're describing, but it only happens if the display drops under 60 FPS, i.e. 50 FPS, then it will flicker like crazy as you're technically out of the VRR range. Fortunately a 4090 keeps it well above the bottom of the VRR range. What is your FPS when the flickering is happening?

Have you updated the firmware to 1003? The only notes given by Samsung is that it "improves stability". Which could mean the VRR flickering, not sure.

Edit:

Also, pay attention, there's a 3rd check-box in NVCP that if left unchecked G-Sync will not work.

3. Display Specific Settings.

Enable settins for the selected display model

 

[improwise]

If you can't see the difference in brightness and contrast of light sources between this panel at 1k nits and the G9 OLED then you need to see an optometrist.

Did I say that I could not see the difference in brightness? Contrast is better on the OLED BTW. No need to get offensive, it's ok that you like this monitor more than I do, we don't have to agree.

 

[statman]

I received the monitor yesterday. Very impressive. Not as much a frame rate loss than I thought coming from 3440 x 1440 which is a pleasant surprise. Been tinkering around with the monitor settings etc.

I am unable to update the firmware of the monitor though. it does not help that for some reason I am unable to open the PDF on how to update in the update zip file. Tried 5 different computers around the house with same "unable to open". Anyway....I am using a 32gb Kingston thumb drive formatted in FAT32 plugged into the service usb port on the monitor. I dropped the contents of the zip into the root of the drive. The monitor does not find the update file. I tried leaving the files in the folder as well. No go. I am on 1002 and the update is 1003. I tried leaving the usb cable from monitor to pc unplugged, disabled adaptive sync and gsync as I read somewhere that these things were causes on firmware updates on previous Samsung monitors. Obviously I am doing something wrong - any tips guys?

 

[improwise]

I received the monitor yesterday. Very impressive. Not as much a frame rate loss than I thought coming from 3440 x 1440 which is a pleasant surprise. Been tinkering around with the monitor settings etc.

I am unable to update the firmware of the monitor though. it does not help that for some reason I am unable to open the PDF on how to update in the update zip file. Tried 5 different computers around the house with same "unable to open". Anyway....I am using a 32gb Kingston thumb drive formatted in FAT32 plugged into the service usb port on the monitor. I dropped the contents of the zip into the root of the drive. The monitor does not find the update file. I tried leaving the files in the folder as well. No go. I am on 1002 and the update is 1003. I tried leaving the usb cable from monitor to pc unplugged, disabled adaptive sync and gsync as I read somewhere that these things were causes on firmware updates on previous Samsung monitors. Obviously I am doing something wrong - any tips guys?

The PDF is broken in the ZIP, apparently Samsung also confused Neo G9 with OLED G9 firmware. So classic Samsung

 

[vulcan78]

Did I say that I could not see the difference in brightness? Contrast is better on the OLED BTW. No need to get offensive, it's ok that you like this monitor more than I do, we don't have to agree.

They both are good monitors, OLED G9 does have better contrast and colors and is clearer without the matte coating, better aesthetics, some prefer less curvature so that is subjective, is much less expensive. They trade blows for sure, comes down to personal preference. Sorry for seeming abrasive.

 

[vulcan78]

I received the monitor yesterday. Very impressive. Not as much a frame rate loss than I thought coming from 3440 x 1440 which is a pleasant surprise. Been tinkering around with the monitor settings etc.

I am unable to update the firmware of the monitor though. it does not help that for some reason I am unable to open the PDF on how to update in the update zip file. Tried 5 different computers around the house with same "unable to open". Anyway....I am using a 32gb Kingston thumb drive formatted in FAT32 plugged into the service usb port on the monitor. I dropped the contents of the zip into the root of the drive. The monitor does not find the update file. I tried leaving the files in the folder as well. No go. I am on 1002 and the update is 1003. I tried leaving the usb cable from monitor to pc unplugged, disabled adaptive sync and gsync as I read somewhere that these things were causes on firmware updates on previous Samsung monitors. Obviously I am doing something wrong - any tips guys?

Stupid question but did you ask the monitor to update via the UI?

 

[statman]

Stupid question but did you ask the monitor to update via the UI?

Yes I did.

 

[kasakka]

Do you actually own this monitor? I understand what HDR does, I've been using it for 3 years since acquiring the original G9, the HDR on this panel is completely broken, "real life" isn't a grey sunglasses filter that mutes all of the color out of the image. I stated in my review that the original G9 had the same problem and it was never fixed, it may be a limitation of the display, the G9 Neo had the problem and it was fixed with a firmware update, G95NC has the same problem again. I'm not running SDR content in HDR mode, I'm running brightness, contrast and local dimming settings nearly maxed out in a particular color profile in the monitor itself and running pure SDR content through Windows. The SDR image has peak nit brightness for light objects, be it headlights, fire sources, the sun, the skybox, etc that is 80% as bright as that afforded by HDR but without the completely broken colors. HDR enabled content on the G9 Neo 1440p panel does not completely desaturate the colors, IT DID when it was first released, just as the original G9 before it. On the G95NC HDR is currently broken, this is NOT how HDR should look and yes Samsung CAN fix the problem just as they did with the predecessor G9 Neo, or at least I'm hoping they can and that the issue is not limited to the panel. But actually, I could care less, SDR with "HDR" hack / brightness and contrast settings looks night and day better than HDR even on the predecessor.

I don't have the display so I can't speak for whether it's broken or not. If you are not running something processing HDR metadata, you are not using HDR. If you like it better with SDR + high brightness etc settings, that's your personal preference. But it's not HDR.

 

[vulcan78]

Yes I did.

Are you using the Service USB port on the left? Don't put the .pdf file on the drive, maybe that's what's causing the confusion. Ultimately you could try different USB stick.

Im using this one and it works:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-BAR-...8163103&sprefix=samsung+usb+dr,aps,167&sr=8-5

 

[vulcan78]

I don't have the display so I can't speak for whether it's broken or not. If you are not running something processing HDR metadata, you are not using HDR. If you like it better with SDR + high brightness etc settings, that's your personal preference. But it's not HDR.

I understand that, it's actually way better than HDR, I encourage anyone with this panel to go back and forth between HDR and my SDR settings and relay their opinion.

 

[statman]

Are you using the Service USB port on the left? Don't put the .pdf file on the drive, maybe that's what's causing the confusion. Ultimately you could try different USB stick.

Im using this one and it works:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-BAR-Plus-32GB-Champagne/dp/B07BPHML28/ref=mp_s_a_1_5?crid=2QDDVH6FID2TM&keywords=samsung+usb+drive+32gb&qid=1698163103&sprefix=samsung+usb+dr,aps,167&sr=8-5

Yes, I am using the service port and did not have the PDF file on the drive.
EDIT - Tried another usb stick that I had lying around and ok. Cheers

 

[Baasha]

What are the ideal settings when using HDR in Windows? The colors look good and if you turn HDR off in Windows, the monitor look amazing but I bought this thing to use in HDR most of the time (especially "Auto HDR" in Windows in games like GTA V etc.).

Also, can someone please post the link to the firmware update page for the US website? The firmware update on Samsung's page shows it as 1.6GB - something is definitely off!

 

[-snoopi-]

Godam, Doom Eternal looks incredibly good on this monitor in its full res HDR glory!

And the game natively supports the 7680x2160 res in cutscenes aswell! Fantastic game for this monitor!

 

[Bigmonitorguy]

Godam, Doom Eternal looks incredibly good on this monitor in its full res HDR glory!

And the game natively supports the 7680x2160 res in cutscenes aswell! Fantastic game for this monitor!

I found this monitor to be too wide for games like this. The areas on the sides are distorted, and pointless anyway because of being too far from the area you can actually focus on while playing.

 

[-snoopi-]

I found this monitor to be too wide for games like this. The areas on the sides are distorted, and pointless anyway because of being too far from the area you can actually focus on while playing.

I have to disagree!
I think its perfect because you still have the immersion of the scene wrapping around you even if they do become stretched on the sides. You dont need your eyes to see clear detail on the edges of your vision anyways I believe. Doom does a good job and is completely bearable on the its far edges on this monitor.

I never like this game on a 16:9 monitor because I felt it was too repetitive and boring, but on this neo g9 it feels like a different experience and now I am actually fully enjoying the game now. Just my personal experience ofcourse.

 

[improwise]

I have to disagree!
I think its perfect because you still have the immersion of the scene wrapping around you even if they do become stretched on the sides. You dont need your eyes to see clear detail on the edges of your vision anyways I believe. Doom does a good job and is completely bearable on the its far edges on this monitor.

I never like this game on a 16:9 monitor because I felt it was too repetitive and boring, but on this neo g9 it feels like a different experience and now I am actually fully enjoying the game now. Just my personal experience ofcourse.

I guess it depens on how and why you play these kind of games. I always go into competitive mode even when playing single player offline and thus "performance" is much more important than immersion. Come to think of it, that is probably true whatever I play, never been one to play these "walk around and see things" games I guess sim games could perhaps be where immersion and competitiveness best could co-exist.

 

[kasakka]

I've never liked first person shooters on superultrawide. Ultrawide is fine, superultrawide is too much FOV distortion for me.

I mainly love the superultrawide aspect ratio for desktop use. For gaming it works best in racing and flying games.

 

[vulcan78]

I guess it depens on how and why you play these kind of games. I always go into competitive mode even when playing single player offline and thus "performance" is much more important than immersion. Come to think of it, that is probably true whatever I play, never been one to play these "walk around and see things" games I guess sim games could perhaps be where immersion and competitiveness best could co-exist.

Even 21:9 gives you a distinct advantage in competitive games, i.e. FPS or 3PS:


View: https://youtu.be/yXaPraQmCkg?si=yqZa6k4iu-XXNUjn

You have greater peripheral vision, can spot enemy movement that would otherwise have been out of your periphery @ 16:9 or even 21:9. You get used to the distortions on the edges. I've gone from 16:9 (PG278Q) to 21:9 (AW3418DW) to 32:9 and 32:9 is better in every regard, every genre. There is no comparison.

 

[improwise]

Even 21:9 gives you a distinct advantage in competitive games, i.e. FPS or 3PS:


View: https://youtu.be/yXaPraQmCkg?si=yqZa6k4iu-XXNUjn

You have greater peripheral vision, can spot enemy movement that would otherwise have been out of your periphery @ 16:9 or even 21:9. You get used to the distortions on the edges. I've gone from 16:9 (PG278Q) to 21:9 (AW3418DW) to 32:9 and 32:9 is better in every regard, every genre. There is no comparison.

Not sure I would personally trust "WideAsFcuk" to make a neutral assessment of that but your opinions are noted On a more scientific approach, it would probably depend a lot of eye sight, viewing distance, what kind of player you are (crosshairs-starer or not etc).

Edit:

Here is an interesting discussusion on smaller vs larger screens for FPS which has a lot of relevance here as well

https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4794&sid=cfad4a50032b0c1345a27250d793eb08

 

[MistaSparkul]

Not sure I would personally trust "WideAsFcuk" to make a neutral assessment of that but your opinions are noted On a more scientific approach, it would probably depend a lot of eye sight, viewing distance, what kind of player you are (crosshairs-starer or not etc).

Edit:

Here is an interesting discussusion on smaller vs larger screens for FPS which has a lot of relevance here as well

https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4794&sid=cfad4a50032b0c1345a27250d793eb08

Is absolutely provides an advantage which is why highly competitive games like Overwatch and Valorant will not allow ultrawide aspect ratios.

 

[improwise]

Is absolutely provides an advantage which is why highly competitive games like Overwatch and Valorant will not allow ultrawide aspect ratios.

Don't play Overwatch so not up to date about it but at least the developer seem to state a different reason for it when it was originally removed

https://www.eteknix.com/219-resolution-support-removed/

 

[kasakka]

Don't play Overwatch so not up to date about it but at least the developer seem to state a different reason for it when it was originally removed

https://www.eteknix.com/219-resolution-support-removed/

That sounds like "We designed our cutscenes so that we can cram characters outside the scene in there. No, we don't want to change how we do things." I've seen e.g Tomb Raider games in 32:9 have T-posed characters or characters standing still at the sidelines and then zooming into the scene when they become animated. In any case, that statement from OW devs is absolute bollocks.

I can understand limiting aspect ratio on multiplayer games by either rendering only a 16:9 area or reducing vertical FOV while keeping horizontal the same. But just not supporting a resolution is stupid.

The most idiotic way to go about it is in Elden Ring where they render black bars but still render the game underneath so you get a performance drop but no benefit. Especially considering it's mostly a single player game where they could have rendered black bars if an online invader joins the game or if you play co-op (where invaders are more likely).

 

[improwise]

That sounds like "We designed our cutscenes so that we can cram characters outside the scene in there. No, we don't want to change how we do things." I've seen e.g Tomb Raider games in 32:9 have T-posed characters or characters standing still at the sidelines and then zooming into the scene when they become animated. In any case, that statement from OW devs is absolute bollocks.

I can understand limiting aspect ratio on multiplayer games by either rendering only a 16:9 area or reducing vertical FOV while keeping horizontal the same. But just not supporting a resolution is stupid.

The most idiotic way to go about it is in Elden Ring where they render black bars but still render the game underneath so you get a performance drop but no benefit. Especially considering it's mostly a single player game where they could have rendered black bars if an online invader joins the game or if you play co-op (where invaders are more likely).

In this discussion it is probably most important if they limited UW for competitive reasons or not, and if they did, I don't see why they could not communicate that. I've always felt that just picking out UW resolutions and claim they are a competitive advantage is a bit strange, as having higher refresh rates, lower input lag, faster pixel response times etc. would most likely provide even more competitive advantages, yet I can't recall having seen similar outrage about that. And UW monitors are available for everyone to purchase and considering that most of them have both lower vertical and horizontal resolution than a 4K monitor, you could just run them in that resolution if you feel the need for it.

 

[kasakka]

In this discussion it is probably most important if they limited UW for competitive reasons or not, and if they did, I don't see why they could not communicate that. I've always felt that just picking out UW resolutions and claim they are a competitive advantage is a bit strange, as having higher refresh rates, lower input lag, faster pixel response times etc. would most likely provide even more competitive advantages, yet I can't recall having seen similar outrage about that. And UW monitors are available for everyone to purchase and considering that most of them have both lower vertical and horizontal resolution than a 4K monitor, you could just run them in that resolution if you feel the need for it.

I used to play the original Quake 1 Team Fortress mod a lot back in the day and the field was very different then. You were free to make macros to e.g make automated rocket jumps to reach areas, playing with high FOV if you were a sniper was normal so you could see the surrounding area better. Yet the game had a very high skill level and nobody was bothered by it. Maybe it was an innocent time before people started inventing aim bots and other cheats.

 

[lRaphl]

I used to play the original Quake 1 Team Fortress mod a lot back in the day and the field was very different then. You were free to make macros to e.g make automated rocket jumps to reach areas, playing with high FOV if you were a sniper was normal so you could see the surrounding area better. Yet the game had a very high skill level and nobody was bothered by it. Maybe it was an innocent time before people started inventing aim bots and other cheats.

It was also before people started sending the SWAT to the doors of those who were kicking their but online.

 

[vulcan78]

Don't play Overwatch so not up to date about it but at least the developer seem to state a different reason for it when it was originally removed

https://www.eteknix.com/219-resolution-support-removed/

I never picked up Overwatch because by the time it became popular I was already on 21:9. I made it about half way through Starcraft 2 and because Blizzard refused to allow it to run at UW I just stopped playing altogether. Nowadays, if there's no native UW support and I can't simply edit the .exe with HXD or run a trainer (Sekiro) then it's a non-purchase.

Another advantage with UW is that you can hold a position with a nexus of corridors and you can keep an eye on both corridors without moving whereas with 16:9 you have to constantly look back and forth. In racing games, say Forza Horizon 4 / 5, it affords a distinct advantage in that you can see further through a turn while in a turn whereas @ 16:9 a switch-back that you forgot about etc. can and will surprise you.

And just the aesthetics of 32:9, whether it's a FPS or 3rd person perspective game, even overhead (The Ascent looks fucking amazing @ 32:9, being able to take in more of the scene, it's amazing.


View: https://youtu.be/S0M013v3acM?si=gNKy-eGAUamjQGJ8

 

[Baasha]

Alan Wake 2 w/ HDR on this monitor is unbelievably amazing.

 

[vulcan78]

Alan Wake 2 w/ HDR on this monitor is unbelievably amazing.

What performance are you seeing at what settings? I thought Cyberpunk 2077 was bad (I an actually run this with Path Tracing enabled with DLSS: Performance and FG enabled, averaging 65-70 FPS which is playable. I've tried 5120x1440 with Quality DLSS and the performance is the same but it looks worse than native) but from what I'm seeing people are struggling to run AW2 with RT enabled @ 60 FPS @ 3840x2160 even with FG enabled.

 

[vulcan78]

I just spent yesterday evening playing Returnal on this panel with my aforementioned SDR "Fake HDR" settings and WOW, the game looks and runs incredible at native resolution (DLSS: Quality, FG enabled) and I'm around 90-100 FPS completely maxed out. Light sources really pop, the contrast, incredible, but most of all, that 32:9, wow, and the fight with Shrike looked absolutely amazing. The rain looks amazing with 2160p vertical resolution, I'm so glad I put playing this off until upgrading to this panel. Revisiting all of my games, they look stunning in dual 4K:


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srl_XQAG_Ko&ab_channel=randomvideosofrandom

 

[zidion]

How is picture quality compared to oled?

I have lg 42” oled now

Debating between 49” g9 oled or the 57”