Samsung Cranks Out a 500Hz OLED Gaming Monitor

Samsung has announced a new set of Odyssey gaming monitors, leading with the Odyssey OLED G6, a 27-inch, 500Hz display that the company says has 0.03ms response time. The new display, which is joined by two new Odyssey G7 curved gaming monitors, is available to buy for $999.99 on Samsung’s website and Amazon.

Wait, you ask, doesn't Samsung already have an Odyssey OLED G6 with an absurd refresh rate? Why yes, it does, and it's $100 cheaper, to boot. But its refresh rate is a mere 360Hz! (Actually, there's an even cheaper 240Hz model, too.) Would I ever be able to tell which is which by watching them? No, but listen, 500Hz is a bigger number, and bigger is better.

In all seriousness, the new OLED G6 having an even higher refresh rate for this display feels more like a stunt than a value proposition. Digging around in the specs, I'm not seeing a good reason to drop an extra $100 on it. It has the same QHD (2560x1440) resolutiion, the same HDR10+ support, the same dual HDMI 2.1 ports. Samsung lists the older 360Hz model's brightness as measuring 250 nits, while the new one is 300 nits and VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 500 certified, so that's something. It's also Pantone Validated for accurate colors and skin tones; so it might look a tad bit better, but it would be hard to say so without seeing them side-by-side. Think of it as being more like a PC spec bump than a wholly new display.

We might as well run down some other details. Around the back of this screen, you'll find an obligatory ring of RGB lights and some ports – two for HDMI 2.1 and one for DisplayPort 1.4, along with two USB-A ports, a USB-B port, and a headphone jack, The OLED G6 uses Samsung's Auto Source Switch+, which is basically its version HDMI ARC, switching inputs for you when it detects that another connected device has come online. The whole thing sits on a height-and-tilt-adjustable stand that can pivot and swivel, too. (That's all stuff you'll find on the older G6, too.)

As for the new curved displays, Samsung released its new Odyssey G7s in 37-inch ($899.99) and 40-inch ($1,199.99) versions. Unlike the OLED G6, it's easy to see what's new here; principally, that they're bigger than the G7 line's existing 27-inch and 32-inch models. In most ways, the displays are the same as one another, featuring VA panels, a 1000R curve, AMD FreeSync Premium Pro support, VESA DisplayHDR 600 certification, and 1ms response time. They each have 350 nits of brightness and support HDR10+ Gaming, too. Physical dimensions aside, where they differ from one another is in resolution, screen ratio, and refresh rate: The 37-inch model is a 165Hz, 16:9 screen with 3840x2160 resolution, while the 40-inch version is 21:9 with a 180Hz refresh rate and 5120x2160 resolution.

Wes is a freelance writer (Freelance Wes, they call him) who has covered technology, gaming, and entertainment steadily since 2020 at Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, Hardcore Gamer, and most recently, The Verge. Inside of him there are two wolves: one that thinks it wouldn't be so bad to start collecting game consoles again, and the other who also thinks this, but more strongly.