Samsung Odyssey G9 Review, The Biggest, Fastest, Craziest Monitor

[Music] welcome back to hardware unboxed today we're reviewing the absolutely enormous samsung odyssey g9 a curved super ultrawide monitor that promises to offer the most immersive gaming experience on the market a couple of months ago we checked out the odyssey g7 samsung's 16 9 version of this display and we were pretty impressed with the performance so hopefully the odyssey g9 can live up to the same standard let's talk about some basic specs this is a 49 inch 5120 by 1440 va monitor so a 32 9 aspect ratio equivalent to two 27 inch 2560 by 1440 displays stitched together side by side the display is seriously huge measuring in at over 1 meter wide so you'll need to make sure you have plenty of desk space available for this beast in addition samsung are using the same 1000 r curvature as the autocg7 which at this sort of display width is pretty noticeable i wasn't a big fan of the 1000r curve on the g7 i felt it looked quite odd on a 16x9 monitor and introduced quite a bit of distortion for basic pc tasks like web browsing or video playback while you still get distortion on the g9 mostly to the same degree that's offset by the sheer immersiveness of this display for gaming the edges of the panel wrap neatly into your field of view when sitting at a standard desk viewing distance and unlike with the g7 you hardly notice the curve when exploring game worlds or shooting up enemies i actually feel this display would be worse with a less aggressive curve and not very good at all with a flat panel however like i said there is still some distortion in non-gaming settings which doesn't make the odyssey g9 a very versatile monitor i've talked in the past about how displays like the lg 27 gn 950 are great as dual use monitors for gaming and content creation as an example that's not really the case with the g9 this is a pure gaming monitor fitting with its focus as a gaming display the g9 packs impressive gaming specifications the refresh rate goes up to a monstrous 240 hertz the highest we've seen for this resolution this display has nearly 90 percent of the pixel count of a 4k monitor but a far higher refresh rate than any 4k display on the market today so it will really push your gpu to its limits and provide a lot of future proofing for upgrades down the line it's also g-sync compatible and packs amd freesync premium pro support with display hdr 1000 certification as well the g9 may be two 1440p monitors side by side but it doesn't cost the same as two 1440p monitors it is more expensive a single 27-inch odyssey g7 will set you back 700 us while the odyssey g9 has a regular retail price of 1700 us dollars about a 20 premium to get this resolution in a single display i have seen the g9 available for below this price on occasion but it's still a premium tier display for high-end buyers the design all things considered is quite good and i'm impressed with what samsung has been able to achieve with such a huge display panel the stand is height and tilt adjustable which i expected but it can also swivel and remain sturdy while doing so for a big heavy beast that's over a metre wide having this range of motion in the stand is impressive you'll need to find quite a bit of desk space to fit the wide stand legs although beyond that it's quite reasonable the construction is a premium look and feel to it with samsung opting for a sci-fi like white glossy rear with a glowing rgb led ring around the stand connection it looks pretty good from either side although naturally from the front the massive display will dominate what you're looking at in terms of ports the key inclusions here are two displayport 1.4 and one hdmi 2.0 input you'll need a gpu capable of display stream compression over displayport to hit the full 5120x1440 resolution at 240hz while the hdmi port is limited to just 60 hertz as for the on-screen display we get directional toggle control and a pretty smooth interface that's easy to navigate samsung's array of features is okay but not super comprehensive with gamer things like crosshairs and black boosting modes plus a range of color controls you also get picture in picture which is quite handy for such a large display that is well suited to two side-by-side 1440p inputs unfortunately there is no backlight strobing feature one of the few things that was available on the g7 but isn't found here before getting into the performance section of this review i think it's worth touching on some of the quality assurance issues and flickering reports that we've read about the autocg-9 it did seem that early buyers of this display received units with poor quality control and numerous issues with build quality and image quality causing samsung to recall the monitor and perform additional qa checks while the recall was never official and remains an unconfirmed rumor of sorts it did seem there were delays on the second round of stock and my unit does have a nice qa checked sticker on the box as far as i can tell from buyers receiving units in the last few months as well as my own unit that i received most of these qa issues have been resolved the build and image quality on my unit is very good actually certainly nothing like some of the initial reports and with the latest firmware version 1008.1 which all owners should download and apply i did not experience any flickering issues while gaming in the sdr mode however there are two lingering issues with the g9 that early adopters should be aware of the first one is that i did see flickering while testing the monitor's hdr mode at 240hz although this issue wasn't present at 120hz the second is that the g9 doesn't work with nvidia's geforce rtx 30 series gpus at 240hz with the latest drivers this is an nvidia driver issue as the display does work on 20 series cards that support dsc and it also works fine on supported amd gpus at the maximum refresh rate if you do have a 30 series gpu this is something to be aware of and while i expect it will eventually get fixed it's not a great situation right now especially for a monitor that nvidia has certified as g-sync compatible time for a look at response times and with the odyssey g7 if you are using the display with adaptive sync variable refresh rate enabled and i suspect that will be most people given this monitor works with all modern gpus then you will be unable to change the overdrive settings so the focus of this testing will look at this single mode what is immediately clear when viewing response time performance at 240hz is that the odyssey g9 and odyssey g7 do not deliver the same experience the g9 in our testing is a faster monitor at this refresh rate with an impressive 1.94 millisecond greater grade average however this comes at the cost of a higher level of overshoot there are many more transitions here where inverse ghosting is noticeable although luckily these inverse ghost trails decay quickly so they aren't massively obvious but i suspect most people will still see them ideally here instead of pushing up to a two millisecond average response time the g9 would dial back the overdrive a bit to reduce overshoot like with the g7 though there is no dark level smearing here as samsung has effectively solved this issue with their latest generation of va panels overshoot is highest in the dark regions but the sluggish responses in the zero to 40 grey range are no more so you won't see long dark trails behind moving objects generally this is a very clear experience now a lot of people viewing this image will probably be disappointed at the performance on offer here given the high level of overshoot but there's good news because it's really only at 240 hertz that overshoot is problematic when we shift down to 200 hertz most of the panel's overshoot issues disappear only leaving a few issues with dark transitions we are left with a 2.57 millisecond average response time which is very fast for a modern monitor in fact i can actually tell you that this performance holds true up to 220hz or so making only the top 20 hertz poor in terms of overshoot given that gaming at such a high resolution at above 220hz will be difficult for at least the next few years having the top 20 hertz perform worse isn't ideal but it's not as bad as it could have been at lower refresh rates from 165 hertz right through to 60 hertz performance remains roughly the same with small changes to response times that deliver between a 2.0 and 3.3 millisecond experience for the most part most refresh rates still have a few overshoot issues in the dark region but overall performance is very strong and lightning quick delivering great clarity particularly at higher refresh rates it also means we get a single overdrive mode experience for variable refresh gaming a requirement for high-end displays and not having access to overdrive settings isn't too problematic when comparing the g9 to other monitors on the market this new samsung super ultrawide stacks up favorably when it comes to response times at the maximum refresh rate however due to high overshoot the g9 sacrifices accuracy to get there so ultimately panels like the asus pg259qn and odyssey g7 deliver a better experience although admittedly in different classes it's an average performance across the variable refresh range that the g9 shines topping the charts as we talked about earlier it's really only above 220hz where the monitor suffers from high overshoot as at all other refresh rates the amount of overshoot is more manageable while the g9 still has a relatively high average inverse ghosting rate compared to other displays it has a class-leading 2.7 millisecond greater gray average making it the fastest display that we've tested and slightly faster than the odyssey g7 it also easily beats other ultrawide monitors in our charts including entrance like the lg 34g and 850 although this is a much more expensive display at such high prices though you'd expect great performance so it's good to see samsung deliver that dark level smearing is a non-issue with the odyssey g9 like with the odyssey g7 this is really the first series of va panels where dark performance is acceptable in comparison with tn and ips alternatives and that's a really great thing for the future of this panel tech average error rates are very high at 240 hertz just further highlighting what we talked about earlier as for 60hz performance this display is very quick at that refresh rate particularly when using a variable refresh rate the display delivers noticeably worse performance at a fixed 60hz as opposed to using 60hz within the scope of a variable refresh with a 240hz maximum refresh so this display is really geared towards variable refresh rate gaming input lag is very good with essentially no processing delay on the monitor side and when backed with extremely fast response times and high refresh rate total lag in the chain is below five milliseconds one of the best results we've seen with that said i should point out that the input lag is much higher if you plan on running the monitor in at 60hz mode although i don't think too many people buying the monitor will do that naturally power consumption is high although no worse than the acer predator x35 which uses a smaller panel with an fald backlight the good news is that power consumption is less than twice as high as the older cg7 despite having twice the screen real estate so from that perspective it's more efficient to have one g9 than two g7s by a fair margin for color performance the odyssey g9 covers 89 of the dc ip3 color gamut so that's in line with the odyssey g7 and other va monitors we've seen in recent years the gamut coverage here is not as impressive as most modern ips monitors so it's not really sufficient for wide gamut color work but it does deliver a larger than srgb color gamut for increased saturation and better colors in the hdr mode out of the box color accuracy is average not as good as the odyssey g7 in terms of its adherence to the srgb gamma curve with total gamma in the 2.4 range this makes the monitor too dark on average and that leads to mediocre delta e results this also affects saturation and colour checker results with delta a 2000 averages in the 3.0 to 4.0 range being around the average for a gaming monitor certainly not better than average like we'd expect from a high-end display this performance cannot be improved upon significantly with osd setting adjustments there is an srgb mode that clamps the gamut somewhat well to sigb but it has issues with saturation otherwise and that leads to high delta e performance that isn't significantly improved upon the default configuration so the best course of action here is a full calibration we get typically solid results from a display cal calibration aside from a few inconsistencies here and there as i've said a few times in this review the odyssey g9 isn't an ideal monitor for color accurate work due to its curve and insufficient p3 coverage but you can still eke out some respectable results for srgb and p3 with the color profile brightness in the sdr mode is strong with over 400 inch peak while minimum brightness is also good around the 60 nit range the contrast ratio on the other hand is unimpressive for a va panel while at 2001 it is higher than ips and tn monitors it's behind the best va panels that we've tested so you can expect somewhat deeper blacks than an ips but it's not going to give you that best experience that we've seen in that area uniformity was surprisingly good for a wide display producing better results than my odyssey g7 especially for dark grey uniformity where my g7 had noticeable backlight bleed along the outer edges that wasn't an issue with my g9 unit and generally i was impressed with how even the images even though the delta e results aren't perfect this is a really wide display so getting uniformly perfect is a challenge and i think samsung have done well here to wrap up our testing let's take a quick look at hdr performance like the g7 the odyssey g9 is a semi-hdr panel and that it does have some areas that are superior to regular sdr displays like a wider color gamut and high peak brightness but it lacks a strong contrast ratio this is because the g9 only features 10 edge bit local dimming zones which is insufficient for such a large display while you may be able to occasionally get better than sdr experience due to high flash brightness or better colors the amount of haloing around bright objects due to low zode count dimming is terrible and impacts the experience in a bad way full screen sustained brightness is around the 650 nit mark which is respectable and definitely sufficient for most content flash brightness is also very strong at over 100 nits matching some of the better fald hdr monitors that i've reviewed we also see around that 1100 nit mark at low window sizes below about 25 percent so small bright elements are brightly lit on this monitor with a fall off to 650 nits at larger window sizes for contrast there's good and bad news here the good news is the local dimming array will fully switch off the backlight to show black which results in a very high flash versus black contrast that exceeds the capabilities of our testing tools the g9 also has an advantage in our best case single frame contrast test due to the size of the panel if you have a bright element on the left side of the display it can be shown at up to 1100 nits while a dark area on the right side could have the fald backlight fully switched off delivering zero nits there's no bleed between these zones as the panel is so massive so again it's possible to have a huge contrast ratio on the screen at the same time however more realistically we will be seeing these worst case numbers where the odyssey g9 only delivers its native contrast ratio that's because the local dimming zone count is very low so you'll see massive halos extending from any bright areas to the edges of the panel this is very noticeable and looks terrible in dynamic scenes with lots of different areas of bright and dark shades you may at times get slightly better than sdr contrast but if the scene is busy then you'll get these worst case numbers which are unimpressive overall the samsung odyssey g9 is a pretty good high-end super ultra wide gaming monitor that fills a niche that you simply cannot get with any other monitor on the market right now it has a unique combination of a 1440p double wide resolution super high and future proof 240hz refresh rate and decent va colors that will be very attractive to those looking at putting together an elite gaming setup like with this smaller odyssey g7 the strengths of the g9 lie entirely with response time performance while there are a few stumbles at 240hz specifically at refresh rates from 220hz and below the g9 delivers outstanding performance among the fastest monitors we've tested this helps deliver a gaming experience with excellent motion clarity and a smooth high frame rate without any of the typical v8 downsides like dark level smearing seeing a va panel feature so high in our charts is impressive and doubly so when it's such a high resolution the g9 does a few things better than the g7 as well in particular i feel the 1000r curve is much more appropriate for such a massive display and really adds to the immersion while gaming my unit also had better uniformity and in its hdr mode it can get a fair bit brighter if you're interested in gaming in that mode so a few of the downsides that accompany the g7 are a bit of a non-issue here and that's a good thing for a premium display samsung also succeeds with delivering good color performance although it's not class leading in any area you're getting good viewing angles a wide color gamut and better than ips contrast ratio which makes the g9 better for gaming in dark environments but color calibration is only average p3 gamut coverage is below that of the best ips displays today despite using quantum dot technology and the contrast ratio could be better for a va that's not to say the g9 delivers a poor color experience because this monitor is actually very good for visuals it just isn't quite there as a dual use monitor and the curve doesn't help in this regard if you're buying an odyssey g9 it should be for high refresh rate gaming with a super ultra wide screen and really nothing else there are a few other teething issues with this sort of monitor in some ways it does feel like the first wave of buyers have been early adopters while samsung has reportedly resolved their questionable quality control and flickering issues there are still some problems with the hdr mode and with rtx 30 series gpu compatibility it could be worth waiting just to make sure those problems are resolved before jumping in i also feel that for a 1700 product the hdr performance is very underwhelming and in this price class we really should be getting at least a somewhat better hdr experience this display is more expensive than a 48 inch lg cx oled for example yet delivers far inferior hdr and that's disappointing given the refresh rate and resolution are perfect for future proofing over the next five years one of the biggest features in gaming that will only grow in popularity over the next decade is hdr and with the odyssey g9 you really are only getting a slightly better experience than sdr while i don't necessarily think we need to be getting 512 zone backlights like the even more expensive acer predator x35 10 zones is simply inadequate in a flagship product but if you're willing to overlook hdr performance and if a couple of the early adopter issues ironed out then the samsung odyssey g9 is definitely worth considering as a high-end monitor it is pricey with the premium tacked on for adding two 1440p displays into the one panel but gaming on this beast has been one of the most immersive experiences i've had yet with a monitor that's it for this one if you're interested in supporting our monitor testing you can support us directly on places like patreon or floatplane you'll get access to our icc profiles monthly live streams discord chat if you want to ask me monitor questions all that sort of thing so yeah links to that are in the description below thanks for watching and i'll catch you in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Hardware Unboxed

Views: 161,908

Rating: 4.9332514 out of 5

Keywords: hardware unboxed

Id: FjEvsGa7yUQ

Length: 19min 19sec (1159 seconds)

Published: Thu Dec 10 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/[deleted]]

So many questions but I don’t know how to ask lol

[u/the901]

If you've been on the /r/ultrawidemasterrace sub, you've seen the G9 plagued by delays, recalls, and issues. Quite the loyal fan base, regardless.

Edit:if not I'd

[u/zxyzyxz]

This vs LG CX 48 inch OLED? It's 4k 120hz, not ultra wide of course, but same price, $1500. I've heard the scale of the 48 inches is nice for immersion and OLED is great for color. I guess unless you really want 240 FPS then the LG might be better.

[u/RodionRaskoljnikov]

The monitor curve matches the mustache.

[u/ruumis]

The curve and form factor are perfect in my view. But I would gladly sacrifice quite a bit of that refresh rate for better colour. 60 Hz is probably too low even for a mostly-productivity-bit-of-gaming monitor these days.

[u/eessheee]

in the review, it was mentioned that overshoot was mostly eliminated when the panel was in 200hz or 220hz. does this mean that I set a custom resolution in the nvidia control panel that maxes out at 220 or 200hz instead of the 240? confused on where I can limit it to 200 or 220hz.

[u/[deleted]]

And yet they still refuse to make 21:9 2160p

[u/FartingBob]

Thats a lot of monitor.

[u/team56th]

I had an option for heavily discounted G7 vs even more discounted G9, and ended up with G7. So while I haven't seen G9 myself I've put my research into it and I know what the panel is like. That said:

• 240hz affects clarity. I had LG 27UD68 and 4K60 was a hill I would die on instead of HFR monitors like this. I've defected. Clear animation with no ghosting at all @ 240hz is a night and day difference from 60hz. I didn't expect to say this, but Odyssey turned me into HFR believer.
• The curve isn't as aggressive as you might think. 'You get used to it' is a terrible argument, I know, but some form of optical distortion is inevitable as long as your eyes say the way they are... Once taking that into account, I did get used to it and I decided it's fine.
• I'm not an expert in color, but it's not the most vibrant monitor I've seen. Especially when seen from the sides, it can look a little washed up compared to higher-end IPS screens. Not a big problem though. It's just that the color doesn't pop up (which can also be a good thing), and viewing angle can be slightly narrower than IPS, but sitting at the center of the curved screen, you just don't notice it.
• How does HFR feel? You feel it most in UI and web navigation, and it's more subtle in gaming. This is not a flaw, and if you have used 120hz phones, I think you know this. HFR is awesome for everyday use. In gaming you notice it most in games where you move the camera a lot, leaving no artifact ghosting smudge etc anything no matter what you do.
• I think I've read some contradictory arguments about this with flickering and stuffs and all, but far as I know: Adaptive Sync works perfect here. Using a stopgap RX480 waiting for RX6800XT, 480 works wonder between 90~140hz @ 1080P.
• G9 Specific: If you find '49-inch 32:9' confusing, it's basically two panels for Odyssey G7 27-inch attached into one. So if you are gaming on G9, it's basically dual 27-inch G7 without the center bezel. G9 also supports using it more like a traditional dual monitor setup, where you game on one side @ 1440P and output Windows on the other side. The way I see it G9 is very niche; it will offer more immersive experience for racing or flight sim, but do remember that a lot of games will run with vertical letterbox, and even when not the edge of the screen will get very distorted due to how most games are built.

TLDR; Odyssey good, it converted me from diehard 4K man to HFR believer. But consider G7 first before you decide you really need G9's dual 27-inch setup.