QD-OLED may soon eclipse all other panel types as Samsung is planning to launch a 500Hz version. A dream come true for competitive players and a horror story for gaming PCs, which will sweat to push all those frames.
According to atnews, Samsung is in the final stages of developing the fastest QD-OLED panel yet. This bad boy is expected to hit a 500Hz refresh rate, putting it ahead of any other panel type aside from the venerable TN. Even so, it’s no competition in the visual fidelity department assuming that cost isn’t an issue.
For reference, the fastest OLED or QD-OLED gaming monitors you can currently get max out at 480Hz for 1440p resolution and 240Hz for 4K. That goes up to 540Hz if you don’t mind downgrading to a 1080p TN screen. There are also some WOLED-based models featuring dual-operating modes, allowing them to switch between 240Hz at 4K and 480Hz at 1080p.
Most importantly, this new panel is said to offer an improved QHD (2560×1440) resolution at 27in size, making for a perfect spec combo. The 1440p resolution means that flagship GPUs such as the RTX 4090 can approach its maximum refresh – albeit only on light esports titles. Otherwise, you’ll need to rely on Nvidia’s next-generation RTX 50 Series to hit the ceiling. Plus, the fusion of 500Hz refresh and QD-OLED’s renowned 0.03ms pixel response should result in one of, if not the clearest and smoothest gaming experience yet, free of motion blur.
That said, this combo will require the latest HDMI and DisplayPort standards to push the amount of data needed. For instance, the HDMI 2.1b wouldn’t be enough to handle around 59Gbps bandwidth, even at 8-bit colour depth. The only one offering enough bandwidth is DisplayPort 2.1 UHBR20. Otherwise, chroma subsampling will be mandatory.
Now, for the part no one likes: cost. These upcoming 500Hz panels are likely to be put inside high-end expensive monitors, listed above £1,000. I wouldn’t be shocked if these debut at £1,500. Commercialisation is seemingly being discussed with major monitor manufacturers for a release in the first half of next year.
