Is this the ultimate monitor for gamers?

ROYCE WILSON tries out Samsung’s very large Odyssey G9 49in ultra-widescreen monitor and finds it’s great for gaming but is it useful for other things, like watching television?

It looks amazing, the display is great, and it's compatible with both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync for gaming experience enhancement too, aided by High Dynamic Range (HDR) 10+ capabilities too.

A GOOD monitor is a vital part of any self-respecting gaming set-up.

There's no point having a great processor, high-end graphics card and plenty of RAM if you're going to plug it all into an old monitor that's been in the garage for years, after all.

If you're going to go big, it's worth considering going all the way and get a massive widescreen monitor - like the Samsung Odyssey G9 49in ultra-widescreen monitor, which I'm reviewing here

Graphically, the Odyssey G9 is outstanding. Offering a 240hz refresh rate and 1ms response time, the unit has a 32:9 aspect ratio 5120x1440 resoltuion, and a 1000R curve.

It looks amazing, the display is great, and it's compatible with both Nvidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync for gaming experience enhancement too, aided by High Dynamic Range (HDR) 10+ capabilities too.

 

There's no point having a great processor, high-end graphics card and plenty of RAM if you're going to plug it all into an old monitor that's been in the garage for years.

 

 

 

The only real downside to the unit is a noteworthy one: It's almost too big for regular use - when fully set up, it measures 1147.6mm x 537.2mm x 416.4 mm and weighs 16.7kg.

Unlike a TV, which is in the lounge or bedroom and therefore some distance away from the viewer, a computer monitor is up close and personal.

At 49in, the Odyssey G9 fills your entire field of vision in gaming, which is outstanding for first-person shooter games such as Overwatch, Call of Duty or Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege. You get an amazing field of view and can see a lot of what's going on, and even in strategy games you can see more of the playing area.

Where it falls over is non-gaming use. Because it's so wide, I found it hard to keep my work centred so I could focus on it without looking back and forth across the screen with my head.

For example, in a video call with colleagues, I had my webcam mounted on top of the monitor in the middle. When I was looking straight ahead, it was fine, but when I turned my head to focus on the speaker's 'box', it looked to other participants like I was looking off somewhere else in the room and not paying attention.

The ultra-wide size means I had to turn my head to look at something on the left-hand side of the screen, and then turn it to look at the right-hand side of the screen when a notification came in.

Doing this all day was not optimal, as you can imagine, although it can be mitigated by changing window sizes and the like. None of the movies or TV shows I tested from the major streaming services used the full width of the monitor, and instead centred in the middle with black bars on the sides. It honestly didn't bother me, but it might bother someone determined to get 100 per cent usage out of the screenspace.

The monitor is absolutely capable of working essentially as two separate workspaces with picture-in-picture and so on - you're basically getting two monitors in one package here, which is going to be very useful for a lot of people.

Having said that, I generally work on a single-screen setup but the wide size of the Odyssey G9 means those with a preference for dual screens can have it without needing two lots of power points, two lots of HDMI or DisplayPort connections, and having the bezels of the monitors interrupting the picture.

One other thing to keep in mind is you're going to need a fairly decent graphics card to take advantage of the resolution the Odyssey G9 offers - I am running a Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 which handled it quite happily, but owners of much older cards may not get an optimal experience.

The HDR capabilities of the monitor are very impressive and provide vibrant, bright colours for gaming in particular - I never had any issues with the display appearing dull or lacking in vibrancy. The high refresh meant there was no lag, tearing or ghosting on the screen either - it was buttery smooth and crystal clear all the way.

For gaming or graphic design work, assuming you have a decent graphics card, it'd be extremely hard to go past the Odyssey G9. Between it's 32:9 aspect ratio, sharp picture, HDR capabilities and wide screen, it ticks every single box and offers a superb experience across a range of games - although the best experience comes from competitive first person shooter titles.

For non-gaming or content creation, however, I think it's simply too much monitor and you'd be better served with something a bit smaller, especially if you are working on things which need your focus rather than an overview approach.

Originally published as Is this the ultimate monitor for gamers?