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Post by Emig5m on Jun 19, 2022 20:28:57 GMT -5
I made the mistake of game streaming to my Samsung Tab S8 Ultra which has a oled display. I set the tablet in front of my Asus PG279Q gaming monitor which is a IPS panel with the realtime gameplay going to both displays. I always thought the Asus gaming monitor always looked washed out and dullish, even compared to my 75" LED TV (but with local dimming, HDR, and it's a VA panel) and the reason is that even though a IPS panel is known for it's accurate colors compared to VA and TN panels, the lack of good black levels (back light bleed and IPS glow being the worst offender on a IPS panel and then of course a LED can never have true black anyway, even local dimming ones) give it a lack of contrast especially the darker the game (Alien Isolation, and any games with night time or a lot of blacks, Cyberpunk, Horizon, The Quarry, etc...) Holy moly what an eye opener with having good colors and contrast in dark games and having blacks that can go to full off to where you can't even tell if the display is on or not is truly a game changer for me! I've been wanting a new HDR monitor anyway to get that POP that my big screen has and have been scared of oled because of the risk of burn in and also for it's so-called lack of brightness compared to a LED. After mucho research and almost ordering the brand new and hard to get $2500 Viewsonic Elite XG321UG - 32" 4k mini LED gaming monitor with over 1100 local dimming zones I picked up a brand new 2022 model LG 42" Oled and this TV has more game features than even my gaming monitor (plus the money savings almost paid for a brand new 3080TI). With one press of a button you can bring up a little game optimizer OSD that tells you your real time frame rate, what vsync tech is enabled (it supports Gsync, FreeSync, and VRR for consoles and it will tell you which one it's currently using) which is nice to be able to see if your variable refresh is actually working in realtime I was like, fuck it, I'll take the chance of burn in to have such a great vibrant and contrasty image, especially in darker scenes/games! It looks so damned fucking good OMG.... and believe me, it's very bright in HDR mode, more bright than even the LED monitor that it replaced (which I think was only 350nits anyway). HDR gaming with a new oled that's setup good is something you really have to experience! Right now I'm mainly playing The Quarry on the PS5 and Cyberpunk on the PC and what a game changer this display is...so glad that I made the jump and took the risk with oled because blacks that can go to full off per-pixel plus the response time, and yes, the response is even better than my old 144Hz gaming monitor. And because even with local dimming the problem I noticed on my TV is say in a space scene that's mainly dark space but with a bunch of tiny bright stars the local dimming would really dim the stars to keep the black levels low not to mention blooming around say a mouse cursor on a dark background I was like fuck it, I'll take the chance with oled and very glad I did...(thankfully I had the Tab S8 Ultra to test) So pics or it didn't happen... Oh it's so nice to have multiple Microcenters locally even if they're a longer 1hr to 1hr30min drive one way depending on which one I go to, it's nice to have all the latest tech in stock like a brand new LG C2 oled where even all of my local Best Buys (and there's a ton of them) don't even have them, especially the hard to get new for 2022 42" size (last year the smallest size was 48" and that's just too big for a desktop IMO) Microcenter in Yonkers, NYC:  I fiddled with my 2080TI OC in 4k on my big TV a bit just to have a heads up on what to expect for performance in 4k and although it looked great with having HDR, man was even a game like MXGP2020 a slideshow in 4k (I have to use temporal AA in this game otherwise it's a shimmering jaggy mess, even at 4k and it takes A LOT of power to run at my normal high settings in 4k) so I picked up a 3080TI OC not expecting much since my mighty 2080TI OC wasn't even close to making the cut in 4k... I was totally expecting to have to continue to run some games at 1440p or with resolution scaling active but the 3080TI is actually running everything in 4k better than I expected, even Cyberpunk which I was expecting to be much worse than say MXGP2020 which is much easier to run so I'm glad to keep all of my games 4k native and have smooth playable framerates. MXGP2020 maxed out with Temporal AA holds over 100fps and doesn't dip at all, I never had a videocard where the framerates stay so locked in place with no high dips and peaks and fluctuations. Similarly Horizon Zero Dawn maxed out at 4k runs about the same and OMG this game in HDR with blacks that can go to absolute zero, the vibrancy and contrast on the 4k HDR oled....you just have to see it in person! Cyberpunk, now I was expecting some issues, but even with some Raytracing enabled I'm in the 70/80fps at 4k which I think is VERY impressive since that game is a beast to run! Especially with some Raytracing options turned on (I was getting only in the 30/40fps range on the 2080TI OC, yea, that large of a performance jump!!) Very very happy with the 3080TI OC so far running 4k much better than expected. I would say that 4k gaming is finally here and doable smoothly at high quality settings in AAA games... The 3080TI OC and LG C2 4k Oled are like a match made in heaven. And yes, the 42" box fits in a Honda Civic SI Coupe no problem with the back seats opened forward...would be able to fit a 50" in there no problem....  A 850 watt PSU is recommended for this GPU and my old one was a 750 watt so I was bummed to have to spend extra on a PSU and I have a lot of hard drives and stuff and with the 3090TI recommending a 1000 watt PSU I just opted to get a 1000 watt and get it over with. Looking at my receipts, I actually paid slightly less for the 1000 watt than I did for the 750 watter. I also expected it to be much larger than a lower watt PSU but it was surprisingly the same exact size as any other PSU. The large box is for the billion cables that it comes with. Modular PSUs are awesome because I didn't have to pull all the wires out and reroute the new ones. I just unplugged all the wires from the old PSU leaving them all plugged into the PC hardware and just plugged them into the new PSU lol. I only had to add another GPU cable since the 3080TI OC takes three 8 pins instead of just the two on the 2080 TI OC so the PSU swap was quick and painless.  The videocard however...my case.... I've now been using this case for 22 years! LOL. And the last three GPUs I've had to cut out the case even more to fit in the next new GPU... When is the size increases going end with these things....LOL! Yea it was officially sold as a mid tower server case back in 99/2000 with 11 drive bays in the front is what makes it a tight fit. I should just completely cut out the bottom four drive bays which would still leave me with seven drive bays and get it over with. Well, not only that, but I can't even fit the side of my case on anymore since the Noctua CPU cooler is so tall that it sticks out slightly past the side, heh. But I just can't seem to let my case go...this thing cost $300 back in 2000 and is all aluminum with a locking tinted window front door...I wanna get my monies worth out of it! Not to mention I'm too lazy to move everything over to a new case, LOL.  Now I did at one point have a 42" 4k display (around the 1080GTX days), problem is although it looked great and was super immersive, especially with exploring games like Tomb Raider/Horizon Zero Dawn, it was just way too laggy for serious gaming (racing and first person shooters). The problem that I always had with the little 27" is that you see too much of your surroundings to be really immersed in a game so I'm glad to be back at 42"/4k but have that perfect lag-free response time and game features. And even though it's only 120Hz instead of 144 like my old monitor, the pixel response time is still faster, like zero ghosting. Very good do it all display. And don't listen to the crap that oleds aren't bright enough, the whites are eye piercing with the brightness and contrast all cranked up. Definitely brighter than the monitor that it replaced. |
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Post by Coolverine on Jun 21, 2022 9:36:51 GMT -5
The only thing my PC really needs is a new videocard. I have yet to upgrade, really been spending my money on bikes and bike stuff instead. If I see an RTX 3080 at a fair price, I might go for it. I saw a few on Amazon for $800-$900, seemed like a fair deal.
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Post by sj on Jun 21, 2022 13:31:14 GMT -5
That's cool. I miss the days of building/upgrading PC's. Most of the big box Computer stores around the country are RIP. Fuq you very much, Bezos. Karma strikes back tho, as Amazon's been way down in sales/revenue lately. But it's probably thanks to rising/record high inflation and ppl tightening up their purse strings. Word on the street (not the mainstream media, of course) is prepare for the coming recession. Prepper channels suggest stocking up on things non-perishable food, a means to purify water (for drinking water), and physical gold/silver. Enjoy the decline, dudes. /runs  |
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Post by Coolverine on Jun 21, 2022 14:11:40 GMT -5
Yeah I'd rather buy from Microcenter.
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Post by sj on Jun 21, 2022 14:20:30 GMT -5
Yeah I'd rather buy from Microcenter. I'm guilty of buying parts online too. I've purchased lots of PC parts from Newegg back before they became another Ebay (allowing 3rd party sellers) and smaller online outfits (like FrozenCPU.com - I just checked and they still exist). edit: maybe FrozenCPU.com isn't really small, since I just noticed (below their site logo) the claim of having the world's largest selection of PC modification supplies. Probably untrue (I'd guess Amazon is the biggest at everything online these days), but there's no telling. I prefer/enjoy perusing the merchandise in person tho. I had purchased PC components at Incredible Universe, before it became Fry's (which also went out of biz, I heard). I had driven by the Microcenters in Dallas/Plano when I used to live the area, but never went in. I suppose I wasn't into building PC's at that time. If I still lived near a Microcenter, I'd definitely check it out. edit 2: I recall talking to a chick who worked at Incredible Universe (PC department) and she knew more about computers than I did (at the time). Those were the days - when cool computer/electronics stores were plentiful and they typically hired knowledgeable/helpful employees. Nowadays, it seems most retail employees are stumped by simple questions. |
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Post by Emig5m on Jun 22, 2022 0:03:12 GMT -5
When Newegg turned into another Amazon wannabe is when Microcenter started being cheaper and I'd rather not have to wait for shipping so I've been getting my PC parts there exclusively since (the i5 2500k days). It's cool to just walk around in there, they have everything. My new Oled is so freaking awesome, was demoing a 4k HDR movie and I can't believe the image quality on this thing. And I can't believe I'm getting smoother gameplay at 4k with the 3080TI OC than I was with the 2080TI OC at 1440p. I updated to the newest driver and I'm getting 130-145fps in MXGP 2021 maxed out at 4k with Temporal AA on. This card is a freaking beast and HDR gaming at 4k on the Oled with blacks that go down to absolute zero is freaking awesome. I'm like loading up a bunch of stuff just to see how good it looks like when you get some new hi-fi gear that sounds so good that you just start going through all of your music to hear it again for the first time.
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Post by Babel-17 on Jun 22, 2022 0:09:58 GMT -5
Wow, what are the odds, just three days ago I had my 48" LG C1 delivered from Amazon. It's amazeballs. I have a Samsung S7+, and yeah, a good OLED screen at 120Hz is something else. I use my tablets, I also have a S4, away from bright lights and with no light from windows to factor in, so they are plenty bright even when set to much less than 50% brightness.
I've got Pixel brightness at 35%, panel brightness at 50%, on my C1.
I have an RTX 3080, and getting the one I have was luck of the draw when I ordered a new PC from CyberPower in January of 2021. They only guaranteed I'd get a RTX 3080. I ended up with a Gigabyte with two HDMI ports, so I get to use my old Sony HDTV with my PC as well.
P.S. Rapidly press the little green button on the remote a bunch of times and you'll either get a Duke Nuke 'em easter egg, or some useful stats. I got the usesful stats, and I might have been kidding about the easter egg, lol.
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Post by ForRealTho on Jun 22, 2022 7:34:33 GMT -5
Newegg has always been my favorite site for computer parts, I actually have never been to a Microcenter never been close to one in the 3 states I have lived.
These days since I am laptop only I try and order direct, I ordered my current laptop directly from Eluktronics.
I'm less excited for upgrades then I was as a teen. My 2070 Super plays everything just fine for now I am in no rush. Some new title may come out of nowhere that runs terrible kinda how PUBG Early Access was unplayable on my 960m and forced me to upgrade to a 1070. I was planning on getting a new laptop in 2023, but I think I am just gonna wait and see.
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Post by sj on Jun 22, 2022 8:40:08 GMT -5
The next gen consoles (PS5 and Xbox Series X) are said to be close to parity with the 2070 Super. Since these consoles are the lowest common denominator for game development, you should be good for a while longer (at least until the upgraded Pro version of the consoles are released).
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Post by Coolverine on Jul 17, 2022 20:27:56 GMT -5
Ordered an RTX 3080, picking it up tomorrow.  Good thing I ordered it when I did, there were only 2 in stock and now the other one's sold too. Very fair price I think. Finally. *edit* Ran into a problem, the case I'm using is from 2010 and it's a great case but it's really old and only supports videocards up to 285mm long, the RTX 3080 I got is 300mm long. Measured it and it definitely won't fit, might be possible to take the hard drive cage out and just rig up the SSD somehow, that would make it work. I really like the NZXT H510 Flow, probably will go with that one if I can't make my current case work. |
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Post by Coolverine on Jul 20, 2022 16:53:56 GMT -5
Got it done, actually was pretty easy to take out the hard drive cage (just 3 thumbscrews) and I think inside will have more ventilation with it removed too. Didn't bother sweeping drivers, just swapped it out and ran the new driver installer, seems to have worked fine and it was painless. Tested Cyberpunk 2077, can play it maxed out with raytracing and DLSS enabled. Flawless. *edit* The raytracing in Cyberpunk is what has impressed me the most so far. Enabled DLSS on balanced mode just so I can have as much raytracing on as possible, makes it look like a whole new game. This card does run hot, pulls a lot more power than my GTX 1070. If we start having to do rolling blackouts here (there's been 1 "watch" so far), I'll probably have to turn off this PC. One thing that sucks, for some reason I can't have my 2nd display at 75hz, causes flickering. When I drop it to 60hz the flickering stops. *edit* - RTX 30X0's on sale at Best Buy now too: www.bestbuy.com/site/searchpage.jsp?st=rtx+3080&_dyncharset=UTF-8&_dynSessConf=&id=pcat17071&type=page&sc=Global&cp=1&nrp=&sp=&qp=&list=n&af=true&iht=y&usc=All+Categories&ks=960&keys=keyswww.bestbuy.com/site/evga-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-10gb-xc3-ultra-gaming-gddr6x-pci-express-4-0-graphics-card-with-lhr/6471615.p?skuId=6471615www.bestbuy.com/site/evga-nvidia-geforce-rtx-3080-12gb-ftw3-ultra-gaming-gddr6x-pci-express-4-0-graphics-card-with-lhr/6500781.p?skuId=6500781I was reading the main difference between the EVGA FTW3 and XC3 is the cooler size, the FTW3 has a much larger cooler. |
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Post by Coolverine on Jul 22, 2022 5:40:38 GMT -5
One thing that really sucks about my PC is the CPU is overkill and it runs hot constantly on the stock cooler, I set up the fan to cool better but it's still hot. Thinking about getting one of those AIO coolers, with the front hard drive cage removed I think it might be possible to mount a dual rad in the front. Might just go with a Noctua NH-D15 (air) though.
*edit* DLSS is one of the most amazing features I've ever seen, anti-aliasing that boosts framerate? Of course you'd use it. AMD's resolution scaling option (FidelityFX) makes things a little bit blurry but it does work good for what it is, it also boosts framerate while making edges look better. DLSS is far superior though.
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Post by ForRealTho on Jul 23, 2022 6:43:58 GMT -5
Great price on sale SAMSUNG 970 EVO Plus SSD 2TB - M.2 NVMe Interface Internal Solid State Drive with V-NAND Technology (MZ-V7S2T0B/AM) a.co/d/0mJVWyI |
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Post by Coolverine on Jul 23, 2022 11:15:51 GMT -5
The top of the case was getting very hot, it has a spot for a 140mm fan at the top but I wasn't using it. I have a 140mm fan for it but couldn't get it to fit, modern motherboards have more heatsinks and/or caps and/or headers at the top which interfere with a standard 140mm in this particular case. Trimmed the edge and that made it fit but the fan was way too close to a few headers at the top of the mobo, just didn't want to take any chances. Bought a Silverstone 140mm low-profile fan a long time ago, unfortunately the mounting holes are for 120mm even though it's the former, just never got around to trying to make it work. Long story short, found a flat adapter on Ebay to make 120mm fit 140mm (ppl out there 3D print them for custom applications, especially for AIO coolers). Had to trim it some but there's plenty of clearance and it made it fit.  It's 1/2 the thickness of a standard fan, can tell it doesn't move as much air but it works enough to vent the top of the case and then some. This particular fan is supposed to move up to 74.6 cfm air at full speed, which isn't bad. www.silverstonetek.com/en/product/info/fans/FW141/Much better temperatures now and the top of the case doesn't get hot at idle anymore. Might still get the Noctua NH-D15 for my CPU, will help reduce temp even more. Supposed to be one of the absolute best air coolers on the market. *edit* my UPS showed my PC drawing 510 watts while I was playing Cyberpunk 2077, that is insane. Might actually dial down some power settings. I have a very good PSU though, Seasonic Prime 850w Platinum or something. 12 year warranty. *edit* Also been wondering if this GPU is bottlenecked by my CPU, but then I saw the GPU hit 99% usage. I think that means it's not bottlenecked at all. *edit* Was very lazy with cable management but made it better, so now the air has a pathway to go through the whole case. Dropped temps even more. CPU is still getting hot, pretty sure I need to clean off the fins and re-apply thermal paste to the bottom. Also my UPS is rated for 650 watts, this setup was pulling close to 570w at one point. After turning down videocard's power to 75% it pulls no more than 470w, so I am definitely keeping it here. No difference in FPS at all, which tells me this videocard is absolute overkill for 1440p (for now anyway).  Might also undervolt/underclock the CPU but the temps are acceptable enough now. Can't wait to play STALKER 2 and Starfield, among other upcoming games. Anyway this is the finished product. Probably will do better cable management eventually, this case has holes for routing wires but the edges are kinda sharp. Might put some anti-static tape around the edges to protect wires.  Pretty happy with idle temps now too, and removing the hard drive cage from the front definitely opened up more airflow.  It's possible to mount a 120mm AIO externally on this case, but I don't think it's enough for this CPU. Probably need at least a 240mm one. *edit* I almost killed my CPU. Removed the stock heatsink to re-do the thermal paste, AM4 socket uses PGA and if the heatsink gets fused to the CPU, you can actually pull the entire thing out of the socket by accident. This doesn't break the CPU in most cases, but the pins can get bent which happened to me. Was able to carefully bend them back using a needle, some light, and a magnifying glass. Used a spare board to make sure it dropped into the socket and it did, so I hope there's no lasting damage and that it's okay. This happened yesterday and I've had the PC running since, even played some heavy games and no BSOD's or anything. Will definitely have to keep watching it though. Also while I was in there, I noticed that the bottom of the stock cooler is not perfectly smooth, it has dips in it. Looks like a manufacturing defect, I'm surprised this thing cools as well as it does (which isn't all that great). Gonna have to call AMD about that, I didn't notice the first time I installed it because it had a square of pre-applied thermal paste. Also glad that AMD is going to LGA socket instead of PGA with AM5, pins on a CPU is just outdated and unsafe. They've already been doing LGA with socket TR4 for the Threadrippers. |
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Post by Coolverine on Jul 26, 2022 7:49:43 GMT -5
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Post by Coolverine on Jul 27, 2022 18:16:55 GMT -5
Amazon Prime is awesome, free overnight shipping for the Scythe cooler, ordered it yesterday and got it this morning at 4:30am. Just got done installing it, took some time to route the cables so they weren't in the way of anything. Drastic difference in CPU temperatures, idle before was anywhere from 46-55C, now it's 40-47C. Gaming and just being under load in general, there is an even bigger difference. Before I was seeing the CPU reach 79-81C while playing Cyberpunk, but now I haven't seen it go above 67C. Stress testing, it didn't go above 79-80C. Was hitting 84-87C (even saw it hit 89 once) while stress testing before, so also a huge difference. Only thing though, I really liked the RGB LED's on the stock Wraith Prism cooler and I really miss them. Ordered a 120mm RGB LED fan that will fit the front of this cooler, not sure if it will look as nice though. *edit* Did have a picture but it's not complete, I'll take another picture when it is. Unfortunately the cooler (while it works incredibly well) came with a defective fan splitter, the plug that goes into the mobo header has a loose wire sticking out. Glad I checked everything over one more time and spotted it, could've been bad. The 1st fan is now plugged into the CPU fan header and the 2nd fan is on the AIO header, seems to be working good but I think both are meant to be plugged into the CPU fan header with the splitter. Hopefully the company will just send me a new one. *edit* The company responded and said they'll send me a replacement Y splitter. I ordered some Noctua ones from Amazon, and overnight delivery was very cheap ($3) so I went ahead and did it. Back up and running now, even went in and did some cable management and cleaning. Could've done cable management better, but I didn't want to cram any more wires in the space behind the motherboard, plus I was having trouble routing them without having them right up against some sharp edge. Temps are better, the LED RGB fan I got is okay, but it just cycles between solid colors which is kind of disappointing. Still, it's a great fan and the price was right.  If I do anything else, I might replace the 3 stock fans in the case. They still work good but they're very old, probably some new fans would perform even better. |
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Post by sj on Jul 30, 2022 12:10:39 GMT -5
It's kind of sad that you can get a better experience for much better price with a TV (vs. a monitor) these days.
The main draw for PC monitors (higher refresh rate) is probably realized by fast twitch/competitive gamers, but most people wouldn't benefit from it.
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Post by Coolverine on Jul 30, 2022 12:50:55 GMT -5
I have an Acer 27" 2560x1440 144hz monitor, can overclock to 165hz but I leave it at 144 to save some power. It's been a great monitor and I feel that the high FPS does make a positive difference in my gaming ability. With high FPS, it's just so much smoother to play. *edit* This last upgrade I did (CPU cooler) and tuning the fans in the BIOS made my PC eerily quiet. I'm constantly checking temps and looking inside my PC to make sure the fans are still spinning, they are. Also temps are MUCH better, under load temp dropped by at least 10C, maybe a touch more than that. Can actually stress test the CPU without worrying that it's gonna reach 90C. |
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Post by Coolverine on Oct 1, 2022 14:09:59 GMT -5
This is pretty funny, I was looking at the Ryzen 7000's on Amazon and at the bottom, it actually recommends to buy DDR4 RAM along with it:  The problem is that AMD's new socket AM5 platform supports only DDR5 RAM, DDR4 RAM isn't supported at all. They better fix that, they're gonna piss off a lot of customers. There might even be ones who are new to PC building that will try to install it and cause damage. That cooler they recommend is not even right either, it actually says a liquid cooler is recommended on the product details. I'm not gonna upgrade though, the setup I have now kicks ass as it is. I've seen my CPU reach close to 80C under heavy load, and that's with a pretty good aftermarket air cooler with double rad and fans. Before on stock cooling, it was reaching close to 90C though. The new Ryzen 7000's don't even come with a cooler, it just recommends a high performance one. |
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Post by Babel-17 on Oct 1, 2022 20:02:41 GMT -5
Looking at even the 1080p gaming benchmarks of the latest and greatest from AMD and Intel, those with CPUs from the last three or four years, and whose most demanding activity is gaming, will see scant reason to be excited about those new offerings. Only the synthetic benchmarks showed an impressive/meaningful bump.
And of course that's at 1080p, at 1440p you're left yawning, and at 2160p you'd be excused for thinking that progress had frozen.
I'm biased of course, having sprung for a near top of the line Zen 3 5900x and RTX 3800 system in January 2021. My thinking then is the same as now, to (again) buy a third generation of the current AMD socket platform, to benefit from much matured DDR5 ram, and much better ram pricing. Though of course Godzilla could go on a rampage by then, and gaming would be less important than rooting out canned goods, and non-radioactive water.
Though it's only fair to mention that the productivity improvement of the new AMD CPUs, and DDR5 ram, is quite impressive.
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Post by Coolverine on Oct 1, 2022 20:14:20 GMT -5
The new Ryzen's run incredibly hot, like 95C under heavy load but AMD says it's normal. Probably would be good for wintertime, save money on the power bill not having to run the heater so much.
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Post by sj on Nov 10, 2022 13:48:29 GMT -5
Well, my old Samsung 32" tv is ok, but much better models (lower latency, better gaming features) are available now. I came across this (Black Friday) deal on a gaming tv. The 43" and 50" versions of this model are capable of 144Hz refresh rate (and all have G-sync), so they can double as PC gaming monitors. www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-50-class-qn90b-neo-qled-4k-smart-tizen-tv/6502218.p?skuId=6502218If not for this deal, the LG OLED (C2) and Hisense UH8 are better values for a gaming TV/monitor though. Yeah, the OLED TV's rate higher in visual quality (see rtings.com). However, I'd rather not chance the screen burn-in issue of OLED's and own a tv that's probably going to be good for 5+ years. |
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Post by sj on Nov 10, 2022 15:26:35 GMT -5
Yeah I'd rather buy from Microcenter. Microcenter has up to four years 0% financing on TV's. I ended up purchasing the Samsung QN90B 50" (QLED, not to be confused with OLED) from Best Buy anyway (2 years 0% financing) just because Microcenter doesn't carry that particular model. Best Buy isn't a terrible place to shop, especially when their Black Friday, Cyber Monday/week deals are going on. A helluva lot better experience than purchasing online at least. |
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Post by Emig5m on Nov 11, 2022 9:25:49 GMT -5
Well, my old Samsung 32" tv is ok, but much better models (lower latency, better gaming features) are available now. I came across this (Black Friday) deal on a gaming tv. The 43" and 50" versions of this model are capable of 144Hz refresh rate (and all have G-sync), so they can double as PC gaming monitors. www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-50-class-qn90b-neo-qled-4k-smart-tizen-tv/6502218.p?skuId=6502218If not for this deal, the LG OLED (C2) and Hisense UH8 are better values for a gaming TV/monitor though. Yeah, the OLED TV's rate higher in visual quality (see rtings.com). However, I'd rather not chance the screen burn-in issue of OLED's and own a tv that's probably going to be good for 5+ years. No issues with burn in so far. I've fallen asleep more than once with the display on and it stayed on all night with a static image and no burn in that I can see. I think the timed auto dimming for static images is a savior here. Video quality is amazing, especially with HDR content and I'll never go without true blacks again, unbeatable contrast. And that is a game changer for games like Alien Isolation that take place in a mostly dark environment and my old Asus Gaming LCD was just a buzzkill with its blacks getting no darker than a dark shade of grey and even FALD isn't nowhere near as perfect and the blooming is also annoying with FALD on a LCD. Oled is where its at. I would prefer 144hz but 120Hz is perfectly acceptable for gaming. I'll probably stick with this display for a long time to come. I even prefer to watch movies on the 42" Oled than my 75" FALD LCD - the Oled just excels everywhere. |
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Post by sj on Nov 11, 2022 9:50:20 GMT -5
Well, my old Samsung 32" tv is ok, but much better models (lower latency, better gaming features) are available now. I came across this (Black Friday) deal on a gaming tv. The 43" and 50" versions of this model are capable of 144Hz refresh rate (and all have G-sync), so they can double as PC gaming monitors. www.bestbuy.com/site/samsung-50-class-qn90b-neo-qled-4k-smart-tizen-tv/6502218.p?skuId=6502218If not for this deal, the LG OLED (C2) and Hisense UH8 are better values for a gaming TV/monitor though. Yeah, the OLED TV's rate higher in visual quality (see rtings.com). However, I'd rather not chance the screen burn-in issue of OLED's and own a tv that's probably going to be good for 5+ years. No issues with burn in so far. I've fallen asleep more than once with the display on and it stayed on all night with a static image and no burn in that I can see. I think the timed auto dimming for static images is a savior here. Video quality is amazing, especially with HDR content and I'll never go without true blacks again, unbeatable contrast. And that is a game changer for games like Alien Isolation that take place in a mostly dark environment and my old Asus Gaming LCD was just a buzzkill with its blacks getting no darker than a dark shade of grey and even FALD isn't nowhere near as perfect and the blooming was also annoying. Oled is where its at. I would prefer 144hz but 120Hz is perfectly acceptable for gaming. I'll probably stick with this display for a long time to come. I even prefer to watch movies on the 42" Oled than my 75" FALD LCD - the Oled just excels everywhere. I agree that OLED has the best picture quality. If somebody offered warranty protection against screen burn-in, OLED would've been my choice. Best Buy used to cover screen burn-in with their store warranties, however, based on online comments I've found they've removed that coverage/benefit at some point. Since nobody's willing to provide coverage against burn in, to me that indicates the claims rates are high enough that the issue is at least somewhat common. I'm not willing to risk owning a product that has issues insurance/warranty companies aren't willing to cover. btw, Samsung's new OLED model stole top spot from LG for the best gaming TV. However, Samsung TV's are very expensive and their OLED doesn't rate that much higher than LG to justify paying hundreds more. Honestly, I wouldn't have bought another Samsung TV if not for the Black Friday deal. I probably would've opted for the Hisense UH8 instead (in some areas, it rates higher than the Samsung QN90B and the Hisense has more audio compatibility features and inputs). |
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Post by sj on Nov 11, 2022 9:57:03 GMT -5
There's something new out (new to me, anyway) called Laser tv's. It's like a projector tv, except uses a laser that doesn't burn out and need to be replaced every couple of years (like an ordinary projector). The Laser tv's also have specials screens that allow you to watch tv in a bright room without washing out the contrast so much (another problem w/ projector TV's).
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Post by sj on Nov 13, 2022 13:08:57 GMT -5
No issues with burn in so far. I've fallen asleep more than once with the display on and it stayed on all night with a static image and no burn in that I can see. I think the timed auto dimming for static images is a savior here. Video quality is amazing, especially with HDR content and I'll never go without true blacks again, unbeatable contrast. And that is a game changer for games like Alien Isolation that take place in a mostly dark environment and my old Asus Gaming LCD was just a buzzkill with its blacks getting no darker than a dark shade of grey and even FALD isn't nowhere near as perfect and the blooming was also annoying. Oled is where its at. I would prefer 144hz but 120Hz is perfectly acceptable for gaming. I'll probably stick with this display for a long time to come. I even prefer to watch movies on the 42" Oled than my 75" FALD LCD - the Oled just excels everywhere. I agree that OLED has the best picture quality. If somebody offered warranty protection against screen burn-in, OLED would've been my choice. Best Buy used to cover screen burn-in with their store warranties, however, based on online comments I've found they've removed that coverage/benefit at some point. Since nobody's willing to provide coverage against burn in, to me that indicates the claims rates are high enough that the issue is at least somewhat common. I'm not willing to risk owning a product that has issues insurance/warranty companies aren't willing to cover. btw, Samsung's new OLED model stole top spot from LG for the best gaming TV. However, Samsung TV's are very expensive and their OLED doesn't rate that much higher than LG to justify paying hundreds more. Honestly, I wouldn't have bought another Samsung TV if not for the Black Friday deal. I probably would've opted for the Hisense UH8 instead (in some areas, it rates higher than the Samsung QN90B and the Hisense has more audio compatibility features and inputs). Well, screen burn in has a lot to do with how the TV is being used. Guys with kids and dingbat wives who leave the TV on for hours & hours, watching the same thing or playing the same game, would be the scenarios with risk of screen burn-in. So you being a single dude, I wouldn't even worry about it. |
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Post by sj on Nov 13, 2022 22:32:34 GMT -5
I found out that Samsung.com has better credit terms (3 years 0% interest) than Best Buy. Oddly enough, they also have a partnership with Best Buy (order from Samsung online and you have the option to pickup at Best Buy). So I cancelled my order from Best Buy and reordered the TV through Samsung (at the same price) with their financing.
Additionally, Samsung has some sort of points based rewards system. So if you're one of the people who upgrades their TV every year or so (I'm not), maybe they give a discount with the rewards points.
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Post by sj on Nov 13, 2022 22:50:30 GMT -5
I read a few of the customer reviews about the new Samsung OLED model (the one that took top spot for gaming TV on rtings.com) and it sounds like Samsung has some engineering flaws (with their "Quantum dot OLED") to work on. My impression is that LG's OLED is the better (quality) choice atm, despite the rtings.com rankings. Rtings.com doesn't measure quality or defect rates that I could see, so I wouldn't rely solely on their advice when picking out a TV.
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Post by sj on Nov 15, 2022 16:38:39 GMT -5
I've upgraded to a dual-band Wifi 6 enabled router (another Black Friday sale). The new Wifi connection is much snappier than the garbage Wifi solution provided by the cable (ISP) company.
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It's 1/2 the thickness of a standard fan, can tell it doesn't move as much air but it works enough to vent the top of the case and then some. This particular fan is supposed to move up to 74.6 cfm air at full speed, which isn't bad. 
