In this box is the Q9F, one of the highest end TVs that Samsung makes.
This thing is 65 inches, 4K, it's got a quantum dot display, it's HDR, it's got Bixby voice.
Basically, all the bells and whistles.
Oh, and it's beautiful.
But, that's not actually what we care about today.
Okay, almost exactly a year ago, we made a video investigating the gaming experience on LG's NanoCell TV with a focus on input lag.
But there's a lot more to a gaming display than just low input lag.
Which brings us to this.
This is the first TV to reach our lab with variable refresh rate support right out of the box.
You guys heard me.
This puppy right here has free...
FreeSync.
So, naturally, we wasted no time at all hooking it up to, uh...
Yeah.
Got you guys, there's nothing in there.
I did say we wasted no time at all, so it's already hooked up to an Xbox One X and a Vega-equipped PC, so we could test it.
Let's dive right in, shall we?
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So, some of you are probably wondering, first of all, do I really have to spend over $3,000 on a fancy Q9F if I want FreeSync?
And second, how did Samsung manage to deliver a variable refresh rate display to my living room before the NVIDIA Big Format gaming displays that we saw at CES 10 months ago?
The answer to both of them has to do with how FreeSync is implemented.
So, even though the announcement only came in late March of this year,
Samsung was able to push FreeSync support to almost their entire 2018 lineup, including the $700, 49-inch NU8000.
Because, unlike NVIDIA's G-Sync, FreeSync does not require a proprietary, not to mention pricey, hardware module to be included in the display.
Instead, FreeSync relies on hardware that is already baked in to industry-standard VESA specifications like DisplayPort and, in this case, HDMI.
Now, to be clear, HDMI 2.0 ports, like the ones found on the back of the Q9F's external One Connect box,
weren't originally designed to include variable refresh rate the way that DisplayPort 1.2 and HDMI 2.1 ports were.
But,
HDMI 2.0 does allow vendor-specific extensions, which is exactly how Microsoft added FreeSync to their Xbox One S and Xbox One X back in April this year,
giving AMD and Samsung a built-in audience of millions of gamers,
and therefore, a strong incentive to tack FreeSync onto these TVs, improving the gaming experience.
Now, the main benefit of FreeSync, and other variable refresh rate technologies,
is that it synchronizes the frame rate of your game with the refresh rate of your display
to combat stuttering or hitching during animations and tearing,
a visual anomaly where the top and the bottom of the frame aren't aligned.
In the real world, we've found that the main benefit is that it makes frame rate dips that occur during intense scenes less noticeable.
That is, as long as the dips aren't too low.
Bringing us to this important point.
Just because a TV
has FreeSync,
doesn't mean that it's just like a
make-everything-good button,
or that it's even a good implementation of it.
And the main factor here is something called the variable refresh rate range.
So,
any display has a limit to how fast it can go,
but,
this variable refresh rate range also specifies a limit to how slow it can refresh.
So,
like if you buy a 60Hz monitor,
and you play CSGO on a
high end PC that can push out 200 frames per second,
turning on FreeSync isn't going to magically make your monitor refresh at 200Hz,
your eye is still going to see 60 frames per second.
Then, on the other end of the spectrum,
if your game renders BELOW the lower limit of your FreeSync display,
the display will be forced to repeat some of the frames it has received,
and this introduces stuttering.
So back to our TV now then.
Samsung will be forced to repeat a lot of frames that it has received, and this introduces stuttering. So back to our TV now then. Samsung will be forced to repeat some of the frames it has received, and this introduces stuttering. So back to our TV now then.
Samsung's FreeSync implementation has three different ranges to keep in the back of your mind. If you're PC gaming at 1080p, you got two options
Basic with a range of 90 to 120 FPS and
Ultimate with a range of 48 to 120 FPS
And it should be noted that I'm using FPS and Hertz sort of interchangeably here because that's kind of the point
As for if you're plugged into an Xbox One S or One X
Basic won't even be an option. As for why anyone would even want to use basic
Well, supposedly it can help resolve flickering issues that LCDs can sometimes run into at high frame rates.
As for 4k gaming, well there you're gonna be left with a much narrower range
It's pretty common for 4k monitors to offer a 40 to 60 FPS range
But here on this TV, you only get 48 to 60 making the sweet spot
just
12 frames wide before you'll start to get
stutters when the action gets intense.
In fairness, this thing is mostly targeting console gamers
which at the moment basically means it's for the Xbox One X and
For the most part game developers work hard to optimize their games for a smooth experience
Anyway, and in some cases they actually do such a good job that in Halo 5 Guardians
For example, we didn't see any stuttering or tearing with
Or without FreeSync on
With that said, severe frame rate drops definitely do happen
Especially when there's a lot going on at once
And this implementation of FreeSync isn't going to help you with all of them
Because even though the Xbox One S and One X support FreeSync 2
Which includes low frame rate compensation
This TV only supports a modified FreeSync 1
So it's got HDR which is kind of a FreeSync 2 feature
But it doesn't have that feature anywhere else.
have LFC. So then, while having FreeSync on removed the frequent tearing during Call of Duty World War
II's in-engine cutscenes, it didn't do much to combat the hitching that happens when you move
into new areas of the map, or when Forza 7's trying to load up your car and character model
before a race. So then, should you get a FreeSync TV like this one today? From just an overall
experience standpoint, I don't, yeah, yeah, maybe. I mean, it's not like you're paying extra for it,
and it looks great, and the input lag is even less than the ones we tested last time around.
But if you are specifically after a robust variable refresh rate experience,
well, then it gets a little bit tougher, because there is a lot coming in the next year or two
that is going to change the landscape here. So G-Sync TVs from the likes of HP, ASUS, and Acer
are going to be coming out in the, we hope, next few months here. And,
I mean, this year, we might even see TVs from Samsung that are equipped with HDMI 2.1,
which would mean, among other things, 4K at 120Hz and the real full-fat official variable refresh
rate implementation. So if you desperately need a TV today, this is certainly better than not
having it. But, as it always is with high technology, well, you could get it even better
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