Saturday, June 10th 2017
Samsung Announces the CHG70 and CHG90 QLED Monitors: HDR and FreeSync 2
Remember that post on Samsung's investment on 32:9 aspect ratio monitors? The company has just materialized them, with the announcement of their 2017 flagship FreeSync 2 supporting monitors, which come in two different models and three different sizes. Samsung announced a world's first, the CHG90 QLED monitor, which leverages its alien 49" towards displaying a 32:9 presentation. That's what Samsung is calling a DFHD (Dual Full HD) screen, with a 3840x1080 resolution. This panel supports FreeSync 2, HDR, wide 178-degree viewing angles, and the now usual 1800R curvature, with blazingly-fast 144 Hz refresh rates and 1 ms response times.
At the same time, Samsung also announced the somewhat more mundane CHG70 QLED monitor, which comes in at either 27" or 31,5". Whatever your choice of panel size, these are essentially the same specs-wise, and differ little from the CHG90: they offer WQHD resolution (2560x1440), HDR, FreeSync 2, wide 178-degree viewing angles, and the now usual 1800R curvature, along with blazing-fast 144 Hz refresh rates and 1 ms response times.
Connectivity-wise, the CHG70 models sport 1x DisplayPort and 2x HDMI inputs, and the CHG90s adds 1x mini-DisplayPort interface.
But what exactly does FreeSync 2 do? Basically, it stands as a way to reduce input lag from HDR processing of an image, by substituting the entirety of the HDR transport and display tone mapping usually needed to render a HDR image by a faster, driver level, Freesync 2 transport (which apparently already includes display tone mapping before the image is sent to the monitor), thus reducing that tone mapping processing time. Another part of the Freesync 2 update is the ability to instantly switch between display modes (SDR and HDR). AMD is also touting Freesync 2 to display "over 2x perceivable brightness and color volume over sRGB", though that honestly looks like more of a byproduct of using an HDR source than a Freesync 2 achievement. It looks as if FreeSync 2 will eventually become a software stack, and a brand, unto itself, embedded within AMD's drivers and other, non-PC products. This would be a smart move from AMD, since they would be taking advantage of FreeSync's brand and name recognition on the market as a way to promote new features.
But let's go back to the DFHD, 49", 3840x1080 CHG90. This is the new way to have your field of vision almost as filled with screen real estate as when wearing one of those pesky VR headsets. But one has to consider: 21:9 support by itself isn't guaranteed fully as is, and there are many more panels featuring that display ratio than a single panel. What should we expect will happen with 32:9 ratio monitors? Will developers truly consider such a meager proportion of their audience?
On to pricing, which is arguably the most important metric: the C49HG90 is available for pre-order for $1,500 (which doesn't seem all that steep for such technologies?) The C32HG70 is exclusive to Newegg for $700 (at least for the moment), and the C27HG70 can be pre-ordered from Samsung's website for $600.
At the same time, Samsung also announced the somewhat more mundane CHG70 QLED monitor, which comes in at either 27" or 31,5". Whatever your choice of panel size, these are essentially the same specs-wise, and differ little from the CHG90: they offer WQHD resolution (2560x1440), HDR, FreeSync 2, wide 178-degree viewing angles, and the now usual 1800R curvature, along with blazing-fast 144 Hz refresh rates and 1 ms response times.
But what exactly does FreeSync 2 do? Basically, it stands as a way to reduce input lag from HDR processing of an image, by substituting the entirety of the HDR transport and display tone mapping usually needed to render a HDR image by a faster, driver level, Freesync 2 transport (which apparently already includes display tone mapping before the image is sent to the monitor), thus reducing that tone mapping processing time. Another part of the Freesync 2 update is the ability to instantly switch between display modes (SDR and HDR). AMD is also touting Freesync 2 to display "over 2x perceivable brightness and color volume over sRGB", though that honestly looks like more of a byproduct of using an HDR source than a Freesync 2 achievement. It looks as if FreeSync 2 will eventually become a software stack, and a brand, unto itself, embedded within AMD's drivers and other, non-PC products. This would be a smart move from AMD, since they would be taking advantage of FreeSync's brand and name recognition on the market as a way to promote new features.
On to pricing, which is arguably the most important metric: the C49HG90 is available for pre-order for $1,500 (which doesn't seem all that steep for such technologies?) The C32HG70 is exclusive to Newegg for $700 (at least for the moment), and the C27HG70 can be pre-ordered from Samsung's website for $600.
49 Comments on Samsung Announces the CHG70 and CHG90 QLED Monitors: HDR and FreeSync 2
Oh and the freesync flickering issue, hope they fixed that too.
They might make sense on 49" and large monitors used exclusively for movies or games, but they make no sense as computer monitors. Screw you Samsung.
You are also making things up, there is no 144fps monitor with adaptive range starting at 90fps.
It was an example. And what is "basically 0-range" that doesn't sound too sure. That makes it seem like they will still be varied from monitor to monitor and not be full range.
I was mainly implying that there are monitors with wonky freesync ranges. I thought I read before that some monitors only have a specific range like 48Hz to 95Hz when the max refresh is 144Hz still. That was a long time ago though.
I'll be getting it almost for sure, have been following rumors for a few months now and have not expected it before fall, but it looks like sammy is in rush. Kinda sad it's FS2, and not Gsync HDR, but I guess I can tolerate Vega too. Unless they screw up something major, this is going to be the next logical step from CF791, which is THE BEST overall WS out there right now, aside from this new 35" 2k asus abomination, thanks to a crappy AU panel.