Tech Talk

Figured a blanket thread for tech questions might be useful instead of posting everything in Random Thoughts, so here goes.

What do you guys think of this monitor?
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0D1DSXW17?tag=rtings-mn-r-amazon-20&ie=UTF8&th=1
Mainly for PS5 Pro, although I have a decent desktop too if I ever decide to play something other than FFXI on it. Any strong feelings for OLED vs. UHD 4k?

Right now I have a Sony Inzone M9 I got when I bought my regular PS5. It's been good except for the sound when I don't feel like using headphones.

I recommend using https://www.rtings.com/ and looking at color and HDR nits
Those specs seem decent but I was missing out on a whole world until I purchased a 9.3 vs a 6.0 in those categories

Thanks, that was where I found that particular monitor. What did you buy?

Open box pg48uq

Very nice! I've been mostly out of the loop for a while on tech so lots of reading to do, but that site is quite nice for explaining options.

I think a more pertinent question here might be, what do you expect to get out of the new monitor? Obviously your budget for discretionary spending is comparatively high, since you're looking at a $1k~ monitor here. An Inzone M9 is already quite a good monitor. If you need a different size, or you feel like the darks aren't quite dark enough, and you're ok with spending that much for a slight improvement then you'll probably be happy with the Odyssey G8. It's a good monitor.

But, if you aren't in the small percent of people who are extremely discerning on image quality, you're probably not going to notice much of a difference. The 240hz refresh rate is a considerable upgrade if you have a top end PC capable of handling it, but a PS5 pro won't even consistantly max the 144hz your current monitor has.

UHD is a resolution. Your current monitor is the same resolution, so both are UHD.

OLED is a technology. OLED monitors are set up so that each pixel can be individually dimmed, which results in far darker darks and greater contrast. It's great for illustrating dimly lit areas. It does allow burn-in, so should be careful about long term static images on it (there is technology like pixel shifting to help, but it still happens). OLED is generally considered the best lighting method.

Your current monitor uses full array local dimming, which means that the monitor's colors are lit by a series of backlights spread behind the image. This means that instead of each individual pixel producing it's own light, brightness is controlled by the backlight for a region of nearby pixels. The pixel sets the color, the backlight sets the brightness. This means that dimming effects cannot be localized to individual pixels.

QLED is a sidegrade that uses a sort of filtering on the backlight to produce brighter colors than full array local dimming, but also lacks dimming on a per-pixel basis. It does not burn in. I use a QLED TV personally, because I did not trust my gf not to burn in UI elements (she leaves games on it all the time). I can't say that I personally regret not going OLED, but I am not the most discerning viewer around.

I do all my gaming in the dark when possible, that was one of the things that I was interested in OLED for despite the potential for burn in. Otherwise, I'm mainly going off a recommendation for OLED to really get the most out of the PS5 Pro.

My desktop has an AMD Radeon RX 7800 XT which is a decent midrange card, but I can always upgrade that down the road too.

Your best bet is to compare the two choices on ratings
See if you are truly gaining anything

OLED has the advantages of "infinite levels blacks" for colors and shading

When I sought out a new monitor I personally was lacking in HDR and sdr color on my old monitor, I was sick of ultra wide incompatibility as well

Things like size
HDR
Refresh rate 120
Resolution choice 2k 4k
Response time

Are all easy to find and filter values these days
Color and HDR brightness is something that varies greatly right now
Matte vs shiny

Went with the monitor in the OP and man, there is no comparison with my old one. This thing is simply better in every way. I can only imagine what some of the ultra high end displays and cards are capable of.

I'm thinking of switching back to 16:9 as I am over 21:9 incompatability as well. I have a Nvidia Shield Pro on my living room TV and I can't have my "default" monitor set to my ultrawide because it refuses to change the resolution before it casts.

Does anybody know why OLED everything is crazy on sale recently?

One more question. I've had this curved monitor for so long, I'm not sure how I'd feel going to a 32" flat panel. Anybody have input on curved vs flat?

I found this $1699 monster at my local Micro Center as an open box deal for $650 and I couldn't pass it up. Had 52hrs on the panel and there isn't a scratch on it. LG45gs96qb 45" 3440x1440 240hz OLED Ultrawide. My god this thing is insane. The curve takes some getting use to when not gaming, but during gaming it is the most immersive thing I've seen outside VR. I finished Final Fantasy 16 last night on it.

The point of this post isn't to showboat my new toy tho. I wanted to share the steps I've taken to setup a boarderless multi-instance setup on 1 large monitor. I've always had dual monitors, so this has been a big adjustment.

-I found this app called FancyZones as part of a larger pack called Powertoys. This allows you to setup zones that you can lock windows to by dragging and hitting shift.

-I created 2 Windower profiles for the resolution of the zones I created and set them to windowed mode.

-I can then log into the game and drag them to the zones I want.

-Once they are positioned I can //window_toggleframe on each instance to turn them into boarderless.




Give me a pass on the wiring mess. I took down 2 monitors and just tossed this guy on my desk. I'll fix it later.

Looks awesome, glad you're enjoying the setup. I'm very pleased with mine too, the monitor upgrade was a literal night and day difference. PS5 Pro over nq, not as much.

What is the benefit of curved monitor? I also multibox, but don't think I could fit everyone on screen at once and not be distracted. Cool concept though.

The curve is so your eyes are at a fixed/optimal distance from all points on the screen. It really makes a huge difference on immersion during a game or movie. Playing FF16 last night felt like sitting in an imax theater. FFXI on the other hand was bad with this big of a monitor. I was buying some stuff on AH and looking from corner to corner constantly was awful.

what do you guys think of this? only had my G8 6 months now and I love it but wouldn't mind a bit larger

https://www.amazon.com/samsung-oled-displayhdr-freesync-adjustable-ls49cg932snxza/dp/B0CDQMQQS2?ref_=ast_sto_dp

I couldn't get rid of my ultra wide fast enough
To much incompatibility I do tech for a living it felt like I was always working
Now for the things it works for and when they work well yeah its great
But eldebring you would need to play offline
Go for something with the best color options after finding a resolution, refresh rate, size/aspect ratio

thanks good tips

Found this on my trending feed:
https://www.tomsguide.com/news/ive-been-testing-the-galaxy-z-fold-5-and-its-the-ultimate-gaming-phone
I know its been asked hundreds of times but, could I get ffxi on this?

Gross.

The n-gage was a bad product. Gaming phones are not a thing.

GPU is within the ballpark of SE's listed minimum requirements. But, since it's an android device, you have interpretation overhead to even run the game in the first place. Since it also has an ARM cpu, you need hardware emulation to support x86 instruction sets (which FFXI uses). It may be technically possible to launch it, but it's not straightforward and unlikely to be stable. Even if it is, performance will probably be poor.

Getting FFXI to run on the phone directly would be a nightmare to achieve. You could use a service like Geforce Now or Shadow PC. Geforce now has a soft cap of 100hrs a month, with any additional costing extra. Shadow PC is more expensive, but no limit and is basically just access to a virtual install of windows you can log into at any time.

Thank you both. I'll look for a laptop that can fold into a tablet. I'm not tech savvy.

pulled the plug on this after I acknowledged I don't play enough PC games to worry about the benefits of a monitor vs tv and wanted something larger than 32 screen.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CV9VGMPT?ref_=pe_123509780_1038749300_t_fed_asin_title&th=1

never had a tv even remotely as big as this, should be a treat.

Congrats
Make sure to adjust the ui slider a bunch when you go to login.
Keep an eye out for input delay, you could need to change the TV to a special mode of that's still a thing.

And OLED has a lot of talk about burn in, I think the newer ones have a refresh system built in that protects against it so this also might not be too bad anymore

You will probably have to turn on HDR and autohdr on in Windows to truly take advantage of it I highly recommend it if you are on win11

I used to use reshade to make the colors pop but autohdr does more than enough

Are you putting a 65" on a desk? I'd be terrified anytime a Galka appeared close to camera.

This. But the size of a car door 20" away from you lol.

not sure yet. my desk is maybe 15 feet from the couch I want to view from. basically move the desk chair out of the way when I want to sit on the couch for ps5 or netflix. so the 65" will be fine from that distance but I may have trouble when I sit at the desk. if so, I still love the 32" samsung g8 and can set it up elsewhere.