Recently in Overwatch 2, I started playing Wrecking Ball. Compared to my usual main character Mercy, it involves more disorienting movement, swiping across the map, and keeping track of fast-moving characters. So I was excited to play it on the Samsung Odyssey G6. It has a faster 360Hz refresh rate almost anything i have played. In the end, I had more frames than I needed.
The Odyssey G6 is a 27-inch flat OLED display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,440. It supports AMD FreeSync Premium Pro, which supports HDR content, something other FreeSync-compatible displays can’t necessarily do. But the standout feature here is the ridiculous refresh rate, which is much faster than what many people are used to.
Photo: Eric Ravenscraft
All inclusive package
The Odyssey G6 stand is easy to set up and use. The monitor pops up onto the sturdy stand with a single click, although it supports VESA mounts if you want to bring your own monitor arm. It can swivel up to 60 degrees horizontally (30 degrees in each direction), and you can rotate the monitor between portrait and landscape in either direction.
My only complaint about the swivel is that there is no hole in the center of the stand to run the cable through. There is a small rubber clip on the back to hold the cable in place, but if you plan on rotating the monitor a lot, you might get a tangled cable if you don’t route it properly.
Photo: Eric Ravenscraft
Faster than a running frame
When I tested the Razer Blade 18 (8/10, WIRED recommends) gaming laptop, it has a super fast 300 Hz refresh rate, which I think is overkill. The human eye doesn’t really see in “frames per second”. Our brains are tuned to focus more on things like contrast and motion, so even though we can technically see flickering flash at very high speedIn reality, we may not notice much of a difference between a 120 Hz display, where things are refreshed 120 times a second, and a 300 Hz display, where they are refreshed 300 times, simply because we don’t focus on the speed at which the image on the screen is updated.
However, frame rate becomes much more important when you’re trying to track fast-moving objects (or players) in a video game. When there are fewer frames per second, objects look less like they’re moving and more like they’re making little jumps from one place to another. You can see this effect in action. with this online tool. Try comparing 24 fps to 120 fps (if your monitor can support it), with or without motion blur. The effects become quite obvious.
It’s important to understand why this works this way, because the Odyssey G6 doesn’t just make the movement smooth. It almost makes it unnecessary smooth. I’ve been using this monitor for a few weeks now, and I’m still undecided about whether or not this smoothness is a good thing. At some point, I have to wonder if my brain is the real bottleneck that’s preventing me from mentally updating the position of my enemy Cassidy 360 times per second.
