Samsung CRG5 (2021), 27"

Schön oder schnell? Die schnellen 240 Hz waren bislang auf TN-Panels beschränkt mit geringer Farbraumabdeckung und schlechter Blickwinkelstabilität. Ein "schönes" IPS- oder VA-Panel hat solche Probleme meist nicht, kommt aber nicht an die kurzen Reaktionszeiten von TN ran. Die Wahl des Gaming-Monitors erforderte daher immer einen Kompromiss. Samsung bietet nun das erste VA-Panel mit 240 Hz. Ist damit der Heilige Gral unter den Gaming-Displays gefunden?

The Samsung C27RG50 is the first 240Hz VA panel to market and it's always interesting to test these new options. The display is fairly no frills in design, functionality and features and so instead focuses more on trying to deliver a high refresh rate gaming experience combined with the typical benefits that a VA panel technology can offer. The 240Hz refresh rate does offer some improved motion clarity and frame rate capability compared with the common 120 - 144Hz VA panels on the market, and the availability of adaptive-sync for VRR from both NVIDIA and AMD systems was of course very welcome. It was good to see the screen had passed NVIDIA's 'G-sync Compatible' certification tests as well. As we had expected, the response times were not really ideal for this kind of refresh rate though, struggling to keep up overall and leading to some added smearing on moving content. That is offset somewhat by the improved motion clarity from the higher refresh rate, so the image does look a bit better than say a 120Hz VA equivalent like the Samsung C49RG90 for instance. It's just not as sharp and clear as what is achievable with the 240Hz IPS and TN Film equivalents on the market. The common VA black smearing was still an issue too, something that plagues nearly all VA panels and we would have liked the overdrive to be a bit more aggressive to help boost those response times a bit further really. Input lag was very low which was good news though. 240Hz VA can work, and does help a bit, but it's just not as significant or practical as if the response time performance were better right now. We're not sure whether it's really that significant a bump compared with lower refresh rate models, especially when you consider you have to give up other things including live with the lower 1920 x 1080 resolution.