ASUS has made a name for itself when it comes to desktop components. It should come as no surprise that the company also has a lineup of pre-built desktops. This year, the desktop lineup is more focused and streamlined. There are three new entries into their offerings this year with each one taking laser focus on a feature to champion.
ROG G22CH – Redefining “Small but Mighty”
When it comes to desktops, it’s generally been a battle between space and performance. However, with the ROG G22CH, ASUS is proving that both aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive. The small 10L chassis small form factor PC packs a punch with the latest generation 13th Generation Intel Core processors with configuration supporting the Core i9-13900K. Together with this, the G22CH comes with NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 40 Series GPUS with up to 32GB of DDR5 4800MHz RAM and up to 2TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage.
Together with the power-packed internals, the G22CH is designed with a focus on airflow. The new pre-built desktop system supports both AIO liquid coolers and traditional air cooling for the CPU. It even features an internal power supply in its minute chassis. It’s also easy to upgrade and access with its toolless design.
ROG Strix G16CH – Made to Game
The ROG Strix G16CH is a mid-tower gaming desktop built for multitaskers. The system supports configurations that cap out with the Intel Core i7-13700KF and the NVIDIA RTX 4080 GPU. On the memory side of things, the setup supports up to 3TB of storage and a whopping 128GB of DDR4 RAM.
However, it’s not just about the insides, the Strix G16CH comes with some of the best ventilation-focused designs. The front panel and top exhaust allow for plenty of airflow. It’s also built to accommodate a high-performance 240mm liquid cooler for the CPU. It’s also built with all the signature ROG design cues including the ROG Slash aesthetic, an integrated headset holder and a reinforced double D ring strap.
ROG Strix G13CH – Air Flow for Maximum Cooling and Performance
The Strix G13CH follows suit with ASUS’s focus on better cooling and airflow with a redesign which marries both ROG’s signature style and improved airflow. It comes with configurations which support up to the Intel Core i&-13700 and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series GPU. Complementing this is up to 64GB of RAM and up to 2TB of storage.
Pricing and Availability
No pricing or availability has been announced just yet.
NVIDIA’s RTX 40 series GPUs are finally making their way to the mobile computing space, just as Intel’s 13th generation CPUs are also making their way to the mobile computing space. Alongside the new hardware, Ada Lovelace on mobile also comes with a slew of updates that was also brought along from the RTX 40 series for the desktop market. Alongside NVIDIA introducing the laptop market to Ada Lovelace, they also launched their new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti.
Unsurprisingly, the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 series for laptops focus more on the content creation aspect more than anything. To be fair, while gaming performance on a laptop has never been better with the RTX 40 series, content creators are the ones who will get the biggest bump in benefits with Ada Lovelace this time around. That said, there are still some interesting developments from NVIDIA for games with the new Max-Q Ada Lovelace architecture.
Thanks to some clever implementation for the Studio platform, NVIDIA brings RTX Remix made mostly for gamers. The technology allows more creative gamers to quickly create mods for older titles with full ray tracing technology to modernize those games. You even get enhanced details ad materials with DLSS3 and NVIDIA Reflex. All of these and you never needed to learn to code or knowledge to work in the 3D design space in the first place. NVIDIA is also bringing official RTX support to Portal Prelude, a Portal mod.
Back to the more content creator aspect of things. NVIDIA is introducing a new Studio driver to update their new and existing GPUs too. With The new Studio platform comes an improved NVIDIA Omniverse, a connected world where 3D artists can collaborate in real-time with the power of NVIDIA’s RTX engines. The have expanded the Omniverse with better support for Blender, a rather popular 3D rendering tool. Users can also experiment with regenerative 3D tools alongside Universal Scene Description assets added into Omniverse to create even more life like 3D scenes than ever before.
If you are more of a videographer, or a streamer, the new NVIDIA Studio suite offers improved NVIDIA Broadcast and Canvas apps. Broadcast new features a new eye-tracking and replacement tool that cleverly and naturally makes it look like you are actually looking into your webcam instead of your screen in both video conferences and game streams. Canvas allows you to work with 360-degree images that can be used as environment maps in 3D apps like Blender. On top of all of these, Ada Lovelace also comes with AV1 support which should allow for a more efficient video workflow in compatible apps.
If you are not into any of that, there are still some benefits to using NVIDIA’s RTX 40 and RTX 30 series GPUs. They are bringing their upscaling technology to the masses with RTX Video Super Resolution. The feature uses AI to improve videos from any sources, including your browser. The algorithm removes compression artifacts and upscales video resolutions to improve its sharpness and even overall detail so that you watch online contents at your display’s native resolution even if the YouTube video only offers up to 480p in resolution. The feature will only be available for Chrome and Edge browsers in February 2023, for now.
The other added benefit of Ada Lovelace is its power efficiency. That also means that gaming and studio class laptops can be made thinner with smaller and more power efficient fans. On top of enhanced battery life as well, the power bricks can be made smaller than ever.
Availability
NVIDIA has teased the first few laptops that will get their RTX 40 series treatment. They named the Razer Blade, MSI’s Stealth series, and ASUS’s Zenbook Pro series laptops for now. For now, NVIDIA has teased the availability of the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 and GeForce RTX 4090 series for mobile computing, but we are convinced you will see the likes of the GeForce RTX 4080, and GeForce RTX 4060 series Max-Q GPUs when laptop manufacturers release more details about their next-generation content creator and gaming laptops soon. More about Ada Lovelace architecture can be found on their website.
At NVIDIA’s next-generation GPU launch the last round, Jensen Huang unveiled two new flagship class GPUs; the GeForce RTX 4090 and GeForce RTX 4080. The range-topping GeForce RTX 4090 packs more Ada Lovelace architecture CUDA cores than the GPU it replaces and 24GB of GDDR6X RAM for performance like no other. The slightly lower end GPU, which is still a powerful flagship class GPU, the GeForce RTX 4080 packs just over half the CUDA cores of the flagship and about 16GB GDDR6X RAM.
Alongside these two GPUs, the team in green teased another GPU that is meant to be a more budget friendly version of the GeForce RTX 4080 with less CUDA cores and less RAM. For the longest time, the GPU is known as the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 12GB. With a smaller potential asking price for it, the rumoured GPU is a highly anticipated one.
For CES 2023, they launched the GPU for US$ 799. Except, they did not launch the GeForce RTX 4080 12GB. They launched the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti ahead of the regular GeForce RTX 4070.
NVIDIA’s latest GeForce RTX 4070 Ti is the exact same GPU that is the unlaunched GeForce RTX 4080 12GB. It packs 7680 CUDA cores, less than half of the GeForce RTX 4090 GPU. Its 12GB RAM RAM is also exactly half the top-of-the-line RTX 4090 flagship GPU. It is still a fast GDDR6X RAM that you get from the RTX 3090 and RTX 4090. In the grander scheme of things, the new GPU is targeted squarely as a mid-range GPU that should prove to be one of the more popular GPU choices for the more value conscious gamers.
In terms of features, the GeForce RTX 4070 Ti packs the latest DLSS 3 algorithm for upscaling that is better than before. They also say that the RTX 4070 Ti is supposed to be a more powerful GeForce RTX 3090 Ti that was replaced by the GeForce RTX 4090. In NVIDIA’s benchmarks though, the newly launched GPU looks like it performs about the same as the RTX 3090 Ti in non DLSS titles. The benchmark has not accounted for the improved ray tracing performance from the Ada Lovelace architecture though. According to NVIDIA as well, the GPU is supposed to be more efficient than before too with 226W TDP.
Source: NVIDIA
The new NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Ti will be available in the market worldwide 5th of January 2023 onward. NVIDIA suggests a starting retail price of US$ 799 (MYR 3520*). The pricing is really just a guideline though since they also mentioned that there will not be a Founders Edition GPU from NVIDIA for this one. In that case you can expect GPUs from board partners like ASUS, Colorful, Gainward, GALAX, GIGABYTE, INNO3D, KFA2, MSI, Palit, PNY, and ZOTAC. More information on their new GPU can be found on their website.
*Approximately based on exchange rate of US$ 1=MYR 4.41 as of 04/01/2023 on xe.com
ASUS’s Republic of Gamers has been creating astonishing offerings over the past few years with a more streamlined, power-packed line up of gaming laptops for every gamer. This year at CES, the company is putting their best foot forward with new form factors and a refreshed design for their most popular Strix SCAR and Strix G line ups.
The new Strix SCAR line up features an updated design which features a new armour cap which looks to be replacing the keystone we’ve seen in previous versions. The armour cap also comes in multiple designs at launch. ASUS has updated the Strix SCAR design with a more subtle design language with the ports on either side. They’ve also increased the number of vents on the SCAR for better cooling.
The new Strix G Line up comes with same subtlety in design but also comes with more apparent Aura Sync lighting. It also shares the same design cues with the Strix SCAR including the new armour cap. Both laptop lineups come with ASUS NumberPad which turns the TouchPad into a fully functional NumPad when needed.
When it comes to specifications, the ROG Strix G and Strix SCAR laptops come with configurations supporting Intel’s latest 13th Generation Core processors capping out at the Core i9-13980HX. Both also come with configurations supporting the latest from NVIDIA – the RTX 40 series laptop GPUs. The ROG Strix SCAR line up has configurations supporting up to the NVIDIA RTX 4090 Laptop GPU while the ROG Strix G supports up to the RTX 4080 Laptop GPU.
When it comes to displays the ROG Strix series is gunning for firsts with both of the lineups supporting ASUS’s Nebula HDR displays. Both the Strix SCAR and Strix G series comes in two flavours – 16-inch (Strix SCAR 16; Strix G16) and 18-inch (Strix SCAR16; Strix G18). The SCAR 16 comes with options for QHD IPS panels with up to 240Hz refresh rate. The only difference between the two QHD IPS panels are colour accuracy and Pantone Validation. The larger SCAR 18 comes with an additional option for a 165Hz FHD panel which covers 100% of the sRGB gamut. The Strix G16 and G18 come with options for a 240Hz, Pantone Validated Colour accurate QHD IPS panel or an FHD panel with 165Hz refresh rate.
When it comes to memory, the Strix G comes with options with up to 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD memory with up to 32GB DDR5 RAM while the STRIX SCAR lineup comes with up to a max of 4TB (2 x 2TB) memory with up to 64GB DDR5 RAM.
Both lineups also come with option which support AMD’s latest Ryzen processors. The Strix SCAR 17 and the Strix G17 both support up to the Ryzen 9 Zen 4 processor. Together with this, the laptops also sport a smaller 17-inch display. The SCAR 17 comes with a QHD IPS panel with support for Dolby Vision HDR and 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut. The Strix G17 comes with an additional option for a FHD display with 144Hz Value IPS display.
Acer’s s Swift lineup has been the cornerstone of the company’s thin and light laptops. This year, they’re taking their proven approach to thin and light laptops and supercharging it with more power and an even more premium build. It also looks like they’re streamlining the naming for the Swift family of laptops.
Acer Swift Go – The new Entry to Thin and Light
Acer’s new entry-level thin and light laptop – the Swift Go series – is looking to redefine its approach to thin and light machines. The new series makes its debut with two entries: the Swift Go 16 and the Swift Go 14. The new laptops bring the latest 13th-generation Intel Core processors with Intel’s Movidius VPU. The dedicated AI engine that comes with Intel Core and Movidius VPU gears the laptop for video collaboration and seamless integration.
The Swift Go 16 comes with a 16-inch, 3.2K OLED display with a 3000×2000 pixel resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate while the Swift Go 14 comes with a 2.8K OLED display with a 2880×1800 pixel resolution with a 90Hz refresh rate. Both come with 500-nit peak brightness with 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 gamut and VESA DisplayHDR True Black 500 certification. They also have TUV Rheinland Eyesafe display certification.
Acer Swift 14 – Portable Premium Style with Productivity Front and Center
The Acer Swift 14 continues the legacy of the Swift series with its premium build and lightweight portability. The Swift 14 comes with a fresh new design which highlights the double anodized CNC-machined aluminium body of the laptop accented by diamond cut edges. The new materials don’t add much heft to the laptop with the Swift 14 coming in at only 1.2kg in weight and a slender 14.95mm thin.
Keeping things sustainable, the Acer Swift 14 comes with an OceanGlass trackpad made of reclaimed abandoned ocean-bound plastics. The OceanGlass trackpad looks and feels premium fitting the overall design of the new Swift 14.
It’s not just about the aesthetics with the Swift 14, Acer is packing the latest 13th Generation Intel Core H processors. The Swift 14 comes with configurations topping out with the Intel Core i7. This is paired with up to 2TB of internal memory and 32GB of RAM. Intel’s Unison also comes integrated with the laptop. This allows users to collaborate across operating systems. T
The Swift 14 comes with a touch-enabled, 14-inch display. Users will be able to choose from two options: a WQXGA display with a 2560×1600 pixel resolution or a WUXGA display with a resolution of 1920×1200 pixels. Both options come with Corning Gorilla Glass for added durability and even come with antimicrobial properties.
To top things off, the Swift 14 comes with a 1440p, QHD webcam with temporal noise reduction (TNR) and is complemented with dual speakers with DTS Audio and Acer’s PurifiedVoice.
Acer Swift X 14 – The Compact Powerhouse
Acer is keeping its Swift X lineup in the new, streamlined Swift family. This year’s addition – the Swift X 14 – is continuing the lineups power packed ethos. The Swift X 14 comes with the latest 13th Generation Intel Core H processors with configurations topping out with support for the Intel Core i7. It comes with 2 PCIe 4.0 slots which support a combined maximum of up to 4TB of memory with up to 64GB of RAM.
Of course, like its predecessors, the Acer Swift X 14 comes with a discreet GPU. This year it’s the NVIDIA RTX 40 series GPUs. The X 14 will have configurations supporting up to the NVIDIA RTX 4050 Laptop GPU at launch. The laptops come with NVIDIA Studio validation giving them access to stable Studio drivers. These drivers are also optimised to support the latest programs for content creation.
Of course, having such a powerful GPU necessitates good cooling. The new Swift X 14 comes with updated thermals that have better cooling than before. A larger fan draws in more air to keep the system cool. This works in tandem with the dual D6 copper heat pipes and the air-inlet keyboard to cool the system more efficiently.
The chassis has also been redesigned. The new, updated design allows for a larger battery for better, all-day battery life. It’s also sleeker and thinner than before. It’s designed to be more subtle and classy while being fully prepared for any workload.
It comes with a 14-inch 2.8K OLED display with a 120Hz refresh rate. The display is VESA DisplayHDR TrueBlack 500 certified and covers 100% of the DCI-P3 gamut. It also has a 500-nit peak brightness for added clarity. The laptop is also equipped with a 1080p FHD webcam which supports Acer’s PurifiedView, PurifiedVoice and AI noise reduction.
CES 2023 is nigh, and Samsung took part. Not that it is a surprise. They announced a bunch of new home electronics that works with Smart Things. That was expected, especially if you did not miss Samsung’s CEO’s editorial on their upcoming CES 2023 showcase. What was not expected is the line-up of new PC monitors they introduced for CES 2023, and how nice they are.
Odyssey Neo G9 – the ‘U’ in UHD Means Ultimate Gaming Experience
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
They introduced yet another Odyssey Neo G9 to replace the old one, which was not that old in the first place. This is even better than before though, and more power hungry than before. Instead of dual QHD 1440p, this time you get twice more resolution at dual 4K UHD resolution.
Of course, with more resolution, you need a bigger canvas to really appreciate the resolution. You get 57-inch this time, an 8-inch upgrade over the older monitor. It is still a 1000R curve, which still means you sit the same distance as before and get more immersion out of the display.
Of course, you get everything that was great about the older monitor too. The 4K UHD panel is a quantum mini LED panel, which also means colours are just as vivid as before. With VESA Display HDR1000 specifications, your eyes will still be screaming in pain when you crank it up all the way.
You want to make sure your PC offer the latest HDMI 2.1 port or DisplayPort 1.4 to take advantage of the Odyssey Neo G9’s resolution. On top of an HDMI 2.1 port, you get a future-proof DisplayPort 2.1 port on the display for you to really get your games to 240Hz with the dual UHD panel. Then again, you do want to get yourself the latest and most powerful GPU to get even close to that speed with virtually two UHD monitors strapped on it.
Odyssey OLED G9 – It Is All About the Colours
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
57-inch is also quite large for a 1m viewing distance. 49-inch is still a lot to take in still for your desk, dual QHD at 240Hz is still plenty to take in for not just yourself, but even the most powerful PCs you can find today. Quantum mini LED technology may look great, but it will still have nothing on an OLED panel, especially a quantum dot OLED panel.
The OLED display offers a pixel-by-pixel lighting control, allowing for an even lifelike image darker blacks than ever and crisper HDR images than before. The OLED panel also offers up to 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, for even better detail even when in the dark spots. OLED technology also offers a response time like no other at up to 0.1ms. It still offers 240Hz, which is plenty enough to handle for even the most powerful GPUs today.
The 49-inch 1800R ultra-wide monitor is also even better if you want to keep your entertainment simple with just one primary monitor. There is a Smart Hub packed into the 49-inch monitor so that you can enjoy contents from Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, and even YouTube even without a PC hooked up to it. You can even game without a PC with this one; Samsung’s Gaming Hub offers access to Xbox’s gallery of cloud enabled games, and NVIDIA GeForce Now cloud gaming library.
ViewFinity S9 – Colour Calibrated for the Professionals
Source: Samsung
Source: Samsung
The ViewFinity series is new from Samsung. They are not new to highly calibrated and colour accurate display though. That also means that Samsung taking this long to offer a calibrated display for the professionals the real shock.
The ViewFinity S9 offers 5K resolution from a 27-inch panel. The 5,120 by 2,880 pixels offers up to 99% DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage for the best colour reproduction you can get on a monitor. It offers Delta E ≤ 2 as well for the most accurate colour reproduction. If you need to make more calibration to your monitor, there is a smartphone app for it, which is unsurprising coming from Samsung.
For some flexibility, the monitor offers USB Type-C and Thunderbolt 4 connectivity for your PC. That means that the ViewFinity S9 is now a Thunderbolt 4 hub for your connected PC. Offered with the ViewFinity S9 is also a 4K SlimFit camera that offers native connectivity to Google Meet meetings even without a PC connected to it. Yes, it packs Samsung’s Smart Hub too so it can be your entertainment hub all the same.
Smart Monitor M8 – The All-in-One Personal Hub at Home
Source: Samsung
A gaming and professional calibrated monitor are very specific things. They are quite costly items too for overly specific purposes. You might need a regular monitor optimized for work and does everything else on the side. You need a Smart Monitor M8.
You can choose between either a 27-inch or 32-inch variants. Both sizes offer 4K in resolution. You can also pick between Daylight Blue, Spring Green, Sunset Pink, and Warm White colour options for it to really fit your house décor. It even has a height adjustable stand with tilt support so that the monitor can be perfect for you. If you prefer a monitor arm, it is VESA compatible.
Obviously it offers Samsung’s Smart Hub that offers Netflix, Prime Video, and YouTube without a PC connected to it. It also offers SmartThings Hub, now it is a control hub for all your smart home devices in your house. With upcoming Matter functionality, it is not just Samsung’s IoT devices that you can hook up to your smart home system. You can even use a mouse to navigate through Smart Hub and SmartThings Hub; yes, without a PC. It also has a 2K SlimFit webcam that works nicely with Google Meet.
Availability
Samsung’s new Odyssey, ViewFinity, and Smart Monitor is available for showcase in CES 2023. There are no mentions on when the displays will be available for purchase. We are betting that it will be available within 2023. There are no mentions on prices either. It is Samsung we are talking about though, and they are pretty high-end monitors, so we are guessing ‘premium’ would be the way to describe their asking prices.
What is Matter? At least we think that is what some of you might be asking before anything else. It is an Internet of Things (IoT) thing. It is, in our opinion from our research, the future of connected devices.
There are plenty of in-depth explanations out there about what Matter is and why it will be a good thing for universal connected devices. We are not going in-depth, but we do need to explain Matter a little bit.
Matter is a standard for IoT hardware developed by Connectivity Standards Alliance. The Alliance is a sort of collaboration and standardized guidelines to all things IoT, connected, and smart home. Collaborators include Google, Samsung, Apple, and Amazon. In short, they aim to make all IoT and connected devices universally available to every person no matter what device they own. For example, you should be able to connect to a Samsung washing machine even if you do not have Smart Things on your Apple iPhone or Google Pixel. Your Samsung TV should also be able to control that new Amazon light bulb you just bought for your smart home ecosystem.
Matter is rather new though, and not every device is compatible with it yet. While there are new smart home products that comes with Matter compatibility, it is the older stuff that needs some attention. For example, Amazon’s various Echo devices.
A month after Amazon announced that they have committed to add Matter compatibility to their Alexa compatible devices, they delivered with 17 of their existing products including their plugs, switches, and bulbs. This is only Amazon’s first wave of Matter compatibility update though, and they are bringing the update to their most popular devices first. They added that they will roll out Matter update to other devices later.
There is a small caveat with the new Matter compatibility from Amazon though. While it now works with Matter, you still must have an Android smartphone and you can only connect to the devices via WiFi. That also means that if you have an Apple iPhone and an Amazon Echo device, you still might not be able to access Alexa via your iPhone. The Echo devices that works with Matter now are the 3rd, 4th, and 5th Generation Echo Dots, the Echo Show 8 (2021), Echo Show 10 (3rd Generation), Echo Show 5 (2021), Echo Show 15, v3 Echo, Echo Input, and Echo Fex. More information on Amazon’s Alexa ready Matter compatible devices can be found on their developer blog.
Content creators that deal with videos and audio know the struggle. The struggle to get good audio is universal for almost any modern content creator. In most cases, while most might not realise it, bad audio can break your immersion or a good video. Think about it, imagine watching The Conjuring on mute. You will find that it is way less scary than it is.
Good audio is not just limited to the music, or sound effects though. In the world of radio, YouTube personalities, and podcasts, great audio usually means great vocals. We understand that struggle because we produce our very own podcast (available on Spotify, coming back in 2023). We had to spend a little bit of money to get a set of gears for the office and home ready and going for our Podcast series, Tech & Tonic, just to get that crisp and smooth radio voice.
Thing is, we do have to spend a bit of our own money to get better audio even at home. Getting at least a dedicated USB mic was the only way to get quality audio for our podcasts during the pandemic. But what if you do not or do not have that money to spend on a mic? What if your regular built-in mic on your laptop or headphone is enough to create your own podcasts? It is possible today with Adobe’s latest free tool.
Adobe, as one of the most widely used content creation suite, has been researching on ways to improve creative workflow using AI for years. Their AI tool has helped make Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Premiere Pro, and even Rush even more efficient and way cleverer than before. They have also been messing about with AI in audio processing with Project Sasha, recently rebranded to Adobe Podcast.
As part of the project, they came up with something called Enhance Speech. The tool is free at this time, only requiring you to have an Adobe account to begin with, even without any subscription plans. The tool also works best with a desktop web browser, so you do want to get on at least a Chromebook to get it working. MP3 and WAV file format works best with the tool currently and the upload limit is 1GB.
Once you do that, the tool uses some form of deep learning algorithm to transform your audio from a slightly noisy recording to sounding like its recorded in an isolated professional studio. There have been reports that the tool does not work too well in extremely noisy scenarios though, so you do want to ensure that you are still doing as much as you can to keep your recording environment as quiet as possible. Of course, description only goes so far. You ought to experience the tool yourself, since it is free.
Our sample is a voice recording using the Samsung Galaxy Note9, one recorded with the mic right up near the mouth, and one placed on the table. We did not make too much effort in isolating the recording environment. We have some traffic noise, construction nearby, and even the MRT going about in our recording environment.
You can hear that a lot of the pop peaks have been cancelled out. While there is not much in terms of noise, the resulting audio sounds much cleaner and contains some of those radio like quality in the voice. Wind noise and echo is reduced to the point where you do not hear them too. If you are looking to start a podcast or improve your audio without spending extra money, you might want to give this tool a whirl on their website.
Gaming monitors need to be fast. In the early days of fast gaming monitors, OLED technology is quite unheard of. The reason is because OLED panels can only go so fast in terms of refresh rate. While OLED monitors offer colour accuracy and vibrance like no other, they are rather dimwitted in terms of refresh rate until a few years ago. Now though, OLED panels are some of the most sought after in gaming. Pretty soon you are going to be able to get you hands on one with 240Hz in refresh rate, faster than anything that came before it.
The monitors in question are LG’s latest 27-inch and 45-inch models introduced for CES 2023. You get the new 27GR95QE and 45GR95QE gaming monitors. While both have their similarities, they are built to serve different segments.
Both gaming monitors offer 240Hz in terms of refresh rate. Both monitors also offer 0.3ms in GTG response time, faster than almost anything that you can find in the market currently. Both are also NVIDIA G-Sync and FreeSync Premium compatible, making them rather versatile for whatever GPU you might have in your PC. At the same time, they both offer a DCI-P3 colour gamut coverage of 98.5%, something even content creators can highly appreciate. Both are capable of producing images at HDR10 standards with a contrast ratio of 1,500,000:1 for a higher level of detail than any gaming monitor you can find in their classes. Of course, they both sport the latest HDMI 2.1 standard alongside a DisplayPort 1.4 port.
Source: LG
Their difference lies in the shape and size of the panels. The 27-inch monitor is a flat screened 16:9 monitor that most gamers can appreciate. 27-inch is a rather standard size for gaming monitors and 16:9 is currently the most popular aspect ratio for most gamers. It is also the current standard size and aspect ratio in esports, which also means this would be suitable for most esports titles like Dota 2, or Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). At the same time, its QHD (2,560 x 1,440) resolution is widely accepted as the most optimal resolution for displays at its size and for gaming purposes. Most GPUs today are also optimized for gaming at this resolution which also means that this might be the more popular option for the most serious gamers anyway.
If you want to take things a little further and get even more immersed in your games, you want the 45-inch behemoth that is the 45GR95QE. It is a curved display monitor with an 800R curvature (0.8m radius) That also means that it is more curved than almost anything that you might get in the market. Its shorter optimum distance also means you get to be closer to the action for an even more immersive experience than ever before. It packs WQHD (3,440 x 1440) resolution too to ensure that you still get all the details you need in the ultra-wide monitor.
Source: LG
Source: LG
Source: LG
Source: LG
LG’s UltraGear 27-inch and 45-inch OLED gaming monitors will be showcased in CES 2023 happening on the 5th of January 2023 all the way to the 8th of January 2023. There is no specific information regarding the market availability of the monitors currently. That also means we currently do not have any pricing information too. We are keeping our ears close to the ground for any updates though, so do watch this space. More information on LG’s range of UltraGear gaming monitors can be found on their website.
UPDATE 16th November 2022: Both cards are now available at AMD.com and in retail, with the Radeon RX 7900 XTX priced at USD 999 (approx. RM 4420) and Radeon RX 7900 XT at USD 899 (RM 3980).
AMD has released their first generation of rDNA 3 architecture cards, the RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT to be available from mid-December 2022.
The RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT sports the new rDNA 3 architecture.
Chiplet design in rDNA 3 brings the most efficient performance possible
Announced in November, the RX 7900 series cards are the first chiplet design graphics cards available on the market. The chiplet design uses multiple dies interconnected using similar technology to the Ryzen CPU’s, resulting in improved performance with up to 54% better power efficiency as claimed. The most anticipated feature is of course performance that the rDNA 3 architecture brings. AMD has claimed that it delivers up to 54% more performance per watt than the rDNA 2 cards, a significant improvement.
Enhanced 4K gaming experience with Display Port 2.1
Being top tier graphics cards, they are geared towards 4K gaming and fans can expect significant improvements. For a direct comparison, the RX 7900 XT has up to 1.7X higher 4K performance than the previous generation Radeon RX 6950 XT, highlighting the generational uplift of rDNA 3. Being one of the first cards to support DisplayPort 2.1 with UHBR 13.5, expect high refresh rates on 4K gaming (up to 480Hz) and 8K gaming (up to 165Hz).
Enhancements and availability of RX 7900 series
FSR 3 and AMD Advantage for Desktop promises better gaming performance in 2023
Alongside the new cards, AMD has also announced the latest iteration of temporal upscaling technology, FidelityFX Super Resolution. AMD plans for the new technology to be available in 2023 alongside the new AMD Fluid Motion Frames technology. Collectively, these enhancements are expected to build on the current FSR 2.2, though no exact details on how it works have been revealed just yet. AMD also announced the AMD Advantage for Desktop PCs to the benefit of both gamers and streamers. The feature further enhances gaming and streaming performance by combining the Ryzen 7950x processors and RX 7900 XTX graphics cards.
The Radeon RX 7900 XTX and RX 7900 XT are available now at USD 999 and USD 899 respectively from AMD.com and in retail.
