Samsung today announced the new CRG5 gaming monitor. The company will share more information about the product at the PC Gaming Show at E3 2019 today--who said console gamers should have all the fun?--but it decided to pull back the curtain a bit early, perhaps in hopes of avoid sharing the spotlight for too long.
The CRG5 boasts a 27-inch display with a 240 Hz refresh rate and 1500R curvature. That combination of size and speed is supposed to offer "a powerful combination of unparalleled picture quality and speed for intense gameplay." The CRG5 is limited to 1080p resolution--which isn't uncommon for monitors with refresh rates this high. Many systems would probably have to run games at that resolution to push 240 frames per second anyway.
Samsung apparently had the same thought because it equipped with the CRG5 with Nvidia G-Sync support as well, which should allow people with good-but-not-great systems to enjoy the high refresh rate without having to worry about any graphical issues. Just remember that G-Sync requires an Nvidia graphics card, so if you're only repping the red team you'll have to look for a similar monitor that supports AMD FreeSync instead.
The rest of the CRG5's specs include a 3,000:1 contrast ratio, 4ms response time and up to 300 nits brightness. Samsung included all of its digital mainstays, too, from on-screen presets for various game genres to Eye Saver Mode. Connectivity is provided by one DisplayPort 1.2 and two HDMI 2.0 ports, as well as a headphone jack. The company didn't mention any USB connectivity for easier peripheral swapping.
This is Samsung's first 240 Hz monitor, but it probably won't be the last. Further, we expect other manufacturers to follow with their own 240 Hz gaming monitor announcements in the coming months. As 144 Hz monitors become more common--and thus more affordable--in time vendors will likely make 240 Hz monitors a bit more common as well. One day we'll all be gaming on monitors that make us forget we ever had to worry about frame rates at all.
The CRG5 will debut sometime in July via Samsung.com and "select retailers nationwide" for $399. Global availability wasn't announced.
