Gaming monitors vs TVs, is the gap reducing? Let's talk about it

[thyrel]

Should my next gaming monitor be a newer 4K HDR TV? Recently, I had to move back to my parents house for a while due to this whole covid-19 situation and I got the chance to hook up my gaming rig to their new LG C9 OLED TV and boy... so far SO good. At first I was concern about input lag, but in gaming mode it is pretty good and I didn't notice any latency issue whatsoever. It also supports 120Hz refresh rate (at up to 1440p until a DP 1.4 to HDMI 2.1 adapter comes out) and again, I couldn't really tell the difference with respect to my 144Hz monitor in this regard, everything feels super smooth. Moreover, it is an OLED panel so you get those perfect blacks, top notch color accuracy and an outstanding HDR experience, a far cry from what you can get on any gaming monitor right now. The C9 in particular is a pretty expensive option but I know that there are also cheaper models with most of these features that an equally priced monitor just doesn't have, especially when it comes to picture quality. So my question is: does it make sense to buy one of these TVs instead of a gaming monitor? I know that hardcore competitive gamers will always go for the almost non existing input lag and extreme refresh rate of some monitors but what about all the others? What do you think?

 

 

Of course, one really big problem with OLED TVs could be the burn in... that's what is really keeping me from buy one.

[jj9987]

The C9 still has higher latency compared to actual gaming monitors. I'd say the main difference between a gaming monitor and a TV is really the size - the larger the diagonal, the further away you should be looking at it (assuming same resolution across different sizes). Monitors are more designed to be used on a desk, looking at it from a short distance.

[MadPistol]

If you're not a super-hardcore FPS player, OLED is (almost) the perfect tech. I recently moved from a Dell 27" 1440p 144hz monitor to an LG CX 55", and I echo what you said about responsiveness; the fact that the pixels refresh instantly makes it feel as fast as the 144hz monitor, even if it's only refreshing at 120hz.

 

Color and picture clarity is also miles ahead of any monitor I've seen thus far.

As for the potential for burn-in, I bought a 2 years extended warranty from Best Buy. I know for a fact that my CX will be used as a computer monitor with static images on it for long periods of time. I'm hoping that burn-in doesn't happen, but if it does, I know that I can get the TV fixed. That's what pushed me into "buy it"  territory.

[circeseye]

a lot of 4k tvs in game mode or computer mode have pretty damn good ms....lowest ive seen is 8ms, average in the low teens...samsung, lg, certain hisence, tcl and vizio..go to rtings.com. that site does the best detailed reviews

[TacticlTwinkie]

I think for non-competative gaming, these newer TV's make a lot of sense. I bet Red Dead Redemption 2 would look absolutely gorgeous on a high end pc and a good oled hdr tv. Lots of games i feel are better experienced on the big screen and these newer tv's are finally giving the no compromises big screen gaming experience. Exciting times.

[thyrel]

5 hours ago, TacticlTwinkie said:

I think for non-competative gaming, these newer TV's make a lot of sense. I bet Red Dead Redemption 2 would look absolutely gorgeous on a high end pc and a good oled hdr tv. Lots of games i feel are better experienced on the big screen and these newer tv's are finally giving the no compromises big screen gaming experience. Exciting times.

Yeah, I can confirm that RDR2 looks absolutely stunning on the C9, even at 1440p ( I have a 2080 Ti but 4K ultra is just way too heavy even for this GPU). I am really considering selling my beloved Samsung CHG70 ang get one of these newer TVs.

[Doobeedoo]

Well yeah 4K OLED 120Hz HDR TV is very nice, definitely expensive, but also are higher quality HDR monitors. Now they're definitely quite fast and not 240Hz true. Though it's still a TV aside from specs, it's freaking huge to have it as a monitor. Personally I'd never.