Samsung's New Gaming Monitors Hit Absurdly High Speeds — Here's What That Actually Means

Samsung has announced a new gaming monitor that refreshes its image 1,100 times per second, surpassing the 1,040Hz figure the company showed at CES 2026 earlier this year. The monitor is called the Odyssey G6 G60H, and it uses an LCD panel with a 1-millisecond response time — meaning the pixels change color almost instantly. At its standard resolution of 1440p, the refresh rate is 600Hz. Samsung has not said how much it will cost or when exactly it will go on sale, but says the G6 will be globally available by the end of 2026. (The Verge)

To put that in perspective, most computer monitors today refresh 60 to 144 times per second. A refresh rate is simply how many times per second the screen draws a new image. More refreshes per second means smoother motion and less blur.

The G6 was announced as part of a broader Odyssey lineup refresh that includes three new OLED models: the OLED G9, OLED G8, and OLED G7. OLED is a display technology where each pixel produces its own light, allowing for deeper blacks and better contrast than traditional LCD screens.

The new Odyssey OLED G9 is a 49-inch ultra-wide display that Samsung calls the "world's first 49-inch DQHD gaming monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate." The previous OLED G9 topped out at 240Hz. The new model runs at 360Hz in its standard resolution and can switch to a 720Hz mode at a lower resolution. It has a 0.03ms response time and peak brightness of up to 1,300 nits — a measure of how bright the screen can get. For comparison, a typical good TV might peak around 700 to 1,000 nits.

The 32-inch Odyssey OLED G8 offers a range of tradeoffs: 4K resolution at 360Hz, a mid-tier resolution at 520Hz, and a lower resolution at 680Hz. Samsung positions the Odyssey OLED G7 as the "world's first 42-inch 16:9 curved OLED gaming monitor," with a 4K panel, 165Hz refresh rate, and a curved screen. The G7 replaces a 32-inch predecessor, moving up in size while keeping the curved design.

Samsung has not announced prices or specific launch dates for any model in the 2027 Odyssey lineup, stating only that availability will vary by market.

The pattern across the lineup is consistent: each monitor pairs a high resolution with a more modest refresh rate, then offers a lower-resolution mode that unlocks substantially higher frame rates. The G6's jump from 600Hz at 1440p to 1,100Hz at 1080p is the most aggressive example. The OLED G9 moves from 360Hz to 720Hz when you lower the resolution. The OLED G8 spans 360Hz at 4K up to 680Hz at the lowest resolution.

This idea of switching between resolution and refresh rate is not new — Samsung and other manufacturers have offered it for several generations. What is new is how high these numbers have gotten. A 1,100Hz refresh rate is beyond what current graphics cards and display cables can actually keep up with in real-world gaming. The more practical use is competitive esports, where players routinely lower resolution and visual settings to get the highest possible frame rates and the lowest possible delay between clicking and seeing the result on screen. Whether refresh rates above 360Hz actually give players a meaningful edge is debated, but high refresh is part of the competitive toolkit.

The OLED panels' brightness and response-time numbers, by contrast, translate more directly into improvements you can actually see. A 0.03ms response time on the OLED G9 is fast enough that pixels change color within the time a single frame is on screen. And 1,300 nits of peak brightness means the display can produce bright glints and reflections that make HDR scenes feel more lifelike, particularly on a screen that large.

The omission of pricing is notable but not unusual for an initial product announcement. Samsung's Odyssey monitors have historically been expensive, and the feature sets here — particularly the OLED G9's combination of size, brightness, and refresh rate — are consistent with that premium positioning.

The broader context here is that Samsung seems to be pursuing two different goals at once. On the LCD side, it is pushing refresh rates to levels that test the limits of what the rest of the computer can keep up with. On the OLED side, the improvements are more balanced across the things that affect image quality: brightness, response time, and resolution, with refresh rate gains that are solid but not extreme. The OLED G7's 165Hz at 4K on a 42-inch curved panel is aimed at a very different buyer than the G6's 1,100Hz at 1080p, and the lineup seems designed to cover both ends of that spectrum.

How much of this translates into shipping product at the announced specifications, and at what price points, will determine whether these are genuine advances in the gaming monitor market or headline numbers meant to grab attention during announcement season. The end-of-2026 availability window for the G6 gives Samsung roughly four months to deliver.