While most people agree that Samsung Electronics makes some of the best televisions that money can buy, the company has been accused of falling short of rivals brands like LG Electronics and Sony in terms of gaming.
However, that could be about to change, because Samsung says that its 2025 OLED televisions will be its first to offer "official" support for Nvidia G-Sync.
The official stamp is important because Samsung’s TVs have long had the ability to enable G-Sync. What’s different is that its new 2025 OLED models have now been tested and certified by Nvidia, bringing its most advanced TVs into line with LG’s alternative models in terms of gaming support.
Nvidia G-Sync is similar to HDMI 2.1 Variable Refresh Rates and AMD’s FreeSync Premium Pro technology, which Samsung’s older TVs have already achieved certification for. The technology enables televisions to match their refresh rate to the frame rate of the underlying GPU in a connected console or PC, ensuring smoother gameplay with no screen tearing, judder or lag. These are all considered vital capabilities for many dedicated gamers.
The certification means that Samsung’s 2025 OLED TVs now have officially supported HDMI 2.1, VRR, AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync, essentially the full gamut of smooth gameplay functionality. The TVs will support G-Sync at up to 165Hz on PCs, but this only extends to 120Hz on consoles, as they lack the hardware to run any faster.
The new capability joins Samsung’s comprehensive range of cloud gaming apps, but it must be pointed out that those streaming services don’t currently support variable refresh rates, for now at least.
Samsung’s 2025 OLED TVs have therefore almost reached parity with LG’s best OLED models, but there is still one fatal flaw that may hold back some gamers. The continued lack of support for Dolby Vision gaming, which is due to Samsung’s ongoing reluctance to support Dolby’s HDR formats. Instead, it prefers HDR10+, but there is no HDR10+ gaming equivalent yet.
LG’s latest OLED TVs support Dolby Vision gaming at up to 4K 120Hz, as do Sony's, and if that’s important to you, it means Samsung’s televisions are still a no-go, at least where those gaming sessions are concerned.
Of course, the lack of Dolby Vision gaming won’t matter so much for anyone with a PlayStation 5, as that console still does not support it. Most Dolby Vision gaming is done on the Xbox.
Samsung said the official certification from Nvidia only applies to its 2025 OLED models, including the S95F, S90F and S85F. It will not be coming to its latest Neo QLED Mini-LED TVs, which do work with G-Sync. The issue is that Nvidia has taken the decision to snub all LCD TVs due to their slower response times, and refuses to even test them.
According to Samsung, the TVs will get full G-Sync support via an upcoming firmware update, with the flagship S95F model the first in line. You can watch this review to learn more about what makes the S95F OLED a very special TV indeed:
