Oled, mini LED or IPS with high refresh rate for gaming and design

I need advice from those who have tried various monitors. I'm looking to upgrade from a 2K 165Hz monitor to something sharper and smoother. I can't decide which is more important for smoother gaming: a refresh rate or an OLED panel. My options include these monitor models:
1. Samsung Odyssey G5 G50SF OLED 180Hz
2. Koorui S2721PM miniLED 200Hz
3. Samsung Odyssey G6 G60F IPS 350Hz
A few caveats: I can't consider an OLED option with a higher refresh rate at the moment. Currently, almost all competitive games can't reach 350 fps, but many can reach 180-250 fps, and I'm also considering an upgrade for the future. Also, I'm a designer by trade and use this monitor for graphics programs.

I mean, higher refresh is nice but it is diminishing returns. I have a 240Hz OLED that can do dual mode 480Hz. Don't get me wrong, you CAN see the difference in higher refresh rates... but it is minor and a lot of games are just not going to be able to hit it. I find that the difference going from 60 to 90-120 is much bigger than going from 120 to 240.

If you want to do HDR at all, which I highly recommend, then you need to get either a MiniLED or OLED. Do note the quality of HDR on a MiniLED is highly variable based on the design and I'd be wary of that Koorui given the unknown company, uncertain specs (I see different numbers on different sits and light details. It may not actually be capable of HDR to any meaningful degree. I would look at a different MiniLED display, if you want to go that way.

The big thing I'd be concerned about with OLED, as always, is burn-in potential. I don't know how you like to use your monitor, and we aren't really certain how bad burn-in is over the long run, but it is a concern if you are in the situation where you can't just afford to buy a new monitor every couple of years for fun.

I'm on Team MiniLED. Ruined an OLED with severe burn-in several years ago -- my fault entirely. I use my monitor 10-12 hours/day for work/games/videos so brightness, sharp text, excellent colors and ZERO burn-in risk are paramount factors. Been rocking a 43" Samsung QN90B at 144Hz for a few years. Outstanding 4K TV for computer use.

Sycraft said:

I mean, higher refresh is nice but it is diminishing returns. I have a 240Hz OLED that can do dual mode 480Hz. Don't get me wrong, you CAN see the difference in higher refresh rates... but it is minor and a lot of games are just not going to be able to hit it. I find that the difference going from 60 to 90-120 is much bigger than going from 120 to 240.

If you want to do HDR at all, which I highly recommend, then you need to get either a MiniLED or OLED. Do note the quality of HDR on a MiniLED is highly variable based on the design and I'd be wary of that Koorui given the unknown company, uncertain specs (I see different numbers on different sits and light details. It may not actually be capable of HDR to any meaningful degree. I would look at a different MiniLED display, if you want to go that way.

The big thing I'd be concerned about with OLED, as always, is burn-in potential. I don't know how you like to use your monitor, and we aren't really certain how bad burn-in is over the long run, but it is a concern if you are in the situation where you can't just afford to buy a new monitor every couple of years for fun.

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I completely agree that the transition to higher and higher refresh rates feels less impressive. It's more a question of what will give me a greater advantage in fast-paced competitive shooters: a low-response OLED panel or a higher refresh rate IPS. Of course, considering I already have a 165Hz IPS monitor. Pixel burn-in doesn't bother me.
Or is miniLED a compromise solution? The only thing that's concerning is the backlighting issues. I saw, for example, if you put a small white dot on a black background, it will appear gray, or a halo on the background of the cursor.,etc. Because of this, I doubt it's suitable for design work...

EvRey said:

I completely agree that the transition to higher and higher refresh rates feels less impressive. It's more a question of what will give me a greater advantage in fast-paced competitive shooters: a low-response OLED panel or a higher refresh rate IPS. Of course, considering I already have a 165Hz IPS monitor. Pixel burn-in doesn't bother me.
Or is miniLED a compromise solution? The only thing that's concerning is the backlighting issues. I saw, for example, if you put a small white dot on a black background, it will appear gray, or a halo on the background of the cursor.,etc. Because of this, I doubt it's suitable for design work...

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I mean... unless you are pretty good it probably doesn't matter. If you are hard stuck Silver 2 or something then worrying about your hardware is a little silly. Particularly when you are looking at the refresh rates you are talking about. 180Hz is 5.6ms frame-to-frame latency, 350Hz is 2.8ms. So you are talking, at best, a little less than 3ms reduction in latency. That's just not very much and unlikely to make much difference again unless you are an extremely high end player. As for it vs the OLED I dunno which would actually be faster. Reason is that the OLED has nearly instant element response, and the IPS doesn't. I can't find numbers on either of them but it is possible the actual visual lag would be similar, or it is possible the IPS would be fast enough to have (very slightly) less lag.

I missed the designer part. None of these are particularly good for graphic design, as none of them have hardware calibration or any sort of info on their display curves. However in that case I would for sure not get the Koorui as the "China random" brands tend to be real shit with their calibration. Samsung at least tries to calibrate their monitors. Burn in is another consideration as a designer, if the monitor has subtle burn in, will you know it is burn-in, or will it be something you assume is part of the image and thus design around? Also if it gets bad, can you afford to replace the monitor? I'm guessing you don't have a lot of money to spend on computers since you are looking at some pretty budget products, which to me would say you want this thing to last.

Personally, I'd say if your existing 165Hz is working fine, keep it. Unless you have a good reason to want a new monitor OR you have enough money to just get a new toy pretty often just because then stick with what works and save money for something better. If you are determined to spend the money then I guess I'd recommend the OLED because that is what will get you the biggest visual difference, and it will allow you to do HDR if you want to.

If your current monitor has an antiglare coating a gloss one will appear sharper by a bit otherwise moving from one 1440p monitor to another isn't really going to give you a lot there especially considering OLED's weird pixel layouts and 1440p 27" isn't really high PPI.

If you're happy with 1440p gaming wise you may want to look at one of the new 5k/1440p 27" dual mode displays coming out in the near future. It would give you a higher PPI picture for design work at 5k and you could swap to 1440p to get your high FPS / refresh gaming in as well.

Asus has one available now but I think some other brands were going to be releasing models too: https://rog.asus.com/us/monitors/27-to-31-5-inches/rog-strix-5k-xg27jcg/

EvRey said:

Of course, considering I already have a 165Hz IPS monitor. Pixel burn-in doesn't bother me.

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If you have the space and budget for multiple screens for different purposes I'd highly recommend that. I write code for a living and use 3x 60Hz IPS monitors for work. Then I have a 4k OLED for gaming. Maybe you need something better than my 60Hz text-focused IPS screens for your design work, but really the point is that there's no one best type of monitor and if you can manage the cost and have the space using separate ones for work and play often gets you the best results.