Samsung UN40KU6300 40-Inch 4K

the GTX 970 was seriously struggling, Like 15FPS is Crysis 3 performance. Not great. So I ordered a Titan X. Should be enough.

If you want 4K while gaming, yeah, you need a new Titan that's for sure. I would only need 4K on the desktop, when gaming 1080p is plenty enough definition for me as things are in movement and as long as I don't see a pixelated image I'm happy. I've actually started to do a custom res at 1920x810 to force a 21:9 aspect ratio which gives me a) ultrawide FOV just like a 21:9 monitor would, b) a bigger image since the 40" TV has a diagonal a few inches bigger than 34" ultrawides and c) excellent performance always cos 1920x810 isn't really hard to push. You may want to try something like that too, but after you get the Titan X you won't care much about performance issues anyway :)
 
magnified?

I'm playing everything at 4k .... things are .... 4x smaller ..........


To me it's like 4 displays without bezels. To each their own I suppose.
If you want 4K while gaming, yeah, you need a new Titan that's for sure. I would only need 4K on the desktop, when gaming 1080p is plenty enough definition for me as things are in movement and as long as I don't see a pixelated image I'm happy. I've actually started to do a custom res at 1920x810 to force a 21:9 aspect ratio which gives me a) ultrawide FOV just like a 21:9 monitor would, b) a bigger image since the 40" TV has a diagonal a few inches bigger than 34" ultrawides and c) excellent performance always cos 1920x810 isn't really hard to push. You may want to try something like that too, but after you get the Titan X you won't care much about performance issues anyway :)



Man, you couldn't be further from the truth. I'm a die hard 1080p guy. I shared your logic, until recently.

A lot of guys are giving up their 980 ti's for CHEAP after moving to the 1070 ( very stupid side-upgrade ) to a 1080. I've picked up 3 now from $250 to $300 used. I literally got a new 980 ti for $209 dollars. We agreed on $250 but I miscounted my cash on hand and he let it go for what I had on me. Talk about a steal!

Anyways, 4k with a 980 ti does pretty damn good. I know. I game a lot. Now, with 2 x 980 ti's in SLI ... 4k high settings, I'm seeing a very steady 60 to 90fps on average. Sometimes I'm seeing 120fps at 4k with 980 ti's in SLI.

People can get into 4k gaming and large displays for not a lot of money. You have to live in a larger city to see a nice stream of used 980 ti's on craigslist and hit up craigslist every single day and or use a craigslist service to catch new postings.

But, no, you do not need a Titan to game in 4k.

For $600 to $700 you can get a pair of good used 980 ti's and be 15 to 20+ fps faster than a heavily overclocked 1080. In fact, at 4k, SLI 980 ti's really shine and you are pretty close to a Titan X performance. Just do the research, it's out there and I've found it and or experienced it.
 
But, no, you do not need a Titan to game in 4k.

OK, let me rephrase that: no, you do not need a Titan to game in 4K.... RIGHT NOW. What do you think is going to happen next year? Once Scorpio and PS4 Neo are out? Once the console bar has been raised and the new common denominator is twice what it is right now? Then a 980Ti will certainly not be enough for 4K60 on High or Very High, let alone Ultra. We're not talking horrible 20fps either, but I assure you you'll find yourself in 30-50fps territory. This may be personal preference, but I'd never buy hardware that's 1+ year old because it runs games well now. I buy hardware that runs well now and I know has certain longevity. If we're talking 1080p, that 980Ti will last you 3 more years. At 4K though? Not even close. You'll be struggling in 2017.
 
magnified?
I'm playing everything at 4k .... things are .... 4x smaller ..........
To me it's like 4 displays without bezels. To each their own I suppose.

If you're referring to my post, a racing game would illustrate my point. Sitting in front of 1 (large) screen means looking at a large cockpit, even if it's at 4K resolution, whereas with eyefinity or surround, the FOV is enhanced with added peripheral vision. FOV can only be maxed out to a certain point before distortion sets in. The solution then becomes to sit farther away (not always possible because of space constraints, but still doesn't address the issue), use a different aspect ratio (i.e. surround/eyefinity), or... VR!
 
If you're referring to my post, a racing game would illustrate my point. Sitting in front of 1 (large) screen means looking at a large cockpit, even if it's at 4K resolution, whereas with eyefinity or surround, the FOV is enhanced with added peripheral vision. FOV can only be maxed out to a certain point before distortion sets in. The solution then becomes to sit farther away (not always possible because of space constraints, but still doesn't address the issue), use a different aspect ratio (i.e. surround/eyefinity), or... VR!

I went from 4K to Surround and back to 4K. Both are nice and I really wanted to love Surround, but until SMP (simultaneous multi-projection) is mainstream, then the stretched/skewed side monitors kills the experience.
 
I went from 4K to Surround and back to 4K. Both are nice and I really wanted to love Surround, but until SMP (simultaneous multi-projection) is mainstream, then the stretched/skewed side monitors kills the experience.

That is the exact same reason why I bought 3 27" monitors and sold them 2 months later. I could never get used to that much distortion. Really destroyed the experience for me.
 
That is the exact same reason why I bought 3 27" monitors and sold them 2 months later. I could never get used to that much distortion. Really destroyed the experience for me.

Yeah. It seems like most people focus on the bezels when it comes to surround/eyefinity, but these days that's not really the issue (especially with Dell's infinity edge displays), it's the distorted field of view. Nvidia's SMP looks like an awesome solution, but what they failed to mention is that it has to be supported in games. While I can see many games supporting it, there are plenty that don't support surround/eyefinity at all right now, so I doub't they'll be getting SMP support (i.e. Bethesda games).
 
So, my main rig is still Surround 27" displays. This is a better setup for development work, and for general web browsing, etc. But Surround can be a head-ache. When it's working fully, it's glorious, but there are many times games aren't supported or there are random glitches, etc. For example, when I Alt-Tab windows, the popup shows up on the left monitor instead of the center. I have DisplayFusion, I've looked at all the options, and I can't find a way to fix it. When I click the Start menu, it briefly shows up on the wrong monitor, then 2 - 3 seconds later appears where I clicked. Not the end of the world, but it's little annoying things like that that make me wonder why I should bother. The stretching FOV on the outer monitors was jarring at first, but I kind of got used to it. When I game, I'm mostly looking at the center monitor anyhow, and I can barely see most of the side monitors with my glasses frames somewhat blocking the periphery. But it still adds to the immersion I'd say.

And I know the Titan X isn't strictly needed. I managed to play a few games on the 970 at 4K and it was OK. Right now I'm on DMC (Devil May Cry) and it looks great on High setting, smooth 75FPS. But I would like to play some newer games, and not on all low settings.
 
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My plan now is to move to 2 1080 ti's next year. I am hoping to get at least $500 for my used 980 ti's for the pair and then drop another $800 to $900 + the $500 for a total of $1,400 on a pair of 1080 ti's ( guessing $700 each )

I am pretty sure those will rock my KS8000 for a while.
 
Hey, i've been eyeing the curved 43"ku6500 and im guessing its a similar model (can't quite look through samsungs weird naming convention). Would it be possible to get a better description of the motion handling differences between the ku series and the ks?

Also how bad is the input lag when out of gaming mode? I do mostly productivity stuff, which is game dev and animation. Since text would be messy in game mode, as game mode isn't 4:4:4 chroma, i wouldn't be able to use game mode while working. Would i have to wait for my mouse to catch up or is it barely noticeable? I'm coming from a yamakasi sparta 30" ips (main), some lg ultrawide panel(side) and some ancient tn panel(side). I don't do competitive gaming, but having a noticeable delay when working and playtesting would probably be annoying. Could this work, or am i better off giving up on the curve and bigger size of a tv, and get some 40" 4k actual monitor instead?
 
I'm not sure about the KU6500. I have the KU6300, which sounds like it may be similar based on the model number.

As far as I can tell, I'm running at 4:4:4 in Game Mode, 4K@60Hz. Text looks great on the web, and in coding apps (just tried Programmer's Notepad, and it looks good after disabling scaling). Game Mode is really responsive, and I don't notice any lag that I can tell. That being said, my other computer uses a 144Hz 1ms response time panel, so it's not as smooth as that when doing some actions. But it's not like there is a noticeable delay either, and it's more than acceptable for a 60Hz panel.

Motion in games is good, and is better than I was expecting coming from high refresh TN panels. In the games that I've tried, the motion is fluid, and I don't notice any blur or choppiness. This was one thing I was worried about, but it's really fine. However, I should note that the screen does have these ghosting trails that are sometimes noticeable on high contrast colors. Mainly this can be seen when there is black text on a white background, and then an area of blank white space. As your scroll or move the window, the blank space will show this trail that fades away of the black text. You can see it on some web pages, for example, on YouTube where you have a dark block for the video and if you scroll down to the comments there will be a brief ghost in the white area under the video. To be honest, it sounds worse than it is, and most of the time I can't notice it at all. I still think this TV is great, and really that is the only flaw I could find (and not a complete deal breaker for me). But I should mention it, as potential buyers should be aware.
 
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Hey, i've been eyeing the curved 43"ku6500 and im guessing its a similar model (can't quite look through samsungs weird naming convention). Would it be possible to get a better description of the motion handling differences between the ku series and the ks?

Also how bad is the input lag when out of gaming mode? I do mostly productivity stuff, which is game dev and animation. Since text would be messy in game mode, as game mode isn't 4:4:4 chroma, i wouldn't be able to use game mode while working. Would i have to wait for my mouse to catch up or is it barely noticeable? I'm coming from a yamakasi sparta 30" ips (main), some lg ultrawide panel(side) and some ancient tn panel(side). I don't do competitive gaming, but having a noticeable delay when working and playtesting would probably be annoying. Could this work, or am i better off giving up on the curve and bigger size of a tv, and get some 40" 4k actual monitor instead?

I'm in the same boat. Used to own a 40" KU6300, but sent it back due to bad motion blur/ghosting. Thinking of picking up the 43" KS7500 (KS8500 in the US) for the prospect of better motion handling. Could anyone who has owned both the KU and KS series elaborate further?
 
Motion in games is good, and is better than I was expecting coming from high refresh TN panels. In the games that I've tried, the motion is fluid, and I don't notice any blur or choppiness. This was one thing I was worried about, but it's really fine. However, I should note that the screen does have these ghosting trails that are sometimes noticeable on high contrast colors. Mainly this can be seen when there is black text on a white background, and then an area of blank white space. As your scroll or move the window, the blank space will show this trail that fades away of the black text. You can see it on some web pages, for example, on YouTube where you have a dark block for the video and if you scroll down to the comments there will be a brief ghost in the white area under the video. To be honest, it sounds worse than it is, and most of the time I can't notice it at all. I still think this TV is great, and really that is the only flaw I could find (and not a complete deal breaker for me). But I should mention it, as potential buyers should be aware.

I'm trying to picture how bad this is and I'm having a hard time. I say so because I currently use an LN40A550, a Samsung with a 60hz VA panel from 2009, so I can only imagine my TV has to be worse than the KU6300 which uses a much newer/better VA panel. I mention this because I notice absolutely no ghosting of any kind on my TV. Would it be possible to post a video showing (even if exaggerated) what this looks like? I keep thinking if I'm happy with my 2009 VA panel, a 2016 will certainly suffice - unless somehow ghosting has gotten worse in the past few years... which doesn't make sense to me but I may be missing something.
 
Thanks a lot for the responses, cyberreality, bigboss496 and AngryLobster!
I'm actually somewhat annoyed by the ghosting of my current main screen (yamakasi sparta ips), but at the very least it would still be a massive upgrade in terms of resolution, size and colors(for gaming at least). Not sure i'm ready to pay 50% more for the KS model just to fix the ghosting though... Still interesting in hearing more details about the differences.
There were rumors about some curved 40" 4k panel from Phillips being announced(released?) within the next 1-2 weeks, so I think I'll first wait and see some opinions on that - and hope it wont have the burn in problems of their 43" screen.
 
Is this ghosting you guys are talking about kind of like this?



Because that's terribly awful and I could never put up with it. My 7 year old VA panel doesn't do that, at ALL.
 
Is this ghosting you guys are talking about kind of like this?



Because that's terribly awful and I could never put up with it. My 7 year old VA panel doesn't do that, at ALL.


Not QUITE as bad as that, from what I remember. I'd say around ~60% of that on my old KU6300. Dark transitions were hot garbage.
 
euskalzabe No, that video looks really bad and the Samsung is not nearly on that level. I know what bad ghosting looks like, I had a first-gen cheapo LCD monitor back in the day.

It's actually a really subtle effect, and I've been playing some different games and I'm not really noticing it much while playing. It's most obvious on high contrasting colors, like black text on a white background.

This is the best video I could take of the effect. It's faint, and hard to make out in the video, but you can see it more in real life.



You can also look at this picture I tried to take.

KU6300_Trails.jpg


Don't worry too much about the top 2 lines of text, as I was scrolling while taking the picture (so some of that is normal motion blur). But look at the white space under the text.

I don't want to talk you guys out of buying this TV, as it's simply awesome otherwise. Even with these trails, it's not the end of the world and most cases I don't even see them.

Overall, I still like a KU6300 as the gaming performance is great and the price was great too. But just be aware it's not completely perfect.
 
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Here is a video I took to show that the ghosting is not really seen while gaming.

 
I've been looking for a 40" 4k display that i could make my monitor until we got some OLEDs @ 40" and i think this will just about do it for me. I'm also glad its VA for better blacks. My 144hz TN looks like garbage and IPS looks better but the glow ruins blacks. For $450 its not a terrible deal at all, and i'd be able to get a cool $300 for my 144hz gsync so it'd be a $150 upgrade. I dont do much competitive gaming anymore and would appreciate a better picture and more immersion.
 
You can see the detailed KU6300 panel response times on rtings:
http://i.rtings.com/images/reviews/ku6300/ku6300-response-time-large.jpg

The reason you see the black text ghost on white background is because the 0%-100% transition takes a whopping 31.7ms. This translates into ghosting on highest contrast edges. (separation of the trails is then caused by PWM)
It does not look like the KS models tested on rtings fared any better.

Last years JU7500 for example has much better response times (except for the 0%-20%), with only 6.6ms for the 0%-100% black to white rise time. (fall times are rarely a problem on VA panels)
http://i.rtings.com/images/reviews/ju7500/ju7500-response-time-large.jpg

The darkening effect of dark black/grey sharp surfaces is another expression of slow response and it is caused by the 0%-20% transition which is slower on the majority on VA panels (but not on all)

In the end though can never be 100% sure, because response times can vary on different size panels and also Samsung could theoretically modify the Overdrive via firmware updates.

Some of the old SPVA Televisions had very little ghosting because they pre-tilted the liquid crystals which in turn caused a few frames of additional input lag.
 
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euskalzabe No, that video looks really bad and the Samsung is not nearly on that level... But just be aware it's not completely perfect.

Gotcha. I can only see the ghosting in your picture, I can see a hint of what I'd call "something weird" in the video but I don't see obvious ghosting like the video I posted. In fact it looks pretty much like my A550, so maybe I'm just not sensitive to this at all (this is why I take some users extreme complaints with a grain of salt, as they seem to exacerbate an issue that is not noticeable to many and make a product sound much worse than it actually is).

Here is a video I took to show that the ghosting is not really seen while gaming.

I see zero problems with that video, so that's good news for me :)

Some of the old SPVA Televisions had very little ghosting because they pre-tilted the liquid crystals which in turn caused a few frames of additional input lag.

Interesting. I also don't feel any strong input lag in this A550, but then again it seems like I'm not terribly sensitive to these issues.

I was curios to see where my A550 falls and I did some testing. When taking video, I saw not much difference from cybereality's KU6300:



When taking pictures though, well. Get ready to laugh. My good results:

DSC04772_zpsjckmz9hi.jpg


And my worse results:

DSC04771_zpsovaco9fn.jpg


Ha :D. Look at those fantastic trails. Clearly my 2009 TV isn't up to the task, but I have to say it seems much worse in these pics - in real life I have never, ever noticed this. I actually can't see it in the video I shot, I'm not sure if you guys can see it. If it's just an "I can't see it" type of situation then that's great news for me as it's one less thing to worry. But seriously, I use this A550 every day for 6-8 hours when I work at home and I've never noticed anything weird.
 
You will get best results if you put the text in notepad, move the window around and follow it with camera.

Like this video:
Youtube

If the response is fast enough like on this TN, then only the eye-tracking motion blur should remain at 60hz.
 
I see. This is what I was able to record - certainly not my best but it was hard to do bot things at the same time.



Youtube compression has kind of wrecked havoc on the video, but you can still see how blurry the text gets. Non-strobed 60hz panel for sure.
 
Thanks, looks normal to me.
At least on the video I can't make out any ghosting or motion artifacts on top of the 60hz sample&hold blur.
 
Thanks a lot for all the info and the videos(again^^), this was extremely helpful! I'll still wait and see how the new phillips monitor compares when it comes out(next week maybe?), but i think the ku is definitely an option for me!
 
Thanks a lot for all the info and the videos(again^^), this was extremely helpful! I'll still wait and see how the new phillips monitor compares when it comes out(next week maybe?), but i think the ku is definitely an option for me!

Are you referring to the Philips BDM4037UW ? Looks like a nice display, any word on freesync being supported? If it has freesync and comes in at a good price it will be an instant buy.
 
No mention of FreeSync on the Philips I'm afraid.
Too bad, because it seems Philips are starting to support it with the 279X62JSW and 328C7
 
That new Philips panel has aroused my interest. Hopefully it doesn't have any of the nonsense that the flat 40" 4k has (non square pixels, colour bleed).
 
Are you referring to the Philips BDM4037UW ? Looks like a nice display, any word on freesync being supported? If it has freesync and comes in at a good price it will be an instant buy.
That seems to be the one. Hoping it doesn't have the burn-in issues of some of their other big models! 4K Ultra HD LCD display with MultiView BDM4037UW/93 | Philips they have some infos up now, but it doesnt seem to have freesync.
Can't wait to see how this compares to the ku, and especially can't wait to get whichever is the winner :)
 
That seems to be the one. Hoping it doesn't have the burn-in issues of some of their other big models! 4K Ultra HD LCD display with MultiView BDM4037UW/93 | Philips they have some infos up now, but it doesnt seem to have freesync.
Can't wait to see how this compares to the ku, and especially can't wait to get whichever is the winner :)

Considering the KU6300 can be had right now for $418 new w/shipping on ebay, and this philips will not be any less than $600, i'm just not quite sure the philips will be that much better to justify the price, especially if its lacking freesync.
 
Does anyone know the trick to enable Game Mode with 4:4:4 on 4K@60Hz?

Seems the Game Mode option is disabled and I can't figure out why.

I have HDMI 2.0 GPU (Titan XP) with HDMI 2.0 cable on input 1 (which is detected as "PC").
 
I think PC Mode is the only way to get 4:4:4 aka the UHD Color option to turn on, but i seem to recall reading somewhere that by some fluke they got 4:4:4 and game mode working together.
 
Yes, the Input is on PC (though I don't see a way to select it, it just automatically seems to detect it). I messed with it a bunch, and I can't seem to get 4:4:4 and Game Mode to enable at the same time.

As I got the TV mostly for gaming anyhow (as I have another computer for working), I can live without the 4:4:4. Would have been nice but I can barely tell the difference in any case.
 
So I tried euskalzabe 's 21:9 trick on the Samsung KU6300. It actually works quite well. I hadn't considered this as an option, but it's finally allowed me to get good frame-rates in Deus Ex MD.

It took me nearly an hour of testing and searching before I could enable a custom 4K resolution on the Samsung. Finally I was able to get it working with 3840 x 1640 @ 50Hz. I could not seem to get 60Hz to give me anything but a black screen, though I think 50Hz looks fine to me.

Sadly, the videos I was trying to record kept coming out looking like VHS tapes, so I'm not sure that reflects the quality well. I did take some high res photos that should give an idea of the quality.

KU6300_DXMD1.jpg


KU6300_DXMD2.jpg
 
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