My new monitor is a Samsung G85SB, which I believe supports FreeSync Premium Pro, with a maximum refresh rate of 175 Hz. My graphics card is a Radeon VII. Color Depth is 10 bpc (the Samsung G85SB has a 10 bit panel). Pixel Format is RGB 4:4:4 Pixel Format PC Standard (Full RGB). Adrenalin lists the FreeSync Range as "48 to 120 Hz reported by display", not the expected 175 Hz. For playing WoW 120 FPS is not awful, but I wonder what is limiting my FreeSync range? Could it be the DisplayPort connection? Could it be the Radeon VII? Thanks for help or suggestions.
It's not limited by the GPU or DP connection. It's most likely that you selected 120Hz refresh rate in windows instead of 175Hz or you didn't enable game mode in monitor's settings.
I spoke too soon. With refresh rate set to 175 Hz in Windows display settings, the bit depth is limited to 8-bit. 10-bit is no longer an option. This makes me think there is a bandwidth limitation someplace.
Could be a panel limitation. My 49 inch panel cant go above 120hz @ 5120x1440 if I do 10 bit with HDR but will push 144hz with 8bit HDR. This is using a RX 6800xt with display port 1.4.
I hadn't thought lack of 10-bit at 175 Hz was a panel limitation but I will see what I can find. MSI, Philips, and Alienware have monitors that use the same Samsung panel as the G85SB I have. Do any owners of these OLED's have the same bit depth/frame rate issue that I'm experiencing with the G85SB?
Your monitor should support 10bit at 175Hz with the DP cable...here is some snippet from a review of the samsung g85sb " Unlike the Dell AW3423DW and AW3423DWF, the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 doesn’t have a cooling fan and its DisplayPort has DSC support, allowing for 3440×1440 175Hz with true 10-bit color depth. With 10-bit color depth, the AW3423DW and AW3423DWF models are limited to 120Hz and 144Hz, respectively, but there’s no noticeable difference when using them at their maximum refresh rate with 8-bit color as the GPU adds 2-bit dithering anyway." Full review here https://www.displayninja.com/samsung-odyssey-oled-g8-review/ Anyway idk why it goes to 8bit at 175Hz. Try to update the monitor's firmware to the latest one ?!
I found that when I use chroma subsampling 4:2:2 I can get 10 bits at 175 Hz. Though that is not what I want to use. The video card, monitor, and cable all claim to support DisplayPort 1.4 which should give me 10-bit 175 Hz without chroma subsampling. However something isn't working right. My 1.4 cable is not actually VESA certified.
I think I have my answer. A moderator on the AMD forums confirmed VEGA cards, including the Radeon VII, do not support DisplayPort DSC. https://community.amd.com/t5/graphics/radeon-vii-lg-27gn950b/td-p/460639 Now, the new question is: am I better off running 10-bit at 120 Hz or 8-bit at 175 Hz? With the Radeon VII in WoW I seldom go above 120 FPS anyhow, so I probably will run 10-bit at 120 Hz. Thanks for all the help. More comments welcome.
If WoW supports HDR, and there for 10-bit colour sure. If it doesn't and there for only runs in 8-bit colour, you might as well go 8-bit with the extra Hz headroom.
Look at some gradients like some blue sky in WoW. Does it exhibit more banding with 8 bit (imho it won't)? If not, then this would show that 8 bit are fine and higher bitdepth is overrated, thanks to AMD driver deploying dithering by default.
With my previous two monitors, IPS from Samsung and Asus, I've, been bothered by sky banding in WoW. Recently I've been ill and not doing much besides lying in bed since I got my new 10-bit Samsung. I believe the older monitors were 6-bit with dithering. My new Samsung monitor is native 10-bit color. Whether 10-bit color is an improvement in WoW is yet to be determined. My character has not gone outside an inn.
it's possible that the limitation is due to your DisplayPort connection or your Radeon VII graphics card. Regarding the DisplayPort connection: make sure that you are using a DisplayPort cable that supports the full bandwidth required for the 175 Hz refresh rate. It's also worth checking the specifications of the cable to ensure that it supports FreeSync Premium Pro. As for the Radeon VII graphics card, check if there are any driver updates available for your card. It's possible that updating the drivers might help increase the FreeSync range. Additionally, try changing the refresh rate settings in Adrenalin to see if that helps to increase the FreeSync range. hope that helps
Thanks. The limitation is the Radeon VII. AMD confirmed the Radeon VII does not support Display Stream Compression.
I set the bit depth to 8 and I could not see any sky banding. I could not see any difference from 10-bit. The funny thing is I set the bit depth to 6, and I still could not notice any difference. I think my testing may be flawed. I was eventually able to lock up the graphics driver however.