Tomasz Wadowski
At the NAB 2025 exhibition in Las Vegas, the first public demonstration of 8K gaming at 120 frames per second on a television took place. The 8K Association, supported by AMD, Maingear, and Samsung, proved that despite a rocky start, 8K technology is still evolving and heading towards a more accessible future.
Horizon Forbidden West opens the era of gaming in 8K - a revolution on Samsung's television!
During the demonstration, it was shown how Horizon Forbidden West runs in full glory at 8K at 120 Hz – and this on a specially enhanced Samsung Neo QLED 8K television. To achieve such numbers, Display Stream Compression (DSC) on HDMI 2.1b had to be used, as standard HDMI 2.1 would simply choke at this point.
Pushing this powerful machine was a custom desktop computer from Maingear with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D processor and a Radeon RX 9070 XT graphics card. The game itself was rendered “only” in 5K, but thanks to AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 technology, based on AI, the image was scaled up to full 8K — and it looked phenomenal. A stable 120 frames? Confirmed on Steam counters, with no stutters and the only compromise being frame rendering.
Is Samsung the new pioneer of the gaming era?
The showcase was a clear signal: Samsung and its company are really close to bringing native 8K above 60Hz to market — something no television has officially offered yet. However, a true revolution is expected to come only with HDMI 2.2, which is set to double the bandwidth of the current HDMI 2.1 and finally unleash the full potential of 8K at 120 frames. MediaTek did promise the Pentonic 2000 chip with that support back in 2021, but… so far nothing has come of it.
Although the display was based on modified hardware, one thing is certain: the display industry is confidently moving towards true 8K at 120Hz. For gamers and fans of top-notch image quality, a new level of visual experience is on the horizon.
Want to see what all this is based on? Check out our review of the Samsung Neo QLED 8K television!
Looking at the pace that Samsung is setting, it wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that they could set a new standard for the entire industry. If they maintain this course, 8K at 120Hz could soon be more than just a showcase curiosity at trade shows — it will become the next stage in the world of gaming.
