Tomasz Wadowski
At the NAB 2025 show in Las Vegas, the first public demonstration of playing in 8K at 120 frames per second on a television took place. The 8K Association, supported by AMD, Maingear, and Samsung, proved that despite a difficult start, 8K technology is still evolving and moving 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 in 8K at 120 Hz - and on a specially enhanced Samsung Neo QLED 8K television. To achieve such numbers, it was necessary to use Display Stream Compression (DSC) on HDMI 2.1b, 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 at "only" 5K, but thanks to AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 technology, based on AI, the image was scaled to full 8K - and it looked phenomenal. Stable 120 frames? Confirmed on Steam's counters, with no stuttering and only the compromise of rendering frames.
Is Samsung the new pioneer of the gaming era?
The showcase was a clear signal: Samsung and its company are already really close to bringing native 8K above 60Hz to the market — something that no television officially offers yet. However, a real 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 per second. MediaTek, indeed, promised the Pentonic 2000 chip with such support as early as 2021, but… so far, nothing has come of it.
Although the presentation 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-quality images, a new level of visual experiences is approaching.
Want to see what it was all based on? Check out our review of the Samsung Neo QLED 8K television!
Looking at the pace set by Samsung, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they could indeed set a new standard for the entire industry. If they maintain their course, 8K at 120Hz may soon be more than just a showcase novelty at trade fairs — it will become the next stage in the world of gaming.
