Tomasz Wadowski
At the NAB 2025 trade 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 developing 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 in 8K at 120 Hz - and this was on a specially beefed-up Samsung Neo QLED 8K television. To achieve such numbers, Display Stream Compression (DSC) on HDMI 2.1b was used, as regular HDMI 2.1 would simply choke at this point.
Powers were provided by 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's AI-based FidelityFX Super Resolution 3 technology, the image was upscaled to full 8K - and it looked phenomenal. A stable 120 frames? Confirmed on Steam's counters, with no stuttering and only one compromise in the form of frame rendering.
Is Samsung the new pioneer of the gaming era?
The showcase was a clear signal: Samsung and company are already really close to bringing to market native 8K above 60Hz — something that no TV officially offers yet. However, a true revolution is expected to come with HDMI 2.2, which is set to double the bandwidth of the current HDMI 2.1 and finally unlock the full potential of 8K at 120 frames. MediaTek promised the Pentonic 2000 chip with such support back in 2021, but… so far, nothing has come of it.
Although the showcase was based on modified hardware, one thing is certain: the display industry is confidently moving toward true 8K at 120Hz. A new level of visual experience is on the horizon for gamers and fans of top-notch image quality.
Want to see what all of this is based on? Check out our review of the Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV!
Looking at the pace set by Samsung, it would not be an exaggeration to say that they could set a new standard for the entire industry. If they keep this course, 8K at 120Hz may soon be more than just a showcase novelty at trade shows — it will become the next stage of the gaming world.
