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Samsung UD970 Series U32D970Q

gthompson20

gthompson20

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 22, 2010
60
44
Indiana, USA
Just wanted to let the nMP owners interested in SST 4k that I received a Samsung U32D970Q today and I have it hooked to my nMP with D700's. It works great! 4k at 60Hz with DisplayPort cable. I am using it in scaled 2560x1440 mode and it looks darn near as good as Macbook 15inch Retina Display.

I am surprised how much bigger it looks and feels than my old 27 Thunderbolt Display.

Also Diablo 3 at native res 4k looks amazing!

If you have questions ask away!
 
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Its, funny because I am thinking about buying a MP with 6 core, 32 Gigs, 512 SSD and Dual D700, and a 4K display from Dell(24 inch, IPS model).

Do you have a Windows Bootcamp partition(for crossfire), and can test at least one game that have a benchmark inside it? Or at least try a FRAPS, and with not recording, just measuring framerate, try any game at 4K, for me, please?

I dont know what you have, apart from Blizzard titles.
 
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koyoot said:
Its, funny because I am thinking about buying a MP with 6 core, 32 Gigs, 512 SSD and Dual D700, and a 4K display from Dell(24 inch, IPS model).

Do you have a Windows Bootcamp partition(for crossfire), and can test at least one game that have a benchmark inside it? Or at least try a FRAPS, and with not recording, just measuring framerate, try any game at 4K, for me, please?

I dont know what you have, apart from Blizzard titles.
Click to expand...

Honestly I have tried Far Cry 3, Call Of Duty Ghost, and some other games in Windows with crossfire. Anything demanding and new will not run very well at native 4k. I could get the games to run ok without Vsync and with scaled down settings. Older Games like Dragon Age Origins, Skyrim and Just Cause 2 worked great at Native. So it really depends on how cutting edge into games you are...
 
We've been playing around a lot with 4K displays in the office. The extra screen real estate really does feel great.
 
Tom-Create-Pro said:
We've been playing around a lot with 4K displays in the office. The extra screen real estate really does feel great.
Click to expand...

When I switch over to a 27inch iMac at work, it looks small now in comparison.

Some Additional Thoughts:
1. I have noticed that when I boot the nMP into OS X or Windows I get no screen until the OS has booted... Not Sure where that leaves me with trying to manually select a boot device etc. Hopefully Apple can fix this with an update.
2. SST is nice! Not having to mess with Eyefinity or anything like that in windows is nice.
3. I can see some motion ghosting on this panel. Mostly when I swipe between desktops.. The Wallpaper itself leaves a motion trail. 99% of the time I don't notice it, even when playing games, but it is there.
4. No image retention so far that I can see...
5. The Matte display is nice for limiting reflections... I am used to the Glossy iMac and Thunderbolt displays so hopefully this grows on me more. It just looks a little grainy compared to the thunderbolt.

I already had the nMP when the 5k iMac was announced... So instead of starting over and getting the 5k, I decided to go with this monitor and 4k. It is a definite improvement over the thunderbolt display, and the added screen size is just mind boggling. While ultimately not as sharp as the 5k iMac, I think its enough for me to last until Gen 2 or 3 of the 5k iMac.
 
gthompson20 said:
When I switch over to a 27inch iMac at work, it looks small now in comparison.

Some Additional Thoughts:
1. I have noticed that when I boot the nMP into OS X or Windows I get no screen until the OS has booted... Not Sure where that leaves me with trying to manually select a boot device etc. Hopefully Apple can fix this with an update.
2. SST is nice! Not having to mess with Eyefinity or anything like that in windows is nice.
3. I can see some motion ghosting on this panel. Mostly when I swipe between desktops.. The Wallpaper itself leaves a motion trail. 99% of the time I don't notice it, even when playing games, but it is there.
4. No image retention so far that I can see...
5. The Matte display is nice for limiting reflections... I am used to the Glossy iMac and Thunderbolt displays so hopefully this grows on me more. It just looks a little grainy compared to the thunderbolt.

I already had the nMP when the 5k iMac was announced... So instead of starting over and getting the 5k, I decided to go with this monitor and 4k. It is a definite improvement over the thunderbolt display, and the added screen size is just mind boggling. While ultimately not as sharp as the 5k iMac, I think its enough for me to last until Gen 2 or 3 of the 5k iMac.
Click to expand...

I think there is probably a decent chance of there being a 5K Apple Display by gen 2 or 3 of the 5K iMac. Our 5K iMac is being delivered today, looking forward to seeing how it handles professional tasks.
 
I'm very close to buying this display. Does it come with the DP cable or did you need to buy a separate one ? Also, did you need to set up the display to work on the Mac or did it fire up right out of the box ?

----------

Edit: I just threw down on Amazon. Getting it Friday. So .... we'll see :)
 
The video review here calls it "the perfect monitor". I'd expect it comes with the right cable since their much cheaper UD590 28" 4K monitor also came with a good cable.
 
edanuff said:
The video review here calls it "the perfect monitor". I'd expect it comes with the right cable since their much cheaper UD590 28" 4K monitor also came with a good cable.
Click to expand...

Thanks. I had seen that review earlier and it helped prompt me to the decision. That little "buy now with one click" button on amazon is so dangerous :)
 
I just hooked up the new monitor and I'm afraid I have a bad one. It looks beautiful except that that there is a one inch vertical section that runs along the right side that is totally messed up. Here is a photo of the right side of screen, I put a text document on since I thought it would show the defect best:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/119363484@N05/15716077407

Please someone tell me that there is a setting I can adjust to fix this :mad:



Edit: I originally said screen shot, but I meant photo
 
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I just tried a different DP cable as well as the other DP on the monitor(there are two) -- still see the same defect
 
Tom-Create-Pro said:
I think there is probably a decent chance of there being a 5K Apple Display by gen 2 or 3 of the 5K iMac. Our 5K iMac is being delivered today, looking forward to seeing how it handles professional tasks.
Click to expand...

Despite having probably received a bad panel, the display was phenomenal. I have looked at 4K (UHD) videos on my wife's new 5K iMac and there is no question that I prefer them on the Samsung. The 5K iMac is great for still photos at native res and is a great display at "best for retina" resolutions , but UHD videos on a 32" UHD display are much more impressive than on the 27" 5K screen.
 
I just picked the U32D970Q on Friday when I saw it for $1,499 at Fry's. I'm using it with my Late 2013 15" rMBP. Impressions so far:

  • Setup: Flawless out of the box. I just plugged it in with the supplied DP cable and DP->MiniDP adapter. After a couple days of use, no tearing or wake issues or anything like that.
  • Screen/color: This monitors main draw is the professional colors, and it does deliver. Colors are accurate and similar to my rMBP screen. Reds and greens really pop out on this monitor. Black levels aren't quite on par with the rMBP screen though, giving this screen a TINY BIT of a washed out look. IMO this is an anti-glare coating thing, and you only see it comparing directly to the rMBP glossy screen. I think the AG was very slightly superior on the LG 4K DCI monitor.
  • Screen/anti-glare: I prefer Apple's glossy displays, but this AG is about as good as they come IMO. Yes, there is some of the grainy "screen door" effect if you look close.
  • Screen/speed: This is the major major major downside of this monitor IMO. The panel lists an 8ms response time, and the menu has responsive settings for "Standard, Fast, Faster" (which don't seem to do anything). I never paid much attention to this spec in displays, but in this case, it's plainly noticeable. Scrolling on a web page, you can clearly see the display ghosting lagging sometimes dozens of pixels behind. It's worst where the screen is transitioning from black to white, making a 1px black line much thicker as you scroll through a page. This is actually quite fine for desktop work. On the other hand, I hooked my PS4 up and fired up some Destiny, and wow, it's bad. If you're a gamer, I don't recommend this monitor. I'll attach a picture. Update: Changing "Response Time" from "Fastest" to "Standard" resolves the ghosting issues I initially experienced with this display. I removed the ghosting photo as it's no longer relevant.
  • 4K UHD/32"/OSX: First off, I want a 4K monitor for quality first and real estate second. By default, OSX runs this display unscaled (3840x2160), which has everything tiny and text doesn't look very smooth. Scaling to "looks like 2560x1440" is the right size to me, but the text just doesn't look that great. Aliasing on the text is pretty evident, and I just find it to look a little blurry. Stepping up to "looks like 1920x1080", text looks PERFECT, but sheesh everything is big. I feel like I'm in the front row of a movie theater. Update: Text rendering appears much nicer in scaled settings as of OS X 10.10.2. I'm now running at "looks like 2560x1440" and am very satisified.

Conclusion: I haven't decided if I'm going to keep this monitor yet. I feel like 4K UHD might not provide enough pixel density on a 32" screen. (Although it's probably the best we're going to have for the next decade). More so though, I'm not sure that I should have to accept a slow/ghosty panel for $1,500. Update: After resolving ghosting issues and text rendering, I'm keeping this monitor.
 
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JDHiro said:
Conclusion: I haven't decided if I'm going to keep this monitor yet. I feel like 4K UHD might not provide enough pixel density on a 32" screen. (Although it's probably the best we're going to have for the next decade). More so though, I'm not sure that I should have to accept a slow/ghosty panel for $1,500.
Click to expand...

That ghosting is a big no no.

Guys, under $2000-3000 all 4K monitors are going to have one or two issues due to cheap components used to bring prices down you gotta wait some time for this new stuff to mature. If I was going to buy one now it would be an Eizo, but frankly I don't even need this resolution for some time,
 
Update:

I updated from 10.10.1 to 10.10.2 (via the Apple Seed beta) to see if that changed anything.

  • After restarting, the monitor is getting a 2560x1440 signal (not scaling, actual signal) from the Mac. To get 4K back, I have to physically unplug and replug the cable, which drops me back to the display default for 4K, and re-pick my preferred scaled resolution. I don't know for a fact that this didn't happen with 10.10.1 also.
  • It looks like they changed the wording from "Best for display" to "Default for display"?
  • It might just be me, or a setting somewhere, but it looks like they changed anti-aliasing on text for "Looks like 2560x1440" for the better. It looks softer (more anti-aliased), but jaggy edges are gone. "Looks like 2560x1440" is perfectly usable for me now.
  • Some of the ghosting on web page scrolling seems to be gone?! Maybe that was a driver thing, not a monitor thing...

Another thought on the ghosting -- despite my complaints, I actually did play Destiny on this monitor for HOURS last night. I don't notice it in gameplay action as much as I do in menus and stuff.

Edit: Another surprising thing I noticed. This monitor doesn't seem to keep settings per input. I was planning to have slightly different display settings for HDMI input, but that doesn't seem possible.
 
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Thanks for sharing.

I'll look at the reviews. I"m also interested in the new Eizo CG318-4K when it comes out.
 
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shaunp said:
at £29,000 it should be great. Even running this through my company it is too expensive for my needs. A good Eizo monitor would cover 99.99999% of what this could do at a fraction of the price.
Click to expand...

It's for on set film work anyway. It does 24p and connects to several cinema cameras and offers 4-way split picture in picture so that a film director can watch up to four cameras filming a scene at the same time.
 
Well this is awkward. Changing the Response Time setting on the monitor from "Fastest" to "Standard" practically eliminated ghosting effects.

Analyzing the differences between "Standard", "Fast", and "Fastest"... I think what's going on is that this monitor can change it's chroma faster than it can change it's color. On Standard it keeps the two of them sync'ed up, so it looks normal. On Fastest, I think it lets the monitor update it's chroma and color as fast as possible individually. The result is a couple of frames of mismatched color/chroma ghosts.

Between the text improvements I'm seeing after 10.10.2 and resolving the major ghosting issues, I'm definitely keeping this monitor and giving it a thumbs up. Losing settings on reboot is a tiny bit annoying, but I don't reboot that often, so meh.
 
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EdDuPlessis said:
It's for on set film work anyway. It does 24p and connects to several cinema cameras and offers 4-way split picture in picture so that a film director can watch up to four cameras filming a scene at the same time.
Click to expand...

It did look very niche. I'm sure if you are in that industry then it would be considered a 'bargain', but for a simple photographer like me it's too much.
 
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