8K Gaming Monitors Are Coming, But Are Our Computers Ready For Them?

2025’s SID Display Week brought with it a ton of demonstrations of in-development visual technologies, including BOE of China’s new 8K LCD monitor. Per the 8K Association, the panel is set to enter mass production later this year and supports up to a 120 Hertz (Hz) refresh rate while running at 8k. The monitor also offers dual-mode 4k, with a refresh rate of 240Hz. As it’s 8K, it has a resolution of 7680p by 4320p.

With an 8K monitor due to hit the market — one that offers a high refresh rate ideal for immersive gaming, at that — one has to wonder if our gaming setups are ready to handle them yet. There wouldn’t be any point in investing in something that you wouldn’t reap the benefits of in your setup. Particularly not when these new monitors are such a large financial investment.

Although they’re not mainstream right now, 8K monitors aren’t entirely new. They just aren’t widely available, face technical limitations, and cost a lot of money to buy. Dell’s Ultrasharp 8K monitor launched back in 2017, with a steep price tag of almost $5,000 attached to it. 8K TVs are also on the market and are quite expensive, albeit generally costing less than their monitor counterparts. However, despite the technology’s availability, there isn’t necessarily much reason to rush out and pick up an upgrade just yet, as our computers just aren’t ready to keep up with them.

Computers aren’t yet ready to deliver 8K visuals, even though the panel technology is set to become available soon. Some NVIDIA components, like the GeForce RTX 4090 and 5090, strive to offer 8K visuals but only manage to come close with the use of upscaling technology. NVIDIA’s Deep Learning Super Sampling (DLSS) helps to push graphics to their maximum resolution using AI upscaling and variable refresh rates. The technology is enabled on select games and apps, like Cyberpunk 2077 and Star Wars Outlaws.

Since these Graphic Processing Units (GPUs) rely on upscaling to achieve 8K resolutions, these kinds of specs can’t usually be hit by other computer components without DLSS. Upscaling to anything close to 8K requires very high-specification setups that most won’t have access to. Achieving such resolutions also takes a massive amount of processing power, particularly if it renders at true 8K instead of hitting those resolutions via upscaling. This type of power could be used to boost performance in other ways, while still achieving other high-resolution graphics, including 4K.

It isn’t just computers that are lagging behind monitors when it comes to 8K gaming, either. There’s also a significant gap when it comes to 8K-enabled content. Games aren’t regularly rendered to be 8K compatible at the moment, presumably in part because it’s still a fairly niche technology, meaning that you wouldn’t gain a lot from an 8K gaming monitor just yet, even if your PC could handle it.