Summary
The LG 27GN950 offers the customer a very good workmanship and a successful design. The latter is always subjective. LG’s panel is not the fastest on the market, but it is more than sufficient for the 144 Hz. The input lag of only 8.4 ms underlines this. I personally find the orientation of the ports better than the usual orientation from the bottom. But even that can be annoying in individual cases, because if you want to mount the monitor on the wall, it gets weasel-hairy.
I consider the connectivity to be sufficient and basically meets the requirements for PC gamers. Console gamers would have to look around for other alternatives here (e.g. the LG 27GP950). Unfortunately, the 27GN950 does not offer HDMI 2.1. But I can still forgive the monitor. Because at the time it was planned and implemented, HDMI 2.1 hadn’t really arrived on the PC market yet. What LG has implemented surprisingly well with the 27GN950 is the Variable Overdrive. A basically constant response time of 4 ms over the entire refresh rate of 60 to 144 Hz, without seeing overshoot even close to 10% on average. Chapeau!
The color performance is rather mixed. The D65 was clearly missed in the factory settings. But can be easily corrected. The Gray Scale performance fits after the D65 correction, but the ColorChecker is a bit out of the norm with a delta E 2000 of 2.82. But it is still enough for gaming. Many want it anyway more gaudy and more saturated than the norm dictates. LG probably did not even bother with the sRGB mode. On the one hand, it is locked (no white point control, etc.) and on the other hand, it is basically unusable without an additional ICC profile. A great pity.
The good thing is that you can calibrate the LG both hardware- and software-wise. In the P3 color space, the result is then very good and you can also work with it. In terms of panel uniformity, the LG 27GN950 is the best panel I have here right now. Hardly any IPS glowing and a uniformity that is really impressive. The contrast of 1000:1 is IPS standard. However, this does not help the panel to become an HDR monitor in any way. The 8-zone edge-lit dimming also contributes to the problem. The monitor is not capable of true HDR, but it can get nice and bright with up to 750 nits. After all.
Conclusion
And I have to postpone that for a reason already mentioned at the beginning. Because in the course of the article, when of course all measurements were completed and already more than 2/3 of the article were written, it came – as it had to come. I suddenly remembered that LG has an OSD software, so I don’t want to keep it from you. USB cable to the monitor, software installed and what do I see after the firmware update? That’s right, LG has given the monitor an overclock. Now you can also use 160 Hz. Great cinema…
Now, hand on heart, who of you regularly checks the monitor for firmware updates? The PG279QM is constantly up to date because my mouse runs over the monitor (NVIDIA Reflex Analyzer). Thus, it is also connected to the computer via USB. Unfortunately, the LG 27GN950 does not. You can probably imagine how I felt the moment I read Overclock. I’d rather not say the words that went through my head here.
Well, again what learnd, but nothing for ungood. From now on, every monitor will be checked for updates. The fact that LG has made the monitor overclockable to 160 Hz completely passed me by. I am just a human being… In other words, there will be a retest. However, this will refer purely to the response times, variable overdrive and color performance. Maybe LG has improved one or the other. Let’s be surprised. However, it looks like you can’t use Adaptive Sync with 160 Hz. I’ll take a look at everything for you.
Do you want to know what my conclusion would have been without the firmware update? Judging by the current street price of under 600 Euros and the demonstrated gaming performance at 144 Hz (good response times, very good Variable Overdrive and acceptable P3 Color performance), the LG 27GN950 is a clear buy recommendation for PC owners. The LG 27GN950 is still one of the best UHD (PC) gaming monitors on the market. You can’t do anything wrong with the monitor, and the retest will almost certainly not change that. I still have to retest – not as a punishment, just for practice. Please be merciful to me, I vow to do better.
To LG directly: Yes, a wide gamut panel is nice, but an sRGB mode with white point control – out of the box – is mandatory and not freestyle. I see a little need for improvement there. The paternalism of the customer regarding the non-existent white point control in sRGB and HDR mode – must also come to an end.
The monitor was provided to me by LG without obligation – for testing purposes. There was no influence on the tests and results. There was also no compensation for expenses and no obligation to publish.
44 Antworten
Kommentar
Lade neue Kommentare
Mitglied
Mitglied
Urgestein
Urgestein
Moderator
Moderator
Mitglied
Mitglied
Urgestein
Urgestein
Moderator
Urgestein
Moderator
Urgestein
Urgestein
Mitglied
Neuling
Veteran
Urgestein
Alle Kommentare lesen unter igor´sLAB Community →