Here at PC Gamer, we feel strongly about 1440p. (opens in new tab) That’s where PC gaming belongs, and 4K gaming propaganda won’t change that. So imagine my curiosity when I first heard LG’s claim that they were making not only the “world’s first” his 240Hz OLED gaming monitor, but also his first 1440p 240Hz OLED gaming monitor please give me.
LG invited me to their US headquarters in New Jersey to get hands-on with their new UltraGear 27-inch OLED gaming monitor and massive UltraGear 45-inch curved OLED. Despite some brightness concerns, I’m itching to embrace this high refresh rate 1440p world after seeing it in action.
The first thing I noticed is that these panels are fast. Both OLEDs boast 240Hz refresh rates and ridiculously low 0.03ms response times.The best gaming monitors for context (opens in new tab) All responses are 1 ms, which is already pretty fast. To be fair, you’ll probably see a difference going from 3ms to 1ms, but going from 1ms to 0.03ms is overkill.
At LG, the members of Evil Geniuses were playing several live Valorant matches on each monitor, so I could feel the speed of the UltraGear. Undoubtedly, looking at some pro-level competitive games really showed the smoothness of the display, and let’s be honest, it defined exactly who would drop $1000 or more on one of these.
I think what a lot of people are really interested in is the 45-inch UltraGear curved OLED monitor. It has exactly the same specs as the smaller (and flatter) 27-inch OLED, but the larger screen makes it a more versatile display for work and play. And personally, I’ve always loved the 21:9 aspect ratio. When The Witcher 3’s next-gen update rolls out, I’m already imagining myself sitting in a chair and immersed in a monster-filled countryside.
Our gaming PC, hooked up to a large curved OLED, had an RTX 3060 inside and was able to hit 240Hz at 1440p without issue (Valorant automatically switched from an ultrawide aspect ratio). , the argument goes that a 1440p game at 240Hz isn’t as GPU intensive as, say, trying to play Valorant at 4K at 144Hz.
When I put them side by side, I noticed that the colors looked better on the larger monitor. Don’t get me wrong, the colors look great on the 27″, just less vibrant and washed out.
This brings me to my biggest concern: overall brightness. When he first heard about the monitors, he noticed that each product page listed a brightness of 200 nits. (opens in new tab), which is tragically low by OLED standards. LG says the specs on the page don’t paint the full picture, so they’re still working to get the monitor’s peak brightness. Either way, we’ll know more when review samples are published.
LG’s first OLED gaming PC display is blazingly fast, which shows the appeal of having a 240Hz refresh rate on a 1440p panel. That’s the future of PC gaming I want.But as our own Jeremy Laird wrote today, these first-generation OLED gaming monitors, while gorgeous and fast, aren’t at least not “truly PC-optimized” yet.Asus It would be interesting to see what other monitor makers like raise their sleeves.
pre-order for 27GR95QE (opens in new tab) When 45GR95QE (opens in new tab) are live and are expected to ship in early January for retail prices of $999 and $1,699 respectively. LG is also throwing in its fantasies ultra gear gaming mouse pad (opens in new tab) Free with every pre-order. Hey, I never said this high refresh rate 1440p future would be cheap, right?
