Witha freshnewcropofhigh-quality27in, IPS gaming monitors
nowonthemarket,EdwardChesterputs five of them to the test
Panel show
LABS TEST
Howwe test
W
e’ve long considered 27in IPS 144Hz+ monitors to be the ideal
all-round spec for gaming, thanks to their balance of size,
resolution, image quality and gaming performance, and some
of these latest models have another ace up their sleeve.
Previous 144Hz+ IPS screens have been limited to a response time of
around 4ms, whereas these new panels can all achieve a 1ms response
time, putting them in line with TN LCDs for responsiveness. At least in
theory. They all also include G-Sync-compatible adaptive sync, so they
can provide tear and stutter-free gaming on both AMD and Nvidia cards.
Less welcome is the fact that all these displays also include extended
colour gamuts in a nod towards HDR. However, none of them really
produces proper HDR, so the extended range – which makes colours
look oversaturated and unnatural in non-HDR content – is a hindrance.
As such, we’re changing our testing slightly. Instead of reporting
image quality before and after calibration, we’ve recorded image quality
in the default extended gamut mode and in the sRGB mode. Opting for
the latter mode (which is how we’d run these displays) generally locks
out the ability to adjust any other image quality settings, so there’s no
point in us trying to calibrate them further.
We test image quality with an X1 I1 Display pro colorimeter and
DisplayCal software, with the brightness set to a sensible 150 nits
(generally around 25/100 on a display’s brightness scale). We also test
the maximum brightness, and then turn on the sRGB mode to test how
this crucial setting performs.
The colorimeter is also used to check uniformity, to see if the whole
panel produces consistent image quality across its full area. We also
check for any backlight bleed, viewing angles, excessive IPS glow and
any image quality factors that can’t be gauged by a colorimeter.
Next up, we turn to gaming. Here, we mainly concentrate on FPS
games, where a fast response time, high refresh rate and adaptive
sync are hugely important. We test subjectively and then also use
BlurBuster’s excellent ghosting UFO test to check for the sharpness
of the display in high-speed motion. Finally, we also assess the
connections, features, design and build quality of each display.Contents
AOC 27G2U / p53
Asus TUF Gaming VG27AQ / p54
Gigabyte Aorus FI27Q / p55
LG UltraGear 27GL850 / p56
ViewSonic Elite XG270 / p58
Results graphs / p59LABS TEST / 27 IN GAMING MONITORS