1440p IPS screen with good contrast?

O

Opus131

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jul 29, 2016
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Recently got an LG 27GL850. It's a good screen but the contrast is, well, kinda shit.

Kinda thinking of returning it but i have no idea what to get instead. All other options are more expensive and they appear to be worse in other respects, so that there's a trade off going on here, but not being a competitive gamer i'm thinking i'd rather have better contrast than good response times which is where this screen excels.

Otherwise i guess i'll have to learn to live with this monitor instead, and maybe sell it down the line if something better comes up.
 
Ratings measured 735:1 instead of the usual 1000:1 for an IPS monitor. If that is a sufficient boost most other IPS monitors should be fine.
 
No way to go higher?

Returning the monitor to get a 1000:1, i don't know.

I tried the LG 27GL650F and that was actually acceptable, but i saw in the TFT central review they measured a contrast of 1290:1. If i get one that is 1000:1 i may not see much of a difference with the 27GL850 and i wasted a return for nothing, also because the monitor is quite perfect aside for that and maybe lack of variable overdrive.
 
Yes , I can see that. 1300 is high, 1000 is average, 750 is low for IPS. 1300 is less common. If you want much higher you can look for a VA panel, it will be much higher but has a host of other trade offs.
 
Seems like someone was able to achieve a contrast ration of 992:1 by calibrating gamma 4 rather than the "default" gamma 2 (the one calibrated by LG):


Wish i had a tool to check contrast ratio. If i can bring it to this maybe i can live with it. Accuracy doesn't interest me much anyway, at long as it looks good on the naked eye.
 
That adjustment requires a colorimeter- using someone else’s settings will lead to messed up colors since these panels differ significantly sample to sample. It’s positive that it can be fixed without black crush or bad Delta E on colors.
 
Right. Took some pictures but they are kinda crappy:



The smaller one is another IPS screen i had, which i never liked and always considered to have bad contrast, but apparently i found a review where it was rated at 1160, so i guess this is an issue with IPS glow, not contrast.

Here's a comparison with various brightness settings, 10, 50 and 100% respectively:

 
sethk said:
Yes , I can see that. 1300 is high, 1000 is average, 750 is low for IPS. 1300 is less common. If you want much higher you can look for a VA panel, it will be much higher but has a host of other trade offs.
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Took another picture:



Notice how it's not just the blacks that look washed out, but all other colors as well. Could lower contrast do this? Look at girl's hairs, the face itself, on the LG it looks like everything is bleached out. This is despite the fact the LG is wider gamut so colors should actually look more saturated. And they are, except not when the room is dark. Then this damn fog bleaches out everything.
 
Honestly I'm tempted to ditch 1440p and buy the AOC 24G2U for that 1400-1500:1 contrast.
I'm wondering why these Panda panels haven't been used more in mainstream products, I love the one in my 32" AOC as well
 
Which 32" AOC?

24" Is way too small for me. The AOC 27" by the same name doesn't actually use that high contrast panel (nice, huh?). Didn't realize there was a 32" version as well.
 
Bad picture, but i unhooked the 23" don't feel taking another one, will later on:



Brightness 0%, contrast 100%, black stabilizer 0%, gamma 1.

Sort of looks ok now. Sort of ok.
 
If i set it at 0% the image becomes unnaturally dark for desktop and games. It seems to works on movies though, but i have to shoot contrast up to 100% to see anything.
 
It seems like this monitor is THE thing to currently go for when it comes to 1440p.
I don't understand the complaints about contrast though: don't you always have that and brightness way below max, meaning lower max number is irrelevant?

Also how do you calibrate these monitors when you need to work with photos? I don't understand the colour spaces one bit.
 
Octopuss said:
It seems like this monitor is THE thing to currently go for when it comes to 1440p.
I don't understand the complaints about contrast though: don't you always have that and brightness way below max, meaning lower max number is irrelevant?
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Well, i tried using every setting imaginable, and nothing fixes it or makes it better.

Basically, what they did with this monitor is raise the black level in order to increase the response times. If you don't like your dark scenes in games or movies to be overtly bright and washed out, don't get this monitor. I didn't expect a drop from 1000:1 to 700:1 would jump at me this much, but it did.
 
Opus131 said:
Which 32" AOC?

24" Is way too small for me. The AOC 27" by the same name doesn't actually use that high contrast panel (nice, huh?). Didn't realize there was a 32" version as well.
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It isn't 144hz, sorry. I'm using the Q3279VWF, which is only 75hz. I wish Panda made 144hz VA panels though
 
I stuck with IPS for years, but the contrast always bugged me. I moved to VA recently and it's a different world. I don't play games enough to be bothered by smearing, although I can't say I notice it much anyway, and I don't need super dialed in colour accuracy. Some people do seem to worship IPS for reasons that aren't clear to me, more so in light of the crappy panels being put out these days. Sure, VA has its drawbacks, but IPS sure as hell does too! It really is a case of pick your poison with any monitor... can't win either way.
 
Octopuss said:
It seems like there is currently no useable 27" monitor if you need Freesync. Meh.
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What's wrong with the Innolux panel based models eg Viewsonic VX2758-2KP-MHD and Gigabyte Aorus AD27QD. 1200:1 contrast and respectable response times(~6ms at 144hz, 9-10ms below).

No it's not as good as G-sync, but G-sync monitors are always better than Freesync anyways. It's still pretty good.

The key advantage of the LG 27GL850 is that it has consistently fast response times at all refresh rates without variable overdrive, which makes it an ideal Freesync monitor, and the price is the contrast issues.
 
I’ve had 3 x LG 850 monitors and they’ve all had dead pixels. If you have one with no dead pixels or backlight problems I’d keep it!
 
Sancus said:
What's wrong with the Innolux panel based models eg Viewsonic VX2758-2KP-MHD and Gigabyte Aorus AD27QD. 1200:1 contrast and respectable response times(~6ms at 144hz, 9-10ms below).

No it's not as good as G-sync, but G-sync monitors are always better than Freesync anyways. It's still pretty good.

The key advantage of the LG 27GL850 is that it has consistently fast response times at all refresh rates without variable overdrive, which makes it an ideal Freesync monitor, and the price is the contrast issues.
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The problem is I also work with photos, so I do need perfect colour reproduction. And I also like to play games, and since I always had lousy 60Hz monitors, I don't want to take any compromises with high refresh rate panels now...
 
Octopuss said:
The problem is I also work with photos, so I do need perfect colour reproduction. And I also like to play games, and since I always had lousy 60Hz monitors, I don't want to take any compromises with high refresh rate panels now...
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I don't get it. The Innolux panel calibrates just fine to 1.2 avg/2.6 max ΔE.

If you're complaining about uniformity, I don't get why you're even looking at consumer LCDs. None of them have acceptable uniformity for professional level photo color grading. You need a pro monitor for that, that's why they cost 3-5x as much.
 
I am not a pro and don't need pro monitor. Also no idea what "1.2 avg/2.6 max ΔE" means.
I don't care about uniformity either because none of the IPS monitors I had ever looked weird in certain areas (maybe I'm not sensitive to that but it doesn't really matter).

No idea about the first monitor honestly, TFTCentral hasn't reviewed it yet. It might be good but I need a review from credible source first.
The AD27QD is a no go according to the review (response times, sRGB mode and then some).

I guess I'll wait until next year to see whether Freesync2 monitors will finally start appearing with some better specs than what we currently have.
 
I can't find any reviews of the Viewsonic either but if the colorspace is truly sRGB and the delta E is ~1.2 with an IPS panel that means photo work should be very good. This could be your monitor Octopuss.
 
Octopuss said:
The AD27QD is a no go according to the review (response times, sRGB mode and then some).

I guess I'll wait until next year to see whether Freesync2 monitors will finally start appearing with some better specs than what we currently have.
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If you don't like the response times of the AD27QD, then you're out of luck because the ONLY Freesync 27" 1440p IPS panel that is better is the LG 27GL850. All the others are worse. The only other way to get better response times is to go G-sync.
 
I guess I will wait and see what happens next year.
You're probably right, the Viewsonic looks nice on paper, but after a few years of reading TFTCentral's reviews, I'm afraid to buy somehing they haven't touched :D

Btw how do you calibrate wide gamut monitors? I have Xrite i1Display Pro, but from what I gathered so far, these devices don't work or something...
 
Just wanted to post that I begrudgingly upgraded my trusty Achieva Shimian 27" glossy last weekend with an Gigabyte Aorus FI27-Q, and I could not be happier. I do graphics work and some gaming on the side, and the display is simply wonderful. I briefly tried an Asus Swift PG27Q monitor as well, and was taken back at just how poor the display was. It was literally a gradient of white to yellow from the bottom to top of the display, and in a dark room the monitor had just horrible backlight glow. I could not believe that this was the panel that everyone in the shop had first recommended to me. I was not expecting much when I exchange it for the Aorus display, but was wowed when I first turned it on, and am still just blown away with how great this display is. G-Sync (it's also Freesync 2 compatible) and HDR work without a hitch, there is no backlight glow that I can see, perfect uniformity, and the sRGB mode on the monitor was almost perfect, and after tweaking with my Spyder 4 Pro I have the onscreen colors dialed in perfectly for print. Can't say enough good things about this monitor!
 
Octopuss said:
I guess I will wait and see what happens next year.
You're probably right, the Viewsonic looks nice on paper, but after a few years of reading TFTCentral's reviews, I'm afraid to buy somehing they haven't touched :D

Btw how do you calibrate wide gamut monitors? I have Xrite i1Display Pro, but from what I gathered so far, these devices don't work or something...
Click to expand...
You need adjustment profiles for the monitor backlight type to calibrate wide gamut. A lot of people use displycal with their xrite and find adjustment profiles for the backlight type for displaycal.
 
There's basically 3 27in 1440p 144hz IPS panels - AUO, Innolux, and LG. In terms of panel characteristics the "pluses" for them relative to each other are -

AUO (although AUO has a few variants now) -
Contrast
Response

Innolux (the newer revision of this panel can do 10 bit at 144hz as opposed to only 120hz) -
Color Space (8bit+frc with 10 bit color support)
Contrast

LG (LG has one "variant" in that the backlight doesn't have the Nano IPS coating and is therefore sRGB only)-
Color Space (8bit+frc with 10 bit color support)
Response

This spread sheet has a list with what panels the monitors use -

What's missing on there is the -
LG 27GL83A is the sRGB version of the LG panel
The Gigabyte FI27Qs have 10bit at 144hz support.
The Razer monitor is likely AUO.
The Benq is likely Innolux.

Something to keep in mind with regards to the response times the Innolux is slow compared to the newest LG and AUOs, but those panels aren't average they are "fast" (especially the LG) compared to most other IPS panels. The Innolux is slow relatively but not necessarily against "typical" IPS displays. If you find your current IPS (not sure what you use) is fine in terms of response it isn't likely slower than it.
 
To be honest i'm almost tempted to just get a VA screen as a secondary monitor and call it a day.
 
Excellent spreadsheet! Thx

So my question is, what benefits are there to having an actual Gsync module in the monitor? Other than being 900 series compatible, I have a 2000 series.

can’t decide between the Gigabyte FI27Q-P or the ViewSonic elite XG270QG (which has a module).
 
Opus131 said:
Variable overdrive. Other than that i have no idea.
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Was thinking of upgrading from an Acer XB270HU, which I always set overdrive to “normal”. Most monitors have a preferred overdrive mode.

I don’t want ULMB, so I’m pretty confused on which monitor to go for. Are gsync modules basically obsolete for the current/future generation of Nvidia cards?
 
IDK why you would turn in an XB270HU, none of these monitors will be an upgrade from that. You could get, like, 1ms better response times... at the cost of worse contrast. Or slightly better contrast, at the cost of worse response times... 27" 165hz IPS g-sync is still the gold standard in this size class/price range and that hasn't changed in 4 years.
 
Sancus said:
IDK why you would turn in an XB270HU, none of these monitors will be an upgrade from that. You could get, like, 1ms better response times... at the cost of worse contrast. Or slightly better contrast, at the cost of worse response times... 27" 165hz IPS g-sync is still the gold standard in this size class/price range and that hasn't changed in 4 years.
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Color, basically. The new panels definitely would be an improvement.
 
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MrDeas said:
Color, basically. The new panels definitely would be an improvement.
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I guess? They'll give you oversaturated colors (for most games and content, unless HDR) in their default modes, and the XB270HU already covers sRGB well and accurately. You can use sRGB emulation, but then you haven't improved much of anything. IMO wide gamut monitors with no meaningful HDR features in an environment where we can't really use HDR on the desktop are problematic products, hardly worth paying money to upgrade to.

But hey, it's your money. I have an XB270HU and I'm not planning to swap it out until there's a real solid upgrade available, and that likely means miniLED backlight, or OLED.
 
MrDeas said:
Was thinking of upgrading from an Acer XB270HU, which I always set overdrive to “normal”. Most monitors have a preferred overdrive mode.

I don’t want ULMB, so I’m pretty confused on which monitor to go for. Are gsync modules basically obsolete for the current/future generation of Nvidia cards?
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Basically more aggressive overdrive is typically use to have good enough response times for higher refresh rates but an overdrive level that may not have noticeable overshoot at 144hz (due to the screen refreshing before it can occur) will at lower refresh rates.

Where issue comes in now is with VRR (variable refresh rate) displays as they don't have static refresh rates. An overdrive level that works for 144hz may have very noticeable overshoot as you go below that refresh rate which will happen with VRR enabled. Variable Overdrive in G-Sync addresses this, it applies a differing overdrive level depending on the refresh rate, although I don't know if it's ever been technically reveled how fine grained it actually is.

If you already have a 27in 144hz IPS I wouldn't upgrade now unless it's marginal cost difference due to reselling your current monitor. The segment has really been relatively stale over the last 4 years, it wasn't until earlier this year when we had a second panel (Innolux) and just a few months ago a 3rd with LG.

We're however seeing a lot more pickup for high refresh IPS displays upcoming. I'd wait until at least CES announcements and see what comes during the next year. There's going to be 240hz 1440p IPS options and more 4k 144hz options as well i nterms of panels roadmapped for production in 2020. Not mention TVs with HDMI 2.1 potentially driving down prices due to market pressure. I'd be honestly looking for 144hz 4k, you might say that is hard to drive but we're now seeing much more things in place to address scaling without the need to actually have the raw performance to jump to that resolution.
 
MrDeas said:
Color, basically. The new panels definitely would be an improvement.
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This is pretty confusing- from what I remember the 270hu got very good reviews with regards to color. It can be calibrated to be practically dead on which would almost certainly be better than any new gaming monitor out of the box. Perhaps an investment in calibration is the way to go.
Regarding expanded color spaces - the only place that looks right in windows is in a professional editing app or other color space aware apps. Everywhere else wide gamut monitors mangle colors. What looks best for most is sRGB performance which this monitor does well.
HDR gaming on most current monitors is crap and the software situation is pretty bad too.
 
I’m willing to spend a few hundred bucks for a panel with better color to get me by the next few years or so. The latest nano IPS/quantum dot panels don’t have to be light years ahead to make my setup more enjoyable, and they’re actually cheaper now which is nice.

The gap between my hdr oled tv and the xb270hu is pretty jarring, but I still prefer the higher refresh and low input latency of a monitor. Microled and oled monitors arent coming anytime soon to this market segment.
 
MrDeas said:
but I still prefer the higher refresh and low input latency of a monitor.
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Well LG C9 is at 6ms input lag in 120hz mode, which, while not quite as fast as a g-sync display(2-3ms, mostly pixel response time), is basically identical for 99.99% of normal games. Almost all games(even fast paced ones like Overwatch) add 20-50ms of input lag or more on their own. CSGO is an exception, I wouldn't recommend it for serious CSGO play, but frankly 27" 165hz IPS isn't good enough either -- you really want the absolute fastest 240hz+ TN monitors. Fortunately I don't care about that sort of gaming.

120hz on an OLED(I have a 65" C9) looks better to me than 144hz/165hz on any IPS display because the OLED has so much faster pixel response than any LCD, even TN. So that's why I plan to make an OLED work for my monitor if LG releases their 48" next year. But we might get some smaller OLED panels show up in the market from JOLED or elsewhere, who knows, we should get a pretty good idea of 2020 from CES which is very soon.
 
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