31.5" 2560x1440 165 Hz VA G-Sync - LG 32GK850G

I just bought this monitor to "replace" my 38" Acer XR ( 75Hz ).

It's an amazing monitor. The 144-165Hz is great on 32".

I came from an Omen 32 that I gave to my son, to an Acer XR 38" 75Hz that is a huge an amazing monitor, but now that I'm returning to gaming I felt I needed something smaller and fast so please enter the LG.

For now the 38" will be "stored".


Any pieces of advice for best settings? When gaming I don't see any problem with colors, but when browsing, yes, colors could have more "pop"
 
I recently picked up the 32GK650F version, which is the freesync equivalent without HDR. I have to say I'm really impressed with the performance, my panel is pixel perfect and I can't detect any backlight bleed or uniformity issues. The only thing that's noticeable is the waterfall effect at the edges if you get too close to the monitor.

With nvidia's recent support for freesync I believe this version is worthwhile grabbing over the gsync version, it's significantly cheaper and you get the potential to use AMD cards and xbox one X with freesync.

I have a xb271hu that will be sold, this monitor for me ticks all the boxes, the old acer is a great monitor but I always felt it was just a bit small and I spend lots of time on console now so I needed a large monitor that could do high refresh rate PC gaming and console gaming the smoothest way possible.
 
I recently picked up the 32GK650F version, which is the freesync equivalent without HDR. I have to say I'm really impressed with the performance, my panel is pixel perfect and I can't detect any backlight bleed or uniformity issues. The only thing that's noticeable is the waterfall effect at the edges if you get too close to the monitor.

With nvidia's recent support for freesync I believe this version is worthwhile grabbing over the gsync version, it's significantly cheaper and you get the potential to use AMD cards and xbox one X with freesync.

I have a xb271hu that will be sold, this monitor for me ticks all the boxes, the old acer is a great monitor but I always felt it was just a bit small and I spend lots of time on console now so I needed a large monitor that could do high refresh rate PC gaming and console gaming the smoothest way possible.


I feel like a 32GK650F would be a downgrade from a xb271hu (gsync, ips, 165hz, ULMB)
 
I feel like a 32GK650F would be a downgrade from a xb271hu (gsync, ips, 165hz, ULMB)
I much prefer the better blacks and larger size. Also on the xb271hu I regularly could see pixel inversion artefacts, I'm glad to say I haven't witnessed that issue on this display, picture looks solid. The only downside I can see is weaker black transitions, but here they are probably the best I've seen on a VA panel and not distracting at all. Freesync for me has worked excellent on my 1080Ti, I not longer have to deal with the dreaded vertical line bug the old display had.

So to my eyes it's an upgrade. :)
 
I much prefer the better blacks and larger size. Also on the xb271hu I regularly could see pixel inversion artefacts, I'm glad to say I haven't witnessed that issue on this display, picture looks solid. The only downside I can see is weaker black transitions, but here they are probably the best I've seen on a VA panel and not distracting at all. Freesync for me has worked excellent on my 1080Ti, I not longer have to deal with the dreaded vertical line bug the old display had.

So to my eyes it's an upgrade. :)
It's pretty much impossible to get a 32GKxxx monitor without vertical lines, so you either haven't seen them yet (it took 2 weeks before I started seeing the subtle lines in my 32GK850G) or got incredibly lucky.
 
I don't see any veritcal lines. The only real issue I see is discoloration thinly at the edges and the corners when viewing a bright solid field of color (white for example) due to it being VA, and the fact that I found it very difficult to get whites looking white instead of creamy or off colored without increasing the brightness a lot and editing the RGB values. That and the fact that the colors aren't very vibrant out of the box so require a slight bump in vibrance at the cost of a small amount of color details in a field of that color (a high detail photo of a bright red apple for example). This is pretty negligible in gaming so is worth a slight bump to the color vibrancy.

I'm at up to 2' 5" from the monitor surface's center to my eyeballs typing, a little more if I angle my chair's back a bit when using a controller. I use the monitor primarily for games where it looks very good , especially in moderate to dim lighting conditions. I do use nvidia freestyle to bump up the digital color vibrance slightly and also to adjust the sharpness , contrast/brightness etc on a per game basis. Then it really shines. It's still useful as some extra desktop space in my monitor array though too and it reverts back to my desktop tweaked settings from the freestyle per game ones when I drop out of a game.
 
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I just saw some pictures of the asus FALD monitor with the brightness cranked up on a blank (no signal?) screen with the FALD turned off and they looked terrible. Your photo reminds me of that. It's definitely a problem with LCD tech, some worse than others. It's also mitigated by FALD backlight arrays rather than cheaper displays with edge lit "flashlights" from the sides which can exacerbate clouding, and can even cause edge "flaring" at higher brighnesses.

When it's there but mild, and at ordinary brightness when displaying actual fields of color, then it's generally not noticeable in everyday usage.

Edge-lit will always have uniformity issues though it's the nature of the tech flashlighting from the sides and the brighter it's displaying the more it's flaring and contrasting outside of the flare.
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I'd be more interested in seeing a display showing whole native rez backgrounds of black, white, red, blue, green with the uniformity shown and even better if measured and graphed (like a topographical map) with a tool - rather than a zero signal display with the brightness at an unknown value and with the contrast bias of a camera.

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I've read that the cheap plastic housings, frames, and sandwiched layers can have ununiform pressure and tension across the screen and some frames are even a bit warped and/or "flexible". Some people have had luck in the past using a soft cloth on their tv or monitor or laptop screen - pressing front panel gently and sometimes gently bend-warping the corners in the case of larger framed tvs or overly flexible laptop screens.. It's really a shame that it could come down to a cheap frame, bezel, and overall housing of plastic making pressure gaps and tension differences which exacerbate the edge lit limitations. I still have my 2011 1440p apple cinema display and it is in a bulletproof metal housing with a heavy bezel and gorilla glass front but I'm about to retire it finally and even those had a little off uniformity at the bottom of the screen, not noticeable in everyday use.

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Direct picture ling from that pg27uq reddit thread: https://external-preview.redd.it/WS...bp&s=85bf2fa4788662aa6802ecdc02c4f3e512dbbe4e

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Here is a current post about a Nixeus Edg27 V2

direct picture link of the thread's monitor: https://i.redd.it/p8ymm6ktnpk21.jpg
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I'm not sure if I should go for another or not :/
This is by far the worst one I've seen so far, but I don't have any dead pixels so I don't know.

I've had six, has no one here seen clouding in the top left and bottom right of the center? These exact spots are consistently cloudy on all 6. These have all been manufactured in September or July though, so maybe the issue was fixed recently?
 
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I'm not sure if I should go for another or not :/
This is by far the worst one I've seen so far, but I don't have any dead pixels so I don't know.

I've had six, has no one here seen clouding in the top left and bottom right of the center? These exact spots are consistently cloudy on all 6. These have all been manufactured in September or July though, so maybe the issue was fixed recently?
More likely they have loosened up the standards now later on, since the first ones had literally no reports at all of clouding or BLB.
 
More likely they have loosened up the standards now later on, since the first ones had literally no reports at all of clouding or BLB.

There are still not many reports. I feel like people are looking at it before the monitor has warmed up for like 30+ minutes, or the angle/shift is covering the clouding, or they haven't actually looked at it on a true black background in the dark. Also after the 27 inch IPS BLB issues, people will see this monitor's blacks and see it, truly, as a huge improvement and kind of not look into the flaws as much. Because there is absolutely no way this issue is on 6 monitors in a row but no one else has it.

With all this clouding, blacks look significantly less deep than previous ones I had and overall dark scenes look much more glowing.
 
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It's really hard to tell what is muted reflection of me and things at my desk and what is the edge lit flashlight effect in very dim lighting viewing a pure black image 1440p full screen.. I have a couple of soft blue desk lamps which I kept on and then turned off, and a monitor on either side of the LG. I put true black 1440p image on all three monitors at once.

For the record , all three of my monitors had at least some mild warm edge or uneven corner or bottom, "glow" etc, depending on my viewing angle. Two VA and one IPS. Fairly subtle at my brightness levels.


If I rove my head around in circles forcing it, there is some shifting of the mild hot and cold areas. Perhaps if I turned the lights off completely and then utilized the contrast bias of a camera in the dark it would show more contrasted clouding in the camera image but why would I bother?

With even subtle lighting behind my monitors, I can see brighter areas on the black screen where my head and hands are and when I move around, so there is that too :b


Honestly it seems more like edge lit lack of uniformity and shift and it's relatively mild even at 100 brightness , 75 contrast setting since this monitor doesn't have a high peak brightness anyway.
The only way you are going to avoid warm and cold areas on a black or no signal screen entirely is with a high density FALD display(which still has some small dim/bloom offsets areasbetween the direct backlights when areas are contrasted) or an OLED but that is going to cost a lot more money for a 120hz off of displayport + VRR one.. You can optimize your viewing angle, use subtle bias lighting, and keep the brightness reasonable on most monitors though which will prevent the worst flaring out from the edges and the highest contrast clouding. Of course some can be much worse than others or have manufacturing defect but in general it's a limitation of edge lighting.

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Take a look at a bunch of monitors on TFTCentral reviews and skim to the Uniformity sections. They show it as a map of circles something like a topographical map.
There are a lot of monitor reviews on their site and a lot of uniformity maps which might be eye opening to look at. Here are the links to this LG.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/lg_32gk850g.htm#uniformity

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/images/lg_32gk850g/uniformity.jpg
Uniformity of the screen was moderate on this sample. The upper corners showed a drop in luminance by 20% in the most extreme measurements, down to 100 cd/m2 and the upper edge was a little darker than the lower and middle regions of the panel. Around 60% of the screen was within a 10% deviance of the centrally calibrated point. It's not a screen designed for any colour critical work so these variations are not likely to cause any problems. You shouldn't notice anything for the intended uses of gaming for instance.

You need to take the photo from about 1.5 - 2m back to avoid capturing viewing angle characteristics, especially on IPS-type panels where off-angle glow can come in to play easily. Photos should be taken in a darkened room at a shutter speed which captures what you see reliably and doesn't over-expose the image. A shutter speed of 1/8 second will probably be suitable for this.
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I play a lot of dark souls 3 which has a lot of dark areas and used to play vermintide2 (which has an in the dark underground railcar track level which is barely lit), and grim dawn which has some dark dungeon areas and I've never seen any obnoxious flashlighting and clouding in games in regular usage. I've owned VA tvs that had badly contrasted clouding and flashlighting and my 32GK850G is nothing like that and nothing as contrasted bright like pictures you posted to human eyes.
 
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Honestly of all the ones I owned, this one has by far the worst backlight. It's noticeably glowy in dark games and blacks don't look black as they did on previous monitors which sadly had dead pixels. There are only two small locations (less than 4 square inches) I can see with my own eyes that aren't washed out by the backlight.
 
Sorry to hear you are having so much trouble. I was hoping you were just looking too hard at something (with a camera's contrast bias in the dark) which is more or less intrinsic to edge lighting and as evidenced by the uniformity part of the tftcentral review.

I'd really prefer a ~ 32" - 43" (or larger if I have to) 120hz 4k VRR fald or oled next time around but while I'm willing to pay considerably high prices I'm not going to get soaked for what I consider extreme pricing. There's also the fact that once hdmi 2.1 (capable of 120hz, VRR, QFT) is available in more tvs and monitors across the board in 2019 - 2020, and hdmi 2.1 output gpus show up someyear (2020?), there will less ability to overcharge for the monitors coming out this year that for now will be the only available that are capable of being fed with displayport 1.4 for 120hz 4k and VRR (since no hdmi 2.1 and even then no hdmi 2.1 gpus for awhile yet).
 
No problem with backlight here.
Just don't play pool/snooker games. The red balls on green table really showcase the ghosting effect. Although i do not mind them now.
In all other games I don't see it (I do not look for it either). I also know nothing about any vertical lines and hope to stay oblivious. Please do not show them too.
 
Also when I lifted the styrofoam backing in the package, the monitor was stuck to it and fell out and onto the front styrofoam and I am worried it caused some of this on the right side :C
 
It's pretty much impossible to get a 32GKxxx monitor without vertical lines, so you either haven't seen them yet (it took 2 weeks before I started seeing the subtle lines in my 32GK850G) or got incredibly lucky.
I have the freesync version, the vertical lines/interlacing I believe is a gsync module artifact. I used to see these interlacing issues on my XB271hu too, it would come and go and usually be visible at lower framerates, I believe it's got something to do with their variable overdrive and pixel inversion.

I've owned lots of other IPS/VA monitors over the years, the gsync display was the first time I saw these interlacing/line problems.
 
I have the freesync version, the vertical lines/interlacing I believe is a gsync module artifact. I used to see these interlacing issues on my XB271hu too, it would come and go and usually be visible at lower framerates, I believe it's got something to do with their variable overdrive and pixel inversion.

I've owned lots of other IPS/VA monitors over the years, the gsync display was the first time I saw these interlacing/line problems.
pcmonitors.info confirmed the same vertical lines, so it's not because of G-sync.

I haven't had lines on the XB271HU and XG2703-GS.
 
I used mine at 2.5' screen to eyeball there are no lines.

How close are your eyeballs? https://i.imgur.com/ZTSXPpy.jpg :watching:

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tftcentral's review mentioned no lines. They mention that the uniformity is moderate due to VA shift. They also do mention the slight blur to text on the desktop since there is no shaprness adjustment in the OSD. However for gaming duty you can use the sharpness filter in nvidia freestyle if you to sharpen it. (Some indie and emu games actually look better with the sharpness turned down rather than up).

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pcmonitors.info picture shows the shadowy corners due to VA shift which is a known tradeoff on solid bright fields of color.

Perhaps you meant this passage?
On some monitors, particularly but not exclusively those with high refresh rates, interlace patterns can be seen during certain transitions. We refer to these as ‘interlace pattern artifacts’ but some users refer to them as ‘inversion artifacts’ and others as ‘scan lines’. They may appear as an interference pattern or mesh or interlaced lines which break up a given shade into a darker and lighter version of what is intended. They often catch the eye due to their dynamic nature, on models where they manifest themselves in this way. Alternatively, static interlace patterns may be seen with some shades appearing as faint horizontal bands of a slightly lighter and slightly darker version of the intended shade.

We did not observe any static interlace pattern artifacts, although we did observe some dynamic interlacing patterns in places. These would come and go as we scanned large patches of light texture such as daylight sky, smoke or fog. We found them to be generally undistracting – noticeable in places but not annoying to us. They were less noticeable and widespread than on the curved Samsung SVA alternatives in our view. Most users shouldn’t find them bothersome and some won’t really notice them.

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They concluded:
"With superior depth to dark shades and brighter shades standing out in surrounding darkness better than on other LCD panel types. The typical VA contrast weaknesses, namely ‘VA glow’ and ‘black crush’ were minor on this model and did not really impede the experience. The ‘VA glow’ was a fair bit lower than on the curved alternatives we’ve tested, such as the ASUS XG32VQ and AOC AG322QCX."

"Overall this monitor provided a well-rounded gaming experience, combining pleasant image quality with a convincing 165Hz performance."

"this model delivered better overall uniformity and lower ‘VA glow’ than we’ve seen from the competing curved models. The addition of G-SYNC and tighter pixel response times will also be welcomed by Nvidia gamers. As usual a bit of a premium is put on the product due to the inclusion of G-SYNC, but in this case we feel it’s well worth it."
 
What lines? I've been on this thing for over a year now, the biggest complaint I have is the annoying OSD that comes up now and then :) and also from an angle, it looks like the very far edges of the picture are slightly cut off
 
I also don't notice any vertical lines. Happy 32GK850G owner since December 2017!
 
How's the 650F below 48 Hz? I've read that's the bottom limit for freesync on this one. On the 850F, i think it's 40 Hz. I understand both support LFC for freesync, does it work without issues?
 
Guess I should have searched here before buying one of these (650F version). I am seeing mentions in this thread of fuzzy/blurry text and backlight bleed. If that ends up being the case (mine won't be here until next week), I will be returning it and finding something else. Where are the 27" monitors of the same specs?
 
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I ordered the 650F version from Microcenter yesterday, and it just showed up. That was way fast. Hoping this thing doesn't suck...

...Briefly, after setting it up I am noticing nothing to get excited over about this monitor. More ho hum. Very similar backlight bleed to my ips U2515H. I guess I had false hope for AMVA on backlight bleed through.

Given the distance that I need to push this monitor away (36" viewing distance, very back of my desk and further would be better) I think 32" is too big for a desktop monitor. Where it sits now, text is verging on the small side although still ok, and so pushing it further back would require scaling. Text is less crisp than the U2515H (with 125% scaling). But at a ~3 feet viewing distance, this monitor still feels too close to my eyes.

And despite no PWM, I still feel that there is overall pixel movement as with every other monitor I have seen, like a subtle background noise. Maybe it is some kind of dithering.

I haven't noticed any benefit to the higher frame rate either, going from 60 to 144, where the framerate is showing to stay close to 144. I'm not a hardcore shooter, though. I tried it briefly with Stalker Shadow of Chernobyl. Edit: It seems that to get a Nvidia gpu to work with a freesync monitor, windows 10 is a requirement. I'm running windows 7. So no wonder I didn't notice any benefit. Lame, Nvidia. Always some gotcha with Nvidia it seems. I may just buy an AMD card and ditch Nvidia for good.

I suppose I will use it for a few days and try adjusting some things, but I foresee returning it and finding something else.

Maybe it's time to try a TN monitor or something else altogether. My absolute primary concern is eye comfort, where nothing else matters until that requirement is met. Things which I find to be uncomfortable in monitors are PWM, too intense backlighting (and bleed through...W-LED), soft edges and blur, and pixel movement (dithering?).
 
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And despite no PWM, I still feel that there is overall pixel movement as with every other monitor I have seen, like a subtle background noise. Maybe it is some kind of dithering.
Sounds like you're seeing FRC. No idea if it will work, but you can try dropping the bit-depth to 16 bit in your display settings.
 
I kept mine at 2' 6" and it was great for gaming. PPI was slightly jumbo for desktop/app use.

Now that I have larger monitors in my array and a larger overall desk setup, I keep all three of my monitors exactly 3' from screen to my eyeballs and it's great for both 43" 4k and the 32" 1440p. Better even, perceived ppi wise. It still has a larger feel to it even "shrunk" slightly to my perspective. The room I have is a good feeling. Eventually I'll get another monitor arm but for now tge 32" is the only one on a stand.

Though the photo may make it look small, it's still a good size,. The 43" monitors are just much larger in person so I had to drop back way past my seating position to get everything in the picture.

SfDZRIS.jpg
 
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elvn, how are you not going blind? Just looking at that picture makes my eyes hurt.

With such a big monitor I think the amount of backlight is too intense to be healthy for the eyes. And at 32" 1440p, the top of the monitor is too far above eye level, making it uncomfortable, even with the monitor set at it's lowest height (around 3"). I couldn't imagine working and playing every day on a bigger monitor and being comfortable with it, much less multiple big monitors. A single 32" is too much on it's own. And it isn't practical to get a healthy viewing distance with such a big monitor. I have 36" viewing distance now, and it is still too close for comfort. I start getting a bit of that same feeling in my eyes as when crossing them.

I will say though that the effective backlighting on this monitor is significantly more comfortable than on my much smaller U2515H. That thing is just way overboard on the backlight intensity even at dim settings, making it very fatiguing on the eyes.

I should also say that I did turn off vsync on the gpu and freesync on this monitor and capped the framerate at 144. The higher framerate is a better viewing experience in gaming and for desktop use. And I didn't see any tearing. Overall, I think the higher framerate is a little more comfortable on the eyes. And maybe over time it would add up to less eye fatigue than with 60 hz.

If this thing were 27", I think I could somewhat reluctantly deal with it as is. But the amount of backlight glow with every W-LED monitor I have seen is a problem that I would like to see go away. W-LED is hard on the eyes and makes for never getting real black in the picture. It's almost hard to believe that so many people have accepted W-LED backlight glow.
 
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All three are VA. 4200:1 , ~ 3000:1, and 6100:1 contrast ratios.. The backlights are fine vs eyestrain. In fact they look best in dim lighting where their contrast shows better. I sit so I'm looking more toward the middle of a monitor not down at it. If anything I could lean my chair back and lift them even higher, tilting the monitors down toward me but I don't have to. Regarding backlight glow - you really aren't going to avoid backlight glow and LCD style uniformity issues without paying a lot of money for a high density FALD array display or an OLED.

I have always prefered to use grey backgrounds in directory opus file manager, chat apps, email, browsers, etc. Nosquint browser addon allows custom text and background levels and text and/or text+image size scaling globally and on a per site basis that it remembers. I still can use white or relatively bright default backgrounds on sites I choose to though, like deviantart and slickdeals, with no problem.
I usually just do medium grey on all of my backgrounds, and black text if necessary. Hardforum's default theme is already good though. Twitch and reddit, viber encrypted texting app and some other sites and apps also have dark modes built in already. I use a grey minimal windows 10 theme and I use winaerotweaker to make all of the window frame widths tiny.

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Considering what you said about your eyes, I'd consider getting them checked. Perhaps you are a little nearsighted. That's not meant as a criticism just an honest guess. And in that case your opinion would be more understandable.

3' away is extremely comfortable viewing distance for me and it brings the perceived ppi closer to or better than what a 27" 1440p's looks like at 2' away (108.8ppi) . I feel way less cramped too. I do recommend having a chair with desk height adjustable arm rests that can be adjusted wide enough so your elbows and forearms rest fully supported in a natural position as well has a headrest that supports your head/neck in neutral position. I'd also like to point out that while the heights of the 43" monitors are tall, at 3' distance it's much less of a slope. The photos come out distorted a bit with such a long photo shot from the back wall. It is almost impossible to take a picture of everything looking well aligned like it does in real life. I included a top down nearer view below.
https://i.imgur.com/5KFeMvz.jpg

I did move my desk back for the current monitor array, overlapping another adjustable desk surface I had in storage. Even as far back as it seemed I was sitting, I still measured 3' exactly from eyeballs to each monitor's surface when keeping my chair upright, and I gained a lot of desk. I don't think you need a huge room for it but it would take up half of a smaller room. As long as you aren't in a utility closed you should be able to sit 3' back and have 4' to 8' remaining behind you in a small room. However, I understand that not everyone dedicates a lot of space to their pc or has the option to.

Eventually I'm hoping to get the HDR600 or HDR1000(FALD?) AUO 43" 4k 144hz VA panels due out in 2019 - 2020 for the middle so all the sizes match. At that point I might even go 3.5- 4' view distance in order to see more of the side monitors without pushing them way outside of my viewpoint with the extra width of the 43" in middle vs the current 32".
I'd like to eventually get another arm for the middle monitor but the giant ones are expensive and I'd have to get another giant ergotron considering my upgrade path.. so the stand will do for now with the 32" LG.
 
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850G, 650G and 650F.

Other than the slightly bigger screen on the 650F, is there any real world differences between those when it comes to picture quality (I don't care about RGB lighting and what not) now that the freensync version works with Nvidia G-Sync?

Price difference is pretty big at B&H at the moment ($200+)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?sts=hist-ps&fct=fct_monitor-resolution_955|2560-x-1440+fct_frequency-refresh-rate_2994|144hz&N=0&Ntt=lg monitors&

- Does the 650F work as good as the other 2 for G-Sync or it has drawbacks?
- Do any of those models have more issues in general and I'd need to be more lucky to get one that works properly (seems newer batches are more prune to issues?)? Replacement is a big hassle for me since I'm purchasing those internationally. I'd like to go for more reliable one if there's one out of those 3.

Any help would be appreciated.
 
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Considering what you said about your eyes, I'd consider getting them checked. Perhaps you are a little nearsighted. That's not meant as a criticism just an honest guess. And in that case your opinion would be more understandable.

I had my eyes checked. There is nothing wrong with my vision. 20/20 and nothing else to note.

To me, the issue with a big monitor is a basic ergonomic issue. It is less comfortable looking up than down. That has been well known for many years. It is also an issue with how much light is hitting the eyes at a close distance.
 
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850G, 650G and 650F.

Other than the slightly bigger screen on the 650F, is there any real world differences between those when it comes to picture quality (I don't care about RGB lighting and what not) now that the freensync version works with Nvidia G-Sync?

Price difference is pretty big at B&H at the moment ($200+)
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/search?sts=hist-ps&fct=fct_monitor-resolution_955|2560-x-1440+fct_frequency-refresh-rate_2994|144hz&N=0&Ntt=lg monitors&

- Does the 650F work as good as the other 2 for G-Sync or it has drawbacks?
- Do any of those models have more issues in general and I'd need to be more lucky to get one that works properly (seems newer batches are more prune to issues?)? Replacement is a big hassle for me since I'm purchasing those internationally. I'd like to go for more reliable one if there's one out of those 3.

Any help would be appreciated.

Your sig shows that you are running Windows 7. Nvidia gpu's will only cooperate with freesync on Windows 10. I haven't seen this mentioned elsewhere. I am testing the 650F with the gpu refresh rate set to max and capped by Rivatuner to 144. High refresh rate (with freesync off) works without tearing so far, but I am seeing a stutter here and there with a GTX 1070ti.

I have also noticed that overdrive is not available in the OSD for the 650F. Going from 144 to 165 hz probably makes no perceptible difference, but it is something that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere. Maybe it is available with freesync on though.
 
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Thank you for the response, I'll be updating my signature soon once I get the parts I ordered to upgrade my setup (9900K, RTX 2080, Windows 10!) so the windows 7 thing shouldn't be an issue at least.

I'm extremely sensitive to stutter, OCD levels I'd say, I never owned a G-Sync monitor so if they help with that I'd be very happy and willing to pay more if the other models do it better.
 
I had my eyes checked. There is nothing wrong with my vision. 20/20 and nothing else to note.

To me, the issue with a big monitor is a basic ergonomic issue. It is less comfortable looking up than down. That has been well known for many years. It is also an issue with how much light is hitting the eyes at a close distance.

I think you are gettin a skewed perspective from the photos which look a certain way in order to encompass the view of the whole setup from standing. Three feet (as close as I can sit to my desk in the current configuration) isn't that close and cuts the slope considerably. My chair also has rollerblade style wheels on it that I upgraded to, so it sits pretty high up overall. I can also tilt it slightly back. The monitors are all fairly central to my view eyeline wise. Think of it more like a command center. The 32" is centralized more top to bottom and the 43" ones are only a little top heavy so to speak, less so with slight headrest supported chair tilt. The sides are desktop/app space rather than full screen usage, though a full height browser at 40% to 60% screen width is great for things like imgur, deviantart, forums, etc.

The whole overlapping desk section is on wheels as well, so if I really wanted to I could slide the whole thing back a little more with my chair but I'm finding this distance great as I've said.
My 70" 4k iving room tv is about 8ft away and is set up to view it eyeline to the middle too. I sometimes hook my laptop up to it with no problem browsing.

If I was having any real looking up issue I would just tilt my chair back a little, adjust the monitor arm heights and even tilt them downward slightly if I found it necessary but it is working great as they are.

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The reason I asked about nearsightedness is that you said you got strain almost like you were going cross-eyed when looking at a monitor at over 3' away and that hints that you have a harder time focusing on things further away. There's nothing wrong with that. Plenty of people have vision strengths and weaknesses. When I get older I'll probably have to get glasses for nearer viewing like my parents who ended up farsighted (worse focus up close).

Anyway, in moving back to 3' minimum, perhaps more leaning back in chair at times, I found the ppi on this 32" better than up close but of course you are shrinking it to your perspective a bit so losing some of the size gain other than desk/room space feeling. Being 32" at 1440p ppi allows it to stand among the 43" (60hz, no variable hz) ones pretty well at this distance, and for gaming the contrast/black depth, g-sync, high hz, make this monitor a winner for me.
 
The reason I asked about nearsightedness is that you said you got strain almost like you were going cross-eyed when looking at a monitor at over 3' away and that hints that you have a harder time focusing on things further away. There's nothing wrong with that. Plenty of people have vision strengths and weaknesses.

You have to take what I said within context that I first started with the monitor much closer in, and pushing it back as far as I could was the best acheivable viewing distance. Further would be better, as is easy enough to tell by moving my chair back. But then text becomes too small and requires scaling. I think this size/res (32" 1440) combo just isn't ideal.
 
2.5' is a good distance for this monitor for gaming. The resolution allows for much higher frame rates than a 4k rez would, but the perceived ppi is a little jumbo for desktop/app use at that distance. 3' is a little better overall but you start to lose a little of the largeness effect. For my non-standard monitor sizes and distances scenario it works out pretty well regardless thankfully.


For gaming duty this monitor is very good, it just isn't that great as an all-rounder. Until I can get a better contrast and black depth monitor with great overdrive and relative response times, high hz as well as very good variable refresh rate and at a decently large size, this is the only one in town.
 
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For gaming duty this monitor is very good, it just isn't that great as an all-rounder. Until I can get a better contrast and black depth monitor with great overdrive and relative response times, high hz as well as very good variable refresh rate and at a decently large size, this is the only one in town.

If focus is pretty well fixed around the center of the monitor (as with gaming), that is one thing. But looking around the breadth of this thing for say working with text editors and consoles is another. I'm not finding it comfortable for the latter.

Also what I have been reading is that the picture is not equivalent among the 32GK850F and 32GK850G. And it is anyone's guess how the 32GK650F differs from either of those. One thing that I am noticing on the 32GK650F is black crush, where some elements of differing shades of the darkest blacks all look the same. I really noticed this in a game, where a very dark scene appeared blacked out in the darkest areas of the screen. And attempting to adjust away from that brings about an undersaturated look and doesn't really work any way. I suppose that is a con of VA panels. And moving to an IPS monitor will likely have considerably worse backlight glow in trade (this VA panel already has too much glow for my taste). So maybe a different monitor will only be trading one set of faults for another.

Any way, I think I would better enjoy a 27" monitor of similar specs but without the backlight glow and black crush. But I think that I am not going to find one until OLED or quantum dot becomes the norm. A TN monitor might possibly be an improvement, colors and viewing angles be damned.
 
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I think my biggest issue with this monitor is that everything looks very glowy. For example, grey window borders glow on a dark background. Even mid grey text glows against a dark background.

And looking at text spread about the screen causes the eyes to have to refocus.

I don't mind the look of the pixel density and pixel layout. I think that text doesn't need to be ultra smooth, and I don't mind seeing pixels for text.
 
Ok, I might be done crying. I'm warming up to the size of the 32GK650F. And with the brightness way down the glowiness is minimized. And overall I'm not feeling like an invisible ninja is pressing my eyeballs into my skull. I think I definitely won't find anything better for what I paid for it ($350 + shipping).

I guess the major cons at this point are:

No Freesync on Windows 7. I can deal, but I just may move to AMD since Nvidia seems to think that everyone is done with Windows 7 and no further support is required. I'm not done with 7, and I won't be for some time. And when I am this machine will be a Linux box. No Windows 10 for me, ever. This is not an issue with the monitor though. It works perfectly as designed. It is an issue with Nvidia not recognizing the Windows 10 corundum and how many Windows 7 users there still are and will be for some time.

The overall image quality is good but not great. Text at this size and res and pixel layout isn't the sharpest for sure. But it is usable, which was my biggest concern for a new monitor along with avoiding any other eye fatiguing qualities. I can work with this, and that it is a big deal for me. The viewing angle weakness of VA at this size causes the periphery of the panel to look darker than the greater center. I mostly notice this on white backgrounds. If I move my head to the side, the darkness goes away on that side. With the brightness set at 15-20 to mitigate the overall WLED glowiness (and save my eyes), colors are a bit dulled but not terrible.

Overall, I think I can get along with it after having used it for some days. And it has been a while since I have been able to get along with a desktop monitor, for one reason or another. I'm sure there are better options out there, but keeping under a $400 budget, there isn't really anything else out there at this resolution and with a high refresh rate.

The functionality and build quality seem solid enough, and I think that LG did a good job at this price point. But I really wonder why they didn't do the same at a 27" size, which would have been at the sweet spot for 2560x1440, would have given sharper text, and likely would have mitigated most of the darker periphery.

Also, I wish that this red gamer cosmetic fad that manufacturers are trying to push would go away. At least there is very little visible red from the front of this monitor.

This is about as good a review that anyone gets from me, i.e, thanks for not making a crap product, LG. But we know that you could have done it at a 27" size.
 
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No Freesync on Windows 7. I can deal, but I just may move to AMD since Nvidia seems to think that everyone is done with Windows 7 and no further support is required. I'm not done with 7, and I won't be for some time. And when I am this machine will be a Linux box. No Windows 10 for me, ever. This is not an issue with the monitor though. It works perfectly as designed. It is an issue with Nvidia not recognizing the Windows 10 corundum and how many Windows 7 users there still are and will be for some time.

Honestly, Windows 7 support ends 12/31/19. Not anything to take away from the monitor by saying. Good for your opinion on Windows 10 as it is not relevant to the monitor. I know you said that but why even type that.

It's not an issue with nVidia. Windows 7 support for 8 more months. Smart by nVidia for not waiting until the last minute.
 
Honestly, Windows 7 support ends 12/31/19. Not anything to take away from the monitor by saying. Good for your opinion on Windows 10 as it is not relevant to the monitor. I know you said that but why even type that.

It's not an issue with nVidia. Windows 7 support for 8 more months. Smart by nVidia for not waiting until the last minute.

Regardless of Microsoft support ending soon for Windows 7, many users (and gamers) continue to use it and will continue to use it. So there is nothing smart about Nvidia not enabling adaptive sync in the driver for Windows 7. It probably would take very little effort on their part to do so.

Back on topic of the monitor itself, I have done lots of switching back and forth at this point between 60 hz and max refresh rate (144 hz) and caps inbetween of 100, etc. I am seriously questioning whether I actually perceive the difference. If I played fast pace shooters alot maybe it would be more obvious. I also swapped in another 60 hz monitor to see if I noticed a difference between the LG running at high refresh and the other monitor running at 60. Regardless of what I might have previously said, I think that I don't actually notice the difference for my use cases. And I do play some games which involve lots of shooting.

I am considering again returning this monitor and going 4k for sharper text, which is my primary use concern, with gaming being secondary. And I could run at 1080 to prevent loading the gpu too much during gaming.
 
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