What Makes This Monitor Special?
The LG UltraGear 27GX790A is a 27 inch OLED gaming monitor that is all about speed. While there are a lot of 27 inch OLED options on the market right now, this one tries to stand out with a massive 480 Hz refresh rate and a price that is not totally outrageous for such high end specs.
On paper, it looks like a hardcore competitive gamer’s dream. You get a 2560 x 1440 resolution panel, an incredible 0.03 ms response time and that headline 480 Hz refresh. That makes it one of the fastest 1440p OLED gaming monitors you can actually buy today.
Price wise, it usually lands around 700 dollars or 800 pounds. That is a lot of money for a 27 inch 1440p display, but among ultra high refresh OLEDs it is actually on the more reasonable side.
Here is a quick look at the key specs:
- 27 inch 2560 x 1440 OLED panel
- Refresh rate up to 480 Hz over both HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1a
- Response time rated at 0.03 ms
- DisplayHDR TrueBlack 400 certification
- Up to 1300 nits HDR brightness in small highlights
- About 275 nits typical full screen brightness
- 98.5 percent DCI P3 color coverage
- Adaptive sync with both AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G Sync support
- Two port USB A hub, but no USB C and no speakers
This is not a fully loaded premium monitor with every creature comfort. LG clearly aimed this model at players who care more about frame rate and clarity than about having a single cable USB C setup or built in audio.
Image Quality and Brightness
The one area where the LG UltraGear 27GX790A clearly shows its age is brightness. It uses an older generation of LG WOLED panel tech rather than the latest and brightest version. That means:
- Full screen brightness is around 250 to 275 nits
- Newer LG WOLED and Samsung QD OLED panels can hit over 300 nits full screen
In practice, that lower brightness is noticeable in bright daytime scenes. Think desert environments in Cyberpunk 2077 or anything that is supposed to feel sun bleached and intense. The image can look a little dull compared to newer OLEDs or even good IPS monitors. Not terrible, just not wow.
Color is another area where this panel is good but not perfect. It covers almost all of the DCI P3 color space which means rich and vibrant colors. However, compared side by side with a top tier IPS display, whites on the LG can look slightly green and skin tones are not absolutely spot on. It is a small but persistent quirk of this generation of LG WOLED.
The story changes when you move to darker game scenes with bright highlights. This is where the monitor really flexes. Explosions in a night sky, glowing lights in dark corridors, particle effects in dimly lit areas, all look fantastic. Those smaller highlights can hit up to 1300 nits and combined with OLED’s perfect black levels you get serious HDR punch in the right situations.
LG also went with a matte screen coating instead of glossy. That cuts reflections and is easier to live with in bright rooms, but it does slightly mute that pure glass like OLED pop. The good news is that the coating is quite clean looking, with little visible grain, and the contrast still completely destroys anything an LCD can offer.
Speed, Esports Focus and Who Should Buy It
Speed is the whole point of this monitor. The combination of 480 Hz refresh and near instant pixel response gives you a level of motion clarity that standard 144 Hz or even 240 Hz displays simply cannot match.
The LG UltraGear 27GX790A also has a top tier VESA ClearMR 21000 certification. ClearMR is a standard that measures the ratio of clear pixels to blurry ones. Sitting in the highest ClearMR category confirms what you feel in game: motion on this screen looks insanely sharp.
In online shooters like Counter Strike 2, the experience is about as immediate as it gets. There is essentially no visible blur and input latency feels non existent. Whether that makes you personally better is another question and very skill dependent, but the panel will absolutely not be the thing holding you back.
Connectivity is clearly tuned for this esports angle. You get full 480 Hz support over both HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 2.1a which is great if you are switching between a high end PC and a console that benefits from HDMI 2.1. However, there is no USB C port and there are no built in speakers. There is only a small USB A hub for peripherals. This is not meant to be a shared work and play display or a minimalist single cable setup. It is a desk rig monitor for a dedicated gaming PC.
This leads to the big question: who is this actually for?
- Buy it if you are very serious about competitive gaming and want one of the fastest 1440p OLEDs you can get without totally destroying your budget.
- Do not buy it if you want a great all round monitor for gaming, work and media. For the same money you can get a bigger 34 inch ultrawide OLED, a sharper 32 inch 4K OLED or a very capable IPS monitor for a fraction of the price.
At this price you are paying a heavy premium for refresh rate. You are not getting the brightest OLED panel on the market. You are not getting the most versatile connectivity. You are not getting a huge screen. What you are getting is one of the cleanest, fastest motion experiences available on a 27 inch 1440p display.
If you know that is exactly what you want and you are fine with the compromises on brightness, color perfection and features, the LG UltraGear 27GX790A makes a strong case for itself. Just go in knowing you are buying a specialist weapon for high speed gaming, not an all purpose display for everything you do on your PC.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-monitors/lg-ultragear-27gx790a-oled-gaming-monitor-review/
