It can be tough to find a gaming monitor that hits all of my preferred specs. I am constantly measuring resolution and frame rate while searching for a bright and color-accurate panel. It is a tug of war, a constant back-and-forth, compromising one feature for another. In the past I have made many compromises between settings, giving me something that looks and feels good, but not great. This is where LG comes out swinging with the UltraGear OLED 27GX790A-B gaming monitor, which hits almost every note that I have been missing.
After testing the monitor out for many hours using a mix of past and present games as well as a few videos, and on a mid-range gaming graphics card, I can confidently state that the UltraGear is a fantastic display for everything! It has ample connectivity options, a beautiful layout, a fully adjustable stand, and an OLED panel that makes everything look absolutely breathtaking.
Resolution and Speed
First and foremost, the UltraGear features an OLED panel that looks bright and beautiful. It measures at 26.5”, which is my ideal size for a display fitting the 16:9 aspect ratio. It features a 2560 x 1440 resolution, which is the middle ground between 1080p and 4K resolution, hitting that sweet spot where everything looks crystal clear and minimizes graphical inconsistencies like staircasing.
The real standout function is the speed of the panel itself. Boasting an impressively high 480 Hz refresh rate, the UltraGear provides some of the smoothest gameplay the eye can see. This is accompanied by the 0.03 ms Gray-to-Gray (GtG) response time, which is the speed in which the pixels on the display change from moment to moment. Whirling around in circles or performing certain maneuvers will require the display to quickly adapt to the ever-changing images.
While resolution is a pretty straightforward concept, speed is a whole other beast. It is incredible that the UltraGear has a 480 Hz refresh rate and a 0.03 ms response time as these are two technologies that work together to provide a level of smoothness that cannot be achieved on other types of non-OLED monitors. OLED panels are designed to produce these incredibly high speeds which can give you the upper hand in competitive titles where precision and smoothness are a priority, and I haven’t even jumped into the available variable refresh technologies.
Ensuring your gameplay is smooth is the FreeSync Premium Pro and G-Sync technologies from AMD and NVIDIA, respectively. These are designed to lock the frame rate of what you are seeing on your screen to the output of your graphics card. This prevents screen tearing, which can become quite the eyesore after experiencing it a handful of times. It is great to have both technologies in the display, meaning you can pick the graphics card of your choice and still come out with smooth gameplay whether you are a competitive or casual player.
I will also state that since this is an OLED display, I was concerned about burn-in. While this is something that is slowly fading away as this technology becomes more adopted and advanced, LG covers burn-in for two years. Additionally, the display detects movement and if it notices you haven’t used it for some time, it automatically turns off, giving you some peace of mind which I appreciate.
Colorization
When it comes to color, the UltraGear delivers. Offering support for 1.07 billion colors (10-bit) and 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio which is great especially when you come into scenes where light diffusion matters to the scene. Add in the support for 98.5% of the DCI-P3 color space, and you have a really impressive looking image. Once again, the fact that this is an OLED panel really lends itself to this support, as when you see any black color it means the individual diodes on the panel are turning themselves off which only makes the colors stand out. But that isn’t the only piece of technology that lends itself to this bright and colorful experience.
It might sound odd when I say this, the UltraGear has a maximum brightness level of 275 nits which seems rather low on paper, but the visuals are just fine. HDR10 support makes up for the loss in pure brightness, and honestly, I felt the 275 nits served better for the ever-changing screen. I didn’t feel blinded by bright colors or quick transitions to all-white splash screens. Once again, the OLED panel does a lot of work in providing that vivid colorization.
Connectivity
Most monitors are simple plug-and-play devices that make it easy to set up in a matter of seconds. The UltraGear still maintains that level of simplicity, but makes it more robust, expanding connectivity beyond traditional inputs. It features one DisplayPort, two HDMI ports, and two USB-A ports for data transmission via the USB-B port. The USB-A ports are great for connecting up various peripherals, but I use it mostly for my mouse and keyboard. When it comes to the video inputs, things get a bit confusing.
Starting with the DisplayPort 2.1 port, it can easily handle the bandwidth to reach these extreme levels of performance but with a caveat. This version of DisplayPort can support 1440p resolution at 480 Hz, but it uses Display Stream Compression to do this. It isn’t exactly a bad thing, but it does change the way that information is transmitted which could cause some unwanted results. In many cases, the most common solution is to max out the frame rates to 240 Hz.
The dual HDMI 2.1 ports do have some limitations as well. Each one can support the resolution without an issue, but the response time is lowered, maxing out at 120 Hz. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing either, as 120 Hz is still incredibly smooth. It also means that the UltraGear can support consoles like the Xbox Series X, PlayStation 5, and the Nintendo Switch 2.
I love the array of options here as it makes the case to turn the UltraGear into the centerpiece of your gaming setup. It easily supports everything from your PC to your gaming console. Unfortunately, the only downside is that it doesn’t feature integrated speakers. Instead, there is a 3.5mm 4-pole jack for speakers or a gaming headset. It does have DTS HP:X Gaming Audio, which provides you with clear sound whether you are running across the battlefield or talking to your teammates.
The included stand that comes with the UltraGear is magnificent! You get all of the options—tilting, rotating, pivoting, and height adjustment—so you can position the display in the optimal position. Additionally, the stand itself has a hole to help keep your cables organized, which I greatly appreciated as not every monitor has this. Some opt for a clip.
Conclusion
As my time with the UltraGear came to an end, I began to truly lament its absence. Compared to a few other In-Plane Switching (IPS) displays of the past, I have become quite enamored by what LG brought to the table here. I don’t like throwing the word “perfect” around, but this is one of the few times where I truly felt something deserved to be called that, and the LG UltraGear is truly worthy of the nomenclature. It is a fantastic monitor and at the price point, I feel like it is money well spent.
