LG Ultragear 27" OLED 240hz 1440P 27GR95QE-B

sgupta said:
Interesting! I see there's a new version of the OnScreen Control app, but it showed no firmware update quite yet. I just hope it doesn't mess up my calibration as I no longer have a colorimeter here to redo it =oP (Though I'll probably need to invest in one eventually anyways.)
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I wondered about it too - why new versions when nothing changes and no firmware updates?
My conclusion is they just add new monitor models and update references on their website for all supported monitors.
FW updates should not need new OnScreen Control app I guess.
If memory serves me right I didn't update it when I updated LG 27GP950. Just one time I read somewhere they added 144Hz mode for HDMI and updated it with version I already had installed.
 
The latest firmware is now available - just did the update.

You need the latest OnScreen Control - mine updated again when I started it, and then it prompted for the firmware update.

This is NOT a quick firmware update. Allow for at least 2 hours. You can keep using the PC during it, though. I had thought mine got stuck around 50% through - it just takes forever to advance percentages once it gets to that point, though. =oP

Haven't noticed any big differences so far.
 
Reports indicate LG changed bunch of random settings to random values which itself make no sense.
In other words nothing really improved.

Until they give users the control in how they want their monitor configured nothing will ever change.
For now they even block settings which are relevant and affect modes where these settings are blocked indicating idiots write these firmwares and no one tests quality. Hence ridiculous issues which could be easily fixed persist for years.

Unfortunately other monitor manufacturers have similar low development cost zero testing strategy and similarly ridiculous issues.
In other words same old same old in monitor industry 👎
 
I updated the firmware on my 45GR95QE. Nothing really stands out in terms of changes. I haven't used a colorimeter, so I don't know what if anything changed, but I see nothing obvious, and there isn't some clear difference in brightness. sRGB SDR looks the same as before to me. Not sure if HDR is a bit brighter than before or not - it may be, but even if it is, the difference isn't major.
 
I have a question to LG monitor owners: do sharpness change when you enable HDR and use/change color profiles generated by windows HDR app?
 
You notice any changes I don't think I'll update with the firmware reddit said their remote won't work and it can't detect the PC port so I think I'll keep what I have. I did see someone with a tV showing it does get brighter but that was with a TV panel.
 
sgupta said:
The latest firmware is now available - just did the update.

You need the latest OnScreen Control - mine updated again when I started it, and then it prompted for the firmware update.

This is NOT a quick firmware update. Allow for at least 2 hours. You can keep using the PC during it, though. I had thought mine got stuck around 50% through - it just takes forever to advance percentages once it gets to that point, though. =oP

Haven't noticed any big differences so far.
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What is the version for the latest firmware I have 3.02 1.13
 
Alright I didn't know you had to redownload the onscreen App to get the Firrmware update. Your right Sgupta took about 2 hours it stops at 50% then ticks slowly for two hours. I'm going to say it does make the screen brighter it also fixed the flickering I had in Hogwarts Legacy using Adaptive Sync while Gsync was enabled still going to keep it off though. I loaded up The Last Epoch I do think it's brighter now but not in overall brightness I went to the darkest area of the game I turned up Black Stabalizer and before when I turned it up past 60% the whole screen would wash out. With the Firmware update I can turn it up to 90% before it starts to wash out the screen it's subtle but there is a difference with running at a lower brightness and turning up Black Stabilizer. The Dark Area in The Last Epoch really looked alot brighter without being washed out.

I didn't have any problems switching ports from Displayport to HDMI for the PS5 someone said they had that problem but the ports are still working.

Update: Just fired up Ghost of Tsushima on PS5 seems like the game is brighter also Black Stabilizer doesn't wash out the game when you turn it up to 95%
I had the darndest time trying to figure out why it was so dark the settings in game you can adjust are minimal you can only do so much like turn up the Brightness only and the performance level like Quality, Balanced or Performance it's a older game but still looks great.
 
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Comixbooks said:
still going to keep it off though
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Why?
For both input-lag and motion clarity its better to stabilize frame-rate by limiting it and keeping it lower than where it usually is for given game and still use VRR than disable it.
You won't get flickering if your frame rate is stable because flickering only happens when frame times between frames are different.

Of course if framerate dips below set limits there will still be flickering but when it happens occasionally its non-issue. Its is an issue when it flickers all the damn time as it does normally when you enable VRR and not limit frame rate.
 
Soooooo I have recently moved, and my current living situation means that the LG CX 55" which I have been using for nearly 3 years and over 15k hours on-time no longer makes sense. Got a new "toy" coming tomorrow.

oled monitor.jpg
 
XoR_ said:
I have a question to LG monitor owners: do sharpness change when you enable HDR and use/change color profiles generated by windows HDR app?
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Sharpness is a modifiable monitor setting in the Gamer 1 and Gamer 2 HDR modes (though it is grayed out in the other modes, so I don't know what it defaults to in those). I leave it on 50 as that seems to be the setting that doesn't add additional sharpness or softness.

Windows HDR Calibration App for Win11 (assuming that's what you mean) shouldn't have any effect on sharpness.
 
sgupta said:
Windows HDR Calibration App for Win11 (assuming that's what you mean) shouldn't have any effect on sharpness.
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I did not ask if it should or shouldn't be the case but if it actually does change brightness on itself.

I had this peculiar issue on LG 27GP950 until some FW update fixed it and I also have it on 48GQ900 wondering how such issues could possibly not get caught in testing and also if other LG monitors have it.
 
XoR_ said:
I did not ask if it should or shouldn't be the case but if it actually does change brightness on itself.

I had this peculiar issue on LG 27GP950 until some FW update fixed it and I also have it on 48GQ900 wondering how such issues could possibly not get caught in testing and also if other LG monitors have it.
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Brightness, as mentioned in this follow-up post, or sharpness, as mentioned in your original post?

I was talking about sharpness, and in regards to that, I have not noticed any change or loss of control from the monitor settings themselves; sharpness works as set/as it should. I don't see any mechanism where sharpness *should* be affected by an HDR monitor profile, so that's a really curious bug.

I could see how brightness would be affected more since the HDR Calibration actively deals with those upper/lower limits and how HDR is sent to the monitor, though in my limited experience (I've played more SDR games than HDR so far, though I have done a fair bit of HDR gaming), I haven't noticed any brightness issues during HDR content. On the desktop, any HDR calibration is going to result in it looking different that pre-calibration, but I only run in HDR mode when I intend to use native HDR content, so that's not something that really affects me.
 
sgupta said:
Brightness, as mentioned in this follow-up post, or sharpness, as mentioned in your original post?
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LOL, I meant sharpness. When I wrote last post my mind was apparently blanking 🙃

sgupta said:
I was talking about sharpness, and in regards to that, I have not noticed any change or loss of control from the monitor settings themselves; sharpness works as set/as it should. I don't see any mechanism where sharpness *should* be affected by an HDR monitor profile, so that's a really curious bug.
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That is good to hear. It is very irritating bug to deal with on 48GQ900 because it forces me to use pilot to go to menu all the time just to correct sharpness - otherwise its like it was set to 100 or even higher. For whatever reason it only happens on PC so I should be able to workaround it with HDFury Vrroom.

sgupta said:
I could see how brightness would be affected more since the HDR Calibration actively deals with those upper/lower limits and how HDR is sent to the monitor, though in my limited experience (I've played more SDR games than HDR so far, though I have done a fair bit of HDR gaming), I haven't noticed any brightness issues during HDR content. On the desktop, any HDR calibration is going to result in it looking different that pre-calibration, but I only run in HDR mode when I intend to use native HDR content, so that's not something that really affects me.
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Not my question but actually I did some tests to confirm if issue I reported for my LG monitors on PS5 affects PC and... IT DOES!
Desktop in HDR on PC looks nothing like it does on PS5 but it only really tells anything about SDR sRGB emulation, not games or HDR content.

HDR videos of Ghost of Tsushima looks as bad (read: too dark) played back as playing game on PS5 and I did notice an issue in a cave in Horizon being black where it made no sense.

Wall behind samurai should be clearly visible and slightly brighter than black bar.
Without correction on LG 48GQ900 and LG 27GP950 it is completely black.

Thankfully on PC it is very easy to fix these kind of issues. On my sad (or happy? certainly better than having no GPU at all! 🤪) Radeon all I needed to do is hit Alt+R, enable custom color and increase brightness until image looks good so no need to get expensive devices like HDFury Vrroom and limiting oneself to HDMI.
For Radeon on LG 27GP950 brightness setting of 8-11 (range because it seems to be the same actual brightness value - this setting has reduced precision) seems to be correct with 15 being the last brightness level before black becomes brighter.
For 48GQ900 I would say... 24-27 🤯 Ghost of Tsushima video looks perfect with this setting with only things which are actually black being black and dark details clearly visible. Its slightly better than playing on PS5 with HDFury Vrroom workaround I use for PS5.

The way I calibrate is to launch HDR calibration app and set brightness to 0.005 and adjust brightness lowest it can go until it can be barely seen while keeping sure pure black is still pure black. Then leave it at 0.005 and set rest of the steps to more or less what display is capable of displaying*. I do not think first step is used by games just like it isn't on PS5 but if it is or is not should not make much difference with it being set on 0.005. In this case however we just made sure settings are correct and if game or HDR movie displays something at 0.005 it won't be displayed as pure black.

By default it seems anything below 0.1 nits is not displayed on either 27GP950 or 48GQ900 hence very dark details are severely crushed. Difference between 0.1 and 0.005 is of course quite big...

So the real question - is the wall behind samurai sama completely black in HDR?
And without changing brightness in GPU panel what is the value in first calibration step which is visible on 27GR95QE?
While 27GR95QE might not have as much level of this dark crush as 48GQ900 it almost definitely is not factory calibrated to display details at 0.005** so I would recommend calibrating it with brightness in GPU panel.

*) Changing brightness on GPU will increase all levels by the same digital amount and this will affect ideal value which should be set in other two calibration steps. Since the delta is very small and whole process not very precise to begin with smallest step being 10 nits and delta being more like 1 nit this difference can be ignored and the same values should be used.

**) I do not think any display is calibrated like that. It won't be until people and reviewers start paying attention to actual quality of the image.
 
Ok, just got mine a little over an hour ago and have been playing with it since then, so these are my initial impressions.



Build Quality: Thin, metal, everything feels expensive. Build quality is exceptional. Good job LG.

Brightness: It's low compared to other displays, but does it bother me? Not really. It's plenty bright, especially in HDR. The matte coating on the screen does it no favors, but the coating itself does not bother me. Compared to the old 1440p 144hz Dell TN I've been using for the past several days, it's night-and-day better.

Performance: The jury is still out on this. Maybe I'm getting old, but I honestly don't see that much of a difference between my old CX 55 (120hz), and this (240hz). I've checked to ensure the screen is set to 1440p and 240hz, and it is. 240hz is most definitely smoother, but we are deep into diminishing returns at this point. I think my old eyes are beginning to falter as I was expecting more. I'm also seeing very aggressive ABL. I hope the rumors about LG increasing brightness are true, and along with that, we get a reduction in ABL aggressiveness.

Color: Fabulous. Deep blacks. Punchy reds, greens, and blues. No complaints.

So far, I like it. I don't have room on my desk for a 42" C2/C3, so this is a no-brainer. Obviously my RTX 4090 is now utter overkill for this setup, but at least it's futureproof.

More to come.
 
XoR_ said:
LOL, I meant sharpness. When I wrote last post my mind was apparently blanking 🙃

So the real question - is the wall behind samurai sama completely black in HDR?
And without changing brightness in GPU panel what is the value in first calibration step which is visible on 27GR95QE?
While 27GR95QE might not have as much level of this dark crush as 48GQ900 it almost definitely is not factory calibrated to display details at 0.005** so I would recommend calibrating it with brightness in GPU panel.
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Going by the video (YouTube running in HDR), I can see the detail on the back wall just fine - it definitely isn't completely black. This is with Gamer 1's HDR mode and no other adjustments other than having run the Windows 11 HDR Calibration tool.
 
This morning, I was ready to take it back because I didn't like the fact that it was not 4K and thought the panel was too expensive. Someone on another forum pointed out that the panel has MLA, which I did not realize and is really cool. So I set it back up and started playing with the settings to get it just right...

I'm sold. This thing is baller.

First, it is native 1440p/240hz, but it can also upscale natively to 4K120. It actually detects 4K120 as its native resolution, not 1440p/240hz, which means if you use DSR, it can go all the way up to 8K (7680x4320). Not only that, it does so without some of the headaches I got trying to do it with my CX 55. It also runs PS5 at 4K120 natively as well.

The image on games like Halo Infinite in HDR is jaw dropping. Contrast and color pop hard. Everything is deep and vibrant, and it will run all the way up close to 240 FPS on my current setup. That is beyond cool IMO. It doesn't have the bright punch that the CX has, but I'll forgive it as the colors are deeper and everything is more contrasty (is that a word?) on this panel. MLA is definitely doing its job.
 
sgupta said:
Going by the video (YouTube running in HDR), I can see the detail on the back wall just fine - it definitely isn't completely black. This is with Gamer 1's HDR mode and no other adjustments other than having run the Windows 11 HDR Calibration tool.
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What about Windows HDR Calibration level at which dark pattern is becomes visible?

madpistol said:
The image on games like Halo Infinite in HDR is jaw dropping. Contrast and color pop hard. Everything is deep and vibrant, and it will run all the way up close to 240 FPS on my current setup. That is beyond cool IMO. It doesn't have the bright punch that the CX has, but I'll forgive it as the colors are deeper and everything is more contrasty (is that a word?) on this panel. MLA is definitely doing its job.
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To me this sounds exactly like that black/dark crush issue I have on other LG monitors in HDR mode...
 
sgupta said:
In Gamer 1


In Gamer 1, it disappears for me at .0050 (so I can start to see it at .01).
The next two patterns both completely disappear right at 580.
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It would mean LG didn't screw up HDR on 27GR95QE like they did on 48GQ900 and 27GP950. Good to know.
 
KamikazePlatypus said:
When is LG going to get rid of that stupid anti-glare coating? Absolutely ruins what would otherwise be a very good display.
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There seems to be enough people like us who want a glossy / semi-gloss screen, why aren't manufacturers releasing any OLED models without the anti-glare coating?

There's the vaporware from Dough, but nothing else appears to be on the horizon. I've seen the anti-glare coating removal videos, glad to know that's possible, but it shouldn't be required.

I would have considered an OLED had there been a glossy / semi-gloss 27" 1440. Instead I decided to stick with IPS for another generation. I like the semi-gloss finish on my AW2723DF.
 
Interesting video, though personally I'd never use Vivid mode, even for the extra brightness, because of it's decreased accuracy. Honestly (and I've mostly been playing SDR as the game I'm playing now doesn't support native HDR), I haven't noticed much of a difference since the firmware update, though I'm still just as pleased by the monitor's performance.

I'll be curious if the Dough glossy does show up. I think glossy could be neat as well, though the matte coating wasn't a dealbreaker for me like it is for some.

I watched Vincent's review of the new Asus display that uses the same panel, and I have to say I'm glad I didn't wait for the Asus and went with the LG. Asus has a few niceties (higher brightness is the main one, and also calibration out of the box), BUT, I kind of felt like the LG still has it better overall if you don't *need* that extra brightness. LG has HDMI 2.1 vs the Asus only having 2.0, and the Asus has black crush issues the LG fortunately doesn't as well as worse HDR EOTF tracking. Seems to have a bit more image retention issues as well, probably owing to the higher brightness. In short, the heatsink and brightness seem more impressive, but the costs for my uses would outweigh the benefits (the black crush in particular would be a dealbreaker, but maybe it'll be eventually fixed via firmware).
 
Best Buy has a few 100 reviews on their site everyone is buying there to skip the California 10% sales tax. Took me a really long time to get used to it though good 3 weeks after I settled on my calibrations it's a tons better then pervious 27" monitors I owned like the ROG Swift I picked up in 2016 I hardly used it because I couldn't get used to the screen. I thought it was the size but in reality it was the size and the led lights.
 
I think with virtually *any* OLED, if it's abused, burn in can absolutely happen. That said, I'd never consider an in-store model as indicative of a problem because we have no idea the usage pattern. My guess is that same screen was left on days/weeks at a time, but who knows.
We'll see. So far with real-world use and reasonable precautions, no issue here, but it's still early.
 
I am curious about this. I would prefer a higher resolution 16:9 OLED, but there don't really seem to be any that are not huge and based off a TV.
 
Jumpem said:
I am curious about this. I would prefer a higher resolution 16:9 OLED, but there don't really seem to be any that are not huge and based off a TV.
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They are planned, but will not be here until 2025 since planned production is Q4 2024.
 
Alright well I picked one up at Best Buy, I figure I can return it if there is a problem.

First thing I noticed, I ABSOLUTELY HATE the stand. Why do they do this stupid V thing that takes up 2/3 of your desk space with useless legs? Its the same size as my Dell S2721 which has a nice little rectangle and somehow is more stable and better built. This thing is wobbly as hell.

Image quality is good, I have it set to gamer 2, 85% bright, power saving off. Haven't bothered to install their software yet to see if there are firmware updates. The coating is really quite bad on white backgrounds with text, but not too noticeable otherwise.

I'm feeling like this probably isn't really worth the price compared to my FO48U.
 
sgupta said:
(the black crush in particular would be a dealbreaker, but maybe it'll be eventually fixed via firmware).
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Unlikely. This is apparently general trend in both monitors and TVs
Just watched Vincent's Samsung S90c review and sure enough it crushes dark details.

Not such a big issue for PC due to ability to change brightness but if that workaround works well depends on nature of black crush. Levels can be shifted like on LG 48GQ900 in which case shifting them with 'brightness' in GPU control panel works well but they can also just be flattened near black and this would cause brightness manipulation to result in non-black black and this I wouldn't ever want to get on any display let alone on OLED. It is hard to even tell because measurement data is too coarse and not available in usable form so the only way to be really sure is to get product, test it and eventually return it - which is a hassle I would rather avoid.

As usual choosing display is made extremely difficult by manufacturers not being able to implement simplest things correctly.

I really do not think firmware updates will fix anything. Lots of people would need to complain about this specific issue and nature of it makes it harder to recognize. Typically near-black issues like these result in thought display is not bright enough so people at most will complain about what seems like peak luminance...
 
XoR_ said:
Just watched Vincent's Samsung S90c review and sure enough it crushes dark details.
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Yeah - Samsungs have had a tendency towards black crush for years. It's one of the reasons I went for a Sony when I bought a new TV a few years back (FALD in the TV's case). Samsungs tend to crush blacks more, whereas Sony's have more blooming in certain situations but tend not to crush things, which I personally prefer. It really seems to be a design philosophy difference. It seems some people perceive, for example, the Samsungs to have better contrast because things like the bloom around subtitles is lesser than, say, on Sony's, but you lose details in dark scenes for that same reason. Meanwhile Sony's will have more bloom, but also preserve those details. It's interesting even a few years later this still appears to be the case.

I never count on firmware updates to fix anything, but it'd certainly be nice and most likely possible if they really *wanted* to. It's odd the Asus went that route; I have to wonder if it was intentional, like in Samsung's case, or some sort of error since the LG doesn't share the problem.
 
Sony... Panasonic and maybe some other manufacturers compete with actual quality.
Panasonic from what I heard fixed near black chrominance overshoot on LG panels when LG itself cannot figure it... or probably just don't care enough to fix it.

sgupta said:
but maybe it'll be eventually fixed via firmware
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Asus didn't fix black crush with firmware. They released firmware to fix bad gamut in HDR and on this occasion made black crush in HDR even worse 🤯
 
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