Gaming monitor advice

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#3434066 13-Nov-2025 12:04

SpartanVXL:

For OP, your best bet is seeing if your local shop has any display models out for 4k vs 1440p but TV’s might be your only comparison if you want to see IPS vs OLED out on the floor.

And therein lies part of my problem (or maybe it's the answer) - I can't really tell that much difference when I'm looking at LCD vs OLED TVs. My LG C1 OLED TV is wonderful (though it struggles in the bright living room during the day), but when I went to a friend's house to watch a movie on their 75" LED TV (Samsung SN90F I think), it was perfectly fine. Maybe my eyes are just not sophisticated enough to tell the difference? And then maybe all I'm doing with my selection agony is looking for bragging rights (hah!)

I think I've settled on the 4k option. While OLED is nice, the Samsung G5 OLED panel is new to the market and with no reviews it would be taking a punt on what appears to be an entry level model (potentially with some sacrifices being made to get it to that price). The 4k IPS panel I'm looking at seems really solid, especially for the price.

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#3434084 13-Nov-2025 12:48

Lizard1977:

And therein lies part of my problem (or maybe it's the answer) - I can't really tell that much difference when I'm looking at LCD vs OLED TVs.

if you can’t tell the difference then there is no benefit, only downsides.

oled black is black led black is some shade of grey

oled the pixels change colour instantly led the pixels transform from one colour to another

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#3434092 13-Nov-2025 13:24

Ah then yes go for a IPS panel. Use FSR4 when you can so the 4k workload isn’t as bad.

OLED is not bright enough to contest with other light sources, the glass cover on your C1 doesn’t help as it will reflect other sources.

Seeing how you already have OLED, watch the LG oled showcase video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njX2bu-_Vw4

Compare with any other LED in a dim room. You should see the difference in contrast on the edges of objects against black. There is no light bloom around things in motion and no grey tinge in dark/black images. Colours are also more accurate as they don’t need to compensate for the bright, uneven backlight. Things in motion also don’t smear as much, although you may find low frame rate sources will ‘judder’ a bit without interpolation enabled.

The downsides as mentioned is any other bright light source will drown out OLED, like trying to use your phone on a sunny day. They also don’t do direct sunlight, this will damage the oleds, and high humidity can cause issues as well.

You do have another option to use your C1 as a display and do couch gaming with a controller. The C1 was and is a very good option for gaming back in 2021 when enabling PC mode.

fe31nz

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#3434249 14-Nov-2025 01:33

SpartanVXL:

Ah then yes go for a IPS panel. Use FSR4 when you can so the 4k workload isn’t as bad.

OLED is not bright enough to contest with other light sources, the glass cover on your C1 doesn’t help as it will reflect other sources.

OLED was not not bright enough when the LG C1 was being sold. My LG C4 does pretty well with the sun coming into the room, and I bet the LG C5s do even better. OLED has progressed quite a lot over the last few years. But personally I chose to not get an OLED monitor last year because I did not need it (not a gamer) and I did not want to have the burn in problem making me worry about it all the time. I got a Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 43" 4K (S43CG700NE), which I think is QLED, and I am very happy with it.

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#3434511 14-Nov-2025 11:46

fe31nz:

SpartanVXL:

Ah then yes go for a IPS panel. Use FSR4 when you can so the 4k workload isn’t as bad.

OLED is not bright enough to contest with other light sources, the glass cover on your C1 doesn’t help as it will reflect other sources.

OLED was not not bright enough when the LG C1 was being sold. My LG C4 does pretty well with the sun coming into the room, and I bet the LG C5s do even better. OLED has progressed quite a lot over the last few years. But personally I chose to not get an OLED monitor last year because I did not need it (not a gamer) and I did not want to have the burn in problem making me worry about it all the time. I got a Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 43" 4K (S43CG700NE), which I think is QLED, and I am very happy with it.
 

It really depends which size model and which panel type you get e.g. evo

Peak brightness is still around 800nits which nominal image being around 500-600nits, 100% window is still paltry at less than 200nits. This is all on anything below 55” models. The larger panels can get up to 1300 peaks.

It’s all over the place honestly, as long as you don’t have the lights on at an awkward angle it will look fine. You want the room dim so you don’t see your own reflection in the glass when watching dark scenes.

For a monitor that is close to your eyes even peak of 400nits is perfectly okay, the contrast lets you scale as long as the panel is accurate in its light levels.

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#3434542 14-Nov-2025 15:08

The monitor I had more or less settled on was the Asus ROG Strix 27" 4k monitor - PB Tech are discounting this from $749 to $599 for the Black Friday sale. Reviews looked pretty good and I was comfortable with this. I was originally planning to spend up if the rest of the Black Friday sale is good, but may hold off until the end of year sales if some components for my new build aren't on sale.

Now I see MSI are offering a monitor which (on paper) looks as good or possibly better, for a RRP of $599. It's pretty new, so unlikely to be discounted. But equally it seems to be too new to have any reviews out there. Does this seem like a good alternative to the Asus monitor?

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#3434544 14-Nov-2025 15:13

Is there a noticeable difference between 1440p and 4K on a 27” monitor?

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#3434558 14-Nov-2025 16:00

shakedown14:

Is there a noticeable difference between 1440p and 4K on a 27” monitor?

my eyesight is terrible and yes i can see the pixels on the 1440p but only if i looked for them

if you never notice pixels then you won't tell any difference.

the other thing you'd notice if you were a gamer is extremely terrible frame rate with the 4K monitor

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#3434563 14-Nov-2025 16:50

Lizard1977:

The monitor I had more or less settled on was the Asus ROG Strix 27" 4k monitor - PB Tech are discounting this from $749 to $599 for the Black Friday sale. Reviews looked pretty good and I was comfortable with this. I was originally planning to spend up if the rest of the Black Friday sale is good, but may hold off until the end of year sales if some components for my new build aren't on sale.

Now I see MSI are offering a monitor which (on paper) looks as good or possibly better, for a RRP of $599. It's pretty new, so unlikely to be discounted. But equally it seems to be too new to have any reviews out there. Does this seem like a good alternative to the Asus monitor?

The Asus has usb c displayport and ELMB (pulses black frames in between refreshes to eliminate motion persistence). The colour output seems okay going by toms hardware, same with HDR output although I have seen one reddit post about HDR mode not working.

the MSI doesn’t have the above but does have a dual mode where it can switch to 1080p output with double the refresh rate (360Hz). If you were going for esports titles I’d say go for the MSI, otherwise the Asus with usbc and elmb would be more useful to you.

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#3434866 15-Nov-2025 21:17

I'm like you OP, I don't really class myself as a gamer either. My screen time is mostly work related, with the occasional single player gaming session. I have three desk setups and 4 monitors to choose from:

27" IPS 180Hz 2560x1440
32" IPS 60Hz 4K
34" VA 100Hz 3440x1440 Curved
43" IPS 60Hz 4K

I have an RTX 5070 and a Quest 2. I've connected the Quest 2 for PCVR once (back when I had a 3060Ti), I found it such a hassle to setup I haven't bothered since, so I can't offer much help on that front.

For productivity: My favoured monitor is a toss up between the 32" and 34", both offer a nice amount of screen real estate for multiple windows and apps. The 32" 4K has much sharper text though. The 27" 1440p feels cramped by comparison. I've also had a 27" 4K in the past but I had to set scaling to 150% otherwise the text was to hard to read.

For gaming: My favoured monitor is the 34" because I find 80-100 fps a nice sweet spot for single player and my 5070 can drive 3440x1440 at that frame rate in most modern titles fairly easily with high/max settings and a little DLSS. The VA panel does suffer from black smear though. I don't really notice it in single player games. In fast multiplayer games I do, but for those I'd switch to the 180Hz IPS, but even then I still find the response too slow. Which is probably why I don't play multiplayer. If you play multiplayer FPS games I'd personally be wary of VA panels, even a 240Hz one. No point having high refresh if the pixel response is slow (and VA panels generally have terrible pixel response).

You say you WFH and don't consider yourself a gamer and want to start playing single player games, so it would be an odd choice buying a 27" 1440p OLED, which is something that is well suited to hardcore online gaming and maybe not the best choice for a WFH setup. Don't fall for what suits other people's use cases. If you WFH, and only want to play single player, I'd say a 32" 4K or 34" 3440x1440, either VA or IPS, and somewhere in the 100-180Hz range, might be a better solution for your WFH/single player needs (assuming you have multiple windows/apps open when WFH).

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#3434948 16-Nov-2025 10:45

it would be an odd choice buying a 27" 1440p OLED, which is something that is well suited to hardcore online gaming and maybe not the best choice for a WFH setup

It’s more that there is no other choice for OLED in that price range. It does well on all fronts, not just refresh and motion persistence, which is why anyone can go for it if they are after image quality.

OP has a LG C1 already which is a very good panel for gaming. Steam in home remote play is an option if they can’t get a cable to it HDR works as well.

Now the dilemma is picking a 4k IPS pnael.

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#3435058 16-Nov-2025 13:02

SpartanVXL:

It’s more that there is no other choice for OLED in that price range. It does well on all fronts, not just refresh and motion persistence, which is why anyone can go for it if they are after image quality.

OP has a LG C1 already which is a very good panel for gaming. Steam in home remote play is an option if they can’t get a cable to it HDR works as well.

Now the dilemma is picking a 4k IPS pnael.

I agree, OLED is a great choice for gaming and media consumption. By I challenge the notion they are the best choice for what OP originally stated, which is that he doesn't consider himself a gamer, and that he WFH. And he kind of suggested he was considering a single screen setup. So for productivity, which OP specifically stated is word/excel etc, I personally don't think a single 1440p OLED is necessarily the best choice for his use case. Just my 2cents anyway. OP may value the gaming more than the office productivity. Or maybe he will keep his old monitors for a multi monitor setup. 🤷‍♂️

Lizard1977

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#3435212 17-Nov-2025 13:08

Thanks for all the input everyone. In the end I just bit the bullet and bought the Asus ROG Strix 27" 4k monitor for $599 at PB Tech's Black Friday sale. Like so many things I could (and often did) deliberate endlessly, trying to find the perfect fit. I think this will do nicely, even if not perfectly. 27" is a step up in size, the 4k resolution is good and the panel looks to tick a lot of boxes. I won't be building the PC for a few weeks, and I'm going to save the new monitor for the new PC for maximum enjoyment - so I look forward to seeing how nice it all looks when it's complete.

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#3435214 17-Nov-2025 13:19

Lizard1977:

Thanks for all the input everyone. In the end I just bit the bullet and bought the Asus ROG Strix 27" 4k monitor for $599 at PB Tech's Black Friday sale. Like so many things I could (and often did) deliberate endlessly, trying to find the perfect fit. I think this will do nicely, even if not perfectly. 27" is a step up in size, the 4k resolution is good and the panel looks to tick a lot of boxes. I won't be building the PC for a few weeks, and I'm going to save the new monitor for the new PC for maximum enjoyment - so I look forward to seeing how nice it all looks when it's complete.

I would use the monitor straightaway. it won't decrease your enjoyment! in fact it will increase your enjoyment as you get the new PC build. there are a few set ups to do. it won't work 100% out of the box.

just make sure you get the settings right. the windows default settings are terrible. so are the monitor default settings - someone on the internet would have reviewed the monitor and come up with suggestions on settings.

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#3435332 17-Nov-2025 16:06

Nice, enjoy. I’d would at least take it out of the box and test it, but I think pbtechs returns have gotten quite decent as of late.

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