32" LG UltraGear 2560x1440 QHD 165Hz FreeSync Premium VA Gaming Monitor Expired

Comment from "DeyEatDaPooPoo" on 8/6/21 at 7:39AM

https://slickdeals.net/f/15111436-32-lg-ultragear-32gn600-b-aus-2560x1440-qhd-165hz-freesync-va-gaming-monitor-249-free-shipping?page=6#commentsHeader


"Hey there!

I'm typing this on it so I did keep it, and probably will for a long while. Its main flaws have to do with the horrible factory calibration and settings used and are easy to fix if you can spare 10-15 mins. The difference before and after is night and day, if I'm honest. Here's the things I would recommend for getting good picture quality and accuracy out of it:

1st thing is do not enable HDR: it makes the image quality worse, not better. It makes the image more cloudy, with worse contrast and almost "smeared". 2nd thing would be go to game adjust, black stabilizer, and set it to zero. That is an absolutely garbage "feature" that destroys the black levels and grayscale performance and makes text blurrier and harder to read. It causes a lot of eyestrain.

3rd would be to adjust a bunch of settings. Set Game Mode to Gamer 1, then Contrast to 70, Sharpness to 50, Color Temp to Custom, Red to 47, Green to 49, Blue to 50, and make sure DFC is off. For Gamma and Brightness it is going to depend on what you're looking for. If you're looking for maximum accuracy set Gamma to Mode 2 and Brightness as low as you can tolerate. If you want good accuracy with a more vibrant image set Gamma to Mode 1 and Brightness to a level the image looks rich without being overblown and will be enough for the amount of lightning you have. I chose 45 as my happy medium.

If you have an Nvidia GPU make sure to go to the Nvidia Control Panel, adjust image settings, and lower brightness from the default to +40%. This will improve the contrast and grayscale performance quite a bit, and remove the remaining bit of cloudiness from the image.

The grayscale performance and blacks/contrast are very impressive. That combined with the size makes watching or reading content with darker tones very immersive. The black levels crush all the IPS monitors I've had in the past.

Response time is very good, just not as good as the best IPS panels. It hits its advertised 165Hz refresh rate at a 5ms response time and overshoot error is very acceptable at 9.7% with dark overshoot being 0% according to rting's review of the panel.

I'd say it's a great buy for regular tasks, gaming or watching content as long as you can take 15 mins to tweak the settings and have the space for it and you're okay with the lack of adjust-ability of the stand. The one good thing about the stand is that while it takes up a good amount of space it is very sturdy, the monitor does not wobble whatsoever. I'm very happy with mine and definitely won't be returning it. Just don't get it if you're looking to do anything that requires a wide color gamut (in photo or video editing for example) or need something with very wide horizontal viewing angles as there is noticeable contrast shift when it's viewed from an over a 40 degree wide angle or so, though I should stress it is still head and shoulders better in that aspect than most TN panels including all the ones I've had in the past. Vertical viewing angles are great, though.

After tweaking it you're left with a monitor that is a great size, has great color and contrast, great refresh rate, good response time and a mediocre stand and viewing angles. At under $300 it's an absolute steal in my book."​

Good monitor for the price.