LG UltraGear 27GX790A-B Review: High Refresh Rate for High FPS Gaming
Kids these days don’t know how good they have it. Back in my day, we had to play games on 60Hz LCD panels with gray-to-gray pixel response times you could measure with a stopwatch. And we liked it.
Today? You’ve got OLED monitors that not only reach a screaming fast refresh rate of 480Hz, but also have pixel response times so low they may as well be perfect. Monitors like the LG UltraGear 27GX790A-B, which especially if you want motion clarity, is one of the best displays ever produced.
Nearly perfect clarity in motion
The LG UltraGear 27GX790A-B can reach a refresh rate up to 480Hz at 2,560 x 1,440 resolution, and you'll find the same LG OLED panel in popular displays like the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDP. Some other monitors can hit 480Hz, but only at lower resolutions.
A refresh rate of 480Hz means the display can refresh up to 480 times each second, so you’ll see every frame in games played at up to 480 frames per second. That’s a lot of frames, and it means you’ll need a beefy gaming PC to wring every bit of value out of the monitor.
But if you have the hardware to truly render your favorite games at up to 480 frames per second, well, the motion clarity is mind-bending. I’ve tested LCD monitors with refresh rates up to 540Hz, but for my money, a 480Hz OLED like the 27GX790A-B is the true pinnacle of motion clarity. Tiny objects, small text, and low-contrast objects remain identifiable even when zipping across the screen in a few blinks of an eye.
The LG UltraGear 27GX790A-B also supports Adaptive Sync, plus official support for both NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. Most monitors that support any form of Adaptive Sync will work with all three standards, but it’s nice to see LG provide clear official support for all of them instead of sticking to one brand.
Resolution, color, and more
First, let’s talk resolution. The UltraGear 27GX790A-B has a native resolution of 2,560 x 1,440. That’s not bad! But for professional creative work, whether that’s video editing or digital art, you might want to wait for the first wave of 27-inch 4K 240Hz QD-OLED monitors, trading some Hz for resolution. The UltraGear 27GX790A-B’s color gamut was tested at 100% of sRGB, 96% of DCI-P3, and 90% AdobeRGB, while the Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27UCDM (higher resolution, lower refresh rate) achieved 100% of sRGB, 98% of DCI-P3, and 92% of AdobeRGB. That will make a difference for some more demanding professional creatives.
What about HDR? Here, I’d say the UltraGear 27GX790A-B is deadlocked with its closest rivals. While there are some minor fluctuations in peak brightness between monitors, these are difficult to notice in practice. OLED monitors are a great choice for experiencing HDR in PC games and much, much better than a conventional LCD display. The 27GX790A-B’s overall image quality is among the very best monitors ever produced.
A professional look for casual gamers
The LG UltraGear 27GX790A-B looks great in PC games and HDR movies, but it also looks good when it’s just sitting on your desk.
LG switched the UltraGear brand’s design language a couple years ago, ditching the older black-and-red look for a new black-and-purple design with hexagonal shapes across the stand and the rear of its monitors.
This makes for a look that’s cohesive, but subtle. While the 27GX790A-B has a bit of gaming flair, it also won’t look out of place on most desks. The stand provides a wide range of ergonomic adjustment, too, yet doesn’t take up much space.
The 27GX790A-B’s connectivity includes two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 2.1 for a total of three video inputs, which is typical for a gaming monitor. The monitor does have two downstream USB-A ports (which are driven by a USB-B upstream cable) as well as a 3.5mm audio-out jack, but it doesn’t have USB-C, which isn't exactly standard yet for displays, but should be.
Speaking of audio, the 27GX790A-B doesn’t have speakers. That’s common for a gaming monitor, but worth keeping in mind.
The LG UltraGear 27GX790A-B is a fantastic monitor for PC gamers who own a powerful gaming rig and want to experience the very best motion clarity available today. It’s a buttery-smooth, nearly blur-free experience. But with 4K 240Hz OLED starting to show up, this model is more narrowly focused on competitive gamers willing to trade resolution for a 480Hz refresh rate.
Read more: Gaming
- Monster Hunter Wilds: What PC Specs Do You Need to Run the Game?
- Sid Meier's Civilization VII: What PC Specs Do You Need to Run the Game?
- Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2: What PC Specs Do You Need to Run the Game?
- Warhammer 40,000 Space Marine 2: What Specs Do You Need to Run the Game?
- Building the Ultimate Family Gaming PC
- How to Build Your Own Custom Mechanical Keyboard
Matthew S. Smith is a prolific tech journalist, critic, product reviewer, and influencer from Portland, Oregon. Over 16 years covering tech he has reviewed thousands of PC laptops, desktops, monitors, and other consumer gadgets. Matthew also hosts Computer Gaming Yesterday, a YouTube channel dedicated to retro PC gaming, and covers the latest artificial intelligence research for IEEE Spectrum.
