The basic fundamentals are the same: this is a 27-inch 2560x1440 display using LG Nano IPS technology.
Same 98% DCI-P3 gamut coverage, same adaptive sync support withG-Sync and AMD FreeSync.
But there are three major additions that make this more than just a refresh.
First is the higher refresh rate.
It’s listed as a 165Hz monitor with an overclock up to 180Hz, up from 144Hz previously.
It’s still a medium-to-high refresh rate monitor, but a higher refresh rate is always better.
It’s still a 1ms class monitor according to LG, but just a “better” 1ms.
All of this is being offered at the same price as the 27GL850:$500.
The new monitor is scheduled to go on sale in the coming weeks in most regions.
In terms of design, this is your standard LG UltraGear monitor.
There’s also tilt and pivot support in case you want to use the monitor in a portrait orientation.
Display Performance
Time for the all important response time numbers and a look at panel performance.
LG offers four overdrive configs, and we’ll work our way through all of them.
First up we have performance in the Off mode, which is without overdrive.
Let’s increase the overdrive up to Fast.
However I also think that’s being a bit unfair to LG.
That could mean decent performance at 144Hz but severe inverse ghosting at 60Hz.
Average grey to grey performance, measured across the refresh range, is also an interesting story.
And as a reminder the Odyssey provides this performance without much dark level smearing.
At a fixed 120Hz, the 27GP850 is a very fast monitor and competes favorably with other displays.
It seems that most of the improvements made this generation are at higher refresh rates.
Input latency is very low.
And then with fast response times factored in, total latency is below 8ms.
This is about 30% better than the 27GL850 comparing best vs best.
Power consumption has decreased slightly across the generations.
Or you might run it without adaptive sync, which gives a more traditional experience.
I’ll start with performance without adaptive sync enabled.
However ultimately it doesn’t work very well.
The strobe itself isn’t a single strobe per frame, which causes strobe crosstalk at most refresh rates.
To compare this result to other monitors we can convert this result into Rec.
2020 coverage, with this color space being massive and much larger than P3.
Here we can see a good result for the 27GP850, with about 70% Rec.
2020 coverage being similar to many other displays that prioritize wide P3 color gamuts.
This allows the MSI monitor to also support full Adobe RGB coverage, which the 27GP850 does not.
Despite this, LG are still providing quite a wide gamut.
Factory calibration is average.
This led to a moderately high deltaE grayscale result.
This causes oversaturation as evidenced by what we’re seeing here.
When we compare this to other displays the results are mid-table for both ColorChecker and greyscale factory calibration.
This is one way to achieve more accurate results for everyday PC usage.
The next step is a full calibration, which we achieved using DisplayCAL.
The big story around LG’s Nano IPS panels has always been the contrast ratio.
Unfortunately, LG have not been able to shift the needle significantly with this new generation.
This means weak black levels and that may be a problem for those that prefer gaming in darker rooms.
Uniformity on my unit was good without being amazing, not too different from the 27GL850.
So I wouldn’t think of this as an HDR monitor in your buying decision.
Who Is It For?
LG continues to provide impressive monitors for the gaming market.
This has led to several improvements over the prior model.
Notably, response time performance is better.
While improving motion clarity and input latency, LG have kept pretty much everything else the same.
We do get higher brightness and a refreshed design though.
Full praise to LG for thinking of both gaming performance and color accuracy and executing well in both areas.
But how about value?
We do think the 27GP850 is a great monitor, but should you pay $500 for it?
However, it is a close call.
