LG 32GK850G-B 32" QHD Gaming Monitor with 144Hz Refresh Rate and NVIDIA G-Sync

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There were some reviews that the monitor gets hot at the bottom. The reviewers made it sound like the plastic would melt from the heat. The monitor gets a little warm, but nothing to be concerned about. The reviews of the monitor getting hot almost caused me not to buy the monitor! That would have been a mistake. This monitor is great and at the price point of a little under 600.00 you cant go wrong. I havent had to deal with customer service because I have no issues with this monitor. Everything works as its supposed to. There arent any dead pixels, and the picture is beautiful. I did have a little trouble setting G-Sync, but that was fixed by restarting my computer. If your on the sideline about buying, youll be happy to know that this is a good purchase. A final note. This isnt the first 165MHZ monitor I bought. I had to send back an ACER monitor due to hardware failure. I was somewhat concerned of ending up with another defective monitor, with poor customer service. I am glad I made this purchase, plus I saved close to $300 over my last purchase.

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Disclaimer: I have had this monitor for a week This monitor is HEAVY, the package weighed 28lbs. No dead pixels upon arrival, paired flawlessly with G-sync, comes with a display port cable, hdmi cable, and other essentials. The stand moves vertically up and down, the monitor can turn left and right, and rotate on the stand in a 360 degree fashion. 144hz is truly a spectacle to behold; 60hz cannot even compare anymore. My gaming abilities have jumped significantly just having that extra refresh rate and better resolution. I have paired this with a GTX970....and it holds its own okay so far. Rocket League and CS:GO worked 130-144fps no problem....the Witcher 3....struggles a little more but holds 60+fps with the right settings turned down. The one thing I dont like so far: the ambient backlighting doesnt turn off when the monitor turns off/goes to sleep....thats kinda annoying and a seemingly easy software fix to implement. Why would I want the LED on if im not there? Picture below shows an xbox one controller for scale. I upgraded from a 27in monitor....and 5 inches is a pretty big difference....youll need to sit a little further away than a 27in monitor to not have colors look a little grayed out. One thing I definitely do no notice: any color different from IPS to VA. The contrast levels stick out immensely though. If I force myself to look hard, I may be able to see that the IPS monitor would have a little more saturated colors, but the tradeoff for the sharper contrast is fantastically worth it.

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Prior to receiving this monitor I had tried the LG 34GK950G ultrawide which is an IPS screen and then a replacement, and then the replacement was bad too with lots of glow. I decided to just try a regular 16:9 monitor this time and I wish I would have done that to begin with. This monitor is amazing, 144hz or 165hz with an OSD overclock, no dead pixels, screen looks very uniform, no glow (which I have learned I am apparently super sensitive to), nice bias lighting ring around the back. VA panels supposedly smear but I have noticed none. It feels just as snappy as my TN monitor. Blacks look black which is more than the ultrawide could do. Colors arent as "poppy" but its a major upgrade over my 144hz acer TN panel. Monitor is still pretty new, I will update if anything changes for the worse.

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I like the 32" size. Im coming from a 60hz 4K IPS so the image quality was a little downgrade but the 144hz smoothness in games is cool and most important helps my performance. This was my first foray into the 144hz scene. I was thinking I should have gotten the FreeSync because apparently now G-Sync and FreeSync are the same thing to nVidia cards. The lighting on the back is cool. Although you have to manually turn it off when you shut everything down. I wish the lighting would turn off with the computer turning off. The crosshair feature is awesome. When using the Hades with crossbar operator mod in hardcore mode in Black Ops 4 you can setup the crosshair to know exactly where to aim. I used to put painters tape on my monitor screen but that was annoying cutting out a small piece and finding the direct center of the screen.

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Alright, first of all, the elephant in the room. Well... one of them. This is a bit too large for most desks, making it so that you need to dart your eyes around quite a bit during gameplay which can lead to eye strain. I noticed this the first day, actually, and have ordered a wall mount for this unit to get around that as much as I can. I noticed that by moving back even 6 or so inches helped quite a bit. The other issue is that yes, this is a VA panel and not an IPS panel. Coming from a 4k IPS panel I definitely noticed that the colors were not as strong, and there is noticeable color shift at off angles. However... The good parts - Playing games felt really fun. I felt like I was in the game, and I noticed that in FPS my hands were roughly equivalent to the size of my character in the game, so it draws you in. This is due to the large size of the panel. G-sync works amazingly well. I have noticed no stutter coming from my older panel, which stuttered a lot. Part of this is because of my system specs, but if you can run 2k at higher than 60fps you will get something out of this panel. I thought Id have to run certain games at lower settings to gain a benefit, but at high 80s or 90s I noticed absolutely no input lag along with incredibly smooth gameplay (yes, some games are so poorly optimized that at ultra settings at 2k I ended up there). Games that I have tried - Apex legends -- this monitor is really spectacular and shines here. I noticed no eye strain playing Apex and was able to hit shots that I wouldnt have on my 60hz monitor. Dead by Daylight -- an un-optimized mess, where I got lower fps at higher settings, but the experience was still really quite nice. Playing as killer, especially, I felt like I was there. Playing as survivor I was able to hit skill checks slightly easier, and noticed that my input lag was completely non-existent. Killing Floor 2 - looks great, although with the large size of the screen it was slightly hard to see the hud. I have played this game so much I dont really need to look at the hud, anyway. Picture quality was strange, in that it didnt look great at first until I noticed how blacks the blacks were. The colors themselves are lackluster, but when paired with the deep blacks that this screen can achieve I was impressed. In some ways the picture quality beat out my IPS monitor. The bias light on the back is a nice add-on, but not powerful enough to see during the day. Im not really sure what effect it even has because I can barely see anything BUT the monitor currently. Maybe mounted against the wall I will gain more benefit. Where the inputs are located, however, will make it impossible for a flush mount, so I had to get an articulating arm mount. The cords that came with the monitor are also very stiff, so you may want to get a braided displayport cable. Oh, and I really wish that they had put the bezels on the side, because even though there isnt a bezel you can tell that there should have been one (you can see the curving of the LED which causes some distortion at the very edges). Thats about it. Id recommend this monitor, but only if you have enough space on your desk that you can sit back comfortably enough from it. Mine is currently slightly further than arms reach and it is still too close for comfort. However, back another 6 inches or so and I think it would be a really nice screen and great for gaming. If you play with a controller, and not keyboard and mouse, you would have the benefit of being able to sit back a little further and Id say go for it with the current configuration.

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After search high and low for the best monitor for my money i settled on this one. I was interested because the 32" seemed more immersive for movies and gaming then the 27" gaming monitors most go for and maxing 1440p interests me more then 4k. I would almost call this monitor too large since on my small not very deep desk I must sit close to it to use the keyboard and mouse well. Still its amazing and not bad at all after letting your eyes get use to it. Added a height extended monitor stand for one of my old monitors to sit tilted on top and works perfectly and saves space on the desk. Pros: Large immersive size, fair price, 144hz native with OC possible, Gsync Cons: Takes up large desk space, price while fair jumped up 40$ when I got then quickly returned to 650$.., Normal front control buttons would have been nice because the bottom wheel and pointer stick seem cheap and breakable, rear lights dont turn off when monitor enters sleep mode, once in awhile i notice the monitor on its own without any input brings up the monitors built in OSD showing the bottom options and current input channel for a few secs... Overall do i recommend buying this? Yes for the price and what currently being offered elsewhere its a great monitor. If only those few areas i pointed out were not issues this would have earned 5 stars easy.

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Edit (02/05/19): Ive owned this monitor for 3 months now. Ive had zero problems with it. It still works and looks great. I paired this monitor with a NVIDIA GeForce 2070 for gaming. For several years Ive been gaming on a 24" 1080p 60Hz monitor, and was curious what all the craze with high refresh rate monitors was, and to try out GSync. Higher refresh rate 4k monitors are new, and really really expensive, both for the monitor and the rig to utilize them, so I went with a 1440p monitor. Ive been blown away. I didnt think the move from 1080p to 1440p would be that drastic, but it has been. Also, when I first set the monitor to 165Hz, even moving the mouse in the Windows screen was a "woah" moment. The combination of the increase in resolution and higher refresh rate has made me feel like Ive been cheating myself in gaming the last few years that this technology has been out. If youve been on the fence about upgrading, I recommend it. I ordered this particular model over a similar Acer Predator, because this one doesnt have that gaudy design being pushed as "for gamers" that I noticed with almost all of the higher refresh rate "gaming" monitors. Even though this one was slightly more expensive, I felt it was worth it. The design of the monitor is sleek and professional. The build is very sturdy (no wobble except when youre moving it), moving the screen is smooth, and even though the screen can articulate 3 ways (without moving the base) it only moves when you want it to. At first glance, if youve been using a smaller monitor like me, youll notice that this thing is huge. It takes a while to get used to it, but you do. I would advise setting this monitor back 18-24 inches from your face, so you dont feel like youre sitting in the front row of the movie theater. The display port cable (that you need to use to utilize the higher refresh rates) that comes with the monitor is a little short, so you might need to purchase a longer one unless your computer tower sits close to the monitor. The installation software/driver CD is, like most hardware installation CDs, kind of crappy, but its easily fixed by visiting the LG website. To set up Gync, you have to enable it in the NVIDIA software screen that comes with the video card driver updates. To turn on the higher refresh rate for the monitor you have to enable it using the monitor settings screen, accessed by a joystick button on the bottom of the bezel. The monitor settings screen (what many call the OSD) will tell you when the higher refresh rate and Gsync is turned on; allow you to change response times and black correction levels for different kinds of gaming, movie watching, or for reading (low level blue light to reduce eye strain); change the brightness, contrast, and gamma; turn on/off a center screen target reticle, which can be red or green, and dot or cross; unfortunately there is no FPS counter in the menu. Navigating the menu and using the joystick button is easy. The button to the right of the menu button utilizes the LED bias lighting, or "sphere lighting" as described in the product review. The bias lighting works well and its meant to help reduce eye strain while looking at a bright screen in a dark room. You can turn it on/off, change the color (red, blue, green, cyan, different kinds of white, and rainbow), and the brightness. Upon testing the panel for imperfections and dead pixels, I couldnt find any. It was a huge sigh of relief because purchasing computer monitors can be a lottery. Thats another reason why I chose this monitor. Upon reading a lot of product reviews it seems VA panels have better quality control than similar gaming style IPS and TN panels. Across manufacturers, all IPS, TN, and VA panels are made by a select few companies, sometimes only one. The IPS panels are having a lot of problems with edge bleed, and I didnt want the infamous IPS glow, which makes dark scenes and contrast kind of crappy, even though IPS panels are supposed to be the best at color reproduction. TN panels are having a lot of problems with dead pixels, and I wanted better color reproduction and contrast than they offer. It seems I chose right, because this VA panel is awesome; no IPS glow, no edge bleed, no dead pixels, and the response time (4 or 5ms gray to gray) is fast enough that almost no one would notice it being faster (that TN panels offer). Sitting at least 18 inches away from the screen you wont notice a loss in quality along the left and right edges from the viewing angle being off, since this screen isnt curved. For gaming so far, Ive played The Witcher 3, Doom (2016 version), Path of Exile, and Heroes of the Storm, all on max settings at 1440p and 165Hz. The increase in resolution and refresh rate made the experience with all of them more enjoyable. The only stutter in gaming I saw was with The Witcher 3, and that was only because hair works was turned on (a huge drain on performance), even then the average FPS was still around 60. With hair works off it jumped 15-30 FPS and the intermittent stutter was gone. Even with the stutter, I noticed no screen tearing in any game, thanks to Gsync. Furthermore, Gsync made all the games, regardless of FPS, noticeably smoother. Beware that even though this monitor doesnt come with speakers, the provided software/driver will recognize it as having speakers, which can have your system switch to using them, which it did for mine, meaning I had no sound. I had to manually disable the ghost monitor speakers in the Windows settings back to my normal speakers to get sound again. Overall, I highly recommend this monitor for gaming if you pair it with a beefy enough NVIDIA card and overall computer system. For using it for office work or watching movies, it will definitely work and not be out of place, but it would definitely be overkill.

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Pros: * The response time on "Faster" setting is amazing! So amazing that it appears FASTER than IPS 4ms panels, and only slightly behind a 1ms TN panel. This is really an incredible feat, although it introduces overshoot I dont notice it ever. This alone is a reason to chose this monitor over any other VA 165Hz, which all seem to have smeary and slow response times. * The picture quality is great, colors pop and the contrast is better than any monitor Ive had. Darks look REALLY dark, not quite OLED but way beyond what other gaming panels offer. * The size is perfect! It doesnt take up much space (well, not as much as youd think a 32 inch monitor might!), plus at this size its equivalent to 24 inch 1080p -- an excellent balanced PPI which is best suited for use 2 to 4 feet away depending on your eyesight. 1 foot away the pixels are still an acceptable size but you can definitely tell that theyre there. Personally, this is no issue and I dont see any issues unless youre using it on a super small desk and sitting super close. * Excellent stand, super easy to construct! * The lighting system is a really nice touch. The LEDs can get quite bright, so it serves as additional lighting! Cons: * Can only fine-tune monitor settings on "Gamer 1" and "Gamer 2" profiles. The other profiles youre stuck with what LG chose! * Profiles dont save everything, only game adjust settings. Picture adjust is global. Overall this is hands-down the best gaming monitor as of Q3 2018.

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Display just died after 3 days of use. Did not knew LG QC is that bad. Good thing i can rescue of my experience is while working it was a really good monitor for gaming., 32inch in my taste is a very nice spot for 2560x1440 resolution, compared to 27" 2560x1440. All the media says VA panels has better contrast than IPS panels... i did not see any better contrast than my Asus PG279Q. Color wise... no match to IPS panels. If you like more vibrant colors, id suggest to look for a monitor with IPS panel as Asus PG279Q. Same for view angle. since this monitor is big size one (32inch), there is a big chance you will notice color changes on the borders compared to 27inch sizes. So if you bother this, same thing, look a monitor with IPS panel.

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This is for the LG 32GK850G Im really liking 1440P resolution at 32". Had a Asus 27" 1440P monitor and was having a hard time staying on target with BF1 and other shooters. I know you lose pixel density going from 27" to 32", but you hardly see it in the game. The benefit of finding and staying on target while shooting is well worth the little loss in pixel density. I did have a 27" 1080P monitor at one time and did not like the way 1080P looked on it. Images were too jagged. I was leary about getting a 1440P at 32", but my worries are all gone. Monitor also has a variety of dots that can display on screen one of which is a simple red dot. If you play FPS, you know how cool a feature this is. IPS vs. VA, Ill take VA thanks. I have both, VA is warmer and not as harsh on the eyes. I gave my IPS ROG ASUS 27" 1440 monitor to kid. Everyone is getting hung up on 4k 27" vs 32". I humbly believe 1440 at 32" is being overlooked as a serious gaming configuration.

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