[RagingPapist]

Hi everyone. I’ve had my eye on the LG GN850 that was shown at CES since the reveal. Its rumored to arrive around May and allegedly has appeared in Chinese shops already. The panel is a refresh of the LG 34GK950F but should be 165Hz I think. The main thing that I like about the monitor is that it is supposed to be g-sync compatible–officially.

I know that that there is a 120Hz LG panel that has the g-sync module, but the consensus seems to be that the Freesync version is simply better. Should I buy the current LG 34GK950F-B (paired with my lowly nvidia 1060) or wait for the 165Hz refresh in a few months?

My concerns are that the upcoming monitor will have official nvidia support drivers since its officially compatible which is great, but the increase in Hz could put the monitor over $1K which is out of my price range. If the current Freesync version is adequate with nvidia cards, (no brightness flickers, etc) then should I just purchase that one even though its not officially supported?

The reason why I don’t buy the 120Hz gsync version is because I dont like the idea of marrying myself to a gpu team.

[PCM2]

Hi RagingPapist and welcome,

Given the global situation and LG’s recent track record with their ‘Nano IPS’ panels (which hasn’t been great in terms of supply, even before this pandemic) I think it’s unlikely we’ll see the 34GN850 in May. Certainly not in any meaningful quantities. A few of their recent products taped out in limited quantities and went away again for several months before entering mass production and actually being easy to get hold of. There isn’t even an official product page up for the product up, hence no no news piece from us yet.

With an Nvidia GTX 1060 you are going to get little to no benefit from a 165Hz refresh rate. Which content do you expect to run at over 144fps at the 3440 x 1440 resolution? 🙂 There is some room for pixel response improvements as well, but most users would find the 34GK950F just fine in that respect. Because the 34GK950F was released and we reviewed it before the Nvidia ‘G-SYNC Compatible’ drivers, we weren’t able to test it ourselves. But I’ve had plenty of users confirm that it works just fine, so I’m pretty confident it does. People are more likely to complain than praise as well and so far people seem to have been perfectly happy with ‘G-SYNC Compatible Mode’ on the monitor.

P.S. I had to change several instances of “htz” in your post to the correct unit which is “Hz”. Not a big deal, just something to remember for the future.

[RagingPapist]

Thank you very much. Your review of the LG 34GK950F was phenomenal, so I think I’ll give that one a go. I mostly play Paradox strategy games, so nothing terribly demanding on the monitor. The 1060 should be enough on that panel until “Big Navi” or Ampere come out at the end of the year. There definitely is a lack of g-sync issues stated from people, which leads me to agree with you that there truly must be few issues associated with gsync.

Thanks much!

[PCM2]

My pleasure, I’m glad you liked the review. If you do go for the monitor your thoughts here would be very welcome. 🙂

[PCM2]

We’ve now published a news piece on the 34GN850. I still don’t expect to see a wide release for some months yet, although some degree of availability is expected over the next month or so. Really tricky to predict and perhaps I’m being overly sceptical, I’ve just seen too many token releases from LG without any real ‘at scale’ manufacturing for several months after the initial burst.

[PCM2]

Now RTINGS has published their review of the 34GN850, it’s clear that there have been some positive improvements to pixel responsiveness over the 34GK950F. The latter was certainly not slow, but it did have some more pronounced ‘powdery trailing’ in some cases that I’d hope for from a Nano IPS panel. The GN850 speeds things up and will cut down on this sort of thing and should be able to make good use of its 160Hz refresh rate. There were some concerns it may do this but end up dropping contrast a bit, as seen on other Nano IPS models such as the 27GL850 and 38GL950G. Fortunately that isn’t the case and the contrast is similar to its predecessor.

It’s worth remembering that it’s an Adaptive-Sync model rather than one with a native G-SYNC module. So you don’t get the variable overdrive advantage you do on something like the Dell AW3420DW. With that model you can use the same pixel overdrive setting for a broad range of refresh rates and not have to worry about switching things up for say ~100Hz+ (~100fps+) vs. ~60Hz (~60fps). With even the new LG you’d have to turn down the overdrive to get rid of overshoot. According to the RTINGS review, though, the recommendation is just to stick with the ‘Normal’ overdrive setting (the next setting down is ‘Off’) and stomach this overshoot. It’s pretty strong in places and the pixel responses using the ‘Off’ setting seem decent enough for lower refresh rates (certainly ~60Hz), so if you’re sensitive to overshoot I feel the ‘Off’ setting would be a good fallback for those refresh rate dips. If you’re sensitive to overshoot and don’t want to have to change the overdrive yourself for different games or situations, that’d be a good reason to consider the Dell instead.

Update 29/09/2020: LG has another model listed on their website, the 34GP83A (34GP83A-B owing to black back). But it appears identical to the 34GN850 aside from minor tweaks to aesthetics at the rear. Discussed in this post.

Update 02/04/2021: LG’s 2021 model, the 34GP950G, is covered later in this thread and further discussions on that one are welcome here. It ups the refresh rate to 180Hz, includes a G-SYNC module (G-SYNC Ultimate) alongside VESA DisplayHDR 600 support.

[RagingPapist]

Thank you for the update. Since I purchased a refurbished unit of the 34GK950 I can still return the monitor through this month, and I will likely be doing so to pick up the improved 34GN850. The 34GK950 was excellent overall, but my unit suffers from display port bugs such as black screens when waking. Additionally, I recently noticed a “brightness flicker” but only when playing the game Stellaris. After doing extensive gaming on the monitor with gsync enabled and not seeing it, I can only assume that the reason I can see the flicker is due to the black and grey background of the game which unfortunately helps your eye see the brightness flicker. If the game has any kind of color, I could not see the flicker.

The monitor has also been excellent for home office use. The 34″ panel really allows for multiple documents to be on the screen at once which is critical to my work and all writing is very legible.

[PCM2]

Sounds like a good plan to me. Your post reminded me, too, that quality control was an area I hope has improved with the 34GN850. Time will tell, but either way it sounds like your monitor is a “must return” so you might as well go for the new one. I think you’ll very much enjoy the experience if you get a good unit and I welcome your thoughts if you do go for it.

[Franky]

I’m also interested in the new LG 34GN850 (I actually ordered one, should arrive next week). Could you elaborate which panel this new monitor uses? Its predecessor uses the LM340UW5. Does the LG 34GN850 have a new panel or the same (but improved)? I’m just curious.

[PCM2]

It uses a different panel, most likely the LM340UW6. I look forward to your thoughts when it arrives.

[Franky]

I just received the new LG 34GN850. Before, I used the Asus ROG SWIFT PG348Q for more than 3 years. The new LG has no dead pixels and a good black uniformity. He has less backlight bleed than the Asus. Well, the Asus PG348Q is by no means a bad monitor (he is actually quite good), but the LG is better in every aspect: overall picture quality, colours, gaming performance and immersion. The SDR picture quality of the 34GN850 is superb. One thing I have to admit: the HDR is the only bad aspect of the LG. I tested HDR with several games (Hitman 2), and frankly I don’t like the effect at all. I prefer SDR gaming.

I don’t know if the 34GN850 is better than the LG 34GK950F, but I think so (because of refresh rate etc.)

[PCM2]

Thanks for the feedback Franky, I’ve received quite a lot of positive feedback on the 34GN850 now and I feel it’s the more solid choice out of the two. Unless you manage to find the older model at a significant comparative discount. Very good to see you’re enjoying the SDR experience so much and found it a nice upgrade from the PG348Q, which as you ay is by no means a bad monitor. Basic HDR performances like that offered by the LG are really quite a compromise, enhanced contrast and effective local dimming is essential for a ‘proper’ HDR experience. Without that you’re just left with high brightness and some ‘flooded’ looking dark scenes., at least on the contrast side. It kind of destroys the experience for many people and they’d find SDR preferable for the better depth and atmosphere.

[Verolox]

Sorry guys, I have to jump into this conversation real quick.

I am also currently deciding between both LG models, and there is one big thing I am concerned of: Black Frame Insertion.
Now as I have read in the rtings review, the newer 34GN850 does not come with black frame insertion while the older 34GK950F (and even the G variant) has BFI. My biggest requirement for my next gaming monitor is having as less motion blur as possible, and I am now worried that the lack of BFI on the GN850 kills the overall better specs of it. Otherwise, it would be a nobrainer and pretty simple for me to just go with the GN850, because except black frame insertion it’s just an improvement in every single spec over the older one. What do you guys think of this thought? Is the lack of BFI a big concern in terms of motion blur/Ghosting, or is this compensated by the higher pixel response time of the GN850 vs the Gk950F?

Also, PCM2, can you explain this part to me?

It’s worth remembering that it’s an Adaptive-Sync model rather than one with a native G-SYNC module. So you don’t get the variable overdrive advantage you do on something like the Dell AW3420DW. With that model you can use the same pixel overdrive setting for a broad range of refresh rates and not have to worry about switching things up for say ~100Hz+ (~100fps+) vs. ~60Hz (~60fps). With even the new LG you’d have to turn down the overdrive to get rid of overshoot.

I don’t fully understand. So you’re saying, while using the adaptive sync (in my case: gsync) on the GN850, you can not control the overdrive mode?

Thanks for your help guys!

[PCM2]

Hi Verolox,

I don’t really like RTINGs use of the terminology ‘BFI – Black Frame Insertion’ to describe strobe backlight settings. Technically BFI is an old software technique that was used to literally insert black-coloured frames in between actual frames. It was far less effective than the actual hardware-based method of using a strobe backlight, hence why it isn’t used any more.

The LG 34GN850 lacks such a feature, but it’s hardly surprising LG dropped it. You can read my thoughts on the feature in the 34GK950F review. It’s a very poorly implemented feature, creating significant strobe crosstalk in the centre of the screen that makes things very uncomfortable to look at (subjective) and hampers motion clarity (objective). Furthermore, there’s a bright red or magenta rim to the initial trail due to the phosphors used on the backlight – this is a common issue for many wide gamut models when using strobe backlight settings. Strobe backlight settings can be a nice addition in some cases, but on the 34GK950F the setting just has too many drawbacks to be considered viable by most.

I did not mean that you can’t control the pixel overdrive setting on the LG 34GN850. Quite the opposite. I said it lacks variable overdrive, which is a feature found on G-SYNC modules (which this doesn’t have) whereby the monitor automatically re-tunes its pixel overdrive to a broad range of refresh rates. This is important because the level of pixel overdrive required at ~144Hz is very different to much lower refresh rates. So if you use such aggressive voltage surges there, you get ever-increasing levels of overshoot corresponding with frame rate drops. This is explained with examples in the FreeSync section of our 34GK950F review, by the way. I appreciate the term is a confusing one and should probably be called ‘automatic overdrive’ or something, but it was Nvidia who specifically named this. On the 34GN850 you can use the ‘Off’ setting to get rid of the overshoot (you can adjust this, it isn’t greyed out), but then the pixel response times are weaker and you get more conventional trailing. It’s still reasonably fast, so not terrible if you have to do this. But it’s nicer having the monitor re-tune things itself and balance fast pixel responses and relatively low overshoot across a broad range of refresh rates.

[uncia]

Verolox, I’ve been searching for a new monitor for ages now. I’ll chime in my two cents, even if it might not be worth even that.

LG has been working to improve responsiveness with their new Nano IPS panels, but doing this has also caused reduced contrast and black levels that just irk even those used to IPS panels. So the second wave of these, including in the 34GN850, have been refined a bit. The user reviews I see mention much better black levels, improved contrast, and far, far less IPS glow. It’s still there, but from what I’ve seen it’s better than any other 34″ curved IPS monitor before it. Your mileage may vary.

That’s the good of the new panels coming out from LG. The bad is that they don’t really lend themselves to the strobe backlighting. They already have such quick pixel responsiveness, for IPS panels, and the overdrive no doubt has something to do with this. That means they’re pushed to their very limit. Trying to introduce something like strobe backlighting just conflicts with what LG has done with this technology. It doesn’t seem compatible and may not be in the near future. Meanwhile, due to the very fast panel characteristics, many users consider it a moot point. Unless you’re gaming at such high framerates it’s going to truly make a difference, and your eyes and/or reflexes are just that good, it’s not something you’ll miss. I had the 27GL850, and it had great pixel responsiveness and handling of FreeSync, if that’s of any interest. I can’t push out over 144 fps with my video card anyway, but I am of the age where I remember getting 30 fps was good enough for gaming. People are asking for higher and higher levels of performance these days, and manufacturers are having to make tradeoffs. Higher refresh rates and pixel responsiveness means lower contrast and loss of strobe backlighting. That’s not so much my opinion but the consensus of reviewers out there. I probably read too many of them.

I doubt anyone will be disappointed in day to day use of these monitors, as far as how fast the are. The contrast ratio is probably the most complained about issue. I’d like to try the 34GN850 myself. I’ve waited so long that I’m willing to try something that expensive at this point. Yet they’re not in stock on Amazon, and the price point is higher than they debuted as. So I’ll wait. I’m not sold on the curved panels either, but with such a wide screen it might not bother me. It’s slightly less curved than many competitors, which is a positive in my view. The 1000R curve Samsung is coming out with just boggles the mind. Who asked for this? Isn’t it obvious to these companies that the users are not kids who want to game 24/7 but employed adults who want a versatile monitor that can be used for work and play? To go from graphics design, video, or photography to gaming without having to sacrifice much is the dream. I’ve currently given into using two monitors in a pinch, to get through the whole pandemic as I have to work at home at times. The second monitor is a newer IPS made for photography, and it’s awful for everything else. It’s colors are great, and it has good viewing angles without color shift, but does it ever suffer otherwise. Even watching video on it makes you feel like something is just … off. It’s that lacking in smoothness of pixel response. 60Hz IPS is not a happy thing. I’ve got an ancient IPS with CCFL, and somehow it’s worlds ahead of the modern IPS panel in this regard. 75Hz might help, but there’s just something about the more color-accurate technology used. So I’m hopeful something like the Nano IPS technology LG is developing will help bridge the divide. To have something I can do everything on without having to feel like I’m making sacrifices would be nice. 34 inches seems like a great option to get rid of the need multiple monitors at the same time.

I’ve probably rambled on for too long here. Site owner, feel free to edit as needed. I’ve been working too long of hours lately, and I tend to get a bit long winded when tired.

[PCM2]

No need for any edits, Uncia – your input here is appreciated. LG are really struggling with stocking their new models in good numbers. It seems they’re only available for short periods of time and sold in relatively small batches, with long waits between batches. And some yet to be released models seem to have been delayed without a certain release date. The 27GN950 comes to mind.

I certainly think curved screens are quite agreeable on UltraWide screens – not necessarily extreme curves, but 1900R as with these models looked at here is just fine. Or even 1500R curves as found on some competing VA models. I always encourage people to judge that aspect for themselves, on the desk. They’re usually surprised by how easy it is to adapt to the curve. It’s massively exaggerated in images and videos of any monitor. When you’re talking about the 1000R curve of the Samsung models it’s fair to say things have probably been pushed too far for many. The curve is perhaps too in your face and more difficult for some to adapt to, if they even want to be made to adapt to it at all. It’s made even stranger on the Samsung models by the fact the curve is significantly steeper towards the edges than centrally. I recall a Korean source reporting via a Samsung engineer that for the C49RG90 it was actually more a 1800R curve at the very centre and closer to 800R towards the edges – the mind boggles.

[Verolox]

Wow guys, thanks for this fast and substancial input!

Regarding the backlight strobing:
After reading your review, I got one big question: Is it true, that the Motion Blur Reduction Strobing can not be operated while using adaptive sync (gsync in my case)? Cause if there is one thing I don’t want to miss, it is adaptive sync. So if it’s true that the strobing does not work while using gsync, it is worthless for me anyways, I won’t enable screen tearing due to fps/hz being out of sync for a MBR Mode.
In general it seems like every Motion Blur Reduction mode/strobing of any given panel of any given manufacturer on the market does not work while using adaptive sync, right????
Now back to to the strobing on the 34GK950F: I also read that it only works at 120 Hz or 144 Hz, and when using it while the monitor is refreshing at 120 Hz you get this awful looking strobe crosstalk you mentioned, PCM2, don’t you? To be honest, I am not quite sure how strobe crosstalk looks, but if I looked that up correctly, it looks like the moving object is doubled? I’m not sure but I guess this is even worse than a little motion blur.

Now to the GSync module:
So when having a gsync module (hardware) and gsync turned on, the gsync module not only controls the refreshrate of the monitor, but also the overdrive setting, always choosing the best overdrive mode at a given refresh rate to get the best response time and as less overshoot as possible, right?
Now without a gsync module and gsync turned on (via “gsync compatible” setting), the refreshrate still is being synced with the fps of the game, but the overdrive setting remains static? So when I switch from a game which I just played at 110-130 fps/hz and with lets say “faster” overdrive because it gave the best pixel response time and overshoot results to a game which I will probably only play at 50-70 fps/hz, I have to change the overdrive setting by myself (lets say because overdrive=normal would be the best at this refresh rate)? So in the end I always have to change the overdrive manually when playing different games at different fps?

@ uncia
In terms of curvature I am not worried about any of the modern ultrawides. I’ve tested them in a local store and everything between 1500R and 2500R is fine for me. I do agree, the 1000R curvature of Samsungs Odessey models is odd, especially on a 16:9 aspect ratio screens. Anyways, that’s not the point right here.
Youre pretty much saying what I am thinking: Every modern ultrawide, especially those from LG, will probably be fine and I would probably not even notice the difference between a few ms of response time, input lag or a few digits on other specs like contrast ratio or brightness. However, I am about to pay a lot of money for my next (and first) ultrawide gaming monitor, and at these price points of nearly 1000$ I am not willing to accept any major tradeoffs or compromises.

And that pretty much sums up my superior concern: Value per money. Right now I have the opportunity to get my hands on a 34GN850 for “just” 800$. Alternatively I can get the 34GK950F for around 600$. I am convinced that the GN850 is better because it’s pretty much the next generation of the GK950, but I am not too if this upgrade is worth 200$. If the MBR can somehow do the trick as good as the faster response time of the GN850 i might just go for the GK950 and save these 200$, but this depends on the questions I mentioned above.
I sometimes even think about saving even more money and going for a better value pick with VA Panels like the MSI MPG341CQ(R) or the AOC AG352UCG6 or even ASUS’s PG348Q. Of course they are not as good as the LG ones, but are the LGs worth double the money and far more important: Would I even notice?

[PCM2]

That’s correct, you can’t use the strobe backlight (or most strobe backlight modes) with Adaptive-Sync active. The only exception to this is ASUS with their ‘ELMB Sync’ technology, but that’s pretty hit and miss and usually quite poorly optimised in terms of strobe crosstalk as well. It’s still nice to have the flexibility to have both technologies active so kudos to them for introducing the feature – it would be nice for others to follow and for it to be refined a bit more. On most models, including the LG, it’s either MBR (strobe backlight) or Adaptive-Sync – not both at the same time. And unless you have the frame rate matching the refresh rate exactly, you’re going to see obvious stuttering. Very obvious because there’s little perceived blur due to eye movement to mask it – it stands out in a very obvious way. You should definitely set aside some time to read the relevant sections of the review which covers MBR. Because you still seem attracted to the feature and quite frankly shouldn’t be. It’s really quite flawed in many respects, has very limited utility as implemented on the 34GK950F and it’s quite clear why LG decided to simply drop it from the newer model. The strobe crosstalk occurs at 144Hz as well and this is clearly demonstrated with the pursuit photographs in the review, as shown below and discussed in the review. There are distinct repetitions of the object- this is strobe crosstalk and it can be visually quite uncomfortable when the repetitions are as bold as they are in this case. Add in flickering and loss of Adaptive-Sync and it’s clear why few would use the setting here.

Your understanding regarding G-SYNC modules with variable overdrive vs. ‘G-SYNC Compatible Mode’ without and the practical implementations is entirely correct. 🙂 The 34GN850 is a bit better in this respect because the pixel response times are natively quicker and the ‘Off’ setting is actually quite respectable for lower refresh rates. Certainly more so than on the 34GK950F where some of the pixel responses are significantly weaker than optimal even for 60Hz or so. But it’s all relative – compare those pixel responses to the VA models you’ve mentioned and that some that are covered in this thread and the 34GK950F is fast. It simply doesn’t have the same distinct weaknesses or ‘smeary’ trailing to the same degree for those high contrast transitions.

[Verolox]

Sounds good to me that I finally got the right understanding regarding the G-Sync module 🙂

I also saw that picture of yours with the MBR comparison, and I absolutely love the way the UFO looks on the AOC AG251FG with ULMB on, it’s extremely sharp and there’s almost no visible trailing. However, this is presumably due to the TN Panel of the AOC, right?
I know you just told me, but just to make sure: The ULMB on the AOC can’t be operated with adaptive sync simultaneously just like every or most strobing on other brands monitors, right?

But yeah, you’re right, I am still quite attracted to the MBR Modes because I just feel like the images (in most cases: the UFOs) just look razor sharp with MBR on, and that’s what I am mainly looking for when spending so much money. But deep inside me, I also know that there is no perfect display with no motion blur :/

So after all what I’ve said and what I’ve asked, If you were in my position what monitor would you get?
34GK950 for 600$
34GN850 for 800$
Or even save more money and get a cheaper VA? Which one?

My absolute favourite would be the LG 38GL950, but this thing is just way to expensive at 1400$, not even used ones are available yet. And I think even with my RTX 2080 I couldn’t use its refresh rate of up to 144 (175 for the non G variant) on a resolution of 3840×1600 .

[PCM2]

The AG251FG is a G-SYNC monitor with G-SYNC module and ULMB is an Nvidia-specific technology – so it doesn’t have ‘Adaptive-Sync’. But you can’t use G-SYNC and ULMB simultaneously, no. Some models have quite decent strobe backlight modes and don’t have TN panels. The ViewSonic XG270 springs to mind here, but there are others (no UltraWides I could name, mind).

With that price and indeed difference it honestly makes the 34KG950F quite appealing, but you’d need to weigh things up for yourself. I do think my overall recommendation is very clear, and that’s the 34GN850 – but that doesn’t necessarily apply if there’s a $200 price difference in play. I do feel the IPS-type UltraWides are worth paying more for in your case, since it’s clear you value decent motion clarity.

[Author]

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