[PCM2]

Hi aiven and welcome,

What a well-structured first post, that’s what I like to see.

As covered in our reviews of ~32″ ‘4K’ UHD monitors, the pixel density does allow you to enjoy the experience without requiring scaling. Some users might prefer to some scaling (potentially a small amount) depending on the viewing distance, eyesight and general preferences. But I am perfectly happy viewing without scaling on such models. And you’re sitting quite close to the monitor (<50cm) so I think this will work well for you. The pixel pitch of the other options (~40" UHD and 34" 3440 x 1440) are similar to your current 27" WQHD model, if you're happy with that you certainly won't want to go for a significantly lower pixel density but higher may well suit.

~32" is indeed a popular size for '4K' "professional monitors" designed for colour-critical work, although there are some 27" options and as long as you're looking at a decent IPS-type panel with a reasonable factory calibration and the features you want, it doesn't really if the monitor is marketed for your specific uses or not. So you can knock a few off your list such as the Philips BDM4037UW, LG 32UK550 and BenQ EW3270U. These models use VA panels with clear colour consistency issues and you will therefore perceived shades differently depending on which section of the screen you’re observing. Another key thing you need to consider is the colour gamut you use – your ASUS PA329Q offers an ~Adobe RGB colour gamut. Do you use and require this, specifically?

Also, be aware of how you can support our work if buying through Amazon.

[PCM2]

Any further assistance needed or anything to add?

[aiven]

Hello! Sorry for not replying earlier, I did a lot of comparaison and finally chose on a resolution/dimension.
I want to go with a 38″ @ 3840 x 1600. I want the same pitch as my current 27″ @1440p, I don’t want to scale up the UI.

The finalists on my list are:
LG 38GL950G (now available in pre-order at the end of July for 1800€) my favorite
LG 38WK95C (now in discount at 1090€)
LG 38UC99 (now in discount at 812€)

Since the prices of those monitors are quiet expensive, I want to make sure I have something I can be happy for the years to come.
Since I am developing a FPS game, I want to understand how having more than 60fps is an advantage.

Questions:
1. Now that nVidia drivers allows to run Freesync, do you think there is any advantage to take Gsync instead?
2. Do you think I will feel a benefit with 175hz vs 75hz?
3. Same question for NanoIPS vs regular IPS?

Since I have a professional usage of my monitor, I see this as an investment so I don’t care if I have to spend 1800€ for it but I don’t want to waste money stupidely.
Thanks for your feedback!

[PCM2]

Nice to hear back from you, aiven. Interesting direction for the thread as you’re now considering models which are 3840 x 1600 so not technically ‘4K’ (quite a bit short on vertical pixels and relative pixel density for that), but I can certainly see the attraction of the ~38″ UltraWides. To address your questions:

1) Yes, although not necessarily in this case (caveat being huge refresh rate differences). G-SYNC models use variable overdrive, which means that the pixel overdrive (grey to grey acceleration) is tuned for a huge range of different refresh rats. Adaptive-Sync (‘FreeSync’) models are just optimised for the highest refresh rate they support. And when your refresh rate dips (due to frame rate dips in the content), you get obvious overshoot (inverse ghosting). Some models are worse for this than others – refer to our recent high refresh rate FreeSync monitor reviews for more about this. As these FreeSync models only have a narrow variable refresh rate range (56 – 75Hz, I believe) you won’t really have this issue.

2) If your content runs at a suitably high frame rate, you will likely notice significantly lower perceived blur and an improved ‘connected feel’. Refer to our article on the topic. Not everybody is as sensitive to this as others, but most users I feel would be able to notice a difference comparing 75Hz to 175Hz. I generally think of this as somebody consuming rather than creating the content. But I guess you must also consume and test the content as a creator, so this difference would apply.

3) ‘Nano IPS’ is just the use of special enhanced phosphors to achieve a broader colour gamut. Nothing else changes. If your content is designed to be enjoyed by a broad audience, it’s usually sRGB that’s used as the colour space of preference. As that’s the highest standard most screens will currently support. The exception would be if HDR content is being created and that’s really where the wider colour gamut of the ‘Nano IPS’ technology comes into play and makes sense (with DCI-P3 typically the gamut of choice there rather than sRGB).

[Teapot]

Did you end up going for thie 27UK650?

So it is nearly a year since I first posted on here asking for help with selecting a 4k monitor.

I wanted to let you know I’ve finally stopped prevaricating and purchased the LG 27UK600 – it’s on offer for Prime Day, below £300 and £40 cheaper than the 650 and I feel I can live with the lack of height adjustment (and spend the money on a VESA mount if I really needed to).

Once It’s arrived and I’ve got my new 5700XT card in the system I’ll let you guys know how it works – it’s a place holder until better (and more affordable) 4k options come through (hopefully in a couple of years).

I continue to read the news articles with interest and the forums for the perceptive and invaluable advice.

I’ve used the purchase links from the site so hopefully that registers!

[PCM2]

Excellent – the perfect time to get off the fence then! I hope the monitor lives up to your expectations and everything I said about the monitor still very much applies even a year later. I look forward to your thoughts when it arrives and your new system is set up.

And yes the sale did register, your support is appreciated! 🙂

[Teapot]

An update on the LG 27UK600 – firstly aesthetics – not the most important element I know but although I didn’t realise it at the time – the monitor has a white back which looks pro and matches my white and black new computer build. The panel itself is really nice – no lip, almost invisible edges and to my eyes a nice balance of colour and brightness. I got no dead pixels and very little backlight IPS bleed.

The size is imposing at first, although you soon get used to it, but I’m pleased I went with 27inch rather than 32 – although I do use scaling (currently at 125%) to make things easier to see.

I’ve not played many games yet to test out responsiveness and freesync etc but the image is crisp and webpages etc really easy to use. I got a 5700xt so I’ll be interested to see how scaling might work to get more performance (rendering at a lower than native resolution and scaling up with the image sharpening software) and also for some of my older games that are not 4k compatible.

All in all it’s a massive upgrade on the 1080p displays I had in the Alienware laptop (now 5 years old!) and the old Benq 22inch monitor.

Thanks for all the advice!

[PCM2]

That’s great to see, thanks for sharing your intial impressions which seem very positive. I am a fan of the white and black combination myself (my PC tower is the same style). It’d be nice to see more monitors include this sort of combination rather than the ‘safer’ blacks, greys and silvers. With occasional flashes of brighter colour for gaming screens. 🙂

[Lala20]

In your opinion what would be the best overdrive setting to use with the LG UL650? will you do a review on the UK or UL model? would love to hear your thoughts

[PCM2]

No we won’t be, LG don’t have any samples available and we have a huge number of other (newer) models to look at. You should use whichever overdrive setting you’re most comfortable with and which works best to your eyes. If I recall correctly the ‘Normal’ setting is best balanced, although ‘Fast’ is alright (slightly faster, a bit of overshoot). The ‘Faster’ setting shows heavy overshoot so most users would want to avoid that.

[Lala20]

Oh, i see but thanks a lot for the explanations.
although i have one big concern with the LG UL650 it uses Display port 1.4 and my r9 290 has Display port 1.2
will i have any compatibility problems because of that?

[PCM2]

It simply means you can’t properly use the (fairly lacklustre) HDR capability of the monitor. Your GPU doesn’t offer the featureset necessary for HDR (beyond the simplest emulation type settings) as it lacks DP 1.4 or HDMI 2.0 or later port revisions. You’d still be able to properly use all other features of the monitor. The important ones.

[Mihle]

So I dont ask for as detailed answer as some others have gotten as I will list quite a few monitors that I have nailed it down to, and it will be 3 categories that I have to choose between myself in the end. I just ask for help/tips to eliminate worst ones from the list, dont spend too much time on me please as I wont be able to use your amazon links.
I have yet to decide size or budget I want.
I am also sort of concerned about all the bad things people say about VA panels….
I do both gaming and watching media, and is weak hobbyist photographer(weak as it I dont even know if I can be called a hobbyist with how much I do it).
So the ones in each category sort of fights against eachother while different categories I have to use personal wants I am not sure about in the end basically.
Some of them I have problems finding reviews of from anyone, yet alone from you.

27″ Monitors:
LG 27UK650
HP Envy 27s (Very few/no reviews)

32″ Not as expensive:
Benq EW3270U
Samsung U32H850(U) (Very few/no reviews)
Philips 326M6VJRMB
lg 32uk550
Philips 328E1CA

32″ Quite expensive:
LG 32UD99-W
Acer ProDesigner PE320QK

[PCM2]

I’ve merged your thread with a suitable existing topic. People say plenty of “bad things” about panels of all types. That’s human nature – they’re more likely to say bad than good. Don’t pay too much attention to people who might be trying to justify their own alternative purchase or are simply very vocal in giving their own subjective opinion with limited actual experience. Instead, place more trust in our unbiased and extremely comprehensive reviews which are free from purchase justification or one-sided sensationalism.

It’s easy to eliminate many of your options due to lack of reviews and various other reasons. Our own recommendations are very clear, and there is extra advice in this thread. A further look at some of the 31.5″ options can be found here, including the ‘expensive LG model’ you listed. I think the Philips 328E1CA would be well-suited to your uses and it offers a respectable performance in areas VA models are traditionally poor at (including responsiveness and colour consistency).

[Mihle]

Should I possibly get a 120€ monitor calibrator too? what do you think? (for the little bit of hobbyist photography)

And I just noticed that monitor can only do Freesync 48-60 instead of 40-60 that come others can, is that a problem?

[PCM2]

That’s entirely up to you. It’s your money and if you feel it would benefit your photography then by all means go for it. At the level you describe and how infrequently you do it I don’t really feel it would be worthwhile.

The FreeSync range being more limited may or may not be an issue. Broader is always better, but as you drop closer to 40fps on a 60Hz monitor you’ve then got a signficant increase in perceived blur and decrease in ‘connected feel’ to contend with, whether Adaptive-Sync is active and doing its thing or not. I’d aim to be as far away from that as possible and would aim to get >50fps most of the time and as close to 60fps as possible. Dips below that do happen, but then again so do dips below 40fps. That extra 8Hz of range is nice to have but not essential – it’s not something I’d spend too much time worrying about really.

[Mihle]

A person said to me that VA panels is slightly blurry compared to IPS, is that true?

[PCM2]

I’d advise you read the relevant section of the review where that is explored in detail. And compare to this (27″ IPS-type Philips). The 328E1CA is quite responsive as far as VA models go, but yes IPS-type models like 276E8VJSB are generally somewhat stronger in that respect. Taking some time to understand these comparisons and appreciating some of the information contained in our reviews will serve you far better than what “a person said” to you.

[Mihle]

I will look in to that, But I should have clarified, I did not mean like blur when moving.
I was talking about just clarity on something stationary. text or whatever.
They claim VA seams less clear in that way because “more black areas between the pixels” havent heard about it before so thats why I ask, is it wrong or right? Just want a fast and easy answer.

Edit: Just saw you said something about it under “Subpixel layout and screen surface” in review, so…
Sorry for that I missed that, it have now made me read the hole review again because it proves that I dont remember everything I did read….

[PCM2]

Indeed. That’s not an issue on this model, as covered in the review. Some VA models do have issues with weird subpixels and that causes clarity issues (example) – not this one.

[Author]

Posts