- MSI MAG 272QP and GIGABYTE AORUS FO27Q5P -Screens have arrived
- Both use the same Samsung 27-inch QD-OLED 500HZ panel
- Newegg has priced the MSI model and it is a bit more affordable than the existing Samsung Odyssey Oled who also uses this panel
A few new OLED game monitors with an extremely fast up -price of 500Hz are now available, according to the manufacturers.
Toms Hardware discovered the messages to Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q5P (pictured above) and MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50 (in the picture below) Screens. I should note that they are not for sale right yet, but should be available immediately.
Both screens that were originally revealed earlier this year were built around the same Samsung 27-inch QD-Oled panel, so the core specifications of the display are identical. It is a Gen 3 panel that offers more readable text and finer details (thanks to an updated subpixel layout), plus it is brighter compared to its predecessor OLED screen from Samsung (offers 1,000 nits peak lightness).
With both screens you get a 1440p resolution panel with HDR1000 certification (plus HDR TrueBlack 500 and Clearmr 21000) and a super-fast 0.03 ms response time (near-instant). They also benefit from the FreeSync Premium Pro Support and are G-Sync compatible with very accurate colors (99% DCI-P3 coverage). As mentioned, the update speed is 500Hz.
However, there are some important differences on the connection front, but especially that Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q5P offers Displayport 2.1A UHBR20, whereas MSI MAG 272QP is only Displayport 1.4A – even though both offer a few HDMI 2.1 ports. (Some tech sites appear to have got this round their neck, so to clarify the MSI monitor certainly does not have DisplayPort 2.1A based on the official specifications).
Another notable point is that Gigabyte Monitor has a few built-in 5W speakers, and there are no speakers with the MSI model-not that this probably matters to the kind of competitive players looking at these screens.
Analysis: More (Hopefully) Affordable 500Hz OLEDs are welcome
There are screens with faster update speeds that have been displayed, but remember that these are OLED panels and 500Hz burns quickly for this technique – and actually the fastest you can get (at least now, even if it can change before too long). It can also be discussed how high you have to go with update rates, anyway (but let’s not get off on that tangent).
Samsung Odyssey OLED G60SF bears the same 1440p and 500Hz panel and is already out on the market for $ 1,000 (at the time of writing) in the US. There is no official pricing on neither MSI MAG 272QP nor Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q5P from the manufacturers, but the Newegg US has the MSI model listed and price for $ 750. Order is not live yet, but if you assume it is not a placeholder – and we have to be a little careful about it – it looks like a good value for the special offer. That’s not to say it’s exactly cheap – but you didn’t really expect a 500Hz OLED screen to be, right?
Of course, these kinds of screens for the most competitive players out there are in their eSports. You need a very powerful PC and one of the fastest graphics cards to run 500Hz – which is 500 images per second – at 1440p resolution, even with less demanding games (as eSports titles are generally as they put a prize on fluid images of visual bells and whistles).
Apart from the still rather wallet that is distorting, another concern that may remain for those considering an OLED game monitor, the possibility of burning (permanent image storage caused by a static element, such as a game of skin or desktop OS interface present on the screen for too long).
Both MSI and Gigabyte offer a three-year warranty that includes protection against burning, and manufacturers also have their own technique to protect against image storage. It includes MSI’s OLED CARE 2.0 and Gigabyte’s OLED care along with heat drainage measures to lower the screen temperatures (and therefore reduce the burn-in risk).
