HDR Performance

Moving on to performance which I'k sure a lot of you volition exist interested in, and there's quite a lot to say here considering at that place are and so many features packed in. Allow's tackle HDR commencement before moving on to color performance and response times.

Looking at effulgence support nosotros accept 1000 nits of peak effulgence and 600 nits of sustained brightness, which is well above what is required. I measured full white sustained brightness of 634 nits which is absolutely eye scorching in regular viewing conditions, and that gradually increases to nearly 700 nits for a 25% window, and 900 nits for ten% windows or smaller.

I accomplished an impressive sustained brightness of 933 nits for a 2% window, with flashes pushing well over 1,100 nits, meeting Asus' specification claims. The display can also produce a full white epitome for effectually one second at one,000 nits, which basically requires sunglasses to view.

For local dimming we have a 384-zone full array backlight, and so at this monitor size each dimming zone covers roughly 22 x 26 mm. The backlight is extremely responsive, adjusting its light output in under 10ms in worst-case transitions, which is similar a 1 frame delay at 98 Hz. As the backlight is and so responsive, there's no visible 'afterglow' when a bright object suddenly disappears from view, and the zones are small enough that HDR glow around bright elements is minimal and not actually noticeable in almost typical conditions like gaming or watching movies.

The simply time I noticed the 'glow' effect was when the console tried to prove small white text on an otherwise completely blackness screen, and that'southward not something that happened often. In actual games, the dynamic range between a flickering burn and the darkness of nighttime was massive and that'due south where the FALD backlight really shines in its ability to simultaneously display 1000 nits in some areas, and just 0.02 nits in others. The very high contrast ratio this type of backlight provides, and effulgence levels way above regular SDR screens, is the key reason HDR looks incredible when done properly, and the PG27UQ is 1 such brandish that does HDR well.

In terms of contrast ratio measurements, I accomplished 53,000:one at tiptop, though that falls to 33,000:1 when judging based on the monitor'due south sustained brightness output. When disabling the dynamic backlight the monitor is just a typical IPS in terms of contrast with a ratio just above 1,000:1, just really I see no reason to disable the dynamic backlight unless you lot are viewing something where the glow issue is very noticeable. For the vast bulk of users and the vast majority of content yous'll exist viewing, even in the SDR manner, leaving the FALD zones active is the way to go.

You can as well accommodate the speed of the FALD backlight just in instance the default 'fast' mode is also fast for yous. In that location might be some occasions where rapid changes to backlight effulgence aren't platonic for the content y'all're viewing, in which case the slower modes will be ameliorate for you. Nevertheless, there wasn't a single time where I felt the fast mode was besides fast, peculiarly while gaming, so once again I don't retrieve this is a setting you'll desire to change.

The final things on the HDR checklist are color space: the PG27UQ supports 97% DCI-P3 coverage which is much wider than sRGB, and the usual stuff like 10-bit processing and an viii-bit+FRC panel. In my testing I actually accomplished 93% DCI-P3 coverage but that's nevertheless pretty good and higher up what is required for HDR.

I'm not going to show colour accuracy results for DCI-P3 because I've been informed past several people that the testing tools I have available to me aren't accurate plenty to test this type of monitor in wide gamut. Some tools tin can do it, just non what I currently accept or what is available in our budget, so I'm not going to show inaccurate results and instead skip wide gamut accuracy. However I volition mention there is a manner to use wide gamut with SDR, so content creators working with DCI-P3 in an app that doesn't natively support HDR can still brand utilize of this monitor's back up for that colour space.

Now is probably a skilful time for just some general thoughts on HDR. The PG27UQ is quite clearly the all-time HDR monitor I've used, the contrast and brightness specs illustrate this on paper but when you lot really get to using the monitor, it'southward far and abroad superior to a regular SDR monitor in games that support HDR properly. Fifty-fifty SDR content gets a handy boost from the FALD backlight, because this LCD has a contrast ratio far higher than regular LCDs in the SDR mode.

In games like Far Cry v that support HDR really well, y'all're not but getting a more vibrant image as the panel can really display more colors, but there's so much more particular visible particularly in high-contrast scenes. Accept an outdoor sunny scene with heavy shadowing. This monitor has the power to dazzle you with a lord's day called-for at yard nits, while simultaneously providing enough of visible detail in a dark shadowy area. Neither of these elements are blown out, because the monitor's dynamic range far exceeds a regular SDR display, and it more closely simulates how the scene would look in real life.

It won't come as a surprise that it'due south very hard to demonstrate on camera exactly how different this monitor looks, it's but i of those things y'all have to view yourself to encounter the difference betwixt HDR and SDR. But unlike several other monitors with weak HDR support, the PG27UQ gets it correct and the result is a fantastic HDR image that blows boring old SDR away.