We’ve talked plenty about the next-gen consoles, but there’s also another generation of gaming tech on the way very soon: next-gen monitors.
Supporting 120Hz and higher frame rates are a big drawcard for the PS5 and Xbox Series S. But on the PC side, things are going way higher than that. 360Hz gaming screens were announced earlier this year. Acer announced their models in July, but the fanciest of their screens — like the 1440p/240Hz IPS XB273U GX — have been delayed.
Fortunately, however, Alienware is coming to the party to save 2020. The company announced three new gaming monitors recently. There’s the 24.5-inch AW2521H IPS screen with a 360Hz refresh rate and G-Sync support, a monitor obviously for Fortnite/CS:GO/Valorant/Warzone players who absolutely just want the crispest action possible. This’ll retail for $1199 in Australia, and $1397 in New Zealand.
If you’re after something that’s a better fit for AMD’s Big Navi or the RTX 3080/3090, however, then there’s the AW2721D. This is a 27-inch IPS screen with support for HDR 600, 1440p resolution and 240Hz. It’s the HDR 600 element of this that I’m really intrigued by, because the current gen of Fast IPS screens available are only capable of doing HDR 400 — which is too low to even bother with.
HDR 600 offers some hope that these screens will be better suited for console gaming as well, especially if you want to play games like DiRT 5 at the higher refresh rates/frame rates. The AW2721D is selling for $1349 for Australians, and $1559 in New Zealand.
There’s also a 38-inch mammoth screen, however, if you really need ultrawide support. The AW3821DW — which will retail for $2249 here and $2589 for Kiwis — is a 37.5-inch 3840×1600 screen with 144Hz support, HDR 600 and 98 percent coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. It’s listed as a G-SYNC Ultimate display as well, and has a 1ms response time. That 1ms is likely to be from the same Fast IPS panel that we’ve seen in some other monitors recently, like the very good LG 27GL850B. In other words: it probably won’t be 1ms when you use the Normal or Fast settings, but it should be very quick, and still look very, very good.
Now, here’s the bonus part. All three of these monitors will be available in Australia from November 27. That’s good news for everyone who have been upgrading their PCs like crazy for games like Cyberpunk 2077 and Microsoft Flight Simulator.
Alienware, sadly, didn’t have any news on upcoming 4K/144Hz models, although more of those screens should be coming from December/January 2021. Acer’s Predator line has one in the works, and an update from LG’s Display division notes that a 27-inch 4K screen with HDR 600 support and 144Hz refresh rate has already gone into production.
LG will also have their own 1440p/240Hz IPS screens, again with HDR 600, and an interesting 31.5-inch 8K screen. The extra catch with all these new screens is that they’re using “Oxide” panels that will supposedly be “real borderless” screens without the inner black border that you see on screens today.
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