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Our HDR benchmarking uses Portrait Displays’ Calman software. To learn about our HDR testing, see our breakdown of how we test PC monitors.
Budget gaming monitors like the GS27FC support HDR signals but don’t usually apply any dynamic contrast. With an edge backlight in play, that means HDR contrast will be about the same as SDR. You might get a little more punch, but if you want truly impactful HDR, a zone dimming, or OLED screen is necessary. Note that the Dell and Viotek are excluded from this comparison because they don’t support HDR.
HDR Brightness and Contrast
The GS27FC finds a bit more light output in HDR mode with 334 nits peak. This is lower than the other screens. But because black levels are the lowest of the bunch, it has the greatest dynamic range. When viewed together, the other screens will look a touch brighter, but the GS27FC will have deeper blacks and a more dimensional and textured image. The monitor with more contrast is always the one I’ll gravitate to.
Grayscale, EOTF and Color
The GS27FC switches automatically to HDR mode without user intervention. There are no picture adjustments available, but looking at the test results, none are necessary. Brighter gray steps are a tad cool in tone, but this is a small error. The EOTF tracks a little darkly up to the tone-map transition at 65%. This is forgivable because it gives HDR a tad more impact.
In the color test, the GS27FC is over-saturated at the inner red points, and then falls short of 100% saturation. This also gives HDR a bit more punch than SDR. Blue tracks its hues better than it does in SDR mode, but the max stimulus point is still off the mark. Rec.2020 mastered content will show the same behavior. Overall, HDR color looks natural with just a little less vibrance than a wide gamut screen.
Test Takeaway: The GS27FC is about as good as it gets among value-priced HDR monitors. There isn’t any dynamic contrast which is typical, so you get about the same 4,000:1 as SDR. But with a little more punch in color, there is a visible difference in actual content.
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