Acer RG270 Gaming Monitor Review: Color Accuracy at a Budget Price
Why you can trust Tom's Hardware
Conclusion
A few budget gaming monitors we’ve reviewed of late have impressed, including Acer’s XF251Q and MSI’s Optix MAG24C, which both deliver good performance for well under $300. But the Acer RG270 competes favorably with those monitors by offering a larger 27-inch screen with IPS, rather than TN, technology. With superior off-axis image quality, it’s better equipped than those other two monitors to deliver a solid image with accurate, saturated color a-angle.
Any refresh rate above 60Hz is good for gamers, and though 75Hz doesn’t seem like a huge leap, it makes a significant difference in both screen response and input lag. Our testing shows the RG270 was engineered for speed and smoothness. However, we missed overdrive in FreeSync mode. There was occasional motion blur when the action got intense, but for the most part, we didn’t see any artifacts. Meanwhile, the VRB feature did little to improve our experience.
But for $250 (£189.99), there aren’t any other 27-inch gaming monitors we can think of that perform this well. The RG270’s most impressive attribute is its color accuracy. Few displays we’ve reviewed come out of the box so close to standard. It easily makes our No Calibration Needed list.
The RG270 is a winner in our book. Its flaws are easily outpaced by its strengths, and if you’re on a budget, it deserves to be on your short list.
MORE: Best Gaming Monitors
MORE: How We Test Monitors
MORE: All Monitor Content
Stay On the Cutting Edge: Get the Tom's Hardware Newsletter
Get Tom's Hardware's best news and in-depth reviews, straight to your inbox.
Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.
Intel's latest Arrow Lake CPU firmware reportedly offers little to no performance gains — users test the microcode ahead of launch on the ASRock Z890 Taichi OCF
Sony PlayStation 3 emulator RPCS3 now natively supports Arm64 architecture — including Raspberry Pi 5
BadRAM attack breaches AMD secure VMs using a Raspberry Pi Pico, DDR socket, and a 9V battery
-
Lucky_SLS 250 bucks for a 75hz is still too steep a price. 200 bucks for a 27"? Now that's reasonable.Reply -
WildCard999 21477464 said:75Hz isn't enough for a gaming monitor.
It really depends on the type of games, for FPS/racing games I'd agree however if your playing less competitive titles then 75hz is plenty smooth and this is coming from someone who's owned 75hz/144hz monitors.
I'd probably pass on this monitor as you can get a 29" 2560x1080/75hz/IPS/Freesync/HDR for cheaper. (LG - 29WK600-W) -
zthomas Yeah I got a Acer 27 500 plus g-sync.. Amazon has the 35 inch at around 800 lowest I've seen it. Now some are saying the g-sync is slowing down on some games, I haven't noticed its just nvidia prices are so wishywashy and availability are nightmarish and now some are saying Trumps tariffs will make computer parts more expensive at the end of the year. Saying buy now and not to wait.. stock up..Reply -
envy14tpe For another $125 you can get 1440p, 165Hz, and G-sync with Dell, albeit TN panel. But $250 is 2 much. I could see this at $200 though.Reply -
zthomas Dell monitors and gaming laptops seem to be a good deal.. priced low and perform well but for how long always a question with new stuff.. 4 years on my g-sync monitor with zero issues.. now that's pretty good..Reply -
BulkZerker "For another $125 you can get 1440p, 165Hz, and G-sync with Dell, albeit TN panel. But $250 is 2 much. I could see this at $200 though."Reply
$350 for a tn panel? Pass. For that kind of money I found an Acer XF270HU (flash sale mind you) IPs screen, freesync... Also has crummy built in speakers and a rather nice USB 3.0 hub. -
chickenballs is there a 1440p 27inch ips or va panel with 60 or higher hz and freesync for less than 400 bucks?Reply
Many of us have been using 1080p for over ten years now and upgrading to another 1080p is kinda pointless especially if we have better gpus than gtx 1070 and don't play cs