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Conclusion

Since its introduction, Mini LED has been a premium technology with premium pricing. There’s plenty to like, of course, with brightness over 1,000 nits and deep contrast. Some displays nearly rival OLEDs in their image quality.

To bring the price down, Cooler Master has cut the dimming zones to 576. That’s still a good deal more than the early FALD models that had only 256 and cost thousands of dollars. So, you’re not making any sacrifices to go with a 449-dollar Mini LED monitor. The GP2711 delivers superb image quality and more performance for gaming.

Cooler Master Tempest GP2711 — (Image credit: Cooler Master)

QHD resolution at 165 Hz means high frame rates, so the GP2711 always looks smooth in operation. Precise overdrive and user tweakable options put video processing on a high level. There are few monitors with a tunable overdrive at any price. And Cooler Master’s backlight strobe implementation is one of the better examples. It works with minimal artifacts and is a viable alternative to Adaptive-Sync. I found smooth, responsive and addictive play during my gaming sessions.

The image is stunning in every respect. The Mini LED backlight and Quantum Dot film combine to deliver high light output, 633 nits for SDR and 1,565 nits for HDR, and lots of saturated color with nearly 94% coverage of DCI-P3. Selectable color gamuts are a nice bonus and are typically found only in pro monitors. I was able to use DCI-P3 and sRGB interchangeably. That makes the GP2711 more flexible and useful than the average gaming display.

My only complaint is about the GP2711’s local dimming. Every Mini LED screen has this feature but here, it’s too aggressive. It reduced HDR image quality with a dark and less vivid picture. Fortunately, it still looks great when turned off. The VA panel has excellent native contrast and still hit nearly 6,000:1 in HDR mode.

There is hardly a reason to complain when you get a gaming monitor this good for $449. The Cooler Master GP2711 is a terrific value that will satisfy nearly any player and even those more geared toward productivity tasks.

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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.