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As I wrote this review, I continued to be impressed by the value proposition of the Cooler Master Tempest GP27Q. Mini LED is still a new and premium technology, and it has only recently reached the $1,000 range. It is astounding that you can get every advantage of Mini LED for $550, with the only sacrifice being QHD resolution.
I’ve often said that frame rate is more important than pixel density. When you’re playing a game, it’s the motion resolution that counts. Higher frame rates mean smoother motion; it’s that simple. 4K comes mostly in the 144 Hz flavor with only a single monitor, Samsung’s Neo G8 hitting 240 Hz. And in practice, you’ll need an extremely expensive video card to approach those speeds. A QHD monitor, on the other hand, can easily hit 165fps with a less-costly system requirement.
The GP27Q delivers every feature and performance metric of its more expensive stablemate, the GP27U. I verified its peak HDR output at over 1,200 nits. It beats its claimed color volume spec with nearly 113% coverage of DCI-P3. It even approaches the brass ring, Rec.2020, close enough that I can call it a Rec.2020 display. And with its 576 dimming zones, contrast in both SDR and HDR is infinite when local dimming is turned on. It looks amazing when that happens.
Gaming performance is equally impressive, with one of the best overdrives I’ve seen and a backlight strobe that doesn’t create artifacts. The user has many choices for video processing, all of them good. The only bummer is a lack of Adaptive-Sync in HDR mode. But during my gaming sessions, I didn’t notice its absence.
Honestly, all you have to know is that the Cooler Master Tempest GP27Q is a Mini LED monitor for $550, which is significant. That it’s also a stunning-looking, great playing gaming monitor, is icing on the cake.
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