LG 34GP83A-B Monitor Review

This LG UltraGear 34GP83A-B has a gamer-oriented design with a black plastic body. Though the monitor has a simple aesthetic from the front, both the appearance of the tripod-based stand and the back of the monitor make it clear this is a gaming monitor.

The build quality is satisfactory. Though it has a basic plastic build it's fairly sturdy. However, the cable management slot at the back feels a bit flimsy.

The ergonomics are mediocre. It has great height adjustment so you can set it to your preferred position for a long gaming session. However, it can't swivel, so it's more difficult to share your screen with another person while co-op gaming or working. The stand features a clip for cable management.

The stand is wide and deep. It supports the monitor well, and there isn't much wobble.

There's a single joystick below the LG branding in the center of the bottom bezel. You can use it to control the power and navigate the on-screen menu.

• User guide
• Owner's manual CD
• Power cord
• Power supply
• DisplayPort cable

The monitor has disappointing contrast. As a result, deep blacks appear gray in darker rooms, and the monitor has no local dimming feature to improve the contrast further.

This monitor doesn't have a local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can compare the backlight performance with a monitor that has local dimming.

Settings

• Game Mode: Gamer 1
• Brightness: Maximum

The SDR brightness is very good. It gets bright enough to overcome glare and maintains its brightness consistently across different content.

Settings

• Game Mode: Gamer 2
• Brightness: Maximum

The HDR brightness is adequate, but not enough for highlights to pop. It follows the PQ EOTF curve fairly well until there's a very sharp roll-off at peak brightness, letting highlights get the brightest they can.

The horizontal viewing angle is decent. While it looks washed out at wide angles, it's still fine if you want to share the screen with someone next to you for co-op gaming.

The vertical viewing angle is satisfactory. The image appears slightly washed out if you stand up and look down at the monitor.

The gray uniformity is decent. While the edges of the screen are darker than the rest, there isn't too much dirty screen effect in the center, which is great.

The black uniformity is mediocre. Backlight bleed is visible along the monitor's edges, and the screen is a bit cloudy. There's no local dimming feature to improve this performance further. The photo above doesn't show the entire screen due to the monitor's aspect ratio and the photo's crop. You can see the entire screen here.

The accuracy before calibration is excellent. It clamps colors to the sRGB color space well, and though it slightly oversaturates most colors it has great color accuracy. Additionally, the color temperature is very close to the 6500K target, and the white balance is very good. However, the gamma is slightly off, as most parts of scenes are a bit too bright.

Locked-out Settings

• Black Stabilizer
• Response Time
• Sharpness
• Gamma
• Color Temp
• RGB
• Six Color
• Black Level
• DFC
• Variable Backlight

If you want to access these settings which are locked out in the 'sRGB' mode, then you need to use another mode with worse color accuracy, like Gamer 1.

The accuracy after calibration is remarkable, and you won't notice any problems. Additionally, you can use any of the settings that are locked out in the sRGB mode.

The SDR color gamut is remarkable. It displays all colors in the common sRGB color space and a wide range of colors in the Adobe RGB color space. That said, green is quite inaccurate in Adobe RGB.

The HDR color gamut is excellent. It has fantastic coverage of the DCI-P3 color space used in most HDR content. It also has great coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, though colors are less accurate than with DCI-P3.

The HDR color volume is good. Its wide color gamut helps it display a large range of colors, but it struggles to properly display bright and dark colors well. If you're looking for a monitor that displays bright colors more vividly, check out the MSI MPG 341CQPX QD-OLED.

The text clarity is good, and the text looks bolder with Windows ClearType (top photo) enabled.

The reflection handling is okay. While strong light causes distracting glare, it also gets bright enough to fight glare in most well-lit office spaces.

The gradient handling is outstanding, and you won't notice any issues with banding in scenes with shades of similar colors.

Due to bandwidth limitations, the max refresh rate is limited over HDMI, but you won't have any issues reaching that max refresh rate over DisplayPort. If you're looking for a monitor with an even higher refresh rate, consider the ASUS ROG Swift OLED PG34WCDM, which has a 240Hz refresh rate.

While this monitor supports FreeSync over HDMI, it doesn't always work properly, and Low Framerate Compensation (LFC) doesn't work over HDMI.

The LG UltraGear 34GP83A-B has good motion handling across its entire refresh rate range with VRR enabled in the recommended 'Fast' Response Time setting, though there's still some motion blur. The 'Fastest' overdrive setting has such a high CAD that it passes the limits of our chart, and you can see it in an alternative chart here.

The refresh rate compliance is good. Although its response time isn't fast enough to make full color transitions before the monitor draws the next frame at its max refresh rate and at 120Hz, it's better at 60Hz.

The CAD at the max refresh rate is good, but there's still some motion blur. The 'Normal' and 'Fast' overdrive settings have a similar total response time, but 'Fast' has less motion blur, while the 'Faster' setting has too much inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 120Hz is good, but there's still some motion blur. The 'Normal' and 'Fast' overdrive settings have a similar total response time, but 'Fast' has less motion blur, while the 'Faster' setting has too much inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 60Hz is good. The 'Normal' overdrive setting has the fastest total response time and almost no overshoot, unlike at higher refresh rates.

The monitor doesn't have an optional black frame insertion feature to reduce persistence blur further.

This monitor has minimal VRR flicker with changing frame rates, which is fantastic for gaming.

The backlight remains flicker-free at all brightness levels, which helps reduce eye strain if you're sensitive to flicker.

This monitor has low input lag for a responsive feel while gaming.

Because the console doesn't support ultrawide signals, you'll see black bars on the sides unless you stretch the image.

You need to use the console's HDMI override to get 1440p @ 60Hz. This isn't required with any other combination of resolution and refresh rate. The Xbox doesn't support HDR with 1440p or 1080p signals, so this isn't a limitation of the monitor. However, because the console doesn't support ultrawide signals, you'll see black bars on the sides unless you stretch the image.

The LG 34GP83A works well with macOS. VRR only works up to 144Hz, so if you want to use the overclockable 160Hz, you need to use a fixed refresh rate instead. There aren't any noticeable issues with VRR in the desktop and games, except there's a thin gray bar at the top of the screen in games. When using a MacBook windows return to their original position when you wake the laptop up from sleep or open the lid.

The LG 34GP83A has a few additional features, including:

• Crosshair: Adds a virtual crosshair on the screen.
• Black Stabilizer: Makes objects more visible in dark scenes.
• Reader Mode: Blue light filter to help reduce eye strain.