Viotek GFT27DB 27" Review: Best TN Gaming Monitor Ever?

Following upwardly to our all-time value FreeSync monitors characteristic, we though this review would be platonic. Today we're looking at the Viotek GFT27DB which is a brand new display release, sporting a new TN panel (ideal for gamers) that promises a lot on paper. Having reviewed several Viotek displays in the last year, nosotros've been consistently impressed with the value proffer, so we are hoping zip changes here in that respect.

The Viotek GFT27DB aims to be a flat TN version of their curved VA GN27D, so specs are very similar. We're looking at a 27-inch panel, 1440p resolution, and 144 Hz maximum refresh rate. This monitor supports FreeSync with low framerate compensation, and we can confirm it works perfectly with both AMD and Nvidia GPUs.

With this new monitor opting for a TN panel instead of a VA, gamers are treated to a flat display which we personally prefer at this size. But in that location are other cardinal benefits. This is not your standard, crappy, entry-level TN – instead this is what appears to be a make new high-terminate TN from AU Optronics. Information technology's actually wide gamut, Viotek claims 115% sRGB, which is very rare for a TN, plus information technology's native eight-fleck, another rarity for TN panels.

The goal here is to mitigate some of the known color problems with TN displays, while withal providing all the speed benefits, such as fast response times. Information technology's an interesting direction to take TN panels, just i that does brand sense because the 2 technologies known for their colors – IPS and VA – are struggling to hitting the response times of a practiced TN. And so if a TN can go to the same colors as an IPS or VA… it brings it back into calculations for a lot of buyers. And nosotros'll talk extensively about how this new console performs in a moment.

Just before that, let's talk about the Viotek GFT27DB in particular. It comes in at the same toll as the GN27D, and so $330, which leaves buyers with a selection between TN and VA. The GN27D is currently the cheapest monitor in its class, merely the GFT27DB isn't quite the cheapest 27-inch 1440p 144Hz TN. That crown goes to Pixio with the PX276, however the Pixio option is using an older TN that isn't wide gamut, so Viotek is offering potentially better colour quality for a mere $20 extra.

The pattern, like virtually of Viotek's monitors, is simple. Adequately cheap only minimalist plastic is used for the main monitor section, consummate with a matte brandish coating that'southward slightly grainy, only not unusually and so for a TN. Bezels are slim, the three pronged stand is congenital from metal and looks pretty adept, and aside from a very bones red light on the back, at that place's non a lot of gamer style which we very much capeesh.

As with all elementary designs, there are some limitations. The stand up only supports tilt adjustment, if you need meridian accommodate yous'll either have to purchase a VESA mount, or opt for another monitor entirely. The stand is too quite wobbly, more than so than a typical monitor of this size. While the general build quality is fine if a fleck unamazing, the stand'south instability makes it feel a scrap cheap. That said, it'southward not going to move around on your desk once yous put it in identify.

For ports, all standard stuff: one DisplayPort 1.4 and a generous three HDMI ports including i HDMI 2.0 port, plus an audio output jack. There are a pair of built in 2W speakers, simply they are consummate rubbish in instance yous were wondering. Seriously they are so bad we don't know why Viotek included them.

The other complaint we have in regards to the design is Viotek'south continual utilise of 4 buttons along the bottom edge to control the on screen display, rather than a much easier directional toggle. Combined with the wobble in the stand, it'southward pretty hard to navigate the OSD, where you'll notice features like cheat crosshairs, motion-picture show in picture and color controls. And it'southward worth mentioning that FreeSync is disabled past default in the settings, so make sure yous plough that on.

As for the console itself, our main business going into this review was viewing angles, as information technology continues to be the biggest issue for TN monitors, especially at the higher-end of the TN scale.

Nosotros've gotta say, this is one of the ameliorate TN displays we've seen in terms of viewing angles, peculiarly horizontally where in that location is some contrast shift but it isn't too bad. However vertically there'southward nevertheless a significant change in contrast from viewing at off angles, you will even so want to view it expressionless on and brand sure you accept it tilted correctly to get the best experience. So while it's practiced for a TN, viewing angles are all the same several steps behind a VA and especially an IPS panel.

The other area where TNs tend to suffer is contrast ratio, though the GFT27DB is on the upper end of the TN scale with this new AU Optronics console. Native contrast ratio is a impact under 1000:1, sitting around the 970:i mark, which is every bit adept every bit information technology gets for a TN. This is in line with IPS panels but does autumn well behind a typical VA, where you tin wait more than than double the contrast ratio for something like the GN27D.

Brightness, information technology all checks out. This monitor significantly exceeds Viotek'southward claims. They list a 220 nit elevation effulgence merely it performs well above that; we recorded a maximum effulgence of slightly under 350 nits, which is pretty brilliant and a practiced consequence for a TN.

Response times are clearly the big selling point of TN monitors; yous buy one considering you desire it to be fast, and fast for gaming in particular. Viotek claims a 1ms response fourth dimension with overdrive and a 3ms "standard" response, which we accept to say holds upward pretty well with what we found during testing.

The optimal overdrive setting here is the maximum 'High' mode, which does have a small corporeality of overshoot with some transitions but it was within our tolerances and shouldn't matter all that much. With this manner enabled, the average grey to grey transition was iii.38ms, a typically fast result for a TN, pitting it well ahead of VA alternatives. With the absolute best VAs sitting higher up 5ms on average, with 8ms a more realistic figure, this TN is noticeably clearer with less blur and less ghosting.

The general behaviour of this TN isn't anything unusual either. Rise times are much slower than fall times, with an average rise of 4.91ms that'southward impacted by a relatively boring black to white transition. Fall times are lightening quick though, at nether 2ms, with some transitions hitting that 1ms claimed figure. In full general the console is much faster than the needed 6.94ms for refreshing at 144 Hz, so yous're getting the full benefit of the loftier refresh here, combined with proficient clarity.

Input lag is likewise very adept, we recorded around 4ms of latency which when combined with the fast transition time makes the GFT27DB a very fast monitor. Yous'd expect this from a gaming-focused TN monitor and Viotek has delivered.

In terms of colour performance, this TN really punches to a higher place its weight in a few areas. We're getting a comfortable 100% sRGB coverage but it's the 92% DCI-P3 coverage that really impressed me, that's non quite at the level we'd expect from a broad gamut professional person monitor but information technology'south a few percentage points higher than many of the wider gamut VA panels nosotros've tested recently from Samsung. Those panels typically clock in between 85 and 90 percent DCI-P3 so for this TN to beat out that is certainly quite impressive, as most TNs are not wide gamut whatsoever. Native 8-bit support is also great to see because many TNs are half dozen-bit + FRC.

Unfortunately Viotek leaves this broad gamut support unclamped, which means that without scale, the brandish is oversaturated when viewing sRGB content. And sRGB content is 99% of what you'll view exterior of professional workflows. If y'all love or don't mind oversaturation and actress vibrant colors, that's great, this panel will await amazing, just if you're after accurateness unfortunately out of the box the GFT27DB won't deliver.

Default Performance

What nosotros'd really similar to see and what we recommend for all wide gamut monitors, is a simple switch in the on-screen display that toggles betwixt an sRGB and a wide gamut state. Viotek doesn't provide this, and the result is a saturation deltaE average of iii.18 along with a ColorChecker deltaE of 3.43. Greyscale results are a trivial off as well with our unit having a slight carmine tint out of the box along with a deltaE average of 3.60, although gamma is good.

If you're wondering about DCI-P3 accuracy Viotek doesn't really evangelize here either, with deltaEs between two.5 and 4.0 for the nearly role. Again information technology seems like the panel is non calibrated at all at the factory which is typical for a Viotek display and many gaming monitors in general. Were this for professional work, nosotros'd expect better results.

Calibrated Functioning

Without the ability to clamp the gamut there's non a whole lot you lot tin can do in the on-screen display to amend performance, aside from some modest tweaks to right the white bespeak. To get accurate results you really need to perform a total scale, which every bit e'er nosotros did with the help of our good friend, SpectraCAL's CALMAN five. Aside from a couple of outliers, this calibration led to good results with deltaE averages beneath ane.0. Withal, like with a typical calibration of a TN display, its dissimilarity ratio did drop to effectually 900:ane, a small-scale drib just worth mentioning still.

Lastly we accept uniformity, performance is decent, ameliorate than your average VA panel merely non perfect. When looking at this chart nosotros'd basically class the uniformity here as two blobs on either side of the panel with a slight dip in the center and around the edges. Unlike a lot of curved VAs though, there'south no noticeable vignette upshot which is a good thing.

Who Is It For?

The Viotek GFT27DB is an interesting product, specially because it's a rare TN with a wide colour gamut. The wide gamut does some of the work: in its default state information technology will exist oversaturated, more so than a typical TN, and in line with today's VAs, which allows for either 92% DCI-P3 coverage for those that want it, or vibrant sRGB if y'all're into that sort of thing.

Simply it's the truthful viii-chip panel and the amend than usual viewing angles that contribute a lot as well. It's in all three of these areas – bit depth, viewing angles and gamut – that TNs usually fall behind but AU Optronics and Viotek accept focused on improving these and the results have paid off. And this is without impacting response times, which are still as fast equally you'd expect for a TN.

This console looks pretty close to a mid-tier IPS and it's but in viewing angles where an IPS pulls ahead noticeably. For a TN nosotros're genuinely impressed with the image quality. But when you combine the viewing angle issue with a contrast ratio of under 1000:1, you're still not getting a VA-like experience with those beautiful deep blacks. Contrast and viewing angles are very skillful for a TN, and we think for most people will exist perfectly fine, but those who honey VAs should stick to that.

The GFT27DB also runs into the standard set up of issues with Viotek monitors: the stand has limited adjustability and is a flake wobbly, the on-screen display is hard to control, the display is not calibrated, at that place's no sRGB mode... and information technology'due south not available exterior of a pocket-sized handful of countries. While nosotros do spend some time on scale as office of the review process, nigh gaming monitors don't come calibrated, and so that'due south the least of import issue. As we often hear complaints in the user comments though, we wish Viotek would expand into the European and Australian markets though.

Then who would we recommend this monitor to? Information technology'due south an easy purchase recommendation for those that want a fast gaming monitor. It's 1440p and 144Hz with FreeSync, which we feel is still the sweet spot for PC gaming in 2022, and because it's a TN, ghosting is not an issue. Combined with the best colors we've seen for this blazon of monitor, it's basically the best gaming TN on the market, so kudos to Viotek for that.

It's a unique monitor in that no other company is using this panel just even so, and we don't experience this is reflected in the pricing either. At $330 it's the aforementioned price as Viotek'south equivalent curved VA, with both the VA and TN each having strengths and weaknesses. The VA still has superior colors, but the TN is apartment and it's faster. Both are fantastic value, so which option is ameliorate will depend on what you want out of a display. But don't immediately dismiss the GFT27DB because it'south a TN, it's definitely a lot better than about TN displays of the by.