Im looking to upgrade my setup for Valorant and Apex. Ive been looking at the LG 27GP850 and the Alienware AW2723DF. The LG seems like a solid deal but ive seen mixed reviews about contrast, and the Alienware is a bit pricey for me right now. My budget is around 450 bucks, and honestly, I just need something with really solid motion clarity.
My constraints:
Is there anything else I should be looking at? Everyone online just pushes the super expensive OLEDs, but those are way out of my budget and im worried about burn-in since I work from home too...
Honestly, skip the expensive OLED trap if you are grinding Valorant. You are totally right to be worried about burn-in while working from home, plus those screens are just overkill for shooters. If you want top-tier motion clarity without burning a hole in your pocket, look at the Gigabyte M27Q X 27 inch 240Hz 1440p IPS. It is honestly a steal for the price! I have been using one and the motion handling is super crisp for the price point. If you can find the LG 27GR83Q-B 27 inch 240Hz 1440p IPS on sale, that is another fantastic pick that feels way faster than the older GP model. Both of these will keep you way under that 450 dollar limit and give you that buttery smooth experience you need to climb the ranks!
To add to the point above: you are totally right to dodge OLEDs for a WFH rig. Static taskbars are basically a death sentence for those panels. Honestly, the LG 27GP850 is okay, but the contrast is pretty abysmal. Had issues with backlight bleed on mine too, super annoying for dark scenes. Since you want 240Hz for Valorant, check these out instead:
Re: Honestly, skip the expensive OLED trap if you... I totally get the anxiety about burn-in. Since you are using it for work too, you dont want to be staring at static taskbars all day on an expensive screen. I've been doing some digging into this myself since I get super nervous about hardware longevity, and honestly, you might want to be careful about jumping on the first 240Hz panel you see. Some of them have pretty aggressive factory settings that can cause weird ghosting if you aren't careful with the overdrive settings. Before you drop your hard-earned money, have you thought about these things?