LG and Samsung have been dominating the gaming monitor space in recent years, thanks to them being the two big players in OLED monitor production. This latest display from LG, though, is perhaps the most desirable of the lot right now. Called the LG Ultragear 39GX950B-B, this huge ultrawide, 39-inch gaming monitor packs in a very high resolution and can switch between running at 165Hz or a blazing-fast 330Hz.
Announced a while ago, LG has now put a price on this potentially perfect panel, and while there’s no doubt the specs of this display make it one of the best gaming monitors in the world, it’s also one of the most expensive.
Appearing for pre-order on LG’s own US store website, the new model is priced at $1,799.99. However, while pricey, it’s not actually the company’s most expensive OLED gaming monitor. That honor goes to this panel’s bigger sibling, the 45-inch 45GX950A-B, which is a penny shy of $2,000.
“Why isn’t this news story focusing on the 45GX950A-B as the most desirable gaming monitor?” You might be asking. Well, the answer to that is twofold. Firstly, the 45GX950A-B has been available and priced up for a while now, so it’s not news as such.
The second reason is that, at 45 inches in size, the 45GX950A-B is such a large panel that it’s actually almost too big for most setups. The panel on the 39GX950B-B is 36.3 inches wide and 15.9 inches tall, while the 45GX950A-B rises to 18.1 inches and is 39 inches wide. For comparison, a typical 27-inch monitor measures 23.8″ x 13.8″, and a typical 32-inch display measures 28.1″ x 16.2″. This colossal size not only makes for a cumbersome setup but also means pixel density drops, too, making it not as sharp a display.
Back to the 39GX950B-B, then. This panel can run at a 165Hz refresh rate at its full 5,120 x 2,160 resolution, which, by the way, is a 4k resolution but with an extra few thousand pixels on the sides to stretch this panel from a typical 16:9 aspect ratio to an ultrawide 21:9 display – ideal for movies, cinematic games, and racing/flight sims.
If 165Hz isn’t enough for you, at the flick of a proverbial switch, you can game at 330Hz, thanks to this monitor’s dual-mode feature. This does drop the panel to a lower 2,560 x 1,080 resolution, but this is still sufficient for competitive gaming.
The 39GX950B-B also has the effectively infinite contrast that comes with OLED panels being able to show true black levels – no washed-out gray versions of black here. Plus, it can show a peak brightness of 500nits, ensuring HDR and other bright content is given plenty of oomph.
As tempting as this all makes the 39GX950B-B, that price is, of course, a barrier many of us will never overcome. If that’s the case for you, there’s always the 32GX850A-B that’s also listed on LG’s store. This 32-inch OLED panel still gets you a 4k resolution with a 165Hz refresh rate and a 330Hz/1080p mode, but is available for just $799.99, which is a fantastic price for this class of panel. For comparison, the excellent 32GS95UE, which you can read about in our 32GS95UE review, sits at the top of our best gaming monitor guide and has a faster panel (240Hz@4k / 480Hz @1080p) but is $1,299.99.
