KTC H27P6 Review: 4K 160Hz Dual Mode IPS Gaming Monitor

The KTC H27P6 is a 27″ 4K 160Hz IPS gaming monitor with Dual Mode, USB-C (DP Alt Mode, 90W Power Delivery), built-in KVM and a fully ergonomic stand – and it offers all that at a very competitive price!

Here’s how it handles our tests.

Image Quality

The monitor is based on a fast IPS panel with 95% DCI-P3 color space coverage, 178° wide viewing angles, a 1,000:1 static contrast ratio, a 400-nits peak brightness, Delta E < 2 factory calibration and dithered 10-bit color depth support.

To test the display’s capabilities and accuracy, we’re using our Calibrite Display Pro HL colorimeter paired with DisplayCAL.

Note that we’re testing the USA-1.0.2 firmware version.

In the OSD (On-Screen Display) menu, under the ‘Display’ settings, you’ll find several ‘Preset’ options: User (Default), Movie, Photo, ECO, Reader, RTS and FPS.

Options other than ‘User’ simply apply preset brightness, contrast, hue, saturation, and Black Equalize values, which you can’t adjust. So, for full customization, we recommend using the most accurate default ‘User’ mode.

If you scroll a bit further in the ‘Display’ section, you’ll find the ‘Professional Modes’ options, including ‘Native’, ‘sRGB’ and ‘DCI-P3.’

Color Gamut

The KTC H27P6 monitor has a wide color gamut with a 138.6% sRGB volume in the ‘Native’ mode, resulting in vibrant colors.

We measured a bit lower DCI-P3 color space coverage of 89.2% than the specified 95%, but this is most likely due to the different colorimeters and testing methodologies.

By default, Windows doesn’t do proper color management, which results in SDR colors being oversaturated. Some users might prefer this look, but if you want better accuracy, you should use the ‘sRGB’ ‘Professional Mode’ instead, which clamps the gamut down to 97.4% volume and a respectable 95% coverage.

Image Accuracy

In the Native mode, due to over-saturated colors, we measured a Delta E of 2.57 average (color deviation from the target, less than 1.5 is considered good) and 8.38 maximum (target is less than 3).

Gamma tracking was decent with a 2.29 average (target is 2.2), with the overall image being slightly darker than intended.

Color temperature in the default ‘Preset’ mode was 6704K (target is 6500K), which is a bit higher than ideal, but there was no noticeable tinting to the whitepoint. We also measured the color temperature of the Normal (6992K), Warm (6093K), Cool (8782K) and User (7484K) modes.

The sRGB mode offers better accuracy with a Delta E of 0.99 average and 3.86 maximum, which is still a bit higher than ideal, but good enough for basic color-critical work. Gamma tracking is also improved with a 2.23 average and a proper sRGB tone curve.

The default Warm mode has a slightly low color temperature of 6092K, which gives the white point a subtle yellow tint. Luckily, you can adjust color temperature and brightness in the sRGB mode. We recommend changing the color temperature mode to ‘Preset’, which we measured at 6640K.

We also tested the color accuracy when using software clamp (in AMD drivers, via the novideo_sRGB tool for NVIDIA GPUs or Windows 11 Automatic Color Management), but the results weren’t good due to incorrect EDID data with a Delta E of 2.44 average and 7.32 maximum, and 84.4% sRGB coverage. So, we don’t recommend this method.

Related:What Is sRGB Emulation Mode And Why Is It Important?

With full sRGB coverage, solid factory calibration, and wide 178° viewing angles that keep the image consistent from virtually any angle, the KTC H27P6 is a solid choice for entry-level color-critical work.

Keep in mind that IPS monitors can exhibit IPS glow, which can be characterized as a faint glow that’s sometimes visible in the corners of the screen when viewed from certain angles. Its intensity can vary from unit to unit, so some panels may show it more than others.

It’s most noticeable when viewing dark content in a dark room at higher brightness levels, but you can minimize it with a proper setup, for example, by lowering the brightness in dim environments and adding some ambient lighting behind the screen. Our KTC H27P6 unit didn’t show any excessive IPS glow or backlight bleed.

Calibration

For full calibration, we set the brightness to 27/100 for 120-nits, used the ‘Native’ color temperature mode, and ‘Custom’ color temperature with red, green and blue channels set to 46, 44 and 42, respectively, to get 6503K.

Delta E improved to 0.5 average and 3.31 maximum with accurate gamma tracking (2.18 average). You can download our ICC profile here.

Brightness & Contrast

We measured a maximum brightness of 385-nits, and a minimum of 43-nits.

In the sRGB mode, peak brightness drops slightly to 345 nits, with a minimum of 38 nits. After calibration, the maximum brightness decreases a bit further to 320 nits.

The monitor is suitable for use in both bright and dark rooms.

At around 200-nits, we measured a contrast ratio of 1054:1, which is a typical result for an IPS panel.

Blacks won’t be as deep as that of VA panels (usually around 3,000:1 contrast ratio), OLED panels, or monitors with full-array local dimming (FALD).

Of course, OLED and FALD displays have their own drawbacks, while VA monitors in this price range suffer from slow response time, VRR brightness flickering and narrower viewing angles.

Pixel Density & Subpixel Layout

With a high pixel density of 163 PPI, the KTC H27P6 delivers excellent detail clarity, crisp text, and plenty of usable screen real estate.

To make smaller elements like text more easily readable, you’ll need to apply some scaling (150% is recommended). This reduces the effective workspace a bit, but significantly improves clarity and overall readability.

Gaming at 4K UHD is fairly demanding, but it’s still manageable with a mid-range GPU thanks to upscaling technologies like DLSS and FSR. Even better, the KTC H27P6 features the 1920×1080 320Hz Dual Mode, allowing for much smoother gameplay when you prioritize performance.

However, because the monitor is displaying its non-native resolution at 1920×1080, the image won’t be quite as ‘good’ as that of a native 27″ 1080p display.

In less demanding E-sports titles, where performance takes priority, the drop in image quality is far less noticeable than it is in everyday use, while the higher refresh rate is definitely a welcome upgrade.

The monitor is not using integer scaling, which would have displayed every 2×2 block of pixels as one pixel at 1080p (without interpolation) for an even sharper native-like image.

Below are microscope photos of a 1-pixel-thick red crosshair on a black background. The left photo was taken at 4K, while the photo on the right was taken at 1080p. You can see how the pixels are simply doubled horizontally, but the vertical row is interpolated, causing minor blur.

Here’s a close-up of how this interpolation (and lower resolution) affects text.

Finally, here’s the image of the monitor’s RGB subpixel layout.

HDR

The KTC H27P6 supports HDR (High Dynamic Range), but while it can accept and display the HDR10 signal, it lacks proper display hardware (OLED panel or FALD) for a true HDR viewing experience.

You can still get some benefit from HDR, such as proper DCI-P3 color mapping and dithered 10-bit color for smoother gradients with less banding. However, you’ll lose detail in the shadows and highlights, and the image won’t fully reflect the creator’s original intent.

In the HDR mode, the monitor clamps the gamut when viewing SDR content with a Delta E of 0.96 average and 2.97 maximum, 2.18 average gamma, 6725K color temperature and 95% sRGB color space coverage (96.4% volume). We measured a maximum brightness of 405-nits in HDR mode.

For a proper HDR display, you’ll need to invest at least $150 extra for the KTC M27P6 model with similar specs as the H27P6 but with an added 1152-zone mini LED FALD backlight with a higher 1400-nits peak brightness and wider color gamut.

There are cheaper $250 – $300 mini LED displays, too, but these have a lower 1440p resolution, such as the KTC M27T6 with a 180Hz VA panel or the Acer XV275U F3 with an IPS panel and 320Hz.

Alternatively, if you’re looking for a proper HDR display, consider investing around $380 or more in one of OLED displays, which you can check out in our dedicated HDR monitors buyer’s guide.

Performance

For latency and response time testing, we’re using OSRTT.

Response time overdrive behaviour is different at 160Hz and 320Hz, and depending on whether ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ is enabled or disabled in the OSD menu (at 160Hz).

VRR (Variable Refresh Rate)

With ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ set to ‘On’, you can enable variable refresh rate (VRR) in your GPU drivers, which allows the monitor’s refresh rate to change dynamically according to your frame rates in order to prevent screen tearing at no perceptible latency cost.

So, if you’re gaming at 4K 160Hz, but you’re getting 120FPS, the monitor will run at 120Hz in order to provide you with 120 whole frames per second without the screen-tearing artifacts.

The supported VRR range is 48-160Hz at 4K and 48-320Hz at 1080p, but even if your FPS dips below 48, the monitor uses LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) to refresh the screen at a multiple of your current frame rate. For example, 40FPS would be displayed at 80Hz or 120Hz to keep tearing at bay.

Even though the monitor doesn’t have official AMD FreeSync Premium or NVIDIA G-SYNC Compatible certifications, VRR works with compatible GPUs without any issues. There was no VRR brightness flickering associated with VA and OLED panels.

4K 160Hz Response Time: VRR Enabled

At 160Hz, with ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ enabled, there’s almost no difference in response time between the overdrive modes. All modes are similar to ‘Off’.

The overdrive modes are not changing pixel acceleration in any meaningful way. They’re just applying slightly different voltage settling behavior at the very end of the transition.

The best overdrive mode at 160Hz with VRR enabled is ‘Dynamic Overdrive’ with a 6.87ms average GtG (gray to gray) pixel response time speed, but it’s not much better than the worst ‘Off’ mode, which has 7.66ms.

The Dynamic Overdrive mode has zero overshoot, meaning that there was a lot of room available to push the pixel response time speed performance. Only 40% of all pixel transitions are within the 6.25ms refresh rate window.

If your frame rate is around 120FPS, the refresh rate window is smaller at 8.33ms. Now, the Advanced mode is the best at 6.47ms GtG, though again, it’s not much better than the other modes. At least now, 83.33% of all transitions are within the refresh rate window.

At 60FPS, all transitions are done within the 16.67ms window, with the ‘Standard’ mode being the fastest at 6.59ms.

Basically, at 160Hz with VRR enabled, you could set any overdrive mode and you wouldn’t notice any changes in response time performance, regardless of the refresh rate – except that there’s some minor ghosting noticeable at high frame rates.

It’s a shame that the performance isn’t optimized at high frame rates at 4K, as we know the display is capable of faster response times. Hopefully, this can be addressed via a firmware update.

4K 160Hz Response Time: VRR Disabled

Here’s the performance with VRR disabled.

Now we can see how different overdrive modes should work. With overdrive set to ‘Off’, we see the native panel performance similar to that with VRR enabled.

Increasing it to Standard improves the response time speed to 4.5ms (GtG) with minor 3.2% overshoot error, which is unnoticeable. We also have excellent 90% refresh rate compliance.

‘Dynamic Overdrive’ and ‘Advanced’ have identical performance. They increase the response time speed to 4.03ms, but with a higher 6.5% average overshoot error. However, refresh rate compliance remains similar at 86.67%.

‘Ultra Fast’ adds too much overshoot.

At a fixed 120Hz, ‘Standard’ is also the best mode to use with 100% refresh rate compliance, 4.52ms average GtG and low 5.23% average overshoot error.

At a fixed 60Hz, we recommend using ‘Off’ since it’s fast enough for 100% refresh rate compliance without adding overshoot.

So, if you want to game at 4K 160Hz, you’ll have to choose between faster response time with VRR disabled and slower response time with VRR enabled.

This is because setting ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ to ‘On’ basically locks the overdrive to ‘Off’ at 4K 160Hz.

Here’s how these results look in Blur Busters’ UFO ghosting test. We’re using the 960 Pixels Per Sec test with the camera’s shutter speed set to 1/4 of the refresh rate with fixed focus, ISO and color temperature.

The good news is that even with the overdrive set to ‘Off’, there’s not a lot of visible ghosting behind fast-moving objects.

1080p 320Hz Response Time

Luckily, in the 1920×1080 320Hz mode, the overdrive implementation is much better and there’s no difference with VRR being enabled or disabled.

At 1080p 320Hz, Ultra Fast adds too much overshoot, Off and Standard are too slow, while Dynamic OD and Advanced have identical performance with a 4.02ms average GtG response time, low 2.7% overshoot error and 56.67% refresh rate compliance.

Overall, there’s some minor ghosting behind fast-moving objects, but we find that it won’t bother most users. More importantly, there’s no dark-level smearing associated with most VA panels.

If you’re playing at 320Hz, and your frame rate is around 240FPS, Advanced / Dynamic OD are still the best overdrive option. Now with a higher 70% refresh rate compliance, 3.74ms average GtG, and 6% overshoot error.

In case your frame rate drops to around 120FPS. Advanced / Dynamic OD start to show overshoot artifacts. Ideally, this is where the Dynamic OD mode should switch to a performance that’s similar to Standard, but that’s not the case.

Around 120FPS, you should use the Standard option, which has 3.94ms GtG, 8.73% average overshoot error, and 100% refresh rate compliance.

Should your FPS drop to around 60FPS, Standard will cause noticeable overshoot, so you should dial it back to Off, which has 6.85ms GtG with 100% refresh rate compliance and no overshoot.

Here are Blur Busters’ UFO ghosting shots at 320Hz and 240Hz.

Below, you can see how the KTC H27P6 compares to a few other displays we tested.

Motion Blur Reduction

The monitor also supports MBR (Motion Blur Reduction) via its MPRT feature, which uses backlight strobing to reduce perceived motion blur at the cost of image brightness.

It cannot be enabled at the same time as VRR and it introduces screen flickering that’s invisible to the human eye, but can cause headaches to sensitive users after prolonged use.

As you can see, motion clarity is significantly improved, though there’s some minor strobe crosstalk (image duplications).

Luckily, the center of the screen looks the clearest, while strobe crosstalk becomes more noticeable toward the top and bottom edges.

Here’s how MPRT performs at lower refresh rates.

Keep in mind that for the best results, your frame rate should match the refresh rate. If you can’t maintain 320FPS, you should lower the refresh rate when using MPRT.

With MPRT active, brightness is reduced to 178-nits at 320Hz, 179-nits at 240Hz, 172-nits at 160Hz, and 173-nits at 120Hz.

Overall, the backlight strobing performance is excellent. If you’re a fan of CRT-like motion clarity, it’s definitely worth playing around with.

Latency

Display latency also varies depending on whether ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ is enabled in the OSD menu. Here are the results with it enabled.

Disabling ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ in the OSD menu can greatly affect display latency on this monitor.

Here’s a summary of the results.

	FreeSync/G-sync ON	FreeSync/G-sync OFF
320Hz	2.65ms	4.84ms
160Hz	3.62ms	3.92ms
120Hz	5.15ms	4.47ms
60Hz	7.94ms	25.54ms

Basically, at 160Hz and 120Hz, there’s no big difference.

However, at 320Hz with VRR disabled in the monitor settings, the 4.84ms delay is longer than the 3.12ms refresh rate window, and while most gamers won’t be able to notice this, it’s not an ideal result.

Luckily, you don’t actually have to use VRR – you just need to set ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ to ‘On’ in the OSD menu, and then you can disable VRR in your GPU drivers if you don’t wish to use it.

If you’re using a 60Hz signal, you should also make sure that ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ is enabled, as 25.54ms is rather high display latency.

Uniformity & Quality Control

The screen is about 10 – 15% dimmer toward the left edge on a full white background, though it wasn’t noticeable in everyday use.

We didn’t find any dead or stuck pixels, no frame skipping, pixel inversion artifacts, excessive IPS glow or backlight bleeding.

During the Blur Busters’ UFO ghosting test, the flickering pattern was briefly visible as an afterimage on dark backgrounds, but it faded quickly once varied content was displayed. We didn’t experience any image retention in regular use.

The monitor uses a flicker-free backlight (unless MPRT is enabled), ensuring a comfortable viewing experience without the risk of eye strain or headaches for sensitive users during extended use.

There’s also a low blue light mode with four intensity levels (we measured color temperatures of 5384K, 4581K, 4000K, and 3517K), which can be helpful if you have trouble falling asleep at night after prolonged screen time.

Features

On the rear of the monitor, there’s a directional joystick for quick and easy navigation through the menu. Moving the joystick up, down, left or right also serves as a quick menu for certain functions that can be changed in the menu.

Possible hot key shortcuts include brightness, volume, mute, Game Assist, Preset, Color Temperature, Black Equalize, HDR and Aspect Ratio. Moving the joystick up is reserved for input source selection.

Besides typical image adjustment tools (brightness, contrast, color temperature), there are some advanced settings available too, including sharpness, aspect ratio (full, 16:9, 4:3), gamma (from 1.8 to 2.4), color range (auto, full, limited), hue/saturation and automatic input detection.

KTC also offers a desktop application called MMC (Monitor Management Center), which you can use to make some OSD-related adjustments, assign keyboard hotkeys for certain functions or picture modes to different applications.

You can download the MMC app here, though you’ll need to change your browser’s preferred language to ‘Chinese (Simplified)’; otherwise, it will just take you to the English homepage. Alternatively, use this direct download link (clicking it will start the download immediately).

You can also use third-party apps, such as ControlMyMonitor, to make the following OSD settings:

Useful gaming features include Black Equalize (improves visibility in dark scenes by altering the gamma curvature), crosshair overlays, a refresh rate tracker and an on-screen timer.

Other OSD settings include language, OSD setup (position, timeout, transparency, style), power LED indicator (on, off), audio and factory reset.

Design & Connectivity

The stand of the monitor is robust and offers full ergonomic support, including up to 130mm height adjustment, +/- 90° pivot, -5°/20° tilt, +/- 45° swivel and 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility (recommended screw size M4*10mm)

The screen has a light matte anti-glare coating, which diffuses reflections without adding too much graininess to the image. The KTC logo at the rear also has customizable RGB lighting (off, ‘breathe’ effect and static red, green or blue).

The bezels are ultra-thin (1mm) at the top and at the sides, while the bottom bezel is a bit thicker at 15mm. There’s also a 6mm black border (2mm at the bottom) around the screen before the image starts.

Connectivity options are abundant and include DisplayPort 1.4, two HDMI 2.1 ports, a USB-C (DisplayPort Alternate Mode, up to 90W Power Delivery), a headphone jack and a dual-USB 3.0 hub.

It also features built-in KVM functionality, allowing you to connect two PCs to the monitor and control both using a single keyboard and mouse plugged directly into the display.

In the box, along with the monitor, you also get the external power supply, a power cord, a DisplayPort cable, a user guide/warranty card and a factory calibration report.

Price & Similar Monitors

The KTC H27P6 usually goes for around $350. It’s sold on two different stores on Amazon, so make sure you check out both: Link 1 (code 10H27P6D for 10% off), Link 2.

We’ve also seen it go on sale for $270, which is exceptional value for the price.

Even at $350, it’s definitely worth considering as an excellent hybrid work-gaming monitor. If you’re interested in HDR, keep in mind that for around $380, you can find 1440p 240Hz OLED monitors, and for $425, the KTC M27P6, which is similar to the H27P6 but has 1152 mini LED dimming zones for proper HDR image quality.

As far as other 27″ 4K Dual Mode monitors go, the MSI MAG 275UPF E14 is the cheapest model, sold regularly for $260, but it has a slightly lower 144Hz (1080p 288Hz) refresh rate, a lower 250-nit peak brightness and no USB ports or KVM.

The Gigabyte M27UP offers similar specs as the H27P6 for $300 – $330, but it has lower 18W Power Delivery over its USB-C port, while the Gigabyte GS27U variant has a tilt-only stand, no Dual Mode and no USB ports for $270 – $350.

Finally, there’s the Koorui G2741L for $300 – $350, also without USB ports.

	KTC H27P6	MSI MAG 275UPF E14	Gigabyte M27UP	Koorui G2741L
Brightness	400	250	400	400
USB-A Ports	2	–	2	–
USB-B Port	1	–	1	–
USB-C	Yes (90W PD)	–	Yes (18W PD)	–
KVM	Yes	–	Yes	–

The KTC H27P6 is the most feature-packed model, which is why we highly recommend it, especially if you can find it on sale.

For more options and information, check out our comprehensive best gaming monitor buyer’s guide.

Conclusion

All in all, the KTC H27P6 offers excellent value if you’re after a 27-inch 4K IPS monitor for both work and SDR gaming, complete with an ergonomic stand and a wide range of connectivity options and features.

As expected from a 4K monitor in this price range, it doesn’t offer true HDR performance. For proper HDR at this price, you’ll need to step down to 1440p and look at models like the KTC M27T6 or the Acer XV275U F3 with mini LED backlights, or the AOC Q27GAZD with an OLED panel. Alternatively, you could spend about $150 more for the M27P6, which features a 4K mini LED panel.

One issue we found is that overdrive is essentially disabled at 4K 160Hz when ‘FreeSync/G-sync’ is enabled in the monitor’s settings.

Even so, response times aren’t too bad with overdrive off. You can also disable VRR to improve response times by around 35%, and at 160Hz, screen tearing isn’t that noticeable anyway. Luckily, this bug doesn’t affect the 1080p 320Hz mode.

Aside from that, the monitor comes with solid factory calibration and consistent image quality, making it suitable for basic color-critical work right out of the box.

Its decent response times, low latency and viable backlight strobing implementation deliver a responsive gaming experience. Along with the integrated KVM switch and the USB-C port with DP Alt Mode and 90W Power Delivery, the KTC H27P6 is a great hybrid work-and-gaming monitor.

Specifications

Screen Size	27-inch
Resolution	3840×2160 (Ultra HD)
Panel Type	IPS
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate	4K 160Hz 1080p 320Hz
Response Time	1ms (GtG)
Motion Blur Reduction	MPRT
Adaptive-Sync	FreeSync Premium (48-160Hz, 48-320Hz), HDMI 2.1 VRR
Ports	DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.1, USB-C (DP Alt Mode, 90W PD)
Other Ports	Headphone Jack, 2x USB-A 3.0, USB-B
Brightness	400 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio	1000:1
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC) 95% DCI-P3 (89.2% measured)
HDR	HDR10
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)