Viotek GN27DB Review: Affordable 1440p 144Hz FreeSync Curved Gaming Monitor

Many users find 27″ 1440p 144Hz monitors to offer the perfect gaming experience as they offer the optimal screen size, resolution, and refresh rate ratio.

Naturally, displays with such specifications aren’t cheap, but Viotek managed to bring them to a budget-friendly level while not sacrificing vital features, performance, or image quality.

Meet the Viotek GN27D models: the Viotek GN27DB (black design) and the Viotek GN27DW (white design).

Image Quality

The Viotek GN27DB is based on Samsung’s VA (Vertical Alignment) panel with a superior contrast ratio of 3,000:1, true 8-bit color depth with 85% NTSC color gamut (110% sRGB), a somewhat mediocre 250-nit peak brightness, wide 178-degree viewing angles, and a 5ms response time speed.

Now, at this price range, you will also be able to find 27″ 1440p 144Hz gaming monitors with TN panels. These offer a faster response time speed (1ms), but not as high contrast ratio, vibrant colors, or wide viewing angles.

Overall, the 1440p 144Hz 1ms models are better for those who mainly play competitive FPS games, whereas the Viotek GN27DB is more suited for those who prefer image quality over performance.

Due to their slower response time speed (the speed at which pixels can change from one color to another), VA panels have noticeable trailing of fast-moving objects, especially at higher frame rates and in darker scenes.

While this is tolerable for single-player and casual FPS gaming considering the image quality you get for the price, hardcore gamers should opt for 1440p 144Hz 1ms or 1080p 240Hz gaming displays instead.

There are 27″ 1440p 144Hz variants with IPS panels available as well. These offer a good balance between TN and VA as they provide wide viewing angles, great colors, and good response time, but are also more expensive as they cost at least $400.

All in all, the Viotek GN27DB monitor offers an excellent image quality for the price thanks to its high contrast ratio, vivid colors, and rich pixel density (1440p at 27″ results in 108.79 pixels per inch which ensures vivid details and plenty of screen space without any scaling necessary).

Performance

The Viotek GN27DB input lag performance is excellent, with only ~5ms of virtually imperceptible delay, which is fit even for professional gaming.

It also supports AMD FreeSync, which provides a variable refresh rate (VRR) if you have a compatible graphics card. The Viotek GN27DB FreeSync range is 40-144Hz, so as long as your FPS (Frames Per Second) is within that range, there will be no screen tearing or stuttering.

FreeSync works over both DisplayPort and HDMI, so you can use it with the Xbox One as well. It works with compatible NVIDIA cards too over DP, however, some users experience brightness flickering when FreeSync/G-SYNC is enabled.

This only affects some units of the monitor, and the brightness flickering is mostly present below ~40FPS and/or when your FPS fluctuates a lot.

Sadly, this issue affects a lot of monitors based on Samsung’s VA panels, and, hopefully, a GPU driver update will fix it at some point.

The only other thing we could hold against the Viotek GN27DB is its low peak luminance, but unless you intend on keeping the screen right next to a window without any curtains, it will be bright enough.

Other than that, the monitor has no issues; we didn’t detect any excessive backlight bleeding nor dead/stuck pixels on our unit.

Features

The OSD (On-Screen Display) menu of the Viotek GN27DB curved gaming monitor is user-friendly and consists of many useful features including the GamePlus customizable crosshairs, pre-calibrated picture presets (Standard, Text, Movie, Game, FPS, and RTS) as well as Picture in Picture and Picture by Picture.

Other available features include the standard adjustments such as contrast/brightness, sharpness, color temperature, gamma (three presets), 6-axis hue/saturation, aspect ratio, and Response Time/Overdrive (Off, Low, Middle, High).

Design & Connectivity

In order to make this gaming monitor so budget-friendly, Viotek had to cut corners somewhere; the design quality is cheap, and the stand is tilt-only by -5°/15°.

Luckily, the monitor is VESA mount compatible, which allows you to mount the screen on a third-party stand. Moreover, the screen has very narrow bezels!

Connectivity options include DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4, HDMI 2.0, and two 3W integrated speakers, but no audio line-out port. The screen has a curvature of 1800R, which does slightly increase the immersion but isn’t necessary at this screen size.

Price & Similar Monitors

The Viotek GN27DB goes for as low as $230, which is an excellent value for the price.

However, consider investing ~$20 extra for the AOC CQ27G2 1440p 144Hz curved gaming monitor, which has a better design and 1ms MPRT for less ghosting.

Visit our best gaming monitor buyer’s guide for more info and the best deals available.

Conclusion

All in all, the Viotek GN27DB is an outstanding gaming monitor for the price. It offers a high resolution, a high refresh rate, immersive image quality, and plenty of useful features; all that for an attractive price.

Due to the nature of VA panels regarding response time performance, it’s not recommended for competitive FPS gamers, but for casual fast-paced gaming and other genres, it’s fast enough – plus, it offers an eye-catching picture quality.

Screen Size	27-inch
Screen Curvature	1800R
Resolution	2560×1440 (WQHD)
Panel Type	VA
Aspect Ratio	16:9 (Widescreen)
Refresh Rate	144Hz
Response Time	5ms (GtG)
Adaptive Sync	FreeSync (40Hz-144Hz)
Speakers	2x3W
Ports	DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4, HDMI 2.0
Brightness	250 cd/m2
Contrast Ratio	3000:1 (static)
Colors	16.7 million (true 8-bit)
VESA	Yes (75x75mm)