The LG GX9 is a big gaming monitor and it’s the first 5K 2K OLED. So it’s a 45-inch ultrawide OLED that supports up to 330 Hz, Nvidia G-Sync compatible, AMD Freync support, USBC Display Port 2.1 and a dual mode that lets you switch between different resolutions with the click of a button. So, it’s called the 2025 LG Ultra Gear 45GX950A. And today, we’ll be unboxing it and setting it up, then reviewing the specs and testing it on both PC and PS5 Pro. And let me tell you, it’s a great thing. Now, if you want to check it out, I’ve linked it below. But if you have any questions, just write them in the comments and I’ll get back to you. Okay, so first of all, here’s the box it comes in. And it’s really nice to see that it has all these specifications and pictures of the side of the box because over the past few years we’ve seen more and more boxes go the way of the plain cardboard. And then we get the monitor itself which we’ll get back to in a second. We also have this box which is filled with accessories and cables including the power cable and power pack, an HDMI 2.1 cable, a USBC cable and a DisplayPort 2.1 cable. Then there’s the usual manual and warranty information which we’ll never read. There’s also a plastic cover on the back of the monitor which hides those cables. And then we get an included stand which comes in two pieces. We have some nice Ultra Gear branding on the main arm along with a cable management port on the bottom and a metal base which is surprisingly heavy but I think it has to support that massive monitor. Although it has VESA holes on the back for wall or arm mounting, I’ll use the standard one provided inside the box. So, it clicks into place on the back of the monitor here. And the base of the stand just screws down with two screws. And that’s it. We’re now ready to take a better look at this monstrous screen. Okay. So, before I flip it over, I’ll quickly show you the back. So, LG is keeping it clean, minimalistic as we’ve seen before, with the Ultra Gear logo on top and two LED strips on either side. I think it looks pretty neat and it’s nice that these LEDs can be changed to any color in the settings or turned off completely if you don’t want to use them. Now, you can also see that even though it’s a curved screen, the body of the monitor is still pretty slim overall, which is nice to look at. And speaking of ports, the 2025 model has been upgraded, and the real deal is that it now comes with 2.1 DisplayPorts instead of 1.4, 4, but it also has two HDMI 2.1 ports for console and PC gaming, a 90W USBC port for connecting a laptop or MacBook, and two USB ports. There’s also a headphone jack on the bottom. In terms of cable management, there’s no trunking, but there’s a small cutout on the back of the stand through which we can feed our cables so things look neat. Now, let’s turn this monitor around and take a closer look. Okay. Wow. This is a great screen. I mean, I usually have a 32-inch on my desk, but I have a 40-inch one behind me that I use for work every day, but 45 inches is no joke. I don’t think I was prepared for how big it would look. So, I’ve put the dimensions on the screen now so you can get an idea of how big it is. But I also like how thin the frame and bezels are around the screen. It immediately makes it look very clean, with no heavy frame or branding on the front. It definitely looks really clean in the setup. As for the stand, LG is sticking with the base it got last year, which I like a lot more than the previous big feet, and the movement from the stand is exactly what you’d expect. With full height, tilt, and swivel movement, you can adjust it however you want for your own setup, right? So, it’s worth answering the biggest question you’ve asked. What’s the curvature like? And how aggressive is it? Well, it’s an 800R curved monitor, which I was worried about at first because the only other curved monitor I have is the 40WP 95C, which I think is about 2,500R. So, basically flat. But after using it for the past few days, I’ve actually fallen in love with this thing.
It’s obviously very curved. There’s no denying that. But at this size and how close I’m sitting to it, it’s incredible. I mean, once you sit a few feet away from the screen, or about 80 to 90 cm away, you get a little stuck and it feels incredibly immersive. I’m sitting here now and I have this huge 45-inch screen wrapped around my vision. And the weird thing is that I feel like the screen is actually bigger. It’s like your peripheral vision is completely taken up by the screen. For gaming on PC, it literally feels like you’re in the game and you don’t have to turn your head to do that 45 inches and work, which I’ll talk about a little bit later. Everything is right in front of you. I’ve actually been using it this week for video editing and writing this script, and I feel like I need to switch to OLED in my other setup. So, this monitor has a 5K 2K resolution, which is the world’s first OLED gaming monitor at that resolution. So, we’re getting a 21×9 aspect ratio with a 5K wide and 2K high display at 45 inches. That’s literally 50% more pixels than a 49-inch DQHD screen. And since it’s an OLED, we’re definitely getting the best picture quality and image quality features we can expect from any screen. So playing some native 4K content really shows how good this monitor looks. LG has also confirmed that the new OLED uses a color accuracy of less than delta E and 98.5% of the DCIP3 color gamut. So, in other words, the colors are vibrant and you can tell they’re true to life. In terms of black levels, the OLED’s self-illuminating pixels mean that the contrast and black levels are as you’d expect, which is pretty great. And even with these black levels and infinite contrast, we’re not getting any black crush. I’m going to throw up some pictures on the screen now, just to see how good the blacks or dark areas are, which not only helps with contrast, but also makes the colors and highlights pop out more. And you might be surprised by this because it’s always hard to capture on camera. But while the black levels are great, this is still LG’s brightest OLED. At its peak, it’s capable of hitting 1,300 nits in a 1.5% APL window. And that’s thanks to the MLA Plus technology. And it’s really noticeable when you’re looking at a picture like this where you can see how bright the light areas of the screen are. And you might have noticed this already, but this screen has an anti-glare coating. So, it’s not completely matte and it’s not glossy, which is, to be honest, not surprising since this is a curved display. Now, LG calls it their anti-glare and low reflection coating, which does a pretty good job of eliminating reflections, and you only get a little glare if you’re pointing it directly at a light or a window. To me, it’s no different than the 32-inch OLED I got last year. And it’s probably one of the best anti-glare coatings I’ve seen on a screen. And viewing angles are often something we talk about with monitors, but with OLED, it’s not really a concern. Not only do we get these impressive viewing angles when moving around the screen, it also means that when you’re sitting in the middle, there’s no loss of brightness, contrast, or color. Now, when it comes to gaming, which, let’s face it, is the main reason to buy this type of monitor. The GX9 absolutely blew me away. I mean, its specs are easy to read and it ticks almost every box, and it’s a clear upgrade over last year’s monitor, but looking at it and using it, it really looks great. So, I hooked it up to my PC with an RTX5080, and I was amazed at how good it looked playing something like Cyberpunk, God of War, or Spider-Man. And using a flat screen OLED, it’s a completely different gaming experience, one I didn’t expect to like so much.
So, talking about the actual specifications of the monitor, its response time is 0.03 milliseconds. So, it is extremely fast, Nvidia G-Sync compatible, supports AMD Freync Premium Pro and its refresh rate is up to 330 Hz. So, if we bring the resolution down to 1080p then we can use it at 330 Hz or if we use the full 5K 2K resolution then we can use it at 165 Hz. So, depending on the game we are playing, like Cyberpunk or Hell Divers 2, we can swap between modes for the best resolution we like. And this is a 5K 2K screen where the vertical resolution is 2160p rather than the normal 1440p, this seriously shows why you can go as wide as you want with an ultrawide, but you should never go smaller. Now, in addition to using it on my PC, I also tested it on the PS5 Pro. Obviously, the PS5 doesn’t natively support ultrawide monitors, so you can use it full screen, but it will look absolutely ridiculous as the image is stretched. Instead, this is the best way to use it, which means you’ll have black bars on either side of the screen, but it will at least look a little more natural. And the good news is that the PS5 will still output 4K resolution, so you’re getting good picture quality at 60 Hz. Now, this isn’t really a monitor you’d buy just for the PS5, but the fact is that you can use it if you’re running multiple consoles and a PC at the same time. I also wanted to point out that its DisplayPort 2.1 has UHBR 13.5 and not UHBR20 as you might expect, which means it can still hit 5K 2K at 165 Hz and 10 bits, but not without using DSC and PPI, which is another thing to talk about. So this year the PPI, or pixels per inch, has been increased from 84 to 125. That’s huge. This means that text on the screen, whether in menus or in-game text, should be much sharper or clearer to read. Another great feature of the GX9 is Dual Mode. This allows you to select from eight Dual Mode options with the click of a button. You can press the physical button at the bottom of the screen. You can use the onscreen menu to select a mode or use the LG Switch software. Basically, it gives you the option to swap between eight different modes, from 165 Hz to 330 Hz, Full HD to Wide Ultra HD, and from 24 inches to 45 inches. So, if you’re playing a game like Cyberpunk, you might want to run it at 45 inches Wide Ultra HD and 165 Hz to get the most out of the screen. But then for something like Hell Divers 2, you can drop it down to Full HD at 24 and 330 Hz. Now, that’s great because it means the monitor is so versatile that it can switch between different resolutions with the click of a button. And then I’m also using it for productivity. Now, most of us sit in the same setup for both work and gaming. So, having a monitor that can do both is pretty important. So, to test it out, I decided to use this monitor with my MacBook, where I edit my videos. So, first of all, this monitor has a 90W USBC port on the back. And that means we can plug in a laptop or MacBook and not only get an image on the screen, but we can keep it powered and charged at the same time. This is a huge advantage over using an HDMI cable because we would only need a single cable setup, which is great. Okay, now we’re plugged in. The first thing to notice is that the 800R curve isn’t as aggressive as I expected for editing and working. Sure, the lines are clearly curved and distorted, but sitting like I do, it feels like 3 feet or 80 to 90 centimeters tall to me. Also, being able to snap multiple windows side by side on a 45-inch screen is crazy. So, here I have my entire timeline up for Final Cut Pro, and I can zoom out to see everything, or zoom in to see how sharp and detailed everything is. Another thing about using this for productivity is eye strain or eye fatigue. If you use a monitor for seven hours or more a day, you are likely to experience eye strain and feel quite tired. Now, personally, I don’t suffer from it, but LG has some technology built in to help reduce it. Things like flicker-free displays and low blue light mode, which is designed to reduce the wavelength of blue light from the image on the screen.
Yes, for productivity, I can say it’s a great screen. And to give you an idea, I’m already planning to switch from my 4-year-old 40-inch ultrawide screen to the new 45-inch OLED. I also wanted to show you the Picture-in-Picture or Picture-by-Picture modes that the screen offers. So in the settings, there’s an option to display two different inputs at the same time. And that means you can have a console like your PS5 on while your PC or laptop is on the other side. Perfect for those times where you really want to work with two screens in your setup. But instead of adding an extra monitor, you can just plug in two devices. So here I have my MacBook Pro on the left and the PS5 Pro on the right. So it’s really cool that I can put these two side by side. But keep in mind that the PS5 is showing at 4K 60 Hz, which is perfectly fine if you’re inputting half the screen this way. I tried it on my PC and MacBook or PC and PS5 Pro at the same time and it worked perfectly too. Or you can play around using Picture-in-Picture mode. So you can use your PC or laptop full screen, then your second device, in my case the PS5, will show up as a small window in the bottom corner. Oh, and this monitor has built-in speakers. So while I prefer to wear a headset when gaming, it’s great that we can switch between a headset and the built-in speakers. This means that for story-driven games or when you want to watch a movie in the setup, you can use the two built-in stereo speakers. But give it a listen and see what you think. In terms of the menus or onscreen display, it’s pretty much the same layout and settings we’ve had for the past few years. So, we can adjust things like brightness and contrast under the picture settings, game modes if you want to change or enable specific settings like VRR, and even the LED lighting on the back of the monitor can be turned on here. Of course, there are also OLED care protection settings, which include screen move, screen saver and image cleaning mode. So, all of this and a 2-year warranty means we should be gaming with peace of mind here for years to come. But just for reference, I’m running my PC and PS5 with the Gamer profile. In my case, it gives the best picture brightness and black levels for gaming. And can I say how beautiful this monitor looks in the setup too. I mean, this thing has some amazing specs and gaming features. Yeah, I don’t think it looks like much. This has to be one of the cleanest and smoothest looking monitors on the market. And with its 5K 2K resolution at up to 330 Hz, 21 by9 aspect ratio and lightning fast speeds for gaming, this could be the perfect ultrawide monitor for 2025. But it’s not cheap. Obviously, prices vary from country to country.