LG’s UltraGear evo: flashy 5K and AI upscaling — convincing solution or marketing theater?
I’ll be blunt: on‑display AI upscaling built into a monitor is the kind of idea I both want to love and want to interrogate hard. LG’s UltraGear evo lineup promises 5K panels, on‑device AI that upsamples frames (supposedly letting you delay a GPU upgrade), and wild form factors from a 27‑inch MiniLED to a 52‑inch 1000R wrap. That’s sexy on paper. But CES is the place for demos — I need to see artifact behavior, latency and real workload results before I stop recommending GPU upgrades.
AI upscaling can be useful, especially when GPUs get expensive. My skepticism comes from two places: one, how often does vendor AI introduce strange artifacts or temporal instability during fast motion; and two, how much latency or post‑processing cost does that AI add to the path? If LG nails low‑latency, frame‑consistent upscaling that doesn’t smear or ghost, this could be genuinely useful. If not, it’ll just be another marketing checkbox.
Practically, here’s what I’ll be testing at CES: real gaming frames (not demo reels), competitive titles where latency matters, HDR/brightness handling, and the switch modes LG touts (5K@165Hz vs QHD/WFHD higher refresh modes). I’m also curious about pricing and power draw — none of that matters if it costs way more than a sensible GPU upgrade or requires huge power budgets.
- Key models teased:
- 39GX950B — 39″ OLED curved 21:9, AI upscaling to 5K, 165Hz @5K or 330Hz @WFHD, 0.03ms response.
- 27GM950B — 27″ MiniLED, 2,304 local dimming zones, AI upscaling to 5K, 165Hz @5K or 330Hz @QHD, peak 1,250 nits.
- 52G930B — 52″ 5K large‑format gaming display, 240Hz, 1000R curvature for immersive sims.
- Claims to verify: actual image quality from on‑device AI, input lag/latency impact, artifact behavior in motion, HDR tone mapping, and power/thermals.
- Unknowns: price, availability, driver/firmware update cadence, and how well the AI plays with PC/console pipelines.
Original coverage: Engadget — LG announces UltraGear evo monitors.
My Verdict: I like the direction — offloading some upscaling to the display could be a pragmatic way to stretch aging GPUs. But I’m withholding actual enthusiasm until I see low‑latency, artifact‑free demos and a price that doesn’t demand a mortgage. Will you trust a monitor to do your upscaling, or is that a GPU you’d rather have?