Review on LG 34GN850-B UltraGear 34-Inch IPS Ultrawide Screen Monitor with 144Hz Refresh Rate, Tilt and Height Adjustments by Ron Khadka

I posted the original review and replaced it with an emphasis after knowing everything. I bought two of these, actually three, and had a lot of problems. A) One of the two I originally ordered broke. I didn't find any damage to the physical packaging or the monitor, the box was in perfect condition, but there was a wide column of dead pixels on the monitor. So I went back and ordered a third. B) I currently have two that I use, will probably return both. I solved most of the problems myself, but some problems still exist and I can't get any help from LG. They don't react at all. I end up getting all my help from people on Reddit, where there is a community of people struggling with the same issues and bemoaning LG's lack of support. Two big problems, in order of severity for me. 1) Displayport is known to have power management issues that confuse Windows. If monitors turn off or go to sleep when the DP cable power is completely removed, Windows will assume that they have been disconnected from the system and then everything will be set up again. Windows rearranged and moved to main display. This is a major annoyance that causes problems in multi-monitor situations. Manufacturers have solved this problem in the past by adding an option to disable deep sleep to their on-screen menus. Every manufacturer, Dell/Alienware, Samsung, Asus etc. has the option to turn off deep sleep. This fixes the problem. Instead of going to sleep completely, the monitor intelligently turns off the LEDs, but leaves a small voltage on the DP to keep things going so Windows doesn't think the monitor is physically off. Well, that option is missing on this monitor! This means that all my windows are rearranged randomly several times a day. Words cannot describe the level of irritation and outright anger that results. 2) There are chroma subsampling issues to be aware of. It took me a while to figure that out. By default, text on Windows was unreadable due to color undersampling. Damaged my eyes. The picture is attached to the review. There is a red and green halo around the text. I was able to remedy this by lowering the monitor's frequency to 100 Hz instead of the nominal 144-160 Hz. Now people will say that I don't have a good graphics card, I have an old version of the display port and so on and so forth. According to DP1.4 standard, it supports 3440x1440 8bpc Full RGB @ 144Hz, I don't know what to say yet, it doesn't work for me. Whatever happens to my setup, LG is still to blame, and here's why. 2a) I have a Titan X graphics card that was originally listed in the DP1.2 specification when it was released. However, NVidia has since released a firmware update for the card that upgrades the display port to DP1.4. I installed this firmware update. 2b) The monitor itself claims in the OSD that DP1.4 is running on it. So one of two things is happening here. Either the monitor doesn't support full color at 144Hz without subsampling, or the firmware is incorrectly telling me it works with DP1.4 when in fact it works with an earlier version like DP1.2. (shrugs) I tried to contact LG support about all this to no avail. by phone. By email. In their support forum. zilch. On the phone, people are ignorant. I seem to know more about their own monitor than they do, and they can't do much more than typical Geek Squad support for tech-savvy folks who just need help finding a switch. They insist that the problem is on my side and the monitor is working as intended. They don't even understand the problems I explain to them. Okay, let's try email. Emails I'm not getting a reply to. The message board is the same, I get no reply. This is a sick joke. I assume this is a company? real company? With people who work and stuff? So I end up with two 144Hz monitors that I can only use at 100Hz. And, what's worse, these monitors perform acts of digital terror against my Windows desktop several times a day by disconnecting from the system. And LG doesn't care, they seem to find it funny. Otherwise they are great! Which I say both sarcastically and seriously. When everything works, I enjoy these monitors. As an engineer, I know these problems are easy to fix. Almost certainly a firmware update will add the ability to turn off deep sleep. That's my biggest problem. Subsampling problem I don't know what's going on. It could be a problem with my graphics card. Maybe I use DP1.2 instead of DP1.4. But I do not know. The OSD may not be the correct DP version. which will fix the firmware update again. Who the hell knows because there is no LG support and I can't even talk about troubleshooting. So I guess I'll pack them up and send them back as defective. Although I think it's an unfortunate waste because I think these issues are fixable, not my problem. I did everything I could to get these monitors working. LG's service is shocking. On the other hand, all Alienware reviews say otherwise. Have already ordered two AW3420DW. Much luck!