Cooler Master Tempest GP27U Review (Mini-LED 4K/160Hz)

1. Introduction2. Design3. On-screen Display (OSD)4. Panel Analysis5. Response Times6. Display Latency7. Closing Thoughts8. View All Pages

Cooler Master has well and truly arrived on the monitor scene with the Tempest GP27U. While the company has already put out some decent displays over the last couple of years, none of them have been as good as the GP27U.

The star of the show is undoubtedly the excellent HDR implementation, with a 576-zone mini-LED backlight. I'd say this is one of the best HDR experiences on the market right now, bar OLED, and it really does make a huge difference for gaming versus an edge-lit HDR implementation, which I've never been impressed by.

Cooler Master has got a lot of other fundamentals right, too. For one, out of the box colour accuracy and contrast are both very good, as is the range of brightness in SDR usage, while the Quantum Dot filter enables an extremely wide colour gamut. We also can't forget about the response times, averaging about 5ms grey-to-grey using the Advanced overdrive mode.

Despite all of that, one thing is stopping me from being completely effusive with my praise for the GP27U, and that is the issue of flickering when both HDR and adaptive sync are enabled. This is something discussed extensively in our video review, and for me it is a significant enough problem that I'd personally want to hold off on a purchase until Cooler Master has issued a new firmware (which they have assured me is in the works.)

Of course, some of you may well not consider that flickering to be as significant of an issue as I do, in which case I’d say the GP27U is a cracking monitor. On sale at £800 here in the UK, it’s cheaper than a whole load of 4K/144Hz screens – including the Corsair Xeneon 32UHD144 and even Sony's InZone M9 – despite trouncing most of them with its HDR implementation. It really is fantastic value at this price point, so fingers crossed Cooler Master and solve the flickering once and for all.

You can order the Cooler Master Tempest GP27U for £798.98 HERE.

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Pros

• Excellent HDR with mini-LED backlight.
• Very impressive colour accuracy and gamut coverage.
• Strong contrast for an IPS panel.
• Decent response times, including a single overdrive mode.
• Strong connectivity, including KVM, Type-C port and two HDMI 2.1.
• Clean design.

Cons

• Visible flickering when HDR and adaptive sync are enabled simultaneously.
• OSD can feel a touch slow at times.

KitGuru says: The Cooler Master GP27U is very nearly the complete package. The visible flickering when both HDR and adaptive sync are enabled is a clear issue, but if Cooler Master can get that fixed, this would be an incredibly easy recommendation.

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