Best HDR Monitors 2021

HDR is a technology that enhances the colours of a computer screen by using a 10-bit colour scheme, rather than the typical 8 and allows for dynamic backlighting levels to help make bright lights look bright, and shadows darker.

The data rates required to transmit this much extra information are right at the limit of what is possible for 4k high-refresh rate monitors with the current connector standards. As such you’ll generally run into issues where you need to accept compromises such as chroma subsampling, disabled variable refresh rates, or disabled HDR. Alternatively, you can avoid some of these issues by choosing to use a lower refresh rate, or choosing a 1440p monitor.

While we would recommend a high refresh-rate 1440p HDR monitor, we’ve included some top 4k HDR monitors too in our list of the best HDR monitors of 2021.

The Acer Nitro XV272U Xbmiipruzx is an expensive powerhouse of a monitor. The display is 1440p IPS panel that can run at 270Hz which will take a lot of processing power to make the most out of. While the normal brightness is a relatively average 350 nits the peak brightness of 400, grants it the HDR400 rating.

When not pushing 270 frames a second, gameplay can be kept smooth with FreeSync Premium, although this model is not rated as G-Sync compatible as of the time of writing. It can display 99% of the wider than standard Adobe RGB gamut.

The Samsung Odyssey G7 is a 27- and 32-inch monitor with a 1000R curve. The 1440p VA panel has a 240Hz refresh rate and has an HDR600 rating thanks to the peak 600 nit brightness. Using QLED technology, this monitor covers 95% of the DCI colour gamut.

For the times when your graphics card isn’t up to outputting 240 1440p frames a second, the screen can dynamically adjust the refresh rate no matter which graphics card brand you use, thanks to FreeSync Premium Pro and the G-Sync Compatible rating. The use of a VA panel, however, reduces the viewing angles, through given the sharp curve this is likely not much of an issue.

The Acer Nitro XV272U Pbmiiprzx is the cheaper version of the first entry in this list. The refresh rate of the panel is down to “only” 144Hz, but is still 1440p and HDR400 certified. Gamers that rely on fast crisp frames, however, may notice the ghosting caused by the 4ms Grey-To-Grey (GTG) response time of the pixels.

One of the big limitations of this model is the fact that you can’t use HDR and FreeSync/G-Sync at the same time, this means you may experience screen tearing if you try to game in HDR. For the price though this is a great budget tier HDR monitor.

The LG 27GN950-B is a 4k 144Hz monitor with HDR600 brightness. It achieves 98% coverage of the DCI-P3 colour gamut. In the likely event that your graphics card can’t push a reliable 144 4k frames a second the monitor is G-Sync compatible and supports FreeSync Premium Pro.

The 1ms GTG response time leaves little to be desired. To support 4k 144Hz HDR and Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) at the same time, you will need a graphics card that supports Display Stream Compression or DSC. Most Graphics cards that would be paired with such a monitor will support this, however, so it’s likely not an issue.

The Acer Predator XB273K Gpbmiipprzx is another 4k 144Hz monitor, although this one only reaches HDR400. It still offers a 1ms response time and but only covers 90% of the DCI-P3 gamut, that’s where things stop being so simple though.

The monitor can use FreeSync or G-Sync at 4k 120Hz, but you’ll need to overclock it to reach 144Hz. Unfortunately, to get to 144Hz, you need to plug 2 display port cables in, which will disable VRR. Given the processing requirements of 4k 144Hz, you could really do with VRR.

This was our selection of the best HDR monitors in 2021. Have you recently bought an HDR monitor, which model did you go for?