Gigabyte Launches AORUS CV27F 165Hz FreeSync 2 HDR 1500R Gaming Monitor
We are still catching up on all of the announcements from Computex last week—there were a lot of products unveiled—and one that initially slipped by our radar is a new gaming monitor. Gigabyte announced the AORUS CV27F, a rather boring name for an interesting panel that the company is pitching as the "world's first tactical monitor."
As you might have discerned from the model name, the CV27F is a 27-inch display. It's only rocking a 1920x1080 refresh rate, but it's using a "true 1500R" curved VA panel that Gigabyte claims is more similar to the natural curve of the human eye, compared to 1800R curved monitors.
More importantly, the CV27F is built for fast-action gaming. It has a 165Hz refresh rate and a low 1ms moving picture response time (MPRT). Generally speaking, that is a more accurate measurement of response time than gray-to-gray (GtG)—Blur Busters wrote a nifty explainer that details both types of response time measurements, and is worth reading.
This is also a FreeSync 2 HDR monitor, with a max brightness rating of 400 nits. That is a far cry from the eye-searing 1,000 nits that higher end HDR monitors can hit, but is good enough for VESA's entry-level DisplayHDR certification (note that at the time of this writing, this specific model is not DisplayHDR certified).
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So, what constitutes a "tactical" monitor? Gigabyte points to the following features...
- Black Equalizer: Brightens up the dark parts in the picture for better visibility in dark areas.
- Aim Stabilizer: This feature will help you reduce the blurriness of the recoil effects while you are shooting in an FPS game. It can also help you trace moving enemies much easier.
- GameAssist: This is a kit of OSD functions that helps you in game. It includes a customizable crosshair, a counter, a timer, and multi-screen alignment lines.
- AORUS Dashboard: We can display hardware information directly on screen, such as mouse DPI and GPU/CPU information.
- OSD Sidekick: You can now control the monitor through this software and control your OSD with mouse and keyboard. A much easier way to adjust your monitor.
- Active Noise Cancelling(ANC): When you plug your mic into the monitor, it can help you cancel the noise around you. The only thing that goes through the mic when you are communicating with your teammate is your voice.
Underneath all the marketing fluff, what we have here is essentially a fast 1080p monitor with a curved panel and FreeSync 2 HDR support. Gigabyte has not said when this monitor will be available or how much it will cost.
While on the topic of "tactical monitors," Gigabyte also launched the AORUS KD25F. This is a smaller 24.5-inch display, also with a 1920x1080 resolution, but an even faster 240MHz refresh rate and 0.5ms response time (MPRT).
That is not the only difference. Whereas the CV27V is built to balance speed with image quality by way of a VA panel, the KD25F sports a TN screen. This gives it more speed to work with (potentially handy for some esports games), at the expense of color reproduction. We have not spent any hands-on time with either monitor, but VA and IPS panels typically offer better image quality than TN panels.
Gigabyte has not yet mentioned availability or pricing info for the KD25F either.
