As the title says I lost my 50/50 for Hsin and currently at 75/80 pity... Lucky has hit rock bottom lol. But wondering if Chisa would be the better pull anyway... but she might not be back again. Was hoping to also get Iuno but I'm completely dry on pulls, so unless I get extremely lucky I'll probably miss her.
Signed up for service a little over 3 months ago and service was solid. Following maintenence on 9-24-26 we've been getting a lot of intermittent packet loss. They seemed to have been doing maintenance every couple of days and I always pray it gets fixed but it seems to still be happening a lot, making online games quite annoying.
Disclaimer: I received this product for free from LG as part of an event. While I was asked to share my review, all opinions are entirely my own.
I've been using this monitor for about 2 and a half months now and have put 650 hours on it. This review is going to be focus on my 42" LG C3 vs the 39GX950b. I've been commenting on a lot of posts since receiving the monitor, trying to help people who are on the fence or have questions. It will be nice having everything I've been discussing and found out in one place.
The size difference/aspect ratio difference.
I moved from an older 34" UW monitor to the 42" C3 because I love big screens, it really helps to pull you into a game IMO. The nice thing about the 39GX950b is that it's the same width as the 42" C3, but you lose about 5" of height. I think this helped a lot in regards to technically downgrading in size. At first I felt cramped height wise, but after about a day or so it was a nonissue. However this goes both ways. After using the monitor for a long time I used the 16:9 ratio option in the OSD to see the FPS difference between normal 4k and 5k2k, and immediately felt cramped width wise. I believe this is a nonissue for anyone on the fence and you should become accustomed to any aspect ratio. Considering the height loss, I ended up pulling the monitor a lot closer than I had my C3. Since I don't have to look up and down so much, and the slight 1500r curve, I felt like this was perfect and actually prefer it to the further away 42" C3.
Brightness and HDR.
This was a big one for me, and I've seen a lot of people commenting that this monitor doesn't get as bright as smaller C series TVs. While my old screen was only a C3, I can say this was not my experience. My absolute biggest gripe I had with my C3 is the lack of brightness, ESPECIALLY when ABL kicks on... which can be triggered at will under certain circumstances. This was an old post of mine after noticing aggressive ABL. It was so bad, even sprinting on a snow map with your gun bouncing up and down (thus black covering a certain % of the screen) was enough to trigger ABL on and off rapidly. Though with all of the other benefits that came with OLED I decided to just put up with it. However I'm happy to report I have not had that issue with the 39GX950b, the difference in full screen brightness 130 (C3) vs 360 (GX9) is very apparent. While every OLED will have some form of ABL, it is a lot harder to notice on the GX9.
I wish I had enough desk space to have the screens side by side, but I tried my best to capture some real world brightness differences. I selected these screen shots to show tough scenes that display a lot of ABL. If enough of a trouble color is on screen with nothing dark to lighten the load, the C3s image just fell flat IMO. My camera elevated the C3 a bit, the difference is a bit worse in person. I honestly feel a lot of reviews at the time I picked up the C3 didn't really highlight the real world impact of ABL. I knew about ABL with people showing a white box expanding and the screen dimming, but it was understated how that could impact actual scenes.
Even taking ABL out of the equation, in the beginning of this video with over half the screen black, the 39GX950b was outshining the C3 easily. Forgot to take comparison shots of this unfortunately.
This is honestly the first time I haven't hated the brightness of my screen. Though I do like burning my retinas, I would always welcome more brightness.
Brightness aside, one thing I did like about the C3 is the amount of options I had for dialing in picture quality. I find the options on the GX9 to be a bit lacking and I feel like I couldn't get it exactly how I wanted it. Though I am happy with my current settings. I'm not much of a stickler for accuracy and prefer vibrant colors.
Matte vs Glossy.
This is a sensitive subject around here and everyone has their own preferences. But I feel like the glossy crowd is a bit too aggressive lol. I considered myself team glossy before getting this monitor. But having used it for a while now I think the whole debate is overblown. Sure glossy can be a tiny bit better, but unless you have complete control over your lighting it can easily cause a lot of reflections. I had a ceiling light behind me and I could always see a white globe on my screen when playing, though it didn't bother me that much. The real issues came with everything behind me that was lit by that light was causing reflections I could see in dark scenes. With the matte screen and the slight curve, I don't see any reflections nor the white globe on my screen thanks to the curve. I would sometimes turn all the lights off when playing a horror game on the C3 just to finally see everything on the screen without having to tune out reflections. With the matte screen I don't have to worry about anything like that, I can finally just see the screen without having to tune anything out. There is a slight grain on white, but unless I'm focusing on the screen coating and not the game, I don't notice it at all.
Gaming experience.
I will say, even with a 9800x3D and a 5090, it is hard to push this panel. I find myself using lower DLSS settings and frame gen more often than I did with my C3. You'll get roughly 30% less FPS with the 5k2k vs a standard 4k screen. Both techs have come a long way and I honestly don't mind using either of them, but I know some people don't like using them.
I really wish the screen was 240hz at least, but 165 was a decent bump above 120. The smoothness increase is subtle, but there. Though considering how hard it is to push this screen right now, I would say 165hz is not a deal breaker.
Some FPS examples I would get:
Cyberpunk max settings and full path tracing x3 frame gen - 165FPS. x2 frame gen - 120ish.
Death stranding 2 max settings and didn't have a quality setting, just set target to 165 and x2 frame gen - 140-165 FPS.
FFXIV FSR set to 80% - 140-165 FPS outdoors and 100ish in towns. Though I use RTX HDR and my FPS takes a hit.
GoW Rag max settings DLSS quality - capped 165.
Aside from FPS the PPI is 105 vs 143 wich is a nice bump.
The last thing I want to touch on is the dual mode. It is nice having the option to bump the resolution down to 2560 x 1080 and 330hz with the push of a button. While not always useful, I did find myself using it a bit. In a game like BF6 I found it to be a bit too blurry to be useful. But in a game like Overwatch or Marvel Rivals it was really nice. I wish the resolution was slightly higher, even if the refresh rate was 240-280.
Some mixed feelings.
A couple things I wish were a little better/different, in no particular order. ODS settings are lacking vs the C3, wasn't able to really dial it in. There is some noticeable VRR flicker in certain scenes/games, something I never really noticed on my C3 but have read it has it too. Though more noticeable, sometimes, it's not bad and could be fixable by stabilizing your frame pacing. There was also a chrominance overshoot problem I never noticed before but was made aware of it by this post. I've read it has to do with the white subpixel, though it's weird because going to the exact location on the game as OP in that post it's very prominent. But doesn't show up everywhere in that level. It could be a combination of things, or just the screen itself though I don't know enough about it to say. Hope it can be fixed with a firmware update if it is solely the screens fault.
A rather big annoyance.
I'm sure everyone is aware of the LG companion app controversy. I really did not appreciate seeing the LG companion app installer randomly pop up on my screen. I had downloaded it previously to test settings and check firmware, then uninstalled it. I get that most peripherals do this, I never like it. If there is any kind of companion app, let me decide if I want it, like I did before it was forced onto me. Though I simply uninstalled it and I haven't seen it again. I think the biggest thing that upset me was it suggesting to install mcafee. That is just straight up malware and I don't know why they still exist. If it was just the companion app, I would be annoyed but not care too much.
All in all I think this was a worthy upgrade over my C3 and I have been extremely happy with it.
Disclaimer: I received this product for free from LG as part of an event. While I was asked to share my review, all opinions are entirely my own.
I've been using this monitor for about 2 and a half months now and have put 650 hours on it. This review is going to be focus on my 42" LG C3 vs the 39GX950b. I've been commenting on a lot of posts since receiving the monitor, trying to help people who are on the fence or have questions. It will be nice having everything I've been discussing and found out in one place.
The size difference/aspect ratio difference.
I moved from an older 34" UW monitor to the 42" C3 because I love big screens, it really helps to pull you into a game IMO. The nice thing about the 39GX950b is that it's the same width as the 42" C3, but you lose about 5" of height. I think this helped a lot in regards to technically downgrading in size. At first I felt cramped height wise, but after about a day or so it was a nonissue. However this goes both ways. After using the monitor for a long time I used the 16:9 ratio option in the OSD to see the FPS difference between normal 4k and 5k2k, and immediately felt cramped width wise. I believe this is a nonissue for anyone on the fence and you should become accustomed to any aspect ratio. Considering the height loss, I ended up pulling the monitor a lot closer than I had my C3. Since I don't have to look up and down so much, and the slight 1500r curve, I felt like this was perfect and actually prefer it to the further away 42" C3.
Brightness and HDR.
This was a big one for me, and I've seen a lot of people commenting that this monitor doesn't get as bright as smaller C series TVs. While my old screen was only a C3, I can say this was not my experience. My absolute biggest gripe I had with my C3 is the lack of brightness, ESPECIALLY when ABL kicks on... which can be triggered at will under certain circumstances. This was an old post of mine after noticing aggressive ABL. It was so bad, even sprinting on a snow map with your gun bouncing up and down (thus black covering a certain % of the screen) was enough to trigger ABL on and off rapidly. Though with all of the other benefits that came with OLED I decided to just put up with it. However I'm happy to report I have not had that issue with the 39GX950b, the difference in full screen brightness 130 (C3) vs 360 (GX9) is very apparent. While every OLED will have some form of ABL, it is a lot harder to notice on the GX9.
I wish I had enough desk space to have the screens side by side, but I tried my best to capture some real world brightness differences. I selected these screen shots to show tough scenes that display a lot of ABL. If enough of a trouble color is on screen with nothing dark to lighten the load, the C3s image just fell flat IMO. My camera elevated the C3 a bit, the difference is a bit worse in person. I honestly feel a lot of reviews at the time I picked up the C3 didn't really highlight the real world impact of ABL. I knew about ABL with people showing a white box expanding and the screen dimming, but it was understated how that could impact actual scenes.
Even taking ABL out of the equation, in the beginning of this video with over half the screen black, the 39GX950b was outshining the C3 easily. Forgot to take comparison shots of this unfortunately.
This is honestly the first time I haven't hated the brightness of my screen. Though I do like burning my retinas, I would always welcome more brightness.
Brightness aside, one thing I did like about the C3 is the amount of options I had for dialing in picture preference. I find the options on the GX9 to be a bit lacking and I feel like I couldn't get it exactly how I wanted it. Though I am happy with my current settings. I'm not much of a stickler for accuracy and prefer vibrant colors.
Matte vs Glossy.
This is a sensitive subject around here and everyone has their own preferences. But I feel like the glossy crowd is a bit too aggressive lol. I considered myself team glossy before getting this monitor. But having used it for a while now I think the whole debate is overblown. Sure glossy can be a tiny bit better, but unless you have complete control over your lighting it can easily cause a lot of reflections. I had a ceiling light behind me and I could always see a white globe on my screen when playing, though it didn't bother me that much. The real issues came with everything behind me that was lit by that light was causing reflections I could see in dark scenes. With the matte screen and the slight curve, I don't see any reflections nor the white globe on my screen thanks to the curve. I would sometimes turn all the lights off when playing a horror game on the C3 just to finally see everything on the screen without having to tune out reflections. With the matte screen I don't have to worry about anything like that, I can finally just see the screen without having to tune anything out. There is a slight grain on white, but unless I'm focusing on the screen coating and not the game, I don't notice it at all.
Gaming experience.
I will say, even with a 9800x3D and a 5090, it is hard to push this panel. I find myself using lower DLSS settings and frame gen more often than I did with my C3. You'll get roughly 30% less FPS with the 5k2k vs a standard 4k screen. Both techs have come a long way and I honestly don't mind using either of them, but I know some people don't like using them.
I really wish the screen was 240hz at least, but 165 was a decent bump above 120. The smoothness increase is subtle, but there. Though considering how hard it is to push this screen right now, I would say 165hz is not a deal breaker.
Some FPS examples I would get:
Cyberpunk max settings and full path tracing x3 frame gen - 165FPS. x2 frame gen - 120ish.
Death stranding 2 max settings and didn't have a quality setting, just set target to 165 and x2 frame gen - 140-165 FPS.
FFXIV FSR set to 80% - 140-165 FPS outdoors and 100ish in towns. Though I use RTX HDR and my FPS takes a hit.
GoW Rag max settings DLSS quality - capped 165.
Aside from FPS the PPI is 105 vs 143 wich is a nice bump.
The last thing I want to touch on is the dual mode. It is nice having the option to bump the resolution down to 2560 x 1080 and 330hz with the push of a button. While not always useful, I did find myself using it a bit. In a game like BF6 I found it to be a bit too blurry to be useful. But in a game like Overwatch or Marvel Rivals it was really nice. I wish the resolution was slightly higher, even if the refresh rate was 240-280.
Some mixed feelings.
A couple things I wish were a little better/different, in no particular order. ODS settings are lacking vs the C3, wasn't able to really dial it in. There is some noticeable VRR flicker in certain scenes/games, something I never really noticed on my C3 but have read it has it too. Though more noticeable, sometimes, it's not bad and could be fixable by stabilizing your frame pacing. There was also a chrominance overshoot problem I never noticed before but was made aware of it by this post. I've read it has to do with the white subpixel, though it's weird because going to the exact location on the game as OP in that post it's very prominent. But doesn't show up everywhere in that level. It could be a combination of things, or just the screen itself though I don't know enough about it to say. Hope it can be fixed with a firmware update if it is solely the screens fault.
A rather big annoyance.
I'm sure everyone is aware of the LG companion app controversy. I really did not appreciate seeing the LG companion app installer randomly pop up on my screen. I had downloaded it previously to test settings and check firmware, then uninstalled it. I get that most peripherals do this, I never like it. If there is any kind of companion app, let me decide if I want it, like I did before it was forced onto me. Though I simply uninstalled it and I haven't seen it again. I think the biggest thing that upset me was it suggesting to install mcafee. That is just straight up malware and I don't know why they still exist. If it was just the companion app, I would be annoyed but not care too much.
All in all I think this was a worthy upgrade over my C3 and I have been extremely happy with it.
I noticed it on Horizon Forbidden west and thought maybe it was just that game but it's popped up in GoW Rag as well. Happens when panning the camera around, not always noticeable. Turned every setting down and DLSS off, but it is still there. This is taken from a video, so I don't think it's the monitor.
Disclaimer: I received this product for free from LG as part of an event. While I was asked to share my review, all opinions are entirely my own.
My system: 9800X3d, 5090FE, 32GB 6000MT/CL30 RAM
Old display: LG C3 42"
I used to be happy with 60hz, but after my first 144hz monitor I knew I could never go back. I've been chasing the ultimate screen for a while now. I went from an Alienware AW3418DW > Samsung QN90b 42" > LG C3 42". While each screen was better than the next I always felt like there was too much of a compromise on each.
The Alienware was too small, lacked brightness and refresh rate wasn't the best. It was a base of 100 that could overclock to 120, though it wasn't always stable. I also found too many games would launch without UW support.
Enter the Samsung QN90B 42. I thought this was endgame. Had the brightness I wanted, colors were nice and blooming wasn't too horrible. Though after the honeymoon phase ended the black smearing got to be a bit unbearable. Combined with having an issue of the screen randomly blanking out and having issues with Samsung support I moved on.
OLED was becoming big and I loved the size so I moved onto the LG C3 42". Slight hit to refresh rate but those inky blacks and popping colors, I was in love until I realized it's biggest flaw... Brightness. Sure most scenes are fine, but introduce enough of a problem color (white, blue and sometimes orange) then ABL kicks in dimming the screen and killing my immersion.
After receiving news that I won the contest I knew the first thing I had to do was play an amazing game on it. I waited for it to arrive before purchasing Death Stranding 2, and boy I'm glad I did.
After hooking the monitor up I immediately went into the settings to get things dialed in for my liking, which I found pretty bare coming from a TV. A lot of options were greyed out and color controls were a bit limited. I honestly don't care too much about accuracy, but rather what I think looks good. Dialed it in as best I could compared to my C3. After a quick RenoDX fix I booted into DS2 and... I was in love. With the increased PPI of 143 everything was so sharp. With the panel being Tandem OLED the colors popped, highlights popped and above all else the dimming from ABL is nearly gone. While it happens a tiiiiny bit, it's on another level vs my old C3. I absolutely love trekking through the night and seeing and the spectacular highlights coming off of everyone's structures.
A couple pics from Death Stranding 2. I feel like my camera does not do the screen justice.
The UltraGear evo 39GX950B is about the same width as a 42" TV but about 5" shorter. At first the height felt cramped, but after a couple hours everything felt right. Combined with the slight 1500R curve I ended up pulling the screen closer which for me has greatly helped immersion. It fills my field of view, while not straining to get information from the extra height the 42" TV had. I feel like this is the perfect size and curve for an UW monitor.
The increase from 120hz to 165 is subtle but noticeable for me. Switching it to Dual-mode double the refresh rate to 330 but drops the resolution to 2560×1080, which definitely makes the entire image a little blurry. I first tried this on BF6 and immediately felt the smoothness increase, but at this resolution I found it a bit wanting. Sometimes it was a little hard to pick out enemies in certain environments. Since BF6 is less twitchy than something like Marvel Rivals, I think I will stick wit the 5k2k/165 mode for that. However in Marvel Rivals I definitely felt the refresh increase more and the trade off with resolution wasn't as bad. At 330hz it was definitely a lot easier to track enemies.
I also want to hit on the finish of the screen. I've always been team glossy after moving to the 42" TVs. And while glossy may be a teensy bit better, I don't miss it. The C3 was a mirror. Any objects behind me that had light cast on them I could easily see in grey/dark scenes. There is a slight grain in white scenes like clouds, but unless I'm actively staring at them and not playing the game I don't notice. With this monitor and my set up, there are no distractions from light on the screen. If you can control all light in your environment, then glossy may be the way to go. However if you're like me and can't, then this screen has been perfect.
Thoughts of where I think the monitor could improve. More of a Wishlist, since I know these will most likely be tech limited.
I am grateful for LG giving me the chance to review this monitor and letting me share my opinions on it. I hope this has helped someone who is deciding if they want to purchase this monitor. If anyone has any questions I'm more than happy to respond to as many as I can.
I plan to do more of a deep dive of my experience with the UltraGear evo 39GX950B vs the LG C3. But for this review I want to keep it to initial impressions.
Going to be moving into a place that currently has mediacom service and they use their own modem. Would I still need to pay for an installation or would I be able to order the equipment/pickup in store and just connect it myself? Since there is already service at the address nothing needs to be turned on. Just curious before I sign up.
Got my first oil change around 4 months ago at the dealer then the next day my check engine light came on. Took it back in and they said it was the filler neck and ordered the part. About a week later the light went off and hasn't came back. Dealer recently called saying the part is in and we can schedule a service for it.
Do I still get iy changed even though it went away?
