News
- The MSI MAG 272QP and Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q5P monitors have arrived
- Both use the same Samsung 27-inch QD-OLED 500Hz panel
- Newegg has priced the MSI model, and it's a fair bit more affordable than the existing Samsung Odyssey OLED that also uses this panel
A pair of new OLED gaming monitors with an extremely fast 500Hz refresh rate are now available, according to the manufacturers.
Tom's Hardware spotted the announcements for the Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q5P (pictured above) and MSI MAG 272QP QD-OLED X50 (pictured below) monitors. I should note that they aren't on sale just yet, but should be available imminently.
Both monitors, which were initially unveiled earlier this year, are built around the same Samsung 27-inch QD-OLED panel, so the core specs for the display are identical. It's a Gen 3 panel which offers more readable text and finer detail (thanks to an updated subpixel layout), plus it's brighter compared to its predecessor OLED screen from Samsung (offering 1,000 nits peak brightness).
With both monitors you get a 1440p resolution panel with HDR1000 certification (plus HDR TrueBlack 500 and ClearMR 21000) and a super-fast 0.03 ms response time (near-instant). They also benefit from FreeSync Premium Pro support and are G-Sync Compatible, with highly accurate colors (99% DCI-P3 coverage). As mentioned, the refresh rate is 500Hz.
There are some important differences on the connectivity front, though, notably that the Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q5P offers DisplayPort 2.1a UHBR20, whereas the MSI MAG 272QP is only DisplayPort 1.4a – though both offer a pair of HDMI 2.1 ports. (Some tech sites seem to have got this round their necks, so to clarify, the MSI monitor definitely doesn't have DisplayPort 2.1a based on the official specs page).
Another noteworthy point is that the Gigabyte monitor has a pair of built-in 5W speakers, and there aren't speakers with the MSI model – not that this is likely to matter to the kind of competitive gamers who'll be looking at these screens.
(Image credit: MSI)Analysis: more (hopefully) affordable 500Hz OLEDs are welcomeThere are monitors with faster refresh rates that have been shown off, but remember, these are OLED panels, and 500Hz is blazing fast for this tech – and indeed the fastest you can get (for now, at least, though that may change before too long). It's also arguable how high you need to go with refresh rates, anyway (but let's not go off on that tangent).
The Samsung Odyssey OLED G60SF carries the same 1440p and 500Hz panel, and is already out on the market priced at $1,000 (at the time of writing) in the US. There's no official pricing on either the MSI MAG 272QP or Gigabyte Aorus FO27Q5P from the makers, but Newegg US does have the MSI model listed and priced at $750. Ordering isn't live yet, but assuming that's not a placeholder – and we must be a bit careful around that – this looks like good value for the spec on offer. That's not to say it's exactly cheap – but you didn't really expect that a 500Hz OLED monitor would be, did you?
Of course, these kinds of screens are for the most competitive gamers out there who are into their esports. You'll need a very powerful PC and one of the fastest graphics cards to drive 500Hz – which is 500 frames per second – at 1440p resolution even with less demanding games (which esports titles generally are, as they place a premium on fluid frame rates over visual bells and whistles).
Aside from the still rather wallet-worrying price, another concern that might remain for those considering an OLED gaming monitor is the possibility of burn-in (permanent image retention caused by a static element, like a game HUD or desktop OS interface, being present on the screen for too long).
Both MSI and Gigabyte offer a three-year warranty which includes protection against burn-in, and the manufacturers also have their own tech to protect against image retention. That includes MSI's OLED Care 2.0 and Gigabyte's OLED Care, along with heat dissipation measures to lower screen temperatures (and therefore reduce burn-in risk).
You might also like...Star Wars: Starfighter, the installment in the franchise due to be released on May 28, 2027 – that's a year after The Mandalorian & Grogu, if you're keeping up – has finally got its first look straight from the set (you can catch up with it below).
Ryan Gosling will be our next leading man and eponymous Starfighter, with Flynn Gray, Matt Smith and Mia Goth among those previously announced in the cast.
Annoyingly, we've got absolutely no idea what the new Star Wars movie is going to be about aside from some other-world fighting in the starry atmosphere, probably with new creatures and droids.
Day 1: A whole new adventure begins #Starfighterhttps://t.co/eI5xaROQAj pic.twitter.com/8AXiBN4x4BAugust 28, 2025
However, we do have some updates. Amy Adams and Aaron Pierre have also been announced as joining the cast, with Adams set to play Gray's mother (Pierre's role has not been rumored). But as much as I love seeing these two act, it's not the announcement that's got me, a Star Wars dunce, incredibly excited for its release.
It's not Jamael Westman or Daniel Ings, who are also in the ensemble. Oh no. It's Simon Bird, whose name might not mean anything to you if you're based in the US, or anywhere other than the UK. He's best known in Britain for playing Will MacKenzie in sitcom The Inbetweeners, and it's this role that makes his casting incredibly ironic.
Simon Bird's casting in Star Wars: Starfighter is hilarious, actuallyI have four words for you: feisty one, you are. If you've ever seen The Inbetweeners, which ran from 2008 to 2010 (not including the movies), you might remember the season 2 episode where Will and the gang head to Swanage for a school field trip, with Will's eye immediately swayed by new girl Lauren (Jayne Wisener).
While Simon (Joe Thomas) tries to take her for himself, Will dusts off his best flirting techniques over lunch, which just happens to be a Yoda impression. Lauren has no idea what's going on, claiming she was worried he had "a problem," and unsurprisingly, she chooses Simon over Will.
This is also the episode where the boys punch a fish in a dingy and set off a distress flare while they're still in the harbor, so Inbetweeners gold, in short. Will's Yoda line is something that's still regularly quoted almost 20 years later, and it took all of 0.5 seconds for fans to pick up on the link.
"From briefcase w**ker to Star Wars pilot, what a glow up," one fan replied to the announcement on X, with another attaching the Yoda clip and adding "This is clearly the reason why they cast him."
Another weighed in, "Star Wars casting weirdly perfect here, he’s gonna own it," with another fan agreeing, "Nah, he’s just gonna crash-land with a 'bumder!' and a Yoda impression!"
While fans are speculating that Bird will play a pilot, no official announcement of his exact role has been made.
With director Shawn Levy (Deadpool & Wolverine) steering the Star Wars: Starfighter ship, I hope that he at least subtly pays homage to a moment so famous, it's certainly made the UK sitcom Hall of Fame (well, it would if I were in charge).
In the meantime, you can watch the Star Wars back catalog on Disney+ in the US, UK and Australia.
You might also like- Anthropic's Threat Intelligence Report outlines the acceleration of AI attacks
- AI is now fueling all parts of the cyberattack process
- One such attack has been identified at 'vibe hacking'
One of the world’s largest AI companies, Anthropic, has warned that its chatbot has been ‘weaponised’ by threat actors to “to commit large-scale theft and extortion of personal data". Anthropic’s Threat Intelligence Report details ways in which the technology is being used to carry out sophisticated cyberattacks.
Weaponized AI is making hackers faster, more aggressive, and more successful - and the threat report outlines that ransomware attacks which previously would have required years of training can now be crafted with very few technical skills.
These cyberattacks are lucrative for hackers, with AI now being used for fraudulent activity like stealing credit card information and identity theft, with attackers even using AI to analyze stolen data.
“Vibe hacking”Defenders have long warned that AI is lowering the barriers to cybercrime, allowing low-skilled hackers to carry out complex attacks, but LLMs are now assisting criminals at every point along the attack process.
The report describes a particular threat it dubs ‘vibe-hacking’, which refers to a campaign in which Claude was used to scale and build a data extortion scheme. The name is a reference to the ‘vibe coding’ method of software development which heavily relies on AI to generate code and build applications.
Cluade’s code execution environment was used to; ‘automate reconnaissance, credential harvesting, and network penetration at scale, potentially affecting at least 17 distinct organizations in just the last month across government, healthcare, emergency services, and religious institutions.’
Anthropic’s investigations found cybercriminals targeted a range of sectors, focusing on data theft and extortion. These attacks resulted in ‘the compromise of personal records, including healthcare data, financial information, government credentials, and other sensitive information, with direct ransom demands occasionally exceeding $500,000.’
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