Bigger isn’t always better. It’s true. This holds particularly true when it comes to gaming monitors for your PC gaming rig. Why? It’s mostly because It’s hard to get everything right in a large monitor in terms of refresh rate, resolution, brightness and price. That’s why when it comes to PC gaming you’ll commonly see the best monitors be sized somewhere between 25 – 32″. It’s a safe space.
Somehow, some way, Acer managed to nail the things that gamers want most in a smaller gaming monitor into a gaming monitor that’s as large as 43″. It’s perfectly sized and ideal for high end 4k gaming. This monitor offers a gaming experience the likes of which I’ve never experienced before and in my using it I realized THIS is the gaming monitor I’ve always wanted.
SETUP, DESIGN & BUILD QUALITY
The Predator CG437K is incredibly well built and heavy, weighing about 40lbs give or take. Before I took it out of the box I assumed that there would be some assembly because typically when I get a gaming monitor at the very least I would have to attach the base. This was not the case here. Right out of the box, the Predator CG437K is one sturdy piece. It came with all of the standard input cables and LED strips that work in conjunction with the monitor for LED syncing. Best part of the setup? No big bulky power cable.
On the back and underbelly of this monitor are 4 DisplayPort inputs, 1 HDMI input and a USB Type-C input. The right hand side of the monitor gives you two more HDMI inputs, (2) USB 3.0 ports and a 3.5 mm audio jack.
On the back you can see the mounting brackets for a VESA mount but based on the sheer weight of this monitor you could probably use a standard TV mount for 43″ depending on how you want your setup to look but again, this monitor can be mounted. The base of the CG437K as I said before is extremely sturdy and in a fixed position allowing for no screen tilt which should be fine for most people because this monitor is huge. I can’t see a reason to need to move the screen.
The LED strips that came with the Predator CG437K were the only thing about this monitor that you could probably do without. I mean, I get it. There’s a port to connect the LED strips that allow you to adhere them to your monitor or your desk but it’s very much a semi-permanent solution once you rip off that 3M strip. I would have preferred built in RGB but it’s a small nitpick. No biggie.
All in all if you buy this monitor there is virtually no setup other than putting it on your desk. It’s easy and I appreciated that.
SPECS
| Panel Type / Backlight | VA / W-LED, edge array |
| Screen Size / Aspect Ratio | 43 inches / 16:9 |
| Max Resolution & Refresh Rate | 3840 x 2160 @ 120Hz, 144Hz w/overclock; G-Sync Compatibility: 48-120Hz |
| Native Color Depth & Gamut | 10-bit (8-bit+FRC) / DCI-P3, HDR10, DisplayHDR 1000 |
| Response Time (GTG) | 4ms |
| Brightness | SDR: 750 nits; HDR: 1,000 nits |
| Contrast | 4,000:1 |
| Speakers | 2x 10w |
| Video Inputs | 2x DisplayPort 1.4, 3x HDMI 2.0, 1x USB-C |
| Audio | 3.5mm headphone output |
| USB 3.0 | V3.0: 1x up, 2x down; V2.0: 2x down |
| Power Consumption | 51.7w, brightness @ 200 nits |
| Panel Dimensions WxHxD w/base | 38.5 x 26.5 x 10.4 inches (978 x 673 x 264mm) |
| Panel Thickness | 3.9 inches (99mm) |
| Bezel Width | Top/sides: 0.7 inch (17mm); Bottom: 1 inch (25mm) |
| Weight | 41.1 pounds (18.7kg) |
| Warranty | 3 years |
MENUS, REMOTE CONTROL, ETC
Bundled in the box with the CG437K is a remote control that you’ll be using with the monitor. It’s not fancy, very simple and functional, same as the menu on the monitor.
The menu on the CG437K is fairly simple and you’ll appreciate that. It’s not bogged down with complex options and jargon you can’t really understand. It’s mostly because this monitor has been pretty much calibrated prior to any use. Of course, you can do your own custom calibration but in my use case I didn’t find it necessary. The only real changes that I made was to the color profile. I prefer a cooler color profile to a warmer one and I also changed the HDR lighting from HDR 400 to HDR 1000. It made a huge difference. This monitor gets very bright.
The gaming tab is most useful considering that this is a large gaming monitor. You can activate a frame counter, adaptive sync, motion blur reduction, and three bullseye aim points in that you can turn on an aim point within your games (although I haven’t bothered to use it). Not all options of the gaming menu were necessary for my gaming experience but it’s great to have as everyone would use this monitor differently.
Color settings in the menu are available giving you plenty of options if you’re a tinkerer and you need perfect colors. This monitor supports RGB, DCI-P3, SMPTE-C, Rec.709 and EBU color gamut choices. There’s a grayscale mode for black and white as well as SDR and of course HDR options. We found that the default calibrations and options worked best for us. Acer did a good job of making the out of box experience a ready to play affair as soon as you plug it in.
GAMING with the Predator CG437K
Gaming with this monitor is not like anything I’ve gamed with before. It’s like gaming with a TV but not really. It’s immersive, colorful, fast, smooth and everything you can expect to get from a $1500 gaming monitor. With a resolution of (3840 x 2160) games are going to look incredible.
With my games, I was able to crank my settings up to 4K and really put the monitor and my GPU to work. In my personal gaming setup I’m using a Ryzen 3900x , Aorus Master X570 motherboard, Nvidia 2080ti FE with 32GB of DDR4 RAM at 3600 speed so 4k on this machine is not a problem. But with a monitor like this, at the very least you’d want to make sure that you have a GPU that can provide you with enough power to play in at least 1440p or higher to get the best possible experience.
My games of choice are usually just Destiny 2 and Forza and the way these games look on the Predator CG437K has actually given me a new perspective on gaming in 4K. I’ve been an opponent of gaming in 4k and to some degree, I still am, but I get it. So I went into this review playing basically every game that I have on my PC which at this current time is about 15 titles.
The screen refresh rate is natively 120Hz but you can get the additional 24Hz if you connect an additional DisplayPort cable to your GPU for two separate connections acting as one. It’s a very odd configuration but this is how you’re going to maximize the refresh rate with this monitor. It works but it’s something that for the most part that I avoided, 120Hz was more than sufficient for the games that I was playing and more than enough for the everyday gamer. Not to mention, I’m unwilling to sacrifice G-Sync capability for the sake a modest refresh rate bump.
The speakers on the Predator CG437K are good. They’re not too bad. Two dual 10 watt speakers give you good volume and they’re good enough for you to not have to use your monitors or soundbar for your audio all the time. If you’re looking to get the best sound experience from your games or media then these speakers probably won’t do it for you overall.
FINAL THOUGHTS
First off, I gotta thank the good folks at Acer for letting me use this monitor for the sake of this review. I have to admit I’m a bit depressed that I have to send it back. It feels like a bad breakup. It’s that cool of a monitor. Humor aside, this monitor is incredible, impressive and so much fun to use if you’re person that prefers to use a monitor of a bigger size. Most gamers I know kind of stick 27″ and 32″ at the most so I’ll admit that to have a 43″ high end gaming monitor of this type is a rarity.
The thing about a monitor like this is that you don’t really understand how good it is until you have it in front of you. No, it’s not like having a 43″ TV if that’s what you’re thinking. It’s so much more advanced and you’ll see it right away once you start gaming. To me, this alone justifies the cost. I’ve seen monitors that are smaller with similar specs that cost well over $1000 so if you’re going to touch on this price point, why not go big?
Watching media on this monitor is top notch as well as playing any game you intend you play. Having this monitor allows you to crank up your settings to 4k and really experience your games in a whole other way. Yes, you can play in 4K on smaller or even other monitors but they don’t look like this. All I can do is just describe the enthusiasm I had using this monitor. It’s easy for me to recommend this monitor. It’s that dope. If you got the extra cash and you want to go big, for me, this is one of the best. You can head over to Acer Predator and pick one up HERE or you can grab it on Amazon HERE
