Razer is making a gaming monitor

Razer today announced the Raptor 27, a gaming monitor featuring a 27-inch 1440p IPS panel with 144Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time, and support for AMD FreeSync. This is Razer's first dedicated entry into the gaming monitor space, joining the company's efforts on laptops and other hardware, in addition to the peripherals it is known for.

"Razer has worked alongside partners in the past to bring the Razer experience to monitors, but the full potential was never fully realized, said Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan in a press release. "We have decided to tackle this space on our own and are very excited to expand our presence to include desktop displays."

The monitor is targeted at the gaming and esports space with its high-fidelity visuals paired with a fast refresh rate and response time. It also features a single-body aluminum base outfitted with channels in the back for cable management, and can be tilted back 90 degrees in order to easily reach the cable inputs underneath. And of course, up front the base is tricked out with Chroma RGB lighting.

Razer says the panel supports 95 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut, and has a brightness of up to 420 nits—bright enough for HDR 400 certification. The support for FreeSync, instead of G-Sync, is somewhat of a disappointment, though if Nvidia's promise of bringing FreeSync support to its GPUs proves true, Razer's decision here may end up moot.

Razer says the Raptor 27 will launch at $699.99 sometime later this year.

As the former head of PC Gamer's hardware coverage, Bo was in charge of helping readers better understand and use PC hardware. He also headed up the buying guides, picking the best peripherals and components to spend your hard-earned money on. He can usually be found playing Overwatch, Apex Legends, or more likely, with his cats. He is now IGN's resident tech editor and PC hardware expert.