There were some significant weaknesses when it came to pixel responsiveness. There were no obvious bursts of vibrant orange, green or red as youd see on a TN model. For the lower frame rate content there werent really any stand-out weaknesses. This gives the monitor the potential to output all shades within the sRGB colour space, with some extra vibrancy and saturation in places. As usual we tested various game titles using AMD FreeSync and found the experience similar across the range. Press OK, then turn the monitor off then on again so that it re-establishes connection the technology should now be active. When running at 1920 x 1080 (Full HD), there was a moderate degree of softening compared to viewing a native Full HD screen. The pink hue shifts alongside head movement and where youd observe it on the screen depends on seating position. Because not all areas of the screen refresh simultaneously, the appearance of strobe crosstalk can vary depending on how high up or low down the screen the movement is being observed we demonstrate this later. It cant compensate for other interruptions to smooth game play, for example network latency or insufficient system memory. We still consider the Balance setting optimal, though, as the Speed setting introduces clear overshoot. Particularly slender edges. A key concept explored in the article is perceived blur. We measured static contrast that slightly exceeded the already decent specified values. The gamut fully covers sRGB with some extension beyond, particularly towards the red and green corners of this gamut representation. When the movement ceases, the object brightens up again. For example viewing content near the bottom of this website. The QG reference again outperforms both VA models. Regardless of the method used to achieve the 10-bit colour signal, we find the result very similar. The following observations were made from a normal viewing position, eyes ~70cm from the screen. Its VESA DisplayHDR certified just like this model, but the HDR experience was markedly better in comparison. With VSync off the frame rate is free to climb as high as the GPU will output (potentially >165fps). Video review When the movement ceases, the object brightens up again. The Gigabyte supports a variable refresh rate range of 48 165Hz. Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Just got my new G32QC and after setting up and tinkering around, it looks perfect with just a little bit of an inconvenience i.e. The monitor itself must support VESA Adaptive-Sync for at least one of its display connectors, as this is the protocol that FreeSync uses. Some shades appear quite eye-catching and Somewhat neon due to the extra saturation, such as candy apple red (14) and dark lime green (18). Also note that theres a slider that allows you to adjust the overall balance of SDR content if HDR is active in Windows. There is distinct crossover between the main object and some of this strobe crosstalk for the dark and medium background. Strong static contrast and a light and relatively smooth screen surface, providing a decent look to both darker and lighter content A fairly vibrant and varied look, with a somewhat cool tint. A strong inky trailing for the dark background as well as an artifact-ridden bright halo trail for the medium background and more conventional halo trail for the light background. There is no colour inversion as youd observe on a TN model vertically and the shifts vertically are not as extreme. If you go to Game Assist and activate the Refresh Rate feature, the monitor will display the refresh rate. All rows of the UFO Motion Test were used, highlighting a range of pixel transitions between various shades. Double-click UpdPack.exe. As more of a casual title the weaknesses in pixel responsiveness were arguably less crucial. The Gigabyte M32QC offers a typical brightness of 350 nits and a 3000:1 static contrast ratio. Things arent as clear as the reference shots, particularly the S2417DG, though. It increases alertness and makes it more difficult to shut off. Further the initial fragment behind the object becomes very bold and it again melds into the object so it appears broader than it should. The colour gamut was put to good use under HDR and 10-bit processing could be used in the pipeline to enhanced the nuanced shade variety. Gamers should set overdrive to either Picture Quality or Balance settings because the more aggressive choice causes too much ghosting. At 165Hz, shown above, the UFOs appear slightly narrower and more sharply focused. Some of the key talking points for this monitor have been highlighted in blue below, for your reading convenience. There are two reasons for this. Responsiveness in games and movies But with a similar pixel density to a ~24 Full HD model, youre at a decent level that many are quite comfortable with. The saturation losses towards the bottom and sides of the screen, or potentially further up depending on viewing position, were showcased quite readily here. For simplicity well just focus our attention on two titles; Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Responsiveness in games and movies True Resolution: 2560 x 1440 (QHD) Pixel Pitch: 0.2724*0.2724 Brightness (Max. If a game ran at 37fps, for example, the refresh rate would be 74Hz to help keep tearing and stuttering at bay. The mist above the water and light streaming in from above showcased some very fine and natural gradients that were greatly enhanced by the improved nuanced shade variety. When you open up Nvidia Control Panel, you should then see Set up G-SYNC listed in the Display section. GIGABYTE Gaming monitor features an exclusive stand that's ergonomically designed to offer extensive range of height and tilt adjustments. The fragments of trailing are more compact now but also more numerous, due to the increase in refresh rate. Wed recommend only activating HDR in Windows if youre about to specifically use an HDR application that requires it, and have it deactivated when viewing normal SDR content on the monitor. Fairly clear and widespread pixel response time weaknesses. There are also varying amounts of trailing behind the UFOs due to weaknesses in pixel responsiveness. Cookie Notice The enhanced precision of the 10-bit signal aids the nuanced shade variety, most noticeable at the high end (bright shades) in this case. Clear smeary trailing was noticed due to pixel responses that were significantly slower than optimal. 4. Buy from Amazon During testing, Aim Stabilizer only made a small improvement in motion resolution, but at least brightness is barely affected. Towards the middle its faintly visible in front but distinct behind. There was a bit of black crush and some perceived gamma shifts that affected dark detail levels, but not extreme for a VA model of the size and nothing we felt took too much away from the clear strengths. It was usually specific alternations of light and dark shades that triggered it. It still provides useful visual demonstrations and explanations which help reinforce some of the key points raised in the written piece. Considering an array of what should be rich oranges and reds observed for various painted objects and roaring flames on both titles, for example, they just werent as eye-catching as they should be. The enhanced precision of the 10-bit signal aids the nuanced shade variety, most noticeable at the high end (bright shades) in this case. We found setting Super Resolution to 1 worked quite well. With VSync on the frame rate will not be allowed to rise above 165fps, at which point VSync activates and imposes the usual associated latency penalty. Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. The green block appeared a saturated green chartreuse shade for the most part, with a stronger yellow hue towards the bottom and to a lesser extent the very top of the screen. Stand-alone chassis for customers to customize and expand as needs change. With this flexibility and the overall performance here, we consider this to be a relatively strong and suitably adjustable interpolation process and better than many weve come across on WQHD models. We also found some shades more subdued than wed expect given the gamut and panel technology used, under HDR. In practice there were some very clear examples of such overshoot for transitions not analysed here and they stood out in such an obvious way that we consider the Balance setting optimal. The monitor offered much more basic styling than those in the AORUS sub-brand. There was a bit of overshoot as well, but nothing we found disturbing using the optimal Overdrive setting. This is shown in the graphic below, which featured earlier in the review. We observed similar stuttering episodes and flickering when this boundary was crossed and again observed some flickering during significant frame rate fluctuation. TN models will suffer a banded or blocky appearance because of this lower down the screen, even if the screen is properly calibrated some VA models show this to an extent peripherally, too. The final section of the video shows a dark desktop background and highlights VA glow mentioned earlier. A 4k x 2k, 3840 x 2160 downsampling mode is also listed when using HDMI, at 60Hz and 59Hz. As noted earlier the pixel density is similar to a ~24 Full HD model, so a level that many are quite comfortable with but not offering the same clarity and detail as significantly tighter pixel densities. Some models are specifically validated as G-SYNC compatible, which means they have been specifically tested by Nvidia and pass specific quality checks. Picture Mode = sRGB 2.0 6716K This is an sRGB emulation setting. The photograph shown on the screen is of the actual printed sheet, which has a slight material texture to it. Click Settings (cog icon towards top right) and click Graphics. Whilst the surface texture provides a relatively smooth look to lighter content without clear graininess. The monitor would ideally support per-pixel illumination (e.g. These bright elements stood out very nicely, whilst the strong static contrast provided good overall depth to the dark elements. The curve also has the potential to slightly enhance, It may be desirable or necessary to run the monitor below its native 2560 x 1440 (WQHD). Click Settings (cog icon towards top right) and click Graphics. The 165Hz refresh rate allows the monitor to output up to 2.75 times the visual information every second as a 60Hz monitor or indeed this model running at 60Hz. The Balance setting cuts this down a bit compared to Picture Quality, whilst Speed appears on first glance to cut it down without too much negative impact in this test. And you dont wish to put up with restrictions associated with the monitors sRGB emulation setting. Either way, we still found the technology useful and preferred having it enabled over disabled. Our suggestions regarding use of VSync also apply, but youre using Nvidia Control Panel rather than AMD Radeon Software to control this. Models which are hardly speed demons when it comes to pixel responsiveness. The fragments appear as distinct repetitions of the object for the dark and medium backgrounds due to the pixel responses failing to keep up with the rigorous demands of the refresh cycle. The black square (21) is also interesting to observe. Content like this, a game running in SDR, is designed with the sRGB colour space in mind and extension in the gamut creates this sort of peppy look to things. Unusually for HDR, brightness can be adjusted and no sharpness filter is applied by default. Input lag As we explore shortly, you lose access to many adjustments in the OSD, including gamma and colour channels. Display: 31.5 in, VA, W-LED, 2560 x 1440 pixels Viewing angles (H/V): 178 / 178 Brightness: 350 cd/m Static contrast: 3000 : 1, Dynamic contrast: 12000000 : 1 Refresh rate: 48 Hz - 165 Hz sRGB: 124 %, Adobe RGB: 82 % Weight: 5.5 kg Add to compare Suggest an edit Brand, series, model Information about the brand, series, model and model aliases. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Basic overall build quality, particularly non-premium stand base feel and pixel density not particularly high Coupled with a relatively limited upper end luminance for HDR, things didnt really have a particularly HDR-like appearance. We observed similar stuttering episodes and flickering when this boundary was crossed and again observed some flickering during significant frame rate fluctuation. Monitor Settings White luminance (cd/m) Black luminance (cd/m) Contrast ratio (x:1) 100% brightness 381 0.11 3370 80% brightness 319 0.10 3190 60% brightness 255 0.08 3188 40% brightness 187 0.06 3117 20% brightness 117 0.04 2925 0% brightness 41.7 >0.01 <4170 85% brightness (Factory Defaults) 337 0.10 3370 HDR* 415 0.11 3773 Gamma = OFF 333 0.10 3330 Gamma = 1 341 0.10 3410 Gamma = 2 337 0.10 3370 Gamma = 4 330 0.10 3300 Gamma = 5 327 0.10 3270 Low Blue Light = 10 320 0.10 3200 Color Temperature = Warm 334 0.10 3340 Color Temperature = User Define 366 0.10 3660 Color Temperature = User Define (100% brightness) 415 0.11 3773 Picture Mode = sRGB 141 0.04 3525 Aim Stabilizer @120Hz 157 0.05 3140 Aim Stabilizer @165Hz 164 0.05 3280 Test Settings 167 0.05 3340 It was certainly effective in offsetting the moderate softening observed initially. Where darker shades were involved we observed more distinct weaknesses. The extracting wizard appears. But its something we found very easy to adapt to, soon forgetting its even there at all. The darkest blue band blended into the background slightly too readily. Newer GPUs such as the RTX 20 and RTX 30 series may fare better. The deviation between each quadrant and the quadrant closest to the 6500K (D65) daylight white point target was analysed and a DeltaE value assigned. Overall, we feel this is a well-priced monitor that gives you a lot of screen for your money. We also made observations using HDMI, which would be used when viewing HDR content on an HDR compatible games console for example, and things were very similar. Overall, we feel this is a well-priced monitor that gives you a lot of screen for your money. We also observed a bit of overshoot in places moderately bright halo trailing when moving against some rocks with bright sky in the background, for example. With the G32QC, you need to connect the monitor up via DisplayPort and enable AMD FreeSync Premium Pro in the Gaming section of the OSD. Secondly, it greatly reduces the perceived blur due to eye movement much as we demonstrated earlier using Test UFO. The fragments appear as distinct repetitions of the object for the dark and medium backgrounds due to the pixel responses failing to keep up with the rigorous demands of the refresh cycle. The trailing behind the UFOs is similar to at 120Hz, with the smeary trailing extending just a bit further back now due to the increased pixel response requirements for optimal performance. LFC sometimes seemed to kick in a bit closer to 52Hz (52fps), but this makes little difference in practice. Not all areas refresh simultaneously, so its appearance can differ depending on how high up or low down on the screen movement is being observed. VA glow affects atmosphere in dimmer conditions, particularly further down the screen. Certain skin tones looked too reddish or overly tanned under SDR, but now they had the opposite problem and often looked a bit anaemic. When using Aim Stabilizer or any strobe backlight feature, its vital that your frame rate matches the refresh rate of the display exactly. Gigabyte 32 Inch Monitor - Gaming - Productivity G32QC brings a quality display with 165hz FreeSync and G-SYNC support. FreeSync requires a compatible AMD GPU such as the Radeon RX 580 used in our test system. 2. The purple block appeared a pinkish purple for the most part, violet centrally and further up the screen. Also note that theres a slider that allows you to adjust the overall balance of SDR content if HDR is active in Windows. Otherwise youre left with very clear stuttering or juddering. You can of course manually reduce brightness, but youd then have brighter shades with a distinctly non-HDR appearance and would have to keep adjusting brightness manually to gain any semblance of HDR from the experience. Heavily compressed streamed content can be particularly problematic in this respect as it contains compression artifacts that can be brought out too strongly. Nvidia Adaptive-Sync (G-SYNC Compatible) As noted earlier the pixel density is similar to a ~24 Full HD model, so a level that many are quite comfortable with but not offering the same clarity and detail as significantly tighter pixel densities. A solution such as FALD (Full Array Local Dimming) with a good number of dimming zones, for example. We observed more noticeable static interlace patterns when certain things were displayed on the screen. But the undersaturation for some shades is very noticeable, such as medium orange (3), aquamarine (4) and Persian pink (6) they look completely washed out now compared to the intended shade. This is typical VA-related gamma shift behaviour. Tried and true x86 architecture based servers with support for the latest Intel and AMD processors. As more of a casual title the weaknesses in pixel responsiveness were arguably less crucial. Some observations were also made using various episodes of the TV series Futurama. This was a fault rather than expected behaviour for this model. You neednt worry about text fringing from non-standard subpixel layouts as a Mac user and dont need to run ClearType as a Windows user. In practice we found the overall experience in terms of motion clarity slightly improved at 165Hz compared to 120Hz due to the decrease in perceived blur. Including comparisons with a given model where the monitor handles the dithering at some refresh rates and the GPU handles it at others, due to bandwidth limitations. The counter reacts very rapidly to changes in frame rate. It still wasnt as atmosphere-breaking or extensive as IPS glow and was only really noticeable in a dimly lit room. Not just for the main object, but because there is a lot of trailing either side of this and indeed through the object in places. Where possible, youll be redirected to your nearest store. This gave darker scenes improved depth and atmosphere compared to TN or IPS panels and indeed some VA models in this respect. Particularly slender edges. We made similar observations on Shadow of the Tomb Raider. Either way, we still found the technology useful and preferred having it enabled over disabled. Shade representation using SpyderCHECKR 24 Including comparisons with a given model where the monitor handles the dithering at some refresh rates and the GPU handles it at others, due to bandwidth limitations. Because of the size of the screen, the saturation shifts can be reasonably pronounced. FreeSync the experience Decent out of the box performance with excellent OSD flexibility, fairly vibrant colour output due to some extension beyond sRGB without heavy oversaturation Its VESA DisplayHDR certified just like this model, but the HDR experience was markedly better in comparison. When the frame rate rises above 165fps, the monitor will stay at 165Hz and the GPU will respect your selection of VSync on or VSync off in the graphics driver. At some refresh rates (144Hz+ for DP, 120Hz+ for HDMI) the dithering stage is offloaded to the GPU at the native resolution, for bandwidth reasons. The pink hue shifts alongside head movement and where youd observe it on the screen depends on seating position. The all-encompassing term strobe crosstalk is used to describe this fragmented trailing either side of the main object. This is the lowest level of certification offered by VESA, so only a basic HDR experience is provided. The technology frequently disabled itself momentarily, producing some fairly frequent stuttering. There are also varying amounts of trailing behind the UFOs due to weaknesses in pixel responsiveness. The monitor was left to run for over 2 hours prior to readings being taken and observations made, without any additional monitor drivers or ICC profiles specifically loaded. The blue colour channel is weakened significantly, providing a warmer appearance to the image with reduced blue light output. The screen is displaying reference photographs of this printed sheet, in both the same order as printed (right side) and reverse order (left side). There were plenty of examples of smeary trailing and some clear weaknesses in pixel responsiveness. This is the lowest level of certification offered by VESA, so only a basic HDR experience is provided. Lemon yellow (10) also appears more appropriate as it verged a touch on a richer and slightly orange variant of the shade using the native gamut. There were some reasonable licks of vibrancy where the developers wanted there to be, but this lacked a certain vivacity than weve seen before under HDR even on models with a similar colour gamut. The image set below shows results with a bump up in refresh rate to 165Hz, Aim Stabilizer again active. The reduction in frame rate has the usual effect of reducing connected feel and increasing perceived blur due to eye movement, too. VA glow affects atmosphere in dimmer conditions, particularly further down the screen. This, coupled with the inclusion of a flipped version of the shade sheet, allows both accuracy and colour consistency to be visually assessed. Where possible, youll be redirected to your nearest store. There were some significant weaknesses when it came to pixel responsiveness. Jumbo screens are especially prone to swings in price. Static contrast remained relatively strong following the adjustments made to our Test Settings, at 3340:1 slightly above average for the panel type. This was exaggerated peripherally where perceived gamma is reduced and therefore perceived saturation losses occur. This powdery trailing was a bit heavier and more widespread than we observed in our recent testing of the CQ27G2(U) and XG270QC. This feature is used regardless of VSync setting, so its only above the ceiling of operation where the VSync setting makes a difference. This was exaggerated peripherally where perceived gamma is reduced and therefore perceived saturation losses occur. Fairly clear and widespread pixel response time weaknesses. There were some additional issues we came across. Strobe crosstalk variation at different points was also observed at 144Hz and 120Hz the end result was quite similar and we didnt feel it was worthwhile documenting these observations. For the mixed image and game scene you can see some shifts in colour and contrast. There were plenty of examples of smeary trailing and some clear weaknesses in pixel responsiveness. The floor of operation was 65fps (65Hz) rather than 48fps (48Hz), but frame rate to refresh rate multiplication was used below this. Youll also notice G-SYNC Compatible listed under Monitor Technology in this section, as shown below. The saturation levels are significantly reduced now, due both to the colour gamut restrictions and the lower average gamma. These shifts were nowhere near as pronounced as even significantly smaller TN model and less pronounced than on some VA models of this size. Looking more closely, though, you can see a hatched dirty trail behind the UFO cockpit for the dark background and some lightly hatched halo trailing for the light background. The initial fragments are only slightly fainter than the main object here. The pursuit photographs below show how things looked with refresh rate doubled, to 120Hz. This is expected given that the colour gamut extends some way beyond sRGB (and some saturation is lost lower down, from a normal viewing position). We didnt observe obvious dithering. This is done by opening AMD Radeon Software, clicking Settings (cog icon towards top right) and clicking on Display. The fragments of trailing are more compact now but also more numerous, due to the increase in refresh rate. The images below show various games running on the monitor, but in no way accurately represent how the monitor appears in person. The refresh rate was set to 165Hz in Windows, although this didnt significantly affect the values or observations in this table. Youll also notice G-SYNC Compatible listed under Monitor Technology in this section, as shown below. Such transitions dominate in your typical daylight scene, for example. The bright elements such as the glint of sun on the water and light streaming in from up above looked reasonably bright, but didnt have the sort of pop weve seen from some models under HDR. The greyscale gradient appeared smooth without obvious banding or dithering. Lagoms viewing angle tests help explore the idea of colour consistency and viewing angle performance. On the GPU driver side recent AMD drivers make activation of the technology very simple and something that usually occurs automatically. Our Test Settings involved switching to one of the Custom presets and making some adjustments to brightness and colour channels. This blooms out more noticeably from sharper viewing angles but is not as strong from centralised viewing angles. Some users have legitimate reasons for chasing geometric perfection or may spend a lot of time viewing the monitor from a decentralised angle, in which case a flat model could make more sense. And indeed yellow green (19), towards the top of the screen at least. An alternative LBL setting. The following video shows the Lagom text test, a mixed desktop background, a game scene and dark desktop background from various viewing angles. The enhanced precision of the 10-bit signal aids the nuanced shade variety, most noticeable at the high end (bright shades) in this case. You should then ensure that the first slider, Radeon FreeSync is set to Enabled as shown below. Gigabyte deserves credit for continuing to use finned VRM heatsinks which add a lot of surface area. This is fairly constrained for the size of screen, however. Contributing to the high 165 Hz refresh rate and low 1ms response time, the support for Freesync Premium Pro enables Gigabyte G32QC to provide a fast, smooth, and lag-free gaming experience. Weve reviewed numerous monitors from Gigabyte's Aorus series before, but the Gigabyte G32QC is the first we're reviewing from the vendor outside of that line. Results here were again pleasing, with no significant deviations recorded.