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Note that there is always some disparity between how emissive objects (monitor) and non-emissive objects (printed sheet) appear. The representation of shades in this image depends on the camera and your own screen, it’s not designed to show exactly how the shades appear in person. It still helps demonstrate some of the relative differences between the original intended sRGB shade and what the monitor outputs, however. Full profiling and appropriate colour management on the application would provide a tighter match, our intention here is to show what can be expected in a non colour-managed environment. Adobe Reader uses its own subpixel rendering system optimised for RGB, completely ignoring how ClearType is set up or if it’s even enabled in the first place. The top image below shows a PDF with fairly clear magenta fringing to the left and cyan to the right. It’s exaggerated somewhat in the image, but we still found it quite clear by eye. The bottom image was taken with the display running ‘Landscape (flipped)’ so that an RGB subpixel layout is used. No clear fringing was observed here. Instead of testing for response time, we test for input lag using the HDFury Diva Matrix. In this case, the Gigabyte M27Q X measured a very good input lag of 1.6 milliseconds. You might've already guessed, but when it comes to input lag, the smaller that number, the better. While other monitors like the Corsair Xeneon 32QHD165 do measure under 1 millisecond, the difference here will be unnoticeable except, perhaps, in edge cases at the far extremes of competitive esports. Now, the updated M27Q-P variant features a regular RGB subpixel layout in addition to a few more upgrades. Let’s see how it compares to the older model and other alternatives available in this price range!
bit can be selected in the graphics driver at up to 120Hz when using DP and running at the native resolution. 10-bit and 12-bit can be selected at up to 60Hz when using HDMI. The panel used is only an 8-bit panel, but the monitor’s scaler can add a dithering stage to facilitate work with higher bit depth content. The M27Q X delivers on its wide gamut promise. Color is bold and vibrant in both SDR and HDR modes. The difference between the two isn’t much, so that’s a downside. If Gigabyte added a dynamic contrast feature for HDR mode, it would give that format more impact. Contrast is just average, which compared to other monitors in this price range is a negative. Though it is close to the 1,000:1 benchmark, newer IPS screens have demonstrated 1,200:1 and even a few are over 1,300:1 so the bar is being raised. Finally, remember that you can use the ‘Refresh Rate’ feature in the ‘Game Assist’ section of the OSD to display the current refresh rate of the monitor. This will reflect the frame rate if it’s within the main variable refresh rate window. The polling rate (update frequency) is very high for this so it can be difficult to read exact frame rate at times, but it will still give an indication of the frame rate and the fact the technology is working. And as with AMD FreeSync, HDR can be used at the same time as ‘G-SYNC Compatible Mode’. The Off mode is too slow, while ‘Speed’ is too aggressive as it introduces high levels of overshoot (inverse ghosting). ‘Smart OD’ is supposed to function as variable overdrive, but it’s not very effective and should be avoided.To keep things as simple as possible, we’ll just focus on a few titles in this section; Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. We’ve tested both titles on a broad range of monitors under HDR and we know they’re a good test for monitor HDR capability. The experience described here is largely dictated and limited by the screen itself. Although our testing here is focused on HDR PC gaming using DisplayPort, we made similar observations when viewing HDR video content on the Netflix app. There are some additional points to bear in mind if you wish to view such content. 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. Testing on both our Nvidia and AMD GPUs showed that the HDR implementation was similar in both cases, too. As is often the case under HDR, many settings are inaccessible. This includes gamma, sharpness and colour channels being greyed out. Somewhat unusually for HDR, brightness can be adjusted and no sharpness filter is applied by default. You can access the ‘Super Resolution’ slider if you wish to add a sharpness filter on top. All presets acted the same way under HDR and had no specific effect on the image, except that some applied an additional sharpness filter – ‘Reader’ did this mildly and ‘Movie’ strongly. We found the experience decidedly ‘non HDR-like’ with reduced brightness so preferred to just leave this at the default of ‘100’. Reducing the brightness too much seemed to make things more muted than an equivalent brightness adjustment under SDR, too. An alternative LBL setting. Quite similar effectiveness without the green tint. The green channel is reduced somewhat and the blue channel is slightly stronger but significantly reduced compared to factory defaults. As usual we tested a range of game titles using AMD FreeSync and found the experience similar in all cases. Any issues affecting one title but not another suggests a game or GPU driver issues rather than a monitor issue. We’ll therefore simply use Battlefield V as an example for this section. The in-game graphics options are flexible enough to allow the full VRR range to be assessed. Our Radeon RX 580 isn’t a very powerful GPU, so maintaining 170fps at the native WQHD resolution is difficult. Even with graphics settings set to ‘low’, it was common to see dips significantly below this and at many points the average frame rate closer to 100fps. Without a VRR technology like FreeSync, even the slightest dips below 170fps would cause obvious (to us) tearing if VSync was disabled or stuttering if VSync was enabled. Sensitivity to tearing and stuttering varies, but for those sensitive to it the technology is very nice to have.
The M27Q is unassuming from the front with just a Gigabyte logo and a tiny white LED adorning the bottom trim strip. The remainder of the bezel is flush mounted with an 8 mm frame around the image. The anti-glare layer is the same 3H-hardness part found on almost all computer monitors. Here, it provides a sharp, bright image with no apparent grain or optical distortion. The monitor provided a varied and generously saturated palette on Battlefield V. Most content under SDR, including this game, is designed around the sRGB colour space. If the colour gamut of a screen extends beyond sRGB, as it does here, it imparts extra saturation – providing a vibrant look that some users enjoy, but not providing a faithful or accurate look to things. Digital saturation enhancements such as increasing ‘Color Vibrance’ in the OSD or making a similar adjustment in the graphics driver pull shades closer to the edge of the gamut, without expanding the gamut itself. With an expanded gamut instead providing the extra saturation, you maintain good spacing on the gamut and therefore don’t lose shade variety. The gamut in this case is particularly generous in the green region, so some shades containing green showcased particularly strong saturation and vibrancy. This made for some impressively lush-looking forest greens, for example, but some green shades appeared too strongly saturated with a slightly unnatural and neon appearance in places. Reddish browns also had their red component brought out a bit too strongly, although not as strongly as we’ve seen on some models. The extension in the red region is focused more towards the yellow and orange side than pure red. This affected certain skin tones, tree trunks and wooden objects for example which didn’t look quite as neutral as intended and sometimes had a bit of an orange-red push. Blues and cyans shared in the strong saturation – some areas of sky, for example, looked decidedly vivid but not really as they should.Slightly cool-tinted than factory defaults with significantly reduced gamma. Things appear quite washed out overall due to gamma handling. The stand of the monitor is sturdy and offers height adjustment up to 130mm, tilt by -5°/20° and 100x100mm VESA mount compatibility, but it cannot swivel or pivot. A small utility called SMTT 2.0 was used alongside a sensitive camera to analyse the latency of the M27Q, with over 30 repeat readings taken to help maximise accuracy. Using this method, we calculated 3.71ms (~2/3rds of a frame at 170Hz) of input lag. We measured similar latency at 60Hz. The input lag measured here is influenced by both the element you ‘see’ (pixel responsiveness) and the main element you ‘feel’ (signal delay). It indicates a low signal delay which most users should find acceptable. Note that we don’t have the means to accurately measure input lag with Adaptive-Sync active in a variable refresh rate environment or with HDR active in an HDR environment. Keep in mind that we test all of our monitors fresh out of the box at factory settings, so that doesn't mean there aren't ways to improve the brightness level. For example, switching over to the monitor's Movie mode made a significant difference, measuring 430 nits of brightness in SDR mode. Your viewing environment is also important to consider, as a lower brightness reading might benefit a user who is in a well-lit room, for example. On the flip side, while the contrast was low, the color gamut results were pretty good, as Gigabyte M27Q X registered 100% of sRGB coverage, 96% of Adobe RGB, and 93% of DCI-P3. These are better results than some other QHD monitors we’ve looked at, like the Razer Raptor 27.
A fairly effective Low Blue Light (LBL) setting. The blue colour channel is weakened a fair bit, producing a warmer image and reducing blue light output. The green channel remains quite strong, imparting a green tint. Your eyes adjust to some extent over time. The side view is angular and slim. The M27Q X is a bit thinner than typical 27-inch flat panels. Compared to most I’ve reviewed, it’s about one inch shallower. Unfortunately, there are no USB ports on either side.Combining the above two settings gives a warmer and somewhat less green look compared to ‘Low Blue Light = 10’ alone. The blue light reduction is significant, a highly effective LBL setting – more so than either setting applied on its own. When it comes to HDR signals, the only adjustment available is brightness. We found the best HDR quality by leaving that slider maxed. Gaming and Hands-on
As usual, if you’re running the monitor at 2560 x 1440 and viewing 1920 x 1080 content (for example a video over the internet or a Blu-ray, using movie software) then it is the GPU and software that handles the upscaling. That’s got nothing to do with the monitor itself – there is a little bit of softening to the image compared to viewing such content on a native Full HD monitor, but it’s not extreme and shouldn’t bother most users.The ‘Rev 1.0’ model reviewed here uses a Sharp panel. A ‘Rev 2.0’ variant is also available, based on a different panel (Innolux M270KCJ-Q7B and possibly others used interchangeably).
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