Gigabyte G27QC Review, A Budget 1440p 165Hz Gaming Monitor Option

[Music] welcome back to hardware unboxed today it's time for another monitor review we've been keeping up with these on a weekly basis recently and on the test bench this week is the gigabyte g27 qc you might remember that about a month ago we looked at the gigabyte g32 qc well the g27 qc is the smaller brother of this monitor with largely the same specifications just a 27 inch panel size instead of 32 inches so this means we're seeing the same 2560 by 1440 resolution same maximum 165 hertz refresh rate same use of v8 technology and also the same 1500 r curvature as for differences the main one here is the g32qc is phaser display hdr400 certified while the g27 qc is just hdr ready owing to the 27 inches lower peak brightness however is neither monitor supports local dimming neither a true hdr capable display so bit of a moot point the good news here is that the g27 qc like the g32 qc is positioned as a value option in the market at least relative to some of the auras monitors that gigabyte offers at around 320 us dollars the g27 qc isn't the outright cheapest high refresh 1440p display but it does sit within that entry to mid-range market and of course that value proposition will vary depending on the region here in australia i'd say it's 500 aussie price tag is better than average having tested the g32 qc we will be getting a good look at how two monitors within the same family just with different display sizes can differ in performance we rarely get this sort of opportunity so i think there will be some interesting lessons come the conclusion of this video and just quickly on the refresh rate features we do get hertz here maximum which is a small upgrade on 144hz that is often the maximum on offer in this price category adaptive sync is present here with gigabyte listing it as amd freesync premium certified as well as g-sync compatible ready this is somewhat misleading as the g27 qc is not currently g-sync compatible it's just ready to receive that certification however it still works fine with nvidia gpus you just have to enable the g-sync check box in the nvidia control panel design wise the g27 qc is very similar to the g32 qc it's basically just a smaller variant of that monitor which is exactly what you'd expect from two monitors in the same family the outer surface is a standard black plastic it's a well-built monitor with a sturdy construction and there's nothing crazy going on with the design that said while definitely good for a budget monitor it's not a super premium build my main criticism of the design carries over from the 32-inch model which is that the stand base is quite large and occupies a lot of desk space relative to the size of the screen itself this large flat base is sturdy and the stand overall supports height adjustability which is always good to see but there is a group of monitor buyers that really dislike these large stands for how much desk space they take up ports are standard two hdmi 2.0 and one display port 1.4 there's also a usb hub and built-in speakers you'll need to use displayport to access the maximum 165hz refresh rate as hdmi 2.0 is limited to 144hz at this resolution the osd is controlled through a directional toggle and has the same great feature set as gigabyte's other monitors so we get game assist features like cheat crosshairs as well as a dashboard feature black boosting modes and so on the only major thing you don't get here that is present with their auris displays is active noise cancellation like the g32 qc there are three overdrive settings available here and the first of those picture quality is essentially overdrive disabled this is not a mode you'll be wanting to use very often given its slow 12 millisecond response time average and significant ghosting the balance mode steps this up a notch offering a 7.38 millisecond greater grade average however this isn't fast enough to keep up with the 165 hertz refresh rate with just 56 compliance so in practice we do see smearing here this sort of performance is more in line with a 120 to 140 hertz refresh you'll also spot a fair bit of dark level smearing with some transitions in the 20 to 30 millisecond range for an overall average of 12.7 milliseconds in the dark area this is a common issue with va monitors and gigabyte does not seem to have paid much attention to optimizing the display for dark level performance the fastest overdrive mode on offer is the speed mode which bumps up performance to a 5.20 millisecond greater grade average however this comes at the expense of overshoot which increases to a noticeable level 26 of transitions here have inverse ghosting this mode is capable of a true 165 hertz refresh rate with 85 compliance but it's achieved by pushing the monitor above its natural capabilities this leaves us in a tricky situation for 165hz gamers our options are the bounce mode which offers response times that are too slow but without inverse ghosting or the speed mode which is fast enough but has inverse ghosting in practice the difference between these modes is either dark ghost trails or bright inverse ghost trails neither option is fantastic but i think the speed mode has the clearer image of the two so it's what i'd recommend for high refresh rate gaming with that said the speed mode is only suitable for the very upper refresh rates down at 120 hertz and especially 100 hertz the level of inverse ghosting is very noticeable and at any lower refreshes like 60 hertz the mode is practically unusable for gaming in that 60 to 100 hertz range i'd recommend dropping to balanced which still has some inverse ghosting but not to the same extent as the higher mode i'd describe the level of overdrive optimization here is poor we have a fairly common situation where no overdrive mode is capable across the entire refresh range but this is compounded by no mode really offering a great experience at the maximum 165hz refresh rate i do believe this panel is capable of 165hz gaming but gigabyte really needed to offer a mode between the balance and speed modes to hit that sweet spot compared to other displays the g27 qc doesn't necessarily offer the worst greater grade response times at the maximum refresh rate but it definitely offers high levels of overshoot to get there a 5.20 millisecond average puts it within the ballpark of mid-range ips monitors like the asus vg27aq and pixeo px7 however these ips panels clearly deliver less inverse ghosting and therefore a better experience you'll spot most other va panels further down in the charts with lower overshoot but also slower response times as most of these va panels deliver a seven to eight millisecond experience you can spot here the gigabyte g32 qc which offers a bit less overshoot versus the g27 qc but with a slower response time next up is a new chart for our reviews which shows a monitor's average performance across the adaptive sync refresh range using the best single overdrive mode for adaptive sync gaming this is quite an interesting chart the g27 qc is clearly superior to the g32 qc in terms of overall adaptive sync performance both monitors are seen here using the balance mode but with the 27 inch model this delivers higher performance albeit with higher rates of immerse ghosting but we can also see that in this mid-range monitor space ips panels still deliver a better experience sure we aren't getting 27 gl850 like response times from a mid-range ips but across the refresh range a monitor like a vg27aq or kp mhd does deliver a similar six to seven millisecond average but with lower inverse ghosting of particular interest here is the aoc cq27 g2 which is a va panel that outperforms the g27 qc and here we can see the direct differences between the g27 qc and g32 qc the 27 inch panel here clearly performs better in both the balance and speed modes at a given refresh rate the g27 qc is either able to offer better response times with the same level of overshoot or the same response times with lower overshoot neither monitor offers outstanding overall performance but it's a good reminder that a smaller variant of the same display does not always perform the same because the physical panel is different similar to how different monitors using the same display panel can also perform differently as each oem can tweak overdrive in different ways back to the overall comparisons and the g27 qc does feature dark level smearing if you're using the speed mode like was tested here it's not the worst dark level smearing but it is an issue with this va panel if you are concerned about this aspect of vas you'll need to opt for an ips panel instead which do not suffer from the problem refresh rate compliance is acceptable when using the speed mode although that comes with the downsides we've been discussing throughout this review so far one is very high error rates the highest of this subset of monitors we've tested as you can see in the average error chart this indicates that to get this level of performance gigabyte are pushing the panel beyond what it is naturally capable of with that said the g27 qc does offer reasonable 60hz performance in line with many of its competitors aside from dark level smearing there isn't much different between a mid-range va and mid-range ips for 60hz gaming input latency is very strong thanks to a sub 0.5 millisecond processing delay combined with the 165hz refresh rate this leads to total input latency of below 10 milliseconds which is what we like to see from this sort of panel power consumption is only slightly lower than the 32 inch model and overall quite similar to most other displays it's competing with given we're seeing 30 watt-ish sorts of power usage this is not a hot display and shouldn't impact your power bill too much for color quality the g27 qc uses a wide gamut panel with about 90 p3 coverage so that's respectable for a va although not up to the 95 plus we see from the best ips monitors for an entry level wide gamut experience or if you appreciate that oversaturated look this is decent though out of the box grayscale performance is acceptable with very close to a 6500 cct average indicating virtually no color tint from the factory this is well above average however gigabyte hasn't done as good of a job calibrating for the srgb gamma curve we do get nearly flat 2.2 here which is fine but not perfect and that leads to some inaccuracies to delta e performance with that said we are seeing a sub 2.0 lte 2000 average which is good the next two charts you can basically copy and paste my thoughts from previous wide gamut gaming monitor reviews no srgb clamp over saturated colours by default not awful delta e performance but clearly it has been affected by the oversaturation in colour checker we end up with delta ease above 2.0 which isn't accurate but again as greyscale performance is good the overall experience here is respectable and gigabyte has made an attempt to ship this display in a good state there isn't much that can be done in the osd to improve performance these are my recommended settings but they don't influence performance significantly the gamma curve cannot be fixed through any of the other gamma modes and there is no mode that clamps the gamut to srgb there is an srgb mode but it's totally broken and delivers significantly worse grayscale performance than default so i wouldn't recommend it and it also doesn't clamp the gamut so from here the only way to improve performance is through a full calibration using display cal i was able to as is usually the case get strong sigp performance that gamma curve is tightened up and we see below 2.0 delta averages across the board especially for delta e 2000. there's a few inaccurate colors here and there but overall this is very good calibrated performance this also holds true for calibrated p3 performance although like with most panels that are only capable of 90 p3 coverage you are going to miss out on that top range of colors i wouldn't recommend this for professional work but as i said there is some scope for achieving a vibrant image at times the icc profile we created for this display is available to our patreons brightness is mediocre at just 320 nits which is probably fine for most buyers but is below the average seen in this chart i mentioned at the start that the 27 inch model does not feature as brighter backlight as the 32-inch model which was indicated on the spec sheet and this is true in practice the 32-incher can push above 400 nits from a 350-nit brightness rating the 27-incher hits 320 nits from a 250 net rating minimum brightness is also mediocre at 73 nits contrast ratio is strong and remains one of the key reasons you might want to consider a va panel over an ips panel the g27 qc has three times the contrast of a mid-range ips like the vue sonic vx27582kp mhd it doesn't get as high as the g32qc but still delivers a good ratio with deeper blacks for an lcd unfortunately my g27 qc unit had subpar uniformity for full white it wasn't a big deal but grey uniformity was poor especially in the bottom corners and this is quite noticeable in practice i also observed some backlight bleed again in the bottom corners not the best result in this department although not that unusual for a budget to mid-range class display at the end of the day the gigabyte g27 qc delivers a fairly standard entry-level to mid-range monitor experience for the specifications there's a few strengths here like the contrast ratio factory grayscale calibration and osd features but also features a few weaknesses like response times and overdrive optimization with the 300 monitor i don't expect everything to be perfect and that's certainly not the case here however when i look at what the g27 qc is offering and compare that to similar monitors around this price i don't think gigabyte has done quite enough to get a recommendation the flaws with response time performance in particular sees this display fall behind the pack and for gamers especially those wanting to harness the full 165hz refresh rate on offer this is a significant drawback the simple reality is aoc are offering a very similar overall package with their cq27 g2 with slightly better overall performance and a lower price tag of around 260 us dollars yes it's just a 144hz panel versus 165hz with the g27 qc but the real world difference is pretty negligible with these va panels in particular when gigabyte are pricing their product above an objectively better option it becomes a tough sell and ultimately i could only recommend the g27 qc were more affordable at around this 300 price there are also ips options like the viewsonic vx27582kp mhd if you can find one in stock while the vx2758 features lower contrast and doesn't have an height adjustable stand it has better response time performance better uniformity and it's flat so that's one to look out for as well that's it for this review of the gigabyte g27 qc hope you enjoyed it learnt something got a few recommendations out of this one if you do want to support our monitor testing we do have our patreon page links are in the description below where you'll find access to our icc profiles monthly live streams discord chat behind the scenes videos all that sort of stuff you can also subscribe for more monitor testing and i'll catch you in the next one [Music] you

Channel: Hardware Unboxed

Views: 352,688

Keywords: hardware unboxed, gaming monitor, best gaming monitor, display, gigabyte, g27qc, 1440p, 165hz, review, monitor

Id: ootIQhEYEDs

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 18 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ridethepig360]

TV features be like, 4K, 120hz, HDR, 9 trillion dimming zones, 80 inches, $2k, will do your laundry during down time

Monitor: It’s bright, it’s for gamerz, cool stand, low res, expensive, heavy

[u/justwolt]

Typical VA performance. Average VA response times, decent picture quality. Solid budget VA monitor

[u/riba2233]

AOC models have better response times and price, so get them if you can instead of this (both 27 and 32" models. )

[u/[deleted]]

I got a S3220DGF for the same price.

[u/AstronautGuy42]

I’ve never used a VA panel before. I have an IPS. Are the difference s that noticeable?

[u/NEVS_04]

The stand though :(

Actually, are there any monitors that come with a desk mount stand or a wall mount?

[u/TokyoQuasar]

I bought an Aorus CV27Q with a 1-month exchange warranty, I ended up changing it for an Asus VG27AQ. Actually I changed the CV27Q to another CV27Q once, then since the Gsync problems weren't solved I changed for the VG27AQ.

I had problems with Gsync on the CV27Q, some flickering, sometimes very annoying, especially in the Nvidia pendulum demo where it was relentless, but in games too, plus I had even disconnections at 165Hz with Gsync on. I know some had problems with the Gigabyte G27QC in Gsync with flickering as well, so be careful when you buy such display, since it's not certified you can't really blame them for the Gsync problems but still.

In the end what made me prefer the VG27AQ over the CV27Q is the Gsync compatible certification. The Asus has 0 problem in this regard. Appart from that I liked the CV27Q (which is very similar to G27QC), I liked the curve and the contrast, but stability was terrible. The VG27AQ has also faster response times, and the ELMB Sync is a huge plus (Gsync + black frame insertion at the same time, it's the only screen that does that I think).

[u/Youssefproof771]

don't buy it super trash i bought it and i regret it can't return it either

[u/MariusPCMR]

IS A PIECE OF SHIT OF A MONITOR ... :/ i did haved it and refunded it after few days , input lagg shit (even with overdrive on speed and latest firmware ) , ghosting , firmware did not solve ghosting even if they mention that.... I got G7 Odyssey samsung instead of it