Gigabyte M27Q Review, Impressive Budget 1440p 170Hz Performance

[Music] welcome back to hardware unboxed today we're looking at the latest affordable gaming monitor from gigabyte and one that has been hotly requested over the last few weeks it's the gigabyte m27q this is a 27-inch 1440p ips display packing a very decent 170hz maximum refresh rate and better yet it's priced at just 360 us dollars putting it in the entry-level price category for 1440p ips monitors in 2020. the m27q also packs features like a wide gamut panel with 92 percent dci p3 coverage super speed ips technology promising fast response times and display hdr 400 certification however like most display hdr400 monitors that we look at this one has no local dimming functionality so in practice it isn't really an hdr monitor don't buy this display for hdr and we really won't be touching on it in today's review gigabyte love their world first so what they've included with the m27q is a kvm to make it the world's first kvm gaming monitor a kvm is a switch that allows you to control multiple computers from one keyboard mouse and display so this is a pretty neat feature addition that makes the additional ports on the rear a lot more useful basically you hook up a keyboard and mouse to the usb ports on the monitor hook up two computers using the usb outputs assign these outputs to the relevant display input in the osd and away you go the dedicated kvm button on the rear allows you to switch between the two computers in about a second it's super simple and it works very well i could genuinely see this feature being used by those with multi-pc setups especially with say a desktop and a laptop kvm aside what i'm most excited about is gigabyte competing strongly in the entry-level 1440p ips monitor market 360 dollars is a very enticing price point putting the m27q up against popular products like the viewsonic vx27582kp mhd and pixel px277 prime although both of those monitors are a little bit cheaper the m27q will have to put up some strong performance numbers to be worth considering at this price point design-wise again we're getting something quite similar to gigabytes previous non-aurus branded monitors the stand base is wide and flat with simple black plastic material used on the outside for both the base and pillar in fact most of the monitor uses plastic there's a few different textures on the rear with a glossy section and a pattern section but no rgb to be seen anywhere which keeps costs down i think this is a pretty good looking display and it's well built with reasonably tight seams and a strong sturdy stand while this is a more budget oriented product gigabyte is still including a height adjustable stand which is a really key inclusion we're not getting any tilt or swivel support so you can't use the monitor in a portrait orientation without getting a separate vase amount but height adjustability is the key here and that gives it additional functionality over the viewsonic vx27582 kp mhd and some other entry level products for ports we've already talked a little bit about the kvm but in addition to that functionality with the usb ports there are four display inputs two hdmi 2.0 one displayport 1.2 and a usb type-c input that operates using dp alt mode the hdmi ports are limited to 144hz while the displayport and type-c port can go up to the full 170hz there's also adaptivesync variable refresh rate functionality which is listed as amd freesync premium but it also works fine with nvidia g-sync provided you enable the right settings in the nvidia control panel the osd is easy to control through a directional toggle and gigabyte have packed it with features including all the usual game stuff like cheat crosshairs timers refresh rate displays they've also got this dashboard feature and then the full suite of color controls including black boosting modes and even picture in picture despite only launching their monitor line a few years ago gigabyte have quickly become one of the most feature-rich display vendors even if many of these features i wouldn't personally use all right so let's move now into a look at response times this is going to be quite an interesting discussion as it appears gigabyte are not using one of the standard 27-inch 1440p ips panels that we've seen in this price class over the last few years most oems have opted for either an inner lux or au optronics panel around this price or perhaps an lg nano ips panel in the class above but here gigabyte appeared to be using a new ips alternative from sharp we're seeing four overdrive modes here and we'll start with a look at picture quality right off the bat we are treated to highly impressive performance at 170hz with a 5.19 millisecond greater great average and basically no overshoot this is sufficiently fast enough for 170hz gaming in the very first overdrive mode which presents a lot of promise for the other modes we're about to look at unfortunately using the balance mode gigabyte are pushing this panel slightly too hard while response times are halved to a 2.52 millisecond average overshoot increases substantially to the point where roughly half of all transitions exhibit noticeable inverse ghosting this means you will see bright trails following moving objects not to the worst extent we've seen but usually this is visible in this mode i think there was perhaps some scope for a mode between picture quality and balance that could maybe have offered say four millisecond response times with limited overshoot while performance is undoubtedly very good using the picture quality mode i do feel a bit of performance is being left on the table and an additional mode would have been great with balance bringing quite a lot of overshoot the speed mode is even worse response times improved to a 2.03 millisecond average however overshoot increases to the point where inverse ghosting is quite problematic i wouldn't recommend using this mode gigabyte also offers an auto overdrive setting however as far as i can tell this just enables the bounce mode or delivers performance around that of the balance mode i tested both 170 and 60 hertz in these two modes and yeah auto is basically the same as bounce so it doesn't really offer anything that we haven't seen before what's very impressive about this entry to mid-range monitor is that it does offer a single overdrive mode experience that's suitable for use across the entire refresh range at refresh rates from 170 hertz right down to 60 hertz the picture quality overdrive mode provides around a 5 millisecond average experience with next to no overshoot this is excellent as this level of speed is sufficient at 170hz but doesn't deliver worse overshoot down at 60hz so you can set and forget the picture quality mode and use it for gaming in all conditions or you would have to set and forget if it wasn't already the default mode and just if you're wondering when using the bounce mode performance does get worse at lower refresh rates if you are hoping for say slightly better performance on offer at 100hz this isn't possible as overshoot is higher at 100hz using this mode than at 170hz not to worry though as again the picture quality mode is great for gaming compared to other monitors on the market the m27q fares quite well when it comes to peak performance when looking at the best performance on offer at the highest refresh rate the m27q is nestled nicely in the middle of our charts which mostly include 1440p displays but crucially the m27q is offering this 5 millisecond experience with no overshoot unlike the mid-range v8 and ips alternatives around it one example is the vg27aq a more expensive ips with high overshoot or you can look at the vx27582kp mhd which has somewhat faster response times but again higher overshoot or a va panel like the gigabyte g27q which again has higher overshoot but the really important feature here is average performance across all refresh rates tested the m27q is one of very few mid-range or entry-level displays that provide a single overdrive mode experience for variable refresh rate gaming most other products in this category like the viewsonic model or the vg27aq or the px277 prime or most of the va models require you to turn down the overdrive mode for better performance at lower refreshes that isn't required here so the m27q ends up providing a 5.13 millisecond average compared to the six to seven millisecond average for other contenders this allows the m27 q to sit nicely between high-end models like the dell s2721 dgf and previous gen mid-range models the factor gets close to the aoc ag273qxp which is about 100 more expensive and uses an lg nano ips panel it's very impressive then when you see 30 to 40 percent better performance than most of the budget offerings and what we're left with is really class leading speed that we haven't seen below 400 before the m27q also offers an edge on va panels in this price range as there is no dark level smearing to speak of like with peak and average performance dark level performance is also around the 5 millisecond mark whereas you're likely to see double that response with a budget va and error rates as good as it gets from the monitors seen in this chart at 60 hertz no surprises here as the m27q again delivers a 5 millisecond experience which slots in between high end and previous budget contenders so that's nice to see for budget gamers as for input lag the m27q is very quick at processing inputs so there's practically no delay and we see about eight milliseconds of total lag most mod monitors are perfect in this area it's surprisingly good news on the power consumption front sharps panel and i'm pretty sure it's a sharp panel but not 100 sure as i haven't taken the monitor apart yet seems to be more efficient than other displays in this class it's just 24 watts of power when calibrated to 200 nits and that is a 23 decrease in power consumption compared to a typical mid-range monitor like the pixio px277 prime which is very nice to see the m27q does support backlight strobing through gigabyte's aim stabilizer feature however with this panel you'll see quite an obvious double image with an inverse ghosting like effect with the duplicate this doesn't improve clarity in my opinion and makes the image worse than standard so i wouldn't recommend using the strobing mode whether that's a 170 or 120 hertz when it comes to color performance the m27q is using a wide gamut panel but it's a little different from the conventional wide gamut experience this sharp panel exceeds the p3 color space for the green and blue primaries but fall short for the red primary we still end up with a very solid 93 p3 coverage but this panel appears to be more targeting adobe rgb which has a wider green gamut and where we see 95 coverage so if you're a creator interested in using the m27q for a bit of wide gamut color work in addition to regular gaming the m27q is pretty well suited to adobe rgb work but less so for p3 default out of the box factory calibration is mediocre and that's mostly down to two things the first is the white balance which is too cold with the 7100k color temperature giving the display a blue tint while gigabyte does a reasonable job of following the correct gamma curve srgb delta e results are quite high when we really want a delta e below 2.0 then for saturation we get an unclamped color gamut out of the box which leads to moderate over saturation depending on the color when viewing srgb content which is still the majority of content you'll be viewing on a pc the good news is that skin tones aren't drastically altered so when viewing videos you won't see any crazy sunburned skin but greens in particular will pack more punch than they should some people appreciate that but high delta e results means it's not accurate accuracy can be improved somewhat through these osd settings tweaks you are seeing here while there is an srgb mode it's not particularly great as it clamps the gamut too far and doesn't resolve any white balance issues while locking you out of white balance controls so instead i focused on other tweaks the results are pretty good especially for grayscale which is now excellent outside of some gamma inaccuracies on the lower end the oversaturation concerns are still present but less pronounced as the white balance is now fixed which does help out somewhat we're still seeing delta e's above 2.0 but it's not crazy like it was before then we move to a full calibration as expected the m27q performs very well for srgb work here given it easily exceeds the srgb color space although given we are using an icc profile you won't get these results in every app which is why hardware calibration is generally superior for p3 work it's pretty good but limited by just having 93 coverage which does present a few issues in the upper saturation range so probably not the best monitor for p3 work again adobe rgb is a bigger strength here those interested in experimenting with their icc profile for this monitor can download it via our patreon or floatplane pages brightness is strong topping out at 400 nits which should be easily sufficient for viewing in most conditions minimum brightness is great too at below 50 nits so those that prefer turning brightness down in dark conditions get the best of both worlds here the great news with this new panel gigabyte using is that contrast is not too much of a concern unlike with lg nano ips monitors i recorded a contrast ratio of around 1100 to 1 with my unit which is slightly above average for an ips gaming display although far below va alternatives with a bit of ips glow with my unit i don't think this is going to be the best display for gaming in the dark but it certainly does a better job than something like the dell s2721 dgf if contrast is a concern for you viewing angles are outstanding with little fall off to color and luminance when viewing at an off angle so it's great and in line with the best ips displays uniformly though is only okay with some shift in color between the bottom right and upper left corners of my unit this isn't a terrible result and only when viewing full white images are you likely to notice but still it could be a bit better overall the gigabyte m27q is an exceptional gaming monitor and if you've been following my reviews for some time it's quite rare for me to say that this is easily the best sub 400 1440p monitor that i've tested and by quite a huge margin so i have no trouble whatsoever recommending the m27q for those after a more budget-friendly display at least until i test something better gigabyte has succeeded in pushing forward the performance levels seen in this price class previously if you wanted a high refresh rate 1440p ips monitor for around 350 dollars you'd be treated to seven millisecond average response times across the refresh range and you probably weren't going to get a single overdrive mode experience the m27q improves upon this in both areas we are now getting five millisecond response times on average which is a healthy 30 to 40 improvement plus a single overdrive mode experience with virtually no overshoot this sort of performance was previously restricted to high-end ips monitors and while the m27q isn't quite as good as today's best 500 options it comes closer than anything before the m27q achieves this level of performance with a host of feature editions a 170hz refresh rate is better than something like the vue sonic vx27582 kpmhd which tops out at 144hz while also packing better response times and a height adjustable stand we're still getting a wide color gamut so color performance hasn't been sacrificed contrast and viewing angles are really good too the combination of gaming performance and image quality is top notch here throw in a kvm which is a genuinely handy addition and the m27q is very hard to pass up if you're looking for floors there aren't too many here factory calibration could be better although it's quite easy to fix to an acceptable level the backlight strobing mode could be better i guess and ideally gigabytes shouldn't be advertising this as an hdr monitor given its lack of actual hdr hardware but none of these things are deal breakers and it just doesn't seem like much has been compromised to hit this price point so for 360 us dollars or about 570 here in australia this is a total no-brainer purchase if you want to spend between 300 and 400 on a monitor and are after something 1440p high refresh and ips while it is more expensive than my previous budget recommendation the vue sonic vx27582 kp mhd which often sat around 300 to 330 depending on the day even for the full 60 dollars more i think it's well worth it given the m27q outperforms the vue sonic in basically every area if you don't quite have the budget for the gigabyte monitor then the viewsonic is still a good choice but if possible i'd be nabbing the m27q this release is also quite exciting when thinking about the future of monitors in this price range we seem to consistently be getting better performance here every couple of years so i expect more quality releases in this range using similar panels over the next six to 12 months definitely an area to look out for if you're interested in buying a new display to go with all the new hardware released in the last few months that's it for this review of the gigabyte m27q you've got all the data that you need to make a purchase hopefully if you're interested in this sort of budget monitor i think this is a really good one as i've said so yeah you'll find links to current pricing in the description below all the usual stuff there you can also support us through patreon or floatplane if you're interested in supporting our monitor testing directly you'll get access to icc profiles our discord community monthly live streams and all that other stuff that we offer so it's well worth checking out links are in the description thanks for watching and i'll catch you in the next [Music] one [Music] you

Channel: Hardware Unboxed

Views: 333,802

Rating: 4.9589643 out of 5

Keywords: hardware unboxed

Id: uNIqwxAZ-MQ

Length: 17min 43sec (1063 seconds)

Published: Fri Dec 04 2020