GIGABYTE G32QC Monitor Review After 1 Month

Gigabyte G32QC Review

You don’t have a lot of time, and I don’t have a lot of time, so I will be short and not waste anyone’s time. This monitor is great at first glance but becomes a mixed bag when you actually use it.

On paper here are some of the specs:

• HDR 400
• 165hz
• 2560 x 1440p
• FreeSync Premium Pro (G-Sync Compatible)
• 1500R Curvature
• VA Display, 1ms (MPRT) Response Time

I will go through each one and briefly explain the issues (if any are present) with the display.

HDR 400

This is the lowest form of “HDR” as stated on the Vesa Certified DisplayHDR website. In order to actually achieve HDR, a panel should have 10-bit color instead of 8-bit color. The advantage of 10-bit is that it is a much wider color range that can be displayed and HDR, by its nature of having a higher dynamic range and greater color/light vibrancy, requires 10-bit color.

This monitor is incapable of 10-bit color at 165hz and can only “achieve” 10-bit color at 120hz (as reported by the NVIDIA Control Panel).

Let’s take a look at this line from pcmonitors.info (which looks to be just a press release, or some kind of manufacture statement).

8-bit colour is supported and a flicker-free WLED backlight is used, offering a 94% (120% sRGB) colour gamut and 350 cd/m² typical maximum luminance. The monitor responds to HDR10 content, putting its generous colour gamut to use and allowing a 10-bit colour signal to be used for enhanced precision.

Lets break that down into something everyone can understand. It is an 8-bit color panel (which ever monitor supports 8-bit from the last ~20 or so years) with a sustained average brightness of 350nits, it “responds” to HDR content and can take in 10-bit color but can’t actually display it. Note the use of “responds to” instead of displays. The last sentence just says that it takes in 10-bit color to find the right 8-bit color to show you…

Conclusion: I leave the HDR off because it’s not amazing (or real HDR) and Windows HDR is a bit weird for normal day to day tasks regardless of this fake HDR.

165hz

Not much to say here than it has it. I have an EVGA GTX 1080 Classified edition with an i7 9700k and I get 120-140fps at 1440p in most modern AAA games. Even though I don’t always get to the 165hz, it is nice to have that headroom. As mentioned about the HDR and in the final section, frames aren’t everything.

Conclusion: Frames aren’t everything but they are nice.

2560 x 1440p

Having a 1440p screen is pretty nice from a productivity perspective. I came from a 4k screen so this is actually a step down, but I find that the screen size (32 inches) and the resolution make a perfect sweet spot when viewing it from an arms distance away. No longer do you have to squint at a 27in 4k monitor like I had to.

Conclusion: Good resolution to size ratio (PPI of 91)

FreeSync (G-Sync Compatible)

Let’s be clear, this is FreeSync not G-Sync. Just because it is G-Sync Compatible doesn’t mean it has G-Sync. NVIDIA’s G-Sync is a whole separate board that gets added to the monitor and usually adds $100+ to the price. This is pretty much G-Sync Lite, which isn’t bad at all but just don’t get tricked into thinking they are the same. The specified range is 48 – 165Hz for G-Sync/FreeSync.

Conclusion: Nice to have and well appreciated, but not full G-Sync

1500R Curvature

The curve is pretty nice, nothing crazy or even that noticeable. Once you start gaming or even getting into normal day to day computer tasks, you just forget about it. I have a 32 inch flat ultra-wide and now I kinda wish it had a slight curve. The true width of this monitor is actually 31.5 inches because of the curve but that is not very important.

Conclusion: The curve is nice, nothing more to say.

1ms (MPRT) Response Time and Motion blur

Oh boy….. This is the worst part of the monitor by far. The motion blur is pretty bad even with the “Over drive” set to speed. I don’t doubt that the response time is 1ms (more realistically in the mid single digits) but the response time can’t help with the poor ability to refresh new images on the screen. Take a look at these videos.

These were taken with my Pixel 4XL on 1/8th speed (which is 720p at 240fps). Since the frame-rate was higher than the refresh rate of the screen, you will see some things that you wouldn’t normally see with the human eye. Something you can see with the human eye and the camera is the TERRIBLE Ghosting. My god, it’s fricken bad, especially in dark/black/shadow areas. You can’t notice any ghosting on brighter parts of the screen, but if you have anything dark in color, then it is instantly noticeable.

Conclusion: Bad ghosting :'(

Conclusion

Overall this monitor is ok at best. The 165hz at 1440p is very nice but the HDR is not real HDR and the motion blur/ghosting makes this monitor hard to recommend at the current price of around 370$ USD for anyone who cares about the little things. If you want something fast with some resolution and don’t care about getting the best picture quality in the world, then go with this. The colors and resolution are better than your average gaming monitor but leave something to be desired with what it could have been.

I hope you enjoyed this Gigabyte G32QC Review, let me know if you liked it and hopefully I informed your decision to buy or skip this monitor.