Picking a monitor is 100x harder than choosing my pc specs. It's so hard that I'm nearing to 100% understanding of all the test they are doing. My goodness.
No this feeling im going BONKERS trying to find my left hand monitor, I had a pick from AOC but it fell through and im in pain.. physical pain, the main monitor DELL OLED Alienware was hard enough.
Here's a tip I learned the hard way: don't trust RTing's Black Frame Insertion analysis. The picture they showed for the Gigabyte M32U showed a perfectly clear, great image. Unfortunately, after buying it, I saw it was only clear in the middle band of the screen. The bottom & top (i.e. most of the screen,) had strong red ghost images that spoiled the detail but in a different way than blurring.
@@goldenheartOh Hmmm didn't notice that on mine but what I immediately noticed after a few months are 3 dead pixels. Today, which marks its 18th month, It has a 2 long horizontal dead pixel from left to right edge. I will have to cover the shipping cost for the warranty which is basically 1/6 of the cost. I'm never buying anything less than a Samsung ever again. My previous humble 28" Samsung had its first dead pixel after 5 long years of abuse. Gaming daily for 10hr and more.
I bought this monitor over 3 months ago to pair with my RTX 2070 before any reviews were out. Went from a 32" 60Hz Acer to this 34" 21:9 144Hz model. At $559 CDN it was by far the cheapest 34" Ultrawide available. More then $100 less then AOC. I typically wait for reviews before making such a large purchase decision, but decided to pull the trigger for this. I find games or even regular web surfing on my old 32" 16:9 monitor difficult to go back to after using this. I really wanted a 38", but paying 4 times as much for 4 extra inches just wasn't worth it. Bought a $60 monitor arm on Amazon so I wouldn't have to deal with the oversized stand.
Sir Tim, you never cease to impress. I will never understand how you and Steve are able to maintain such a high quality standard with the amount, and depth of content you provide for all of us always with honor and integrity. 👍 You guys have my deepest respect and gratitude. Thank you for everything. Looking forward to the Q&@. 😊
Thanks to this review I've got myself this monitor and I liked it, however my unit came with few dead pixels so I'm returning it but getting same one as replacement. Few things to note from my experience - I did not really notice much difference in terms of colors, comparing to IPS screens I used before, viewing angles are worse but that's expected. Contrast and black uniformity feels better.Also I did not notice any black level smearing in games or on desktop. In my area gigabyte was cheapest option comparing to Samsung(+30eur) or Xiaomi(+50eur).
I got the G32QC a few months back, absolutely love it. I think I prefer the standardized resolution over an UW one personally. It's a few inches taller, but a few less wide. It's also 165hz and has a 2x USB 3.0 hub so it was the better choice for me.
What graphics card have you got? I can’t afford a new GPU yet. But have had a gtx 2070Super for a few years now and it’s run every game on high quality no worries. Just not sure about how it will do running this monitor
@@robobass25depends on what you play i have the same monitor and i used a gtx 970 for it untill a few months ago. It ran competitive games fine like Overwatch. But Warzone got like 40-50fps and triple a titles got 30 on 1440p low but your gpu should be way better since its 2 generations newer. At the moment i use a rx7900xt and now i can just crank everything to max and get at least 80fps
I've watched this review (and others) several times over the list few months, and was really torn between this and the more expensive LG 34" 850. I finally decided to save $500 and go with the 34WQC and am glad I did. The colors are great, which was a concern of mine given that my current monitor was an older LG IPS panel with great colors. Definitely pleased with the VA panel so far. Buyers note: I did notice flickering right away in some scenes in game. This really bothered me. I tried turning off Freesync and that fixed the issue entirely, so I'm happy. I'm not sure yet what other settings I can adjust to eliminate the flicker and keep Freesync enabled. GPU is a Sapphire Vega 64 Nitro+. Update 4/15/2021: I turned FreeSync back on. The flicker only occurs in Diablo 3 during the loading screens and isn't apparent during gameplay. I haven't noticed any issues in Marvel Avengers or Destiny 2. All in all, it's a minor inconvenience that I wish wasn't but it's not a deal breaker considering how great everything else is.
Thanks to your reviews I went from 3x 23.5" 1080p 60hz monitors straight to this beauty without wasting budget! $400 at Best Buy here in the US. My eyes are already happy and only setup for a few hours so far! Much appreciate your in depth reviews fellas!!
I am truly impressed with this series of Monitors from Gigabyte. I have the 32QC and absolutely love it. I showed it to my friend who has a 4k Samsung panel and he was blown away by the colours after he saw mine calibrated.
@@kenael6775 Go into colour settings for your GPU. Turn the color temp to the middle setting. Adjust the brightness to 40%, take the contrast and turn it to 70% and the saturation to 60%. Then load up 2 things; Go on the whitest page you can find and see how you can make out the lines and download whatever your monitor spec of an Astronomical pic like the ones from Webb and set it as your background. If you can make out details like Galaxies you are Golden.
Always the best Monitor reviews. Used your reviews to ultimately decide on my last monitor purchase last month. Thank you for the depth and detail of these reviews
Been using this monitor for a little less than a year, it’s been great so far, no issues. I will be grabbing a second one to stack on top mostly for work purposes. I would recommend this monitor if in the market for a 34” curved.
I need your opinion, is the black smearing on a VA panel annoying in every day used? Because im still trying to decide should i get a Ultrawide 1080p ips monitor or 1440p VA monitor
@@Brandon-dj9cq honestly, I don’t even see black smearing. But then again, I keep most of my settings in a dark mode. But even in situations where white is shown, I don’t see any smearing.
@@Mrod6779 Well thanks, that get rid off my concerns, And can i ask 1 more question, if your using the HDMI port at 1440p, the refresh rate maxed at 100hz right? But what if you use it at 1080p with the hdmi connection? I cant seem to get the answer at google
@@Brandon-dj9cq I switched my resolution to 1920x1080. I still have the 100Hz option available and selected. So the 100hz is available for both 1440p and 1080p.
Very happy with this purchase myself, great bang for the buck. Don't notice any smearing myself, running at 144. After nearly 2 months of extensive monitor searching I settled for this guy and I am very happy. Its smearing talked about is pretty hard to see and i haven't even been able to see it myself.
Sorry to ask this, did you use this monitor with a rtx 3xxx series gpu? I am deciding to buy this monitor but afraid of any ghosting/tearing that will appear. Thanks in advance.
@@hello1414276 I have a 5700xt. I don't have any tearing or ghosting while using it. Card isn't anywhere close to a 30 series but I feel the monitor is good enough for the 30 series cards.
Nice, I've been trying to pick an ultrawide for about a week and didn't expect this review to drop in time for my purchase. Black Friday sales still on so good timing! *before watching* -- I think it's the Gigabyte vs the Xiaomi for me. *after watching* -- Gigabyte seems slightly better for me but the best price I can find anywhere, let alone in stock, is a hefty $200(AUD) more than stocked Xiaomis.
With this monitor not being in stock, and black friday offers, I ended up going for the MSI Optix MPG341CQR (suck a catchy name *sigh*) instead. My hopes were that ultra wide aspect ratio and high refresh with adaptive sync, might help with my severe issues with motion sickness, and so far, it actually seems promising. I've not done a lot of fps testing yet, but my tests with Doom 2016 caused no real problems. Thanks for all the excellent monitor reviews. You have the best monitor reviews I've found anywhere on the internet. You cover all the necessary bases, and make it much easier to make a purchasing decision. Keep up the great work :)
Calibration settings used here based upon this video and compared with another IPS-calibration next to it: Gaming: Black Equalizer - 0 Super Resolution - 0 Display Mode - Full Overdrive - Balance FreeSync - ON (using AMD 7900 XT GPU) Picture: Standard Brightness - 70 Contrast - 50 Color Vibrance - 11 Sharpness - 5 Gamma - OFF Color Temp - User Define - R48, G46, B47 Low Blue Light - 0 Dynamic Contrast - 0 Senseye Demo - OFF Reset Picture - Yes If you prefer a higher pop of color (albeit at less accuracy) you can increase Color Vibrance to 12.
Do you think that is a good monitor? I really wanna try an ultrawide monitor, what do you think compare to lg27gl850 or other ips 27" panel? Is the color more vivid on ips or va? And the sharpness?
@@candrawp7044 colour is definitely more vivid, I came from a 32in ips monitor. Had to tweak it myself to make sure it's more colour accurate, but after that it's looks great. It's plenty sharp too, in fact it's notably sharper than my previous 1440p 32in monitor. But I think a 27in 1440p monitor may look a lil sharper, I'd have to a 27in next to my 34in to compare it. But I don't think it'll be a problem
It's noticeable. The best way to describe it, in my opinion, is objects of darker shades leaving behind a trail of dark smoke. I've been using a monitor with a mediocre VA panel for the last 4 years.
@@Fr0gg0 I'm not sure he was referring to this monitor in particular, but rather to this issue as a whole. Also, black smearing is noticeable to some extent on all VA panels, even the fastest ones, and this specific monitor seems to perform rather poorly in that regard.
@@Fr0gg0 If you're sensitive to it literally every VA monitor has it. Even if you pay hundreds more. So it's worth going and seeing it yourself in a store.
Got mine yesterday and I was supprised - this is very solid monitor. If you are hard pro gamer, perhaps then you should look the other way, but if you are user like me (3D-modeling, rendering etc. + some gaming) and you don't want to spend too much money + you still want a good monitor, this might be your thing. No need to spend 1000$/€:s. :)
I went back and forth between this, the Xiaomi and the AOC. In the end i went with the Xiaomi simply for the design, even if it has some weaknesses compared to the other ones.
Im in the exat same situation, but i cannot decide. I want It for programmong but also to play simracing and whatching films/videos. What mooves you yo choose the Xiaomi?
@@hugoperezhornero797 Imo it has the best design and it also has the best contrast and colours which is more important to me than perfect 144hz response time since i mostly play at 60 and 120fps. And at least over here it's also the cheapest one of the three. I got it during black friday for 400.
@@kwedl colors are close to xiaomi with the right changes in osd menu and contrast is good enough. When compared to the worse motion clarity of xiaomi, g34 makes more sense.
There was a 1440p 144hz monitor on sale on amazon for $320 (usually $380). I was also buying a few other small things and deciding which of these things I should get. I don't use amazon or do online shopping much so I did not realize my hesitation for a minute or two, while looking at these other items, would lead me to losing the deal. I could've saved another $60 dollars. Now there is mostly used ones, and they all cost $450+.
I just returned my Gigabyte G34WQC. It was mainly the lack of height and swivel that got to me in the end, and needing to spend another $50 on a VESA mount when the Gigabyte had already cost a chunk more than the Xiaomi... which comes with neither of those problems. I also wasn't liking that the speed overdrive mode was so averse to anything under 144fps, as Tim describes. Even at 135fps it was a worse experience than just dropping back to balanced. I was still unsure about the Xiaomi's difference in performance when it comes to ghosting, so I decided to compare the Gigabyte to itself using its overdrive-disabled mode (Picture Quality) to get an idea of "Xiaomi at worst". I also had my IPS screen, the Acer Predator XB271HU, right next to the Gigabyte to observe the IPS difference (while leaving the Acer's overdrive disabled). I didn't really know how smearing presented itself until these tests, so if you're like that too -- ie., you hear about it a lot but aren't sure if it will even matter to you -- this might help. I compared the overdrives and screens in these 3 ways: - with the UFO test ( www.testufo.com/ghosting#background=004040&separation=960&pps=1080&graphics=bbufo.png&pursuit=1 ) - with a contrived black/grey striped image I made in MS Paint (stripes about 3mm wide), and then sliding the window around by hand - with real use in Minecraft at different frame rates, in dark areas and well-lit areas, just looking around with the camera *UFO* - On the Gigabyte, the difference in ghosting between the 3 overdrive modes was identifiable. The visible change between the 3 modes wasn't large; maybe at most one-quarter the size of the whole smear itself. The yellow showed its afterimage more than the black; I suppose because the background was cyan. - On the Gigabyte, no overdrive modes showed any noticeable overshoot. - One the (IPS) Acer, with overdrive disabled there was a bit less ghosting than any of the Gigabyte's overdrives, maybe nearly half as much. I had no experience on how these results translated into a real usage, so I can only say that the differences between the VA's overdrives were noticeable, but not by much. *MS Paint black/grey bars* - On the Gigabyte, the image was obviously blurring the bars' edges a bit, making the grey bars look thinner and inconsistent as the window moved around. - On the Gigabyte, I could not tell the difference between the 3 overdrive modes. I tried some blind overdrive mode switches in its OSD and I couldn't recognise which was which. - On the Acer, its IPS screen **really** showed off its advantage. The Predator kept the image basically unchanged as I slid the window around, quite impressive. This test, especially having the 2 screens side-by-side, is what I would use to show the dark level smearing issue to someone. It should be said that on the Gigabyte, individual fuzzy edges weren't the problem; the problem was actually that this came across to the viewer as a general smear across the whole image due to the stripey nature of the image itself. It gave an overall effect of an obscuring blackness that would phase in over everything whenever the scene moved, and compared to the Acer's IPS screen it was definitely a lower quality experience. But that is indeed when comparing a VA to IPS. For a value VA screen, some smear is inevitable and acceptable and this is really about comparing the Gigabyte's overdrive modes to each other. Was I seeing a meaningful difference between the 3 overdrive modes on the Gigabyte? No, since I couldn't reliably tell which was which. The IPS was clearly on a different level, but comparing the Gigabyte's 3 overdrive modes to each other was really meaningless; the difference did not overcome the human element of this test (my hand controlling the movement) enough for me to be able to notice. The overall impression was simply that the VA screen had noticeable smear in any overdrive in this contrived scenario, and switching through the VA's overdrive modes didn't change the experience. To be fine with it in any mode was to be fine with it in every mode, or vice-versa. *Minecraft* - On the Gigabyte at 144fps, like the MS Paint test I could not tell the difference between the 3 overdrive modes. - On the Acer at 144fps, _unlike_ the MS Paint test, even the IPS-vs-VA comparison was very hard to notice this time. I could say that I would know which is which, but the difference had to be looked for and even then was hard to spot. Was I seeing a meaningful difference in ghosting between the 3 overdrive modes on the Gigabyte? Again, no. Because I couldn't pick that difference despite trying to, and this includes deliberately going to dark areas and comparing the most contrasting edges I could find. So yes the IPS display was again very slightly clearer than the VA display when trying hard and looking for it, but no the difference in ghosting between the VA's 3 overdrives was not large enough for me to identify, let alone be bothered by, in this real-use scenario. - On the Gigabyte at 60fps I found that, really, at this frame rate ghosting was a relative non-issue. It was already hard to notice, so when you're trying to focus so carefully to see it all that really jumps out at you is oh yeah, this is 60fps. At 60fps, it was the frame rate that affected the experience most, not the smearing. *Minecraft and overshoot* - On the Gigabyte in speed mode at 144fps, overshoot could be identified around the sun in Minecraft when swinging the camera past it with (I would say) slower-than-typical motion. It would only be about 3mm of overshoot and I had to deliberately do it and be watching for it for it to be observable. - On the Gigabyte in speed mode at 135fps, the same view of the sun showed overshoot perhaps 2 or 3 times as large as how it was at 144fps. - On the Gigabyte in balanced mode at 144fps and 135fps, no overshoot was visible. The issue here was how speed mode performed when I played at 135fps. I switched Minecraft to a heavier resource pack, dropping its frame rate to ~135, and from that drop of only 9 or 10fps the overshoot was already far more visible; 2 or 3 times as large and easily standing out enough to worsen the experience and make the screen look cheap. Dropping the overdrive back down to balanced mode fixed this, but it's worth pointing out that in balanced mode at this fps range, the Gigabyte is actually outperformed by the Xiaomi in its medium mode (from comparing HU's numbers). But even then I don't know if the difference would be realistically visible... even if the Xiaomi is the only one beating that mathematical 6.94 average response time. So the takeaway here is the Gigabyte's weakness to lower frame rates in speed mode. That's a real-life compromise, because we know that keeping a game locked at 144 it means you have to over-cull visual features. So at 144fps, the Gigabyte gives you a choice between a mode with an average response that is a little slower than the Xiaomi, or a mode with a little starting overshoot and no frame rate versatility. (Related quick points just from HU's numbers: At 120fps the screens perform identically in their medium overdrive modes. At 60-100fps, the Gigabyte has the better response times.) (And another less-related point: The Acer's first overdrive mode, "Normal", had worse overshoot so I never used it.) *Outro* So I finally know what dark level smearing looks like, how it compares to an IPS, and how the overdrive modes differ visually. And I know that while I can appreciate the difference between IPS and VA smearing, I can't appreciate the difference between the different overdrive modes' smearing on the VA in real-life usage. So knowing this, and knowing that the Xiaomi (in balanced mode) is likely to produce even less of a difference than the Gigabyte's slowest vs fastest overdrives, I finally realised I had spent way too much money and concern dwelling on numbers that were too hard to perceive in real life. I played several games of Apex Legends at 85-90fps on the Gigabyte with overdrive disabled (ie., "Picture Quality" mode) and simply did not notice a damn thing. Perhaps smearing simply isn't as bad on either the Gigabyte or Xiaomi as the impressions left by other VA screens in the past. Or perhaps my real-use scenarios just weren't hitting the right combination of things to reveal the screen's weak areas. I didn't try watching a dark movie for example, so maybe that could have exposed things more? I will say though that I don't watch high-quality movies on a PC. I was extremely lucky that my local store gave me a full refund after 2 weeks, on just a change of mind. I also happened to make this decision on the day a flash sale appeared on the Xiaomi (bringing it down another $50), meaning I saved $186 AUD and for that saving I actually *get* a screen with proper height adjustment and swivel. That truly was the real-life irritation for me with the Gigabyte. Xiaomi: $498 AUD from Bangood, can be found for $550 AUD at a couple of other places at the moment. Gigabyte: $684 AUD from PLE, price-matching ebay (which isn't usually what they do, but PLE is a pretty great store), and even then this was a once-only new-members-only deal. Typically very hard to find below $700 with shipping. _I think TH-cam deleted my last post of this text? :/_
*Speakers* I wanted to put my impressions about the speakers somewhere so here will do. Reviewers correctly express that the Gigabyte's 2W speakers are rubbish. However, no-one actually emphasizes one important thing about them: They aren't rubbish *because* they're 2W speakers. They are rubbish *in spite of* being 2W speakers. In other words, even in the world of comparison to other weak little 2W speakers, the Gigabyte's speakers are down with the worst in that world. They are worse than the Acer Nitro VG272UP's 2 watt speakers. They are *much* worse than the Acer Predator XB271HU's 2 watt speakers. With Windows volume and screen volume set to 100%, the Gigabyte's speakers are borderline functional for playing a game. With Windows volume and screen volume set to 100%, the Gigabyte's speakers are *not* good enough for listening to humans speaking. I watched the Black Widow movie trailer on TH-cam late at night, where the only other sound around me was crickets chirping and the un-stressed hum of my PC under the desk. I'm not being theatrical here; there were actually crickets chirping outside; that's the kind of sound environment I'm talking about. And genuinely, because of the *crickets* I could not make out about 30% of what the actors in the TH-cam video were saying. Crickets. The speakers were just too quiet and unclear. In comparison, I have never set Windows volume close to 100% when using the Predator's speakers; it would be far too loud. More like 65% tops. I could get more volume out of the Gigabyte's speakers by using extra software and increasing its pre-amplifying boost to all sound, so there is that. But the thing to be aware of here is that the speakers on the G34WQC aren't just bad because they're 2 watts. They are cringe-bad even compared to other 2W speakers and simply saying "they're rubbish like all monitors's speakers" is not critical enough. The absolute dirt cheapest powered speakers you can find will do a much better job.
Really useful info thanks! I was ready to purchase the Gigabyte then read your comment. In the UK the Xaomi and Gigabyte are priced the same. Other than the ergonomics which wont matter as i'll vesa mount either, is there anythign you feel makes either monitor stand out? I play alot of apex legends so this will be used mainly for gaming mostly FPS type games. I know the panel is the same on both so i guess really it doesnt matter performance wise??
Got this Nov 4th. Am not disappointed. This is an excellent choice and best bang for your buck in usa imo. Got it at 399 from best buy website. I don't notice overshoot or smearing with freesync and speed overdrive mode while gaming.
Just got mine delivered today! No defects whatsoever and I was a little worried about gsync flicker but I don't notice anything at all. Very happy 😁 Edit: enabling gsync on this monitor appears to work just fine but I get really bad headache the following day :( Can't figure why as yet.
How are the colours and blacks in movies? Thinking about upgrading my system and this monitor looks very suitable. My current monitor, a fairly budget but decent TN panel, when it's supposed to be black it doesn't really show black but varying degrees of gray approximating black. It's probably the number one thing I want to improve in a new monitor. Any insigth would be appreciated.
@@TheLtGo I think it’s a VA panel so blacks are really good. Having 21:9 ultra wide for movies is amazing I’ll never be able to go back to regular panels for games or movies. I was worried about having a curved screen but it’s not really that noticeable at all. One negative I’ve noticed is when it’s a black screen in a dark room a lighter shade bleeds through on the edges. That will vary from model to model and not sure if warranty will cover it
@@brendan6958 When you say edges, which edges are you referring to? Because I could live with it being on the right and left edges as they are so far away from the center.
I've been an It tech for almost 30 years and I've never got my head around all the different parts of monitors! However, I did buy this monitor about an hour ago. Should have known you had a review of it!!
@@corwinwhitehorn7759 no, disagree, the Moustache require its own real estate, to display proudly.. there are fewer more masculine things than a *Handlebar Moustache*
£400 for it compared to almost £1000 for the LG 34GN850 and seems to have almost the same specs = wow! I definitely want to see a review on it too. Note that the 3466 is VA. The IPS is 3461 and strangely cheaper.
@@toaster_bloke9999 it´s a VA first models had flikker was fixed on firmware opdate. I have a Xiaomi Mi Curved 34 on my driving rig. now i need a UW for my other games :)
I had a dead pixle which went away once the monitor had heat cylced for a few weeks, my main gripes are there is a slight vingette at the sides when viewing bright whites, like a youtube page for instance. Games with very very dark scenes have very noticeable va blur, but in general gameplay i cant tell the difference between it and my old tn monitor. One pain in the ass point is that the stand by/ power light flashes constantly if you turn off your computer, its realy f***ing anoying to have to reach under the monitor and hold the power button for 4 seconds every time i stop using it. This point alone is enough to stop me recommending the monitor hahaha.
It's now down to $300 in the US at multiple retailers, for the new G34WQC A variant, which has a better 4000:1 contrast ratio. Presumably, that means that it's a different panel from the original. Any word on if the new version performs as well as or better than the original that you reviewed here?
Mind that it's 8 bit panel, not 8 bit+frc, so you won't see any hdr10 and it begins covering only srgb in HDR mode (colors look quite horrible). Asus VG34 or Dell S34 are far greater displays for HDR content. They've got 10 bit panels (8 bit + frc) and because of that they cost more.
@@socialreport2836 Is that true of the original model you reviewed here, as well? My main question was how this new updated model compared to the original, which seemed to get a lot of decent reviews - at least for a $300-400 monitor with these specs. Thanks!
@@DavidHHH99 The both panels are quite similar, I assume that 4000:1 and 3000:1 contrast are not that different. I own the original Gigabyte G34 panel and Samsung G9 Neo. Who says that Gigabyte G34 is a great panel, they usually didn't see some other better panels. If a panel is in a 10 bit league, the gradient and colors will be much better in HDR. It is noticeable. It's like 1080p and 1440p content. The image becomes sharper and looks more natural. Several years ago it was not that important to have a full HDR feature. Right now a lot of movies are shot in a true HDR mode and there are a lot of HDR games. They look quite different and much better (more saturated colors/larger contrast and the brightness is greater). HDR1000 is, of course, a game changer but HDR with 500/550 cd peak brightness must be not bad at all (ASUS VG34 or DELL S34). 21:9 is definitely better than 16:9. If there is some extra money, I think it is worth to invest in a better panel which supports more realistic HDR (10 bits at least and 500 nits or more, contrast 3000:1/4000:1 is good). I would notice that ASUS VG34 has got some purple trailers in HDR but DELL S34 has got some other disadvantages, too. www.rtings.com/monitor/tools/compare/asus-tuf-gaming-vg34vql1b-vs-dell-s3422dwg/22299/24247?usage=3623&threshold=0.10 www.rtings.com/monitor/tools/compare/gigabyte-g34wqc-vs-asus-tuf-gaming-vg34vql1b/17023/22299?usage=3623&threshold=0.10 www.rtings.com/monitor/tools/compare/gigabyte-g34wqc-vs-dell-s3422dwg/17023/24247?usage=3623&threshold=0.10 HDR Color Volume is one of the main feature to compare. I don't know why but rtings doesn't indicate that Gigabyte G34 is 8 bit panel, it's certain (around 70% hdr color volume dci-p3 is very bad). I have it and confirm that in HDR it's got only sRGB or alike color gamut. The red color is very pale and overall colors are even worse than in SDR mode (with dci-p3 coverage) and in HDR mode it is impossible to change almost anything, it's locked to the one gamut (I assume tha it is sRGB, not even DCI-P3).
@@socialreport2836 Thanks for the reply. Hopefully, with this coming down in price, and creating more competition, we'll be able to see some bigger gaming monitors with better panels and colors starting to come down to this price range.
I watched this video the moment it was posted and I saved and I waited for the monitor to become available where I am. Now I finally got mine and will be arriving later this week! Thank you very much!
Do any new PC owners begin to have an aneurism when he compares a bunch of monitors while saying each ones part number? Jesus 😂 One of the best out there on reviews though
Hi Tim, I have a question about bad colour accuracy and overdrive modes in out-of-the-box configuration for "gaming" displays. Should overdrive and colour calibration be done for each _individual_ monitor at least on a basic level at the factory to have good performance? Or will it be done for a given *model* with a known panel and then those settings applied to retail unit in firmware, with the end result not being great due to variances between individual panels? Or is it that manufacturers simply slap together a panel and a case or order something from an ODM with their branding, enter some known good values into firmware and hope for the best? I have seen high end monitors like Predator, Odyssey, ROG, especially ProArt having great performance out of the box; while the higher pricing would allow the manufacturer to spend more time on each unit, is it due to individual calibration of each unit at the factory?
Tried getting one while it was 399$. Shipper sent it to wrong place and wasnt able to get another one for a replacement. So i gave someone a free monitor, granted my money back. But now it's $450. Thanks UPS
I think it means the response time of the panel with black to white colors, with the top left being darker colours and bottom right the whiter/lighter colours.
Not sure if joking lol but it is somewhat deep data. In case anyone else reads the replies the data is as follows: Sorted by avg response time, with the secondary bar showing how often errors (inverse ghosting) goes above 15%. So in this case 5.11 ms response time with 11% of panel transitions having over 15% inverse ghosting.
Response Time Chart: This shows how quickly each pixels liquid crystal transitions from one shade to another. Black is 0 and White is 255. Going from Black (0) to Very dark (26) the response time of 25ms means there is a black level smear that follows the previous state or ghosting in slower whiter levels. Remember 60 frames per second is 16.66ms (1/60). Overshoot: When a signal to change shade, a voltage is applied but it takes some time to reach the desired level resulting in slow displays. To compensate for slow panels, companies employ more voltage to more quickly reach the desired shade and drop the voltage back to the desired level just before the pixel has reached its target. If done poorly the result will be an image which shows an outline from the previous state. TL;DR: Red means blurry image, green means a clear image. blurbusters.com/faq/lcd-overdrive-artifacts/
Response time is basically how fast a pixel can go from black to white while refresh rate is how fast the monitor sends out a new image. You'd ideally want the pixels to go from black to white faster than the monitor's refresh rate or it causes blurring. For example at 144Hz, that's a new image every 6.9ish milliseconds, if the response time is slower than that it's not fast enough causing bluring artifacts.
As others have explained, since a pixel of an 8 bit display has 256 brightness levels it can be when all three red, green, and blue subpixels are set to be the same, so that the color produced is on a black/grey/white spectrum. The response time measures the transition period between a given value from 0-255 to another.
Another great video. Both of you are all about quality. Thank you very much. Note: Sold out on US Amazon. Sold by other sellers; minimum price is US$825.00 - RIP OFF!
Bought this monitor and it arrived with 2 dead pixels. Because it was the last one in the stock, they send it back to Gigabyte for rma ( as dead on arrival) . Now is almost 3 weeks and still not inspected by gigabyte or approved for rma. I like the monitor, good quality picture, fast and smooth response time, but there is a alot of these models with death pixels. Keep that in mind, and I hope you don't end up in situation like mine.
This is available on newegg... www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824012017?Description=gigabyte%20ultrawide&cm_re=gigabyte_ultrawide-_-24-012-017-_-Product&quicklink=true
@@Berkay-xl4hu Just the fact gsync works stably makes me very happy with the experience overall, I don't notice black smearing, or ghosting, even now that I have it on max overdrive, I still find it hard to notice anything in game, but maybe if I did the alien test. unless you are coming from an exceptional monitor, I doubt the average person would notice any issues. I've seen one viewsonic monitor where the black smearing made me sick, like it was genuinely bad, here I can't even say it exists so I'm very happy.
Was wanting to wait for this review but I couldn't pass up the buy when availability opened up last month, $670 in aus. It has been absolutely worth the buy.
I just bought an iiyama GB3466WQSU-B1, it has the same panel as the gigabyte and xiaomi monitors, but was on sale and cheaper than the alternatives! I´m really excited about it and can´t wait to game on it.
Ordered this monitor on 29th November... the site made a mistake and contacted me to say they made a mistake and it wasn’t actually in stock! Well today they finally messaged saying it’s been dispatched 😍😍 can’t wait for tomorrow!
Have this monitor myself and can say this is great. One gotcha though - some VESA mounts may struggle to fit into this monitor. The VESA mounting point in the monitor is recessed in a tight rectangular hole and some mounts do not fit into this recessed rectangular hole.
Hey Tim - quick tip. We cant gauge the size of a screen without something relatable next to it. Can you start getting B-roll shots with someone sitting at the screen?
Picking a monitor is 100x harder than choosing my pc specs. It's so hard that I'm nearing to 100% understanding of all the test they are doing. My goodness.
lol same, so many options, I'm going crazy
No this feeling im going BONKERS trying to find my left hand monitor, I had a pick from AOC but it fell through and im in pain.. physical pain, the main monitor DELL OLED Alienware was hard enough.
exactly why I won't buy without a return policy
Here's a tip I learned the hard way: don't trust RTing's Black Frame Insertion analysis. The picture they showed for the Gigabyte M32U showed a perfectly clear, great image. Unfortunately, after buying it, I saw it was only clear in the middle band of the screen. The bottom & top (i.e. most of the screen,) had strong red ghost images that spoiled the detail but in a different way than blurring.
@@goldenheartOh Hmmm didn't notice that on mine but what I immediately noticed after a few months are 3 dead pixels.
Today, which marks its 18th month, It has a 2 long horizontal dead pixel from left to right edge. I will have to cover the shipping cost for the warranty which is basically 1/6 of the cost. I'm never buying anything less than a Samsung ever again. My previous humble 28" Samsung had its first dead pixel after 5 long years of abuse. Gaming daily for 10hr and more.
I bought this monitor over 3 months ago to pair with my RTX 2070 before any reviews were out. Went from a 32" 60Hz Acer to this 34" 21:9 144Hz model. At $559 CDN it was by far the cheapest 34" Ultrawide available. More then $100 less then AOC. I typically wait for reviews before making such a large purchase decision, but decided to pull the trigger for this. I find games or even regular web surfing on my old 32" 16:9 monitor difficult to go back to after using this. I really wanted a 38", but paying 4 times as much for 4 extra inches just wasn't worth it. Bought a $60 monitor arm on Amazon so I wouldn't have to deal with the oversized stand.
Sir Tim, you never cease to impress. I will never understand how you and Steve are able to maintain such a high quality standard with the amount, and depth of content you provide for all of us always with honor and integrity. 👍 You guys have my deepest respect and gratitude. Thank you for everything.
Looking forward to the Q&@. 😊
This.
Thanks to this review I've got myself this monitor and I liked it, however my unit came with few dead pixels so I'm returning it but getting same one as replacement. Few things to note from my experience - I did not really notice much difference in terms of colors, comparing to IPS screens I used before, viewing angles are worse but that's expected. Contrast and black uniformity feels better.Also I did not notice any black level smearing in games or on desktop. In my area gigabyte was cheapest option comparing to Samsung(+30eur) or Xiaomi(+50eur).
I just got a curved ultrawide recently and do a lot of work with excel/spreadsheets. The curve is absolutely fine and not just great for gaming!
I got the G32QC a few months back, absolutely love it. I think I prefer the standardized resolution over an UW one personally. It's a few inches taller, but a few less wide. It's also 165hz and has a 2x USB 3.0 hub so it was the better choice for me.
What graphics card have you got? I can’t afford a new GPU yet. But have had a gtx 2070Super for a few years now and it’s run every game on high quality no worries. Just not sure about how it will do running this monitor
@@robobass25 for this monitor i recommend rx 6800/3070 up for better consistent frame rates.
@@robobass25depends on what you play i have the same monitor and i used a gtx 970 for it untill a few months ago. It ran competitive games fine like Overwatch. But Warzone got like 40-50fps and triple a titles got 30 on 1440p low but your gpu should be way better since its 2 generations newer. At the moment i use a rx7900xt and now i can just crank everything to max and get at least 80fps
G34wqc for da vinci
Im so excited for this monitor I ordered it just a few hours ago and I'm excited!
Where did you order from? its out of stock everywhere for me
you will enjoy ive had it for months i personally havent noticed any black smearing and i'd say im fairly picky
@@emmahstone3106 From B and H, its currently on back order but I managed to get it somehow.
triseke I’ve been checking b&h, I’ll just place a back order too thanks for replying!
@@jtgreis2796 What CPU/GPU combo do you run on it? I'm going to upgrade soon because I was mostly a 1080p gamer at 60hz.
I have this monitor for a month now and i love it, I'll definitely try the color correction you suggested
Have you experienced any flickering?
is it responsive enough for fast pace fps gaming?
@@alvinsluis805 I have and it’s great
@@goozy3988 no ghosting / smearing?
@@goozy3988 ya any ghosting? Or smearing?
I've watched this review (and others) several times over the list few months, and was really torn between this and the more expensive LG 34" 850. I finally decided to save $500 and go with the 34WQC and am glad I did. The colors are great, which was a concern of mine given that my current monitor was an older LG IPS panel with great colors. Definitely pleased with the VA panel so far.
Buyers note: I did notice flickering right away in some scenes in game. This really bothered me. I tried turning off Freesync and that fixed the issue entirely, so I'm happy. I'm not sure yet what other settings I can adjust to eliminate the flicker and keep Freesync enabled. GPU is a Sapphire Vega 64 Nitro+.
Update 4/15/2021: I turned FreeSync back on. The flicker only occurs in Diablo 3 during the loading screens and isn't apparent during gameplay. I haven't noticed any issues in Marvel Avengers or Destiny 2. All in all, it's a minor inconvenience that I wish wasn't but it's not a deal breaker considering how great everything else is.
Any black smearing or ghosting effect on this? Thinking about picking one up myself.
@@pardeepbhathal3978 I haven't noticed anything. I'm not an expert by any means, though. I've been very satisfied with the purchase.
I just snagged 3 of these for 299 on Amazon. The following day I checked again price was back to 400++. Now I wait for the delivery!!
Just got one of these babies for 379. No dead pixels, tolerable backlight bleed, and fantastic gaming experience. LOVE IT, what a deal
I really apprechiate these in-depth reviews. Just pulled the trigger on the G34WQC!
Thanks to your reviews I went from 3x 23.5" 1080p 60hz monitors straight to this beauty without wasting budget! $400 at Best Buy here in the US. My eyes are already happy and only setup for a few hours so far!
Much appreciate your in depth reviews fellas!!
Do you still like it? Any issues or did you upgrade yet?
Lol I started looking at this monitor yesterday. Perfect timing!
Ok
@@user-rj1js3lx9l???
@@seventeen9718 ok
@@user-rj1js3lx9l ok
@@renji104 ???
I am truly impressed with this series of Monitors from Gigabyte. I have the 32QC and absolutely love it. I showed it to my friend who has a 4k Samsung panel and he was blown away by the colours after he saw mine calibrated.
Could you please help me calibrating mine?
@@kenael6775 Go into colour settings for your GPU. Turn the color temp to the middle setting. Adjust the brightness to 40%, take the contrast and turn it to 70% and the saturation to 60%. Then load up 2 things; Go on the whitest page you can find and see how you can make out the lines and download whatever your monitor spec of an Astronomical pic like the ones from Webb and set it as your background. If you can make out details like Galaxies you are Golden.
Always the best Monitor reviews. Used your reviews to ultimately decide on my last monitor purchase last month. Thank you for the depth and detail of these reviews
Yes I've been waiting for this ever since I saw it on Gear Seekers channel.
Thanks for the heads up on Gear Seekers, new channel find for me. Looks like a good channel
i bought this monitor yesterday xD thx for your the review
you are realy the best tech channel at the moment
keep up the good work
where did you buy from? its always out of stock for me
@@emmahstone3106 amazon
how is image quality in games? like black smearing etc.
I had to smoke up and play your video twice to understand all that information! Awesome work man! Keep it up!!
Bought it for around US$400 today, due to arrive tomorrow!
How is it? Can you hit True 144 fps (including response time) without unbearable overshoot, or nah?
Update, they raised the price to $450 after this video was launched. This is a shady business practice from Gigabyte, shame on them.
i just bought one this morning, says backorder on Bestbuy... but hope its worth it. Coming from Asus MG248QR // 1080p, 144hz, 1ms.
@@laostuh860 let us know how it looks man. I'm thinking about ordering it too.
550€ here !!!!!!!!!!!
its called capitalism
A lot of pc components have risen in price not just Gigabyte
Been using this monitor for a little less than a year, it’s been great so far, no issues. I will be grabbing a second one to stack on top mostly for work purposes. I would recommend this monitor if in the market for a 34” curved.
I need your opinion, is the black smearing on a VA panel annoying in every day used? Because im still trying to decide should i get a Ultrawide 1080p ips monitor or 1440p VA monitor
@@Brandon-dj9cq honestly, I don’t even see black smearing. But then again, I keep most of my settings in a dark mode. But even in situations where white is shown, I don’t see any smearing.
@@Mrod6779 Well thanks, that get rid off my concerns,
And can i ask 1 more question, if your using the HDMI port at 1440p, the refresh rate maxed at 100hz right? But what if you use it at 1080p with the hdmi connection? I cant seem to get the answer at google
@@Brandon-dj9cq I switched my resolution to 1920x1080. I still have the 100Hz option available and selected. So the 100hz is available for both 1440p and 1080p.
@@Mrod6779 but can it do 144hz in 1080p using hdmi tho?
Very happy with this purchase myself, great bang for the buck. Don't notice any smearing myself, running at 144. After nearly 2 months of extensive monitor searching I settled for this guy and I am very happy. Its smearing talked about is pretty hard to see and i haven't even been able to see it myself.
Got this a month ago. Really happy with it.
Still good with no issues?
@@gilbertalmariego775 still no issues, the monitor is amazing for its price and just looks great in general.
Sorry to ask this, did you use this monitor with a rtx 3xxx series gpu? I am deciding to buy this monitor but afraid of any ghosting/tearing that will appear. Thanks in advance.
@@hello1414276 I have a 5700xt. I don't have any tearing or ghosting while using it.
Card isn't anywhere close to a 30 series but I feel the monitor is good enough for the 30 series cards.
@@Jose72356 but does he still check his notifications? Did you consider 2 smaller screens over an ultrawide?
Bought it day one, got 50 euro more expensive week later. Absolutely love it except for the speakers
I also don't like the placement of ports. I now have it on a monitor arm and the cables show due to their placement (bottom).
Indeed, the speakers aren't criticised as much as they deserve. They're bad, even for 2W, and imo they push the boundaries of unusable.
So once it's calibrated it looks like it's a great entry point for getting in to 21:9 and curves :)
Nice, I've been trying to pick an ultrawide for about a week and didn't expect this review to drop in time for my purchase. Black Friday sales still on so good timing!
*before watching* -- I think it's the Gigabyte vs the Xiaomi for me.
*after watching* -- Gigabyte seems slightly better for me but the best price I can find anywhere, let alone in stock, is a hefty $200(AUD) more than stocked Xiaomis.
Waiting for the psu to complete my build and turn this 34" long boi on
iI heard that this screen has many problems, did you have any?
@@1nw what kind of problems
With this monitor not being in stock, and black friday offers, I ended up going for the MSI Optix MPG341CQR (suck a catchy name *sigh*) instead. My hopes were that ultra wide aspect ratio and high refresh with adaptive sync, might help with my severe issues with motion sickness, and so far, it actually seems promising. I've not done a lot of fps testing yet, but my tests with Doom 2016 caused no real problems. Thanks for all the excellent monitor reviews. You have the best monitor reviews I've found anywhere on the internet. You cover all the necessary bases, and make it much easier to make a purchasing decision. Keep up the great work :)
I was looking for this review last night, Gear Seekers said it was coming. I went and bought it anyway, no regrets. Powerful moustache sir
Calibration settings used here based upon this video and compared with another IPS-calibration next to it:
Gaming:
Black Equalizer - 0
Super Resolution - 0
Display Mode - Full
Overdrive - Balance
FreeSync - ON (using AMD 7900 XT GPU)
Picture: Standard
Brightness - 70
Contrast - 50
Color Vibrance - 11
Sharpness - 5
Gamma - OFF
Color Temp - User Define - R48, G46, B47
Low Blue Light - 0
Dynamic Contrast - 0
Senseye Demo - OFF
Reset Picture - Yes
If you prefer a higher pop of color (albeit at less accuracy) you can increase Color Vibrance to 12.
Nice after racking my brain on monitors the past few weeks think I'ma pick this up I have a 7800 xt
Thank you for your effort man. Apreciate it. ♥️
Been waiting for this review!! But I couldn't wait any longer, I bought this 3 weeks ago in anticipation for cyberpunk. Zero regrets at all
Do you think that is a good monitor? I really wanna try an ultrawide monitor, what do you think compare to lg27gl850 or other ips 27" panel? Is the color more vivid on ips or va? And the sharpness?
@@candrawp7044 colour is definitely more vivid, I came from a 32in ips monitor. Had to tweak it myself to make sure it's more colour accurate, but after that it's looks great. It's plenty sharp too, in fact it's notably sharper than my previous 1440p 32in monitor. But I think a 27in 1440p monitor may look a lil sharper, I'd have to a 27in next to my 34in to compare it. But I don't think it'll be a problem
I'd love to know how noticeable the black level smearing is...it seems like some people are VERY sensitive to it and others can't tell.
It's noticeable. The best way to describe it, in my opinion, is objects of darker shades leaving behind a trail of dark smoke. I've been using a monitor with a mediocre VA panel for the last 4 years.
@@rbelson356 Yeah, it's noticeable on your monitor, but he is wondering about this monitor. Some are better than others.
@@Fr0gg0
I'm not sure he was referring to this monitor in particular, but rather to this issue as a whole. Also, black smearing is noticeable to some extent on all VA panels, even the fastest ones, and this specific monitor seems to perform rather poorly in that regard.
@@Fr0gg0 If you're sensitive to it literally every VA monitor has it. Even if you pay hundreds more. So it's worth going and seeing it yourself in a store.
Got mine yesterday and I was supprised - this is very solid monitor. If you are hard pro gamer, perhaps then you should look the other way, but if you are user like me (3D-modeling, rendering etc. + some gaming) and you don't want to spend too much money + you still want a good monitor, this might be your thing. No need to spend 1000$/€:s. :)
I went back and forth between this, the Xiaomi and the AOC. In the end i went with the Xiaomi simply for the design, even if it has some weaknesses compared to the other ones.
Im in the exat same situation, but i cannot decide. I want It for programmong but also to play simracing and whatching films/videos. What mooves you yo choose the Xiaomi?
@@hugoperezhornero797 Imo it has the best design and it also has the best contrast and colours which is more important to me than perfect 144hz response time since i mostly play at 60 and 120fps.
And at least over here it's also the cheapest one of the three. I got it during black friday for 400.
@@kwedl Im thinking the same, looks way better gigabytes fat foot is just.. meh. Also 70 euro cheaper for me.
@@kwedl colors are close to xiaomi with the right changes in osd menu and contrast is good enough. When compared to the worse motion clarity of xiaomi, g34 makes more sense.
@@Berkay-xl4hu does the xiaomi really have better colors?
There was a 1440p 144hz monitor on sale on amazon for $320 (usually $380). I was also buying a few other small things and deciding which of these things I should get. I don't use amazon or do online shopping much so I did not realize my hesitation for a minute or two, while looking at these other items, would lead me to losing the deal. I could've saved another $60 dollars. Now there is mostly used ones, and they all cost $450+.
I just returned my Gigabyte G34WQC.
It was mainly the lack of height and swivel that got to me in the end, and needing to spend another $50 on a VESA mount when the Gigabyte had already cost a chunk more than the Xiaomi... which comes with neither of those problems. I also wasn't liking that the speed overdrive mode was so averse to anything under 144fps, as Tim describes. Even at 135fps it was a worse experience than just dropping back to balanced.
I was still unsure about the Xiaomi's difference in performance when it comes to ghosting, so I decided to compare the Gigabyte to itself using its overdrive-disabled mode (Picture Quality) to get an idea of "Xiaomi at worst". I also had my IPS screen, the Acer Predator XB271HU, right next to the Gigabyte to observe the IPS difference (while leaving the Acer's overdrive disabled).
I didn't really know how smearing presented itself until these tests, so if you're like that too -- ie., you hear about it a lot but aren't sure if it will even matter to you -- this might help.
I compared the overdrives and screens in these 3 ways:
- with the UFO test ( www.testufo.com/ghosting#background=004040&separation=960&pps=1080&graphics=bbufo.png&pursuit=1 )
- with a contrived black/grey striped image I made in MS Paint (stripes about 3mm wide), and then sliding the window around by hand
- with real use in Minecraft at different frame rates, in dark areas and well-lit areas, just looking around with the camera
*UFO*
- On the Gigabyte, the difference in ghosting between the 3 overdrive modes was identifiable. The visible change between the 3 modes wasn't large; maybe at most one-quarter the size of the whole smear itself. The yellow showed its afterimage more than the black; I suppose because the background was cyan.
- On the Gigabyte, no overdrive modes showed any noticeable overshoot.
- One the (IPS) Acer, with overdrive disabled there was a bit less ghosting than any of the Gigabyte's overdrives, maybe nearly half as much.
I had no experience on how these results translated into a real usage, so I can only say that the differences between the VA's overdrives were noticeable, but not by much.
*MS Paint black/grey bars*
- On the Gigabyte, the image was obviously blurring the bars' edges a bit, making the grey bars look thinner and inconsistent as the window moved around.
- On the Gigabyte, I could not tell the difference between the 3 overdrive modes. I tried some blind overdrive mode switches in its OSD and I couldn't recognise which was which.
- On the Acer, its IPS screen **really** showed off its advantage. The Predator kept the image basically unchanged as I slid the window around, quite impressive.
This test, especially having the 2 screens side-by-side, is what I would use to show the dark level smearing issue to someone. It should be said that on the Gigabyte, individual fuzzy edges weren't the problem; the problem was actually that this came across to the viewer as a general smear across the whole image due to the stripey nature of the image itself. It gave an overall effect of an obscuring blackness that would phase in over everything whenever the scene moved, and compared to the Acer's IPS screen it was definitely a lower quality experience. But that is indeed when comparing a VA to IPS. For a value VA screen, some smear is inevitable and acceptable and this is really about comparing the Gigabyte's overdrive modes to each other.
Was I seeing a meaningful difference between the 3 overdrive modes on the Gigabyte? No, since I couldn't reliably tell which was which. The IPS was clearly on a different level, but comparing the Gigabyte's 3 overdrive modes to each other was really meaningless; the difference did not overcome the human element of this test (my hand controlling the movement) enough for me to be able to notice.
The overall impression was simply that the VA screen had noticeable smear in any overdrive in this contrived scenario, and switching through the VA's overdrive modes didn't change the experience. To be fine with it in any mode was to be fine with it in every mode, or vice-versa.
*Minecraft*
- On the Gigabyte at 144fps, like the MS Paint test I could not tell the difference between the 3 overdrive modes.
- On the Acer at 144fps, _unlike_ the MS Paint test, even the IPS-vs-VA comparison was very hard to notice this time. I could say that I would know which is which, but the difference had to be looked for and even then was hard to spot.
Was I seeing a meaningful difference in ghosting between the 3 overdrive modes on the Gigabyte? Again, no. Because I couldn't pick that difference despite trying to, and this includes deliberately going to dark areas and comparing the most contrasting edges I could find. So yes the IPS display was again very slightly clearer than the VA display when trying hard and looking for it, but no the difference in ghosting between the VA's 3 overdrives was not large enough for me to identify, let alone be bothered by, in this real-use scenario.
- On the Gigabyte at 60fps I found that, really, at this frame rate ghosting was a relative non-issue. It was already hard to notice, so when you're trying to focus so carefully to see it all that really jumps out at you is oh yeah, this is 60fps. At 60fps, it was the frame rate that affected the experience most, not the smearing.
*Minecraft and overshoot*
- On the Gigabyte in speed mode at 144fps, overshoot could be identified around the sun in Minecraft when swinging the camera past it with (I would say) slower-than-typical motion. It would only be about 3mm of overshoot and I had to deliberately do it and be watching for it for it to be observable.
- On the Gigabyte in speed mode at 135fps, the same view of the sun showed overshoot perhaps 2 or 3 times as large as how it was at 144fps.
- On the Gigabyte in balanced mode at 144fps and 135fps, no overshoot was visible.
The issue here was how speed mode performed when I played at 135fps. I switched Minecraft to a heavier resource pack, dropping its frame rate to ~135, and from that drop of only 9 or 10fps the overshoot was already far more visible; 2 or 3 times as large and easily standing out enough to worsen the experience and make the screen look cheap. Dropping the overdrive back down to balanced mode fixed this, but it's worth pointing out that in balanced mode at this fps range, the Gigabyte is actually outperformed by the Xiaomi in its medium mode (from comparing HU's numbers). But even then I don't know if the difference would be realistically visible... even if the Xiaomi is the only one beating that mathematical 6.94 average response time.
So the takeaway here is the Gigabyte's weakness to lower frame rates in speed mode. That's a real-life compromise, because we know that keeping a game locked at 144 it means you have to over-cull visual features. So at 144fps, the Gigabyte gives you a choice between a mode with an average response that is a little slower than the Xiaomi, or a mode with a little starting overshoot and no frame rate versatility.
(Related quick points just from HU's numbers: At 120fps the screens perform identically in their medium overdrive modes. At 60-100fps, the Gigabyte has the better response times.)
(And another less-related point: The Acer's first overdrive mode, "Normal", had worse overshoot so I never used it.)
*Outro*
So I finally know what dark level smearing looks like, how it compares to an IPS, and how the overdrive modes differ visually.
And I know that while I can appreciate the difference between IPS and VA smearing, I can't appreciate the difference between the different overdrive modes' smearing on the VA in real-life usage.
So knowing this, and knowing that the Xiaomi (in balanced mode) is likely to produce even less of a difference than the Gigabyte's slowest vs fastest overdrives, I finally realised I had spent way too much money and concern dwelling on numbers that were too hard to perceive in real life. I played several games of Apex Legends at 85-90fps on the Gigabyte with overdrive disabled (ie., "Picture Quality" mode) and simply did not notice a damn thing.
Perhaps smearing simply isn't as bad on either the Gigabyte or Xiaomi as the impressions left by other VA screens in the past. Or perhaps my real-use scenarios just weren't hitting the right combination of things to reveal the screen's weak areas. I didn't try watching a dark movie for example, so maybe that could have exposed things more? I will say though that I don't watch high-quality movies on a PC.
I was extremely lucky that my local store gave me a full refund after 2 weeks, on just a change of mind.
I also happened to make this decision on the day a flash sale appeared on the Xiaomi (bringing it down another $50), meaning I saved $186 AUD and for that saving I actually *get* a screen with proper height adjustment and swivel. That truly was the real-life irritation for me with the Gigabyte.
Xiaomi: $498 AUD from Bangood, can be found for $550 AUD at a couple of other places at the moment.
Gigabyte: $684 AUD from PLE, price-matching ebay (which isn't usually what they do, but PLE is a pretty great store), and even then this was a once-only new-members-only deal. Typically very hard to find below $700 with shipping.
_I think TH-cam deleted my last post of this text? :/_
*Speakers*
I wanted to put my impressions about the speakers somewhere so here will do.
Reviewers correctly express that the Gigabyte's 2W speakers are rubbish. However, no-one actually emphasizes one important thing about them: They aren't rubbish *because* they're 2W speakers. They are rubbish *in spite of* being 2W speakers.
In other words, even in the world of comparison to other weak little 2W speakers, the Gigabyte's speakers are down with the worst in that world. They are worse than the Acer Nitro VG272UP's 2 watt speakers. They are *much* worse than the Acer Predator XB271HU's 2 watt speakers.
With Windows volume and screen volume set to 100%, the Gigabyte's speakers are borderline functional for playing a game.
With Windows volume and screen volume set to 100%, the Gigabyte's speakers are *not* good enough for listening to humans speaking. I watched the Black Widow movie trailer on TH-cam late at night, where the only other sound around me was crickets chirping and the un-stressed hum of my PC under the desk. I'm not being theatrical here; there were actually crickets chirping outside; that's the kind of sound environment I'm talking about. And genuinely, because of the *crickets* I could not make out about 30% of what the actors in the TH-cam video were saying. Crickets. The speakers were just too quiet and unclear.
In comparison, I have never set Windows volume close to 100% when using the Predator's speakers; it would be far too loud. More like 65% tops.
I could get more volume out of the Gigabyte's speakers by using extra software and increasing its pre-amplifying boost to all sound, so there is that. But the thing to be aware of here is that the speakers on the G34WQC aren't just bad because they're 2 watts. They are cringe-bad even compared to other 2W speakers and simply saying "they're rubbish like all monitors's speakers" is not critical enough. The absolute dirt cheapest powered speakers you can find will do a much better job.
Really useful info thanks! I was ready to purchase the Gigabyte then read your comment. In the UK the Xaomi and Gigabyte are priced the same. Other than the ergonomics which wont matter as i'll vesa mount either, is there anythign you feel makes either monitor stand out? I play alot of apex legends so this will be used mainly for gaming mostly FPS type games. I know the panel is the same on both so i guess really it doesnt matter performance wise??
My Xiaomi is arriving tomorrow apparently so once I've formed impressions I'll write back.
34" VA definitely trumps 27" IPS though, thats for sure.
@@danstrike6687 great thanks!!
@@MrTinribz Trying to paste my reply but TH-cam having issues. Might be too long lol. Will try again a bit later.
Got this Nov 4th. Am not disappointed. This is an excellent choice and best bang for your buck in usa imo. Got it at 399 from best buy website. I don't notice overshoot or smearing with freesync and speed overdrive mode while gaming.
I would like to see Gigabyte M27Q review.
Yes
Horrible contrast.
SAME!
+1
they said on twitter they've got their hands on it and will be reviewing it within the next few weeks.
Just got mine delivered today! No defects whatsoever and I was a little worried about gsync flicker but I don't notice anything at all. Very happy 😁
Edit: enabling gsync on this monitor appears to work just fine but I get really bad headache the following day :(
Can't figure why as yet.
I've had this since release. Great for movies, waiting on new GPU to be available so i can run it to its full potential!
How are the colours and blacks in movies? Thinking about upgrading my system and this monitor looks very suitable. My current monitor, a fairly budget but decent TN panel, when it's supposed to be black it doesn't really show black but varying degrees of gray approximating black. It's probably the number one thing I want to improve in a new monitor. Any insigth would be appreciated.
@@TheLtGo I think it’s a VA panel so blacks are really good. Having 21:9 ultra wide for movies is amazing I’ll never be able to go back to regular panels for games or movies. I was worried about having a curved screen but it’s not really that noticeable at all. One negative I’ve noticed is when it’s a black screen in a dark room a lighter shade bleeds through on the edges. That will vary from model to model and not sure if warranty will cover it
@@brendan6958 When you say edges, which edges are you referring to? Because I could live with it being on the right and left edges as they are so far away from the center.
@@TheLtGo it’s on top and bottom but it’s really not noticeable only when it’s a black screen. I’m playing Valhalla right now and can’t see it at all
@@brendan6958 Alright, thanks for answering, have a great day!
I've been an It tech for almost 30 years and I've never got my head around all the different parts of monitors! However, I did buy this monitor about an hour ago. Should have known you had a review of it!!
Damn! Nice mustache!
He really should grow a goatee with his mustache
It's overclocked.
It's disgusting
@@corwinwhitehorn7759 no, disagree, the Moustache require its own real estate, to display proudly.. there are fewer more masculine things than a *Handlebar Moustache*
@@jpateka your very existence is*
Just got this yesterday, i'm loving it. worth the buck, thanks!!!
Am I the only one hearing bird sounds between 8:00-9:00 ?
No
Nah dude, that's just called schizophrenia.
Fancy exotic Aussie birds though,so there is that.
Haha, I hear them too. Kinda like it actually
I did hear something like a chirp, but I think it's just an audio bug or something scratching on the background that he didn't hear when editing.
I've had this monitor for 6 weeks and love it!
Do you game in this monitor? If so, how’s the adaptive sync. I have a 3080 and am worried about terrible flickering when trying to run G-Sync.
@@cLpyOG yeah i game, i dont have any issues with mine but i have a 5700xt so dont have experience with G-Sync.
how bad is black smearing for you?
Hey any plans on testing the iiyama G-Master GB3466WQSU
:)
I second this, this is the ultrawide I'm currently planning to get mostly due to it being IPS based
£400 for it compared to almost £1000 for the LG 34GN850 and seems to have almost the same specs = wow! I definitely want to see a review on it too.
Note that the 3466 is VA. The IPS is 3461 and strangely cheaper.
@@toaster_bloke9999
it´s a VA first models had flikker was fixed on firmware opdate.
I have a Xiaomi Mi Curved 34 on my driving rig. now i need a UW for my other games :)
@@donkeysunited
3461 is flat and suffer from high latendensy
@@DKsDEVIL Yes, that £600 has to get lost somewhere
Mine arrived last week, loving it at the mo, thanks for the calibration.
I heard that this screen has many problems, did you have any?
I had a dead pixle which went away once the monitor had heat cylced for a few weeks, my main gripes are there is a slight vingette at the sides when viewing bright whites, like a youtube page for instance. Games with very very dark scenes have very noticeable va blur, but in general gameplay i cant tell the difference between it and my old tn monitor.
One pain in the ass point is that the stand by/ power light flashes constantly if you turn off your computer, its realy f***ing anoying to have to reach under the monitor and hold the power button for 4 seconds every time i stop using it. This point alone is enough to stop me recommending the monitor hahaha.
It's now down to $300 in the US at multiple retailers, for the new G34WQC A variant, which has a better 4000:1 contrast ratio.
Presumably, that means that it's a different panel from the original.
Any word on if the new version performs as well as or better than the original that you reviewed here?
Mind that it's 8 bit panel, not 8 bit+frc, so you won't see any hdr10 and it begins covering only srgb in HDR mode (colors look quite horrible). Asus VG34 or Dell S34 are far greater displays for HDR content. They've got 10 bit panels (8 bit + frc) and because of that they cost more.
@@socialreport2836 Is that true of the original model you reviewed here, as well? My main question was how this new updated model compared to the original, which seemed to get a lot of decent reviews - at least for a $300-400 monitor with these specs. Thanks!
@@DavidHHH99 The both panels are quite similar, I assume that 4000:1 and 3000:1 contrast are not that different. I own the original Gigabyte G34 panel and Samsung G9 Neo. Who says that Gigabyte G34 is a great panel, they usually didn't see some other better panels. If a panel is in a 10 bit league, the gradient and colors will be much better in HDR. It is noticeable. It's like 1080p and 1440p content. The image becomes sharper and looks more natural. Several years ago it was not that important to have a full HDR feature. Right now a lot of movies are shot in a true HDR mode and there are a lot of HDR games. They look quite different and much better (more saturated colors/larger contrast and the brightness is greater). HDR1000 is, of course, a game changer but HDR with 500/550 cd peak brightness must be not bad at all (ASUS VG34 or DELL S34). 21:9 is definitely better than 16:9. If there is some extra money, I think it is worth to invest in a better panel which supports more realistic HDR (10 bits at least and 500 nits or more, contrast 3000:1/4000:1 is good). I would notice that ASUS VG34 has got some purple trailers in HDR but DELL S34 has got some other disadvantages, too.
www.rtings.com/monitor/tools/compare/asus-tuf-gaming-vg34vql1b-vs-dell-s3422dwg/22299/24247?usage=3623&threshold=0.10
www.rtings.com/monitor/tools/compare/gigabyte-g34wqc-vs-asus-tuf-gaming-vg34vql1b/17023/22299?usage=3623&threshold=0.10
www.rtings.com/monitor/tools/compare/gigabyte-g34wqc-vs-dell-s3422dwg/17023/24247?usage=3623&threshold=0.10
HDR Color Volume is one of the main feature to compare. I don't know why but rtings doesn't indicate that Gigabyte G34 is 8 bit panel, it's certain (around 70% hdr color volume dci-p3 is very bad). I have it and confirm that in HDR it's got only sRGB or alike color gamut. The red color is very pale and overall colors are even worse than in SDR mode (with dci-p3 coverage) and in HDR mode it is impossible to change almost anything, it's locked to the one gamut (I assume tha it is sRGB, not even DCI-P3).
@@socialreport2836 Thanks for the reply. Hopefully, with this coming down in price, and creating more competition, we'll be able to see some bigger gaming monitors with better panels and colors starting to come down to this price range.
@@DavidHHH99 On diaplayspecifications you can find an information about 8 or 10 bits in a panel.
Tim i love your monitor tests, especially the overdrive tests across the refresh rates!
Can you please do a full review of the LG CX 48" OLED?
I have the 65 inch version, and it’s a no compromise beast if you can buy it
Bought this monitor after watching your review. Great product im loving it for my gaming purposes.
I'm only here for the mustache
Awesome detailed review! Appreciate the objective numbers and testing to make this the definitive review. Thanks!
Your voice wants to hug, but your mustache wants to fight me. Lol
Nice review, and nice mustache 😂👌🏻
I watched this video the moment it was posted and I saved and I waited for the monitor to become available where I am. Now I finally got mine and will be arriving later this week! Thank you very much!
you like it?
@@brendandoel2530 Yup. It's my first 1440p Ultrawide and it''s alright! :)
Do any new PC owners begin to have an aneurism when he compares a bunch of monitors while saying each ones part number? Jesus 😂
One of the best out there on reviews though
You learn to just tune it out. Welcome to the PCmasterRace
I like to think Tim does it all in one take. He's just that good at pronouncing monitor names.
Thank you so much!!!! was waiting for this one for so long!!!!
Hi Tim, I have a question about bad colour accuracy and overdrive modes in out-of-the-box configuration for "gaming" displays.
Should overdrive and colour calibration be done for each _individual_ monitor at least on a basic level at the factory to have good performance? Or will it be done for a given *model* with a known panel and then those settings applied to retail unit in firmware, with the end result not being great due to variances between individual panels?
Or is it that manufacturers simply slap together a panel and a case or order something from an ODM with their branding, enter some known good values into firmware and hope for the best?
I have seen high end monitors like Predator, Odyssey, ROG, especially ProArt having great performance out of the box; while the higher pricing would allow the manufacturer to spend more time on each unit, is it due to individual calibration of each unit at the factory?
Tried getting one while it was 399$.
Shipper sent it to wrong place and wasnt able to get another one for a replacement. So i gave someone a free monitor, granted my money back. But now it's $450. Thanks UPS
Tim I hope you read this, as always this was another extremely informative review thank you.
Do you have any plans to review the ASUS TUFF VG35G ?
can we get an updated version of this for best 34" ultrawides that ARENT Oled.
who else still doesnt understand hardware unboxed's response time chart?
I think it means the response time of the panel with black to white colors, with the top left being darker colours and bottom right the whiter/lighter colours.
Not sure if joking lol but it is somewhat deep data. In case anyone else reads the replies the data is as follows:
Sorted by avg response time, with the secondary bar showing how often errors (inverse ghosting) goes above 15%. So in this case 5.11 ms response time with 11% of panel transitions having over 15% inverse ghosting.
Response Time Chart: This shows how quickly each pixels liquid crystal transitions from one shade to another. Black is 0 and White is 255. Going from Black (0) to Very dark (26) the response time of 25ms means there is a black level smear that follows the previous state or ghosting in slower whiter levels. Remember 60 frames per second is 16.66ms (1/60).
Overshoot: When a signal to change shade, a voltage is applied but it takes some time to reach the desired level resulting in slow displays. To compensate for slow panels, companies employ more voltage to more quickly reach the desired shade and drop the voltage back to the desired level just before the pixel has reached its target. If done poorly the result will be an image which shows an outline from the previous state.
TL;DR: Red means blurry image, green means a clear image.
blurbusters.com/faq/lcd-overdrive-artifacts/
Response time is basically how fast a pixel can go from black to white while refresh rate is how fast the monitor sends out a new image. You'd ideally want the pixels to go from black to white faster than the monitor's refresh rate or it causes blurring. For example at 144Hz, that's a new image every 6.9ish milliseconds, if the response time is slower than that it's not fast enough causing bluring artifacts.
As others have explained, since a pixel of an 8 bit display has 256 brightness levels it can be when all three red, green, and blue subpixels are set to be the same, so that the color produced is on a black/grey/white spectrum. The response time measures the transition period between a given value from 0-255 to another.
Glad I bit the bullet and just bought when I saw gearseekers preview it. It was $679 aus back then but was selling out instantly
Yeh, snagged mine for a few dollars less like $5, but atm its up to $729!! why the increase for new buyers?
Can you review the monoprice dark matter 34in ultra wide monitor?
It looks really comparable/similar to this one and it would be inter to see
Another great video. Both of you are all about quality. Thank you very much.
Note: Sold out on US Amazon. Sold by other sellers; minimum price is US$825.00 - RIP OFF!
Wish the OEMs would start releasing more 4k, color accurate, 120hz plus monitors with USBC/TB for work and play
The smart money goes on 3440x1440 at high hz, but at least 4K is "finally" a reasonable gaming option with a 3080/6800XT or better.
Found this monitor on sale today (April 1 2022) for $299.99, bought it off Amazon an 12 hours later decided to watch a review.
400 dollars!
Every other country that isn’t the US: I’m gonna stop you right there
can confirm.
449€ here ($536,84)
yup, thats how currency works.
@@meatridingmaniac No, however it is how regional economics and Value Added Tax works.
$515 in Russia
Bought this monitor and it arrived with 2 dead pixels. Because it was the last one in the stock, they send it back to Gigabyte for rma ( as dead on arrival) . Now is almost 3 weeks and still not inspected by gigabyte or approved for rma. I like the monitor, good quality picture, fast and smooth response time, but there is a alot of these models with death pixels. Keep that in mind, and I hope you don't end up in situation like mine.
Only if this was in stock like the gpus and cpus, would it be relevant
This is available on newegg... www.newegg.com/p/N82E16824012017?Description=gigabyte%20ultrawide&cm_re=gigabyte_ultrawide-_-24-012-017-_-Product&quicklink=true
@@DemxnMNK nah it went outta stock again 😔
I don't need another monitor but now I want this one
Can you do a review for the Gigabyte M27Q?
Yes
It's coming
That's nice, but I just bought a used AOC 17inch CRT for 20$ and I run it at 1024x768 @ 85hz. Honestly it looks phenomenal lol.
Can you review the gigabyte g27q, its 1440p 144hz IPS and priced similarly to this one.
I agree with liking it reviews, but I don't think it's in the same price category
@@manueldiedrich6139 oh it's 330$, my bad I counted my country's VAT when I saw it on Newegg
I got it this month, way more stable than the AOC CU34G2x, I'm happy with it.
Nice, congrats!
@@ZioComposite Thank you (:
how is your gaming experience like black smearing etc.?
@@Berkay-xl4hu Just the fact gsync works stably makes me very happy with the experience overall, I don't notice black smearing, or ghosting, even now that I have it on max overdrive, I still find it hard to notice anything in game, but maybe if I did the alien test. unless you are coming from an exceptional monitor, I doubt the average person would notice any issues. I've seen one viewsonic monitor where the black smearing made me sick, like it was genuinely bad, here I can't even say it exists so I'm very happy.
Would love to see you review the Dell S3220DGF
If ur wondering because of the Black Friday sales I would say definitely buy it.
It’s “really good for a va panel”
Love the 4K video qualities in this channel. Subbed!
I'm interested because it has only 4 letters and 2 numbers in the model.
haha, we should start supporting these products with pronounceable names
Thanks ! I was just about to ask if you wanted to look into this one and now you did !
Please review Asus 27" VG27AQL1A and Gigabyte M27Q 27"
Thanks Tim for this video was a pleasant surprise exactly what I was looking for before making a decision
I want ultrawide results on GPU reviews :(
Nigga it's just midway between 2K and 4K
Was wanting to wait for this review but I couldn't pass up the buy when availability opened up last month, $670 in aus. It has been absolutely worth the buy.
So basically what I'm hearing is that it's the exact same as my CM one for $350 less. Nice
which one?
@@fernandomel3117 cm 34 Gm something or other
I just bought an iiyama GB3466WQSU-B1, it has the same panel as the gigabyte and xiaomi monitors, but was on sale and cheaper than the alternatives! I´m really excited about it and can´t wait to game on it.
Holy shit, such a great review!
Ordered this monitor on 29th November... the site made a mistake and contacted me to say they made a mistake and it wasn’t actually in stock!
Well today they finally messaged saying it’s been dispatched 😍😍 can’t wait for tomorrow!
I ordered it from b&h ages ago and still haven't heard anything back
@@roachdoggjr6893 finally got it last week and so far it seems worth the wait 👌
I bought the xiaomi instead, its great btw
isn't black smearing a bigger problem?
bought it 2 weeks ago, rly happy for that price
I have the monitor , the display is OK not great but the price for the 21:9 and 1440p makes this moniter A very good one :)
I heard it's better than the AOC CU34G2X. Seems overall a solid option. I was thinking the LG 34GP83A but it will cost me over 700 more Canadian
Have this monitor myself and can say this is great. One gotcha though - some VESA mounts may struggle to fit into this monitor. The VESA mounting point in the monitor is recessed in a tight rectangular hole and some mounts do not fit into this recessed rectangular hole.
My only regret with this monitor was not getting a second one...
This was in my country for a month but didn't buy it because I waited for your review. Now that your review is out the monitor is also sold out :)
$826 on Amazon. No stock at $399 right now. 🤣 Yet another piece of gear made of unobtainium, like all the RTX 30 cards.
I have it ;)
Hey Tim - quick tip. We cant gauge the size of a screen without something relatable next to it.
Can you start getting B-roll shots with someone sitting at the screen?
Its 34"
I realy want ab better monitor after gaming on my oled in the livingroom. What ultrawide would be suitable?
I got myself the xiaomi 34 inch monitor and I am happy with my purchase. I did look at buying Gigabyte but it was just more expensive.
The best "Porn Stache" on TH-cam
I've waited for this review for a hot min. Thank you for your input