Gigabyte G27QC Monitor Review

One of the most common gaming monitor size and resolutions are of the 27 inch 1440P variety, as most people have been upgrading from their old 1080P monitors onto something a bit nicer, 1440P has become much more common partially due to the fact that getting consistent 4k 60/120Hz is a feat generally reserved for top tier very expensive GPUs but 1080P is something that most cards around the RX 480 tier can handle easily.

Many other brands have jumped into this market as it fits a wide range of pricing from around $200 for 60Hz panels to up to $400 for ones specce’d similar to this one. The panel I’ll be reviewing today is the Gigabyte G27QC which is a VA panel using a 1500R curvature and a 165Hz refresh rate and Adaptive-Sync.

A few weeks ago Kirk reviewed the G27F from Gigabyte which is a 144Hz 1080P panel and had a pretty positive review on it. Let’s see if the bigger brother also looks as good.

Gigabyte G27QC Specifications

Around The Monitor

The monitor stand is very sturdy with a solid base to keep the monitor from wobbling if you bump your working surface. It has a smooth vertical adjustment and holds in place firm with no droop or shifting, likely helped by a well-balanced counterweight in the stand and the sleeve inside the stand that the vertical mount rides on. Gigabyte adorns the top surface of the stand with their logo.

The panel has a ultra thin bezel around the edges with a wider bit on the bottom with the Gigabyte logo. The stand is a sturdy counter weighted one with a nice V shaped stand which may irritate some looking for something sleeker but does a good job keeping it firmly in place.

Underneath the back of the monitor, we have the collection of down-facing connections. A standard 3.5mm headphone jack is next to the DisplayPort 1.2 a dual HDMI 1.4 ports. The power cable is flanked on the right, and a pair of USB 3.0 Type-A ports with a Type-B to uplink to the computer on the far left. Most users would use these for keyboards or mice, Also like Kirk I discovered is that the amp rating for the USB ports is fairly low, not even providing enough power to run most peripherals, and was less than the USB 3.0 spec provides, and had issues powering a external HDD and a few other devices. It will however be more than adequate to drive a headset, keyboard, mouse, or other such lower-power peripherals, but don’t expect it to provide adequate power to run more demanding USB devices requiring the most out of the USB 3.0 spec or fast-charging devices not compatible with Battery Charging v1.2. The User’s Manual (PDF) explicitly lists the Apple iPad, Galaxy Tab2 10.1, and Galaxy TabPro as not able to be charged via the USB ports at all.

Unlike the Gigabyte G27F this model has an internal PSU and uses standard PC power cables. Also the display has a very narrow plastic bezel though the screen has a small dark border all around the monitor which is somewhat common.

The viewing angles are not ideal though as this is a curved monitor and a VA panel, though this is definitely not a bad experience at all. There are a few of those images that will be posted below.

On-Screen Display

The OSD (on-screen display) is very feature-full. So much in fact that Gigabyte provides their OSD Sidekick software so you can interact with the OSD from a desktop application. Otherwise, you can simply navigate the OSD using a joystick control on the back, behind the lower-right side of the monitor.

Calibrating the Gigabyte G27QC

For my own preparation in calibrating this monitor I used the out of the box settings which had brightness at 80 and was 249 nits, I like Kirk agree that 250 nits is a much better brightness and 200 seems too dim.

To get the panel as close to 250 nits as possible I bumped up the brightness up one to get 247.66, the green this time was the one far ahead and took a bit of tinkering to get it even. Max brightness on this panel topped off at 311 nits which for this price point isn’t spectacular but should be more than enough for most users.

The monitor claimed 120% SRGB and 92% DCI P3, and 87% for Adobe RGB which fell below on everything except for sRGB. You can check below for what our DisplayCAL profile adds.

The changes here seem less notable compared to the other monitors we’ve tested, mostly with the trees and grass seeming a bit more vibrant.

Gaming And FreeSync/G-Sync

Gigabyte has certified the G27QC as a FreeSync Premium monitor. The FreeSync Monitors list over at AMD.com has it listed for 48-165Hz over DisplayPort and 48-144Hz over HDMI. I mainly used an RX 5700XT from XFX while using this monitor and unfortunately the monitor displayed the common FreeSync Flickering issue many have complained about with a variety of monitors and AMD GPUs in recent history. The flickering was bad enough I actually turned off FreeSync due to this.

Unfortunately I only have a single AMD GPU currently so I cannot isolate if this is an issue with the specific configuration I have or if its something else.

The monitor is G-Sync Compatible ready and will work over DisplayPort and works fine in a few of the titles tested. The flickering issue was not present and the card used was an EVGA RTX 2060 KO and was a good experience.

Gigabyte G27QC Conclusion

The Gigabyte G27QC provides a solid value for price, sitting at $319 it gives you a very good gaming experience for a VA panel, with the fact that most VA panels tend to have a bit of ghosting or a slower response time in general. I strongly preferred it over the AOC monitor I reviewed earlier this year due to the better color representation, contrast along with its brightness and the handful of nicer features at this price point.

Those worried about motion blur can choose to turn the overdrive which can cause a bit of overshoot but I personally felt the standard out of the box setting was perfectly fine. As a gaming monitor this is most likely one of the best budget 1440P 144Hz curved panels you’re going to find in my opinion.

Some users may find the lack of a true sRGB mode that reduced the color gamut to be a problem, though I personally am not that picky. Other reviewers have noted the feature is also in the Gigabyte G32QC which is the larger version of this monitor but again, this isn’t a big deal to me personally.

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