[zatarcz]

Hi. I’m thinking about making a life upgrade and getting the GIGABYTE AORUS FO27Q2. Will I notice a big difference in dark scenes in Metro Exodus, Tomb Raider, or Uncharted, Kingdom Come 2? Unfortunately, I haven’t seen an OLED monitor in person yet, and I don’t want to have unrealistic expectations. Thanks.

[PCM2]

Provided the room is not too bright, you should be able to notice a significant difference in how deep and ‘atmospheric’ (or detailed, under HDR) such scenes appear. In a brighter room remember QD-OLEDs ‘lighten up’ and can even take on some colourful tints. Whilst similar conditions also make the weaknesses of LCDs less apparent, so it evens the playing field in a way. I often use QD-OLEDs with a bit of light in the room, but it’s controlled – I talk about all of this in my reviews of QD-OLEDs.

[zatarcz]

Hello PCM. So, in the end, I decided against getting an OLED monitor. I researched them a lot, but things like pixel refresh every 4 hours etc. put me off. I’d like a solid 27″ VA panel (flat or curved) with QHD resolution. Unfortunately, the Q27G40XMN isn’t available in Europe yet, and the older model Q27G3XMN is overpriced at $350–450. Do you have any recommendations for which one I should choose? I mainly play single-player games like the Metro series, Tomb Raider, KCD2, and I also edit videos. Thank you very much.

[PCM2]

From what I understand the Q27G40XMN isn’t really available outside of the APAC region currently, though Best Buy in the US specially requested it. I’m not sure if or when we’ll see it in Europe. It’s a shame because there really isn’t an alternative I can recommend if you’re interested in immersive single player gaming on a VA model. I still consider the Q27G3XMN a good monitor, but agree that price is a bit steep. Another one to look out for is the yet to be released MSI MAG 274QPF X30MV.

[zatarcz]

The MAG 274QPF X30MV really looks fantastic (hopefully the high price won’t ruin it), so I’ll keep an eye on its availability unless I buy something else in the meantime. The GIGABYTE GS27QCA is very affordable and widely available here (170 USD)—not to be confused with the older model—but unfortunately, I haven’t found any reviews anywhere. The question is whether it’s worth “taking the risk” given its great price.

[PCM2]

Obviously it wouldn’t compete with the Mini LED options for HDR performance, but I suspect the GS27QCA would be pretty good for general image quality characteristics. Gigabyte usually configures their monitors pretty well and have plenty of useful OSD flexibility. One thing I’d be a bit concerned about is the responsiveness, given it doesn’t seem to be marketed as a ‘Fast VA’ model. They seem to include a potentially misleading ‘Super Speed VA’ mention on the product page, but that’s just because of the 1ms MPRT response time specification. On their relatively fast VA models they will usually give a grey to grey specification instead. It also has a specified 5000:1 contrast ratio and this combination usually leans more into it being a bit of a slower VA performer.

[zatarcz]

I understand, its specifications are a bit unusual, but isn’t the high contrast just caused by the fact that I have a maximum brightness of 250 nits? HDR isn’t a requirement for me, just a nice bonus. The VRR range for FreeSync is too not known. I don’t like bright monitors, and even now during the day I use 20% brightness on my AOC 24G2SPU and the color settings you recommended :). I can always suitably darken the room. I mainly want to benefit from high contrast, but at the same time, I couldn’t tolerate image ghosting. It’s simply hard for me to find something suitable.

[PCM2]

The contrast ratio isn’t affected by brightness as it’s a ratio of the white luminance level and black luminance level. The black luminance increases proportionally to any increase in white luminance level, so the ratio remains the same. The accuracy of the measurement instrument can affect the precision for very low luminance levels, but that’s a separate issue.

[zatarcz]

Hello PCM. I did some research and found out that the Gigabyte GS27QCA has a SUPER SPEED VA panel developed by “Gigabyte” and is an evolution of FAST VA and should be better in all respects. I haven’t seen this panel in other monitors. https://global.aorus.com/blog-detail.php?i=817#:~:text=What%20is%20Super%20Speed%20VA?%20A%20new,will%20change%20the%20way%20you%20game!%20AORUS. Are you planning to test this monitor? If all this is true, it could be a great monitor. I’m also interested in the G34WQCP, which also has SUPER SPEED VA and is ultra widescreen and even VESA HDR400, but I have no experience with such a large monitor, but it would be very suitable for video editing and gaming (but I don’t know what the experience is with regular browsing, for example, the WEB, whether it’s too big).

[PCM2]

Gigabyte doesn’t produce monitor panels and nowhere does that link suggest ‘Super Speed VA’ is an evolution of ‘Fast VA’ (as it isn’t). It does suggest that it is their way of marketing ‘Fast VA’, though. And that should at least mean it’s decent for a VA in terms of pixel responsiveness, though doesn’t guarantee it will be amazing. MSI for example calls the same thing Rapid VA and have been marketing that since mid 2023, around a year after Gigabyte. The GS27QCA is a bit old for me to test, the G34WQCP is possible but it depends if Gigabyte has any samples in stock.

[zatarcz]

I would appreciate a review of the G34WQCP (available in the Czech Republic since January 2025). The GS27QCA is actually even newer here, available in the Czech Republic since February 2025 :-D. So they arrived here quite a bit later. Can you confirm if it will be possible to get one for testing? I can still wait with the purchase.

[PCM2]

Yeah, they seem to be a similar age actually with slightly different release dates in different regions. Unfortunately they’re likely both a bit “old” here in the UK for Gigabyte to have samples of them. If you don’t see an update from my by the end of the week, assume it won’t be reviewed. There hasn’t really been enough interest in a review for me to purchase one myself, so I don’t intend to do that. 🙂

P.S. I appreciate your support via donation, that was a kind gesture.

[zatarcz]

Hi, just to make things a bit more interesting, Gigabyte also has a new rev 2.0 version, which features higher brightness, better color coverage, and 1ms GtG. This could already be an interesting option for testing or purchase 🙂 . What you think?

P.S. donation, My pleasure

[PCM2]

The G34WQC2 is certainly interesting (so it needed a news article). I’ll keep my eye on it for sure.

[zatarcz]

What do you think of the 34″ Philips 34M2C5501A monitor? It is available at a very attractive price of €280 (on sale from €350).
It is relatively fast and has one of the newer VA panels on the market, so it could well have suppressed the smearing problem (probably similar to the CU34G4Z).

Unfortunately, MINI LED variants are extremely expensive in our country from all manufacturers, except for the Xiaomi Mini LED Gaming Monitor G Pro 27i EU (€320), but IPS (contrast ?).

Please give your opinion. Thank you very much.

[PCM2]

Given the use of a recent ‘Fast VA’ panel, I would indeed expect the 34M2C5501A to perform at least decently for a VA model in terms of motion performance.

The Xiaomi G Pro 27i is certainly an interesting model, but as you identified the IPS panel brings with it some contrast related issues. The lower native contrast compared to VA (and lack of a ‘low glow panel’) can make ‘blooming’ or haloing issues easier to notice and the dimming algorithm doesn’t seem to deal well with rapid zone transitions. Which can itself introduce a form of ‘flickering’ as zones change brighten and dim as the content they’re displaying changes. Given your sensitivity to VRR flickering that could be bothersome to you, though it is quite scene dependent as to how noticeable or potentially problematic it could be.

[zatarcz]

So I have incredible bad luck.
I bought a Philips 34M2C5501A, but it has a very annoying hum (transformer) from the integrated power supply, which can be heard even at 3 meters at a brightness level of 0-80% (above 80% brightness the hum stops). So this is a warning for those who use the monitor in a quiet room, and do not need a brightness higher than 80%, to avoid it. Color rendering, uniformity, response, functions, control applications, abliglow, very minimal to imperceptible smearing, colors do not merge when scrolling in dark modes when browsing the web.

https://i.postimg.cc/tJMby8Rc/20250906-095056.jpg

Simply a perfect product for me, which Philips killed by saving on the power supply.
I have to search further and find another product, but I’m tired of it :-(.

[PCM2]

Urgh. That’s frustrating. 🙁

[zatarcz]

Update of the situation. After I returned the ultrawide, I bought a smaller variant, the Philips 27M2C5501. The power supply no longer hums and is nicely quiet. But it turned out that it has a much worse panel. I could live with the worse colors, but it suffers terribly from pixel inversion.
Unfortunately, all the atmospheric games I like to play suffered from flickering before the pixels always rotated correctly. The image constantly darkens and brightens. I don’t understand how the 34″ version had a much better panel, where I didn’t notice this behavior at all.

Now I’ve decided that I’d rather go back to an affordable IPS. I just have to decide which one.

If there’s no problem with VRR flickering with OLED, I’ll switch to it.

[PCM2]

This thread would be relevant. I actually still recommend the ViewSonic VX2728J-2K for those on a tight budget as it’s a model I continue to receive plenty of positive feedback about. That’s not to say it’s guaranteed to be perfect, but I had largely positive experiences when I was reviewing it and it still offers a solid performance in the current ‘medium refresh rate’ IPS market.

[Author]

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