Gigabyte M27Q impressions?

I see a lot of monitors I'm into that is about to hit the market or has just hit the market that isn't really getting any reviews imo. For me I'm especially into the new 32" 1440p 144Hz+ IPS monitors but I'd also consider the new 27" variants if they are much better overall but PPI wise 32" is closer to ideal than 27" for my tastes, ideally it would be 30" 1440p but a shame it didn't become the standard.

At least now we're really getting great amount options both for 27" and 32" and 144 - 175Hz variants and 240Hz and new 32" 4K 144Hz options etc. seems like suddenly the market is starting to explode with options that it even becomes a bit difficult to follow which models there are really out there. Doesn't make it any easier when also new manufacturers like Gigabyte, MSI etc are jumping into the race as well and even for example ViewSonic presented a huge new lineup at CES which has been a bit more silent in the gaming product portfolio lately etc.
 
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First impressions:

I'm waiting to calibrate it (colorimeter on the way) but first off - it's a BGR subpixel layout (not RGB). This means text will have what appears to be rainbow fringing around edges because the OS and software expect RGB subpixel layout for what it displays. Think chromatic aberration on text. You can adjust Windows ClearType to fix the fonts in Windows and some apps - but not all apps/displayed fonts adhere to ClearType settings. For example, webpages' text in Chrome will seem fine after running ClearType - but the text along bookmarks bar in Chrome still has rainbow fringing and doesn't adhere to ClearType apparently. I've heard scaling also helps reduce this artifact, but I scale stuff in Windows/web to 110%-115% to my display, and it was still noticeable. Getting into BIOS and messing around in there, will be a PITA as everything is upside down - but at least for the monitor settings itself (which would be upside down as well) you can adjust them WITHIN WINDOWS using the Gigabyte OSD software to control all or at least most of the main monitor settings. That's cool and I wish more displays had that.

A simple, ghetto solution for this - rotate the display. Turn the display 180 degrees. BGR layout suddenly becomes RGB. You just tell the OS to flip the display. It mounts to the included stand via VESA mount holes/layout - so just rotating the display and installing it to the stand upside down is easy. It doesn't look too ridiculous like this because of the thin bezels all around, but it looks a little silly and it's silly having to do this at all.

I got this display for $329 - I think because of the BGR layout - it should have been $250. I don't get why anyone would produce such a panel - as most software in most devices with a screen are often assuming RGB subpixel layout by default when displaying. It's gotta be cheaper to produce is all I can think - but again why even for cheaper when everything expects something else. Whatever.

There is some slight backlight bleed along the bottom, which is now the top. Is this because of me having installed upside down, or was it there from the start - dunno, don't care. It's hardly noticeable and only is when watching non-fullscreen movies and even then it's difficult to tell apart from regular IPS glow as it isn't very distinct/bad.

I'll post more when I'm able to calibrate it - things look OK so far OOB just oversaturated. HDR is garbage on this - it's basically just WCG image with the display bumped up to 100% brightness and some post processing you can't change or adjust in HDR mode. No local dimming so just a really bright across the entire frame image with 'proper colors' and shit contrast (for HDR) is the HDR experience on this display. But being HDR400 - I wasn't counting on HDR anything for this when purchasing.

I notice no smearing and everything looks OK so far with UFO test at 144hz - but I'm on GT1030 (because I sold my 2070 Super last August thinking i'Ll jUsT bUy A 3o7o WhEn ThEy rElEaSe 🙃🔫) so I can't test 170hz nor Freesync/Gsync compatibility yet - will update that when I can too.

The KVM is handy and works reliably well so far for switching between my PC and Mac Mini - which luckily I can tell to rotate the display too. I don't think you should use this monitor unless flipped, and because of that, if your second source item you can't tell to flip the displayed image, forget about using the KVM. There's also PIP for your KVM sources - which is neat.

I'm kinda stuck with this monitor because I scratched my main monitor right down the center of the screen while moving a month ago (1440p 60hz IPS). That's what necessitated this purchase. I planned on upgrading it to a 32 inch 4k HDMI 2.1 120hz IPS HDR600 (at least) monitor eventually; but those are only starting to just come out due to consoles - and I'm not dropping $1k on a 1st gen one. I needed a monitor to last a little while, but also it will only ever be a temporary monitor from the get-go. So I don't wanna spend too much on it but also can't get stuck with something I can't stand to use while I wait to replace it, however long that might be. Everything else I would go with is either more expensive (by about $130-$170 at least, again for something only ever going to be temporary) or a VA panel - which I don't want as one of my TVs is VA and it's fine for that - but I can notice how the viewing angle would bother me at a PC moving around at my desk all the time like I am. If I wasn't able to 'fix' the BGR/RGB subpixel issue, I would have returned it. But knowing you can install it upside down and tell Windows to flip the display 'easily' to 'fix' it let me gloss over that. And there's some backlight bleed but not offensive and there's no bad pixels. I'll stick with this for now. The 170hz and Freesync/Gsync compatibility that my old monitor did not have, will help hold me over until I get my 'permanent' monitor.

I think if you're OK with the stupid idea of installing the display upside down to fix the BGR sub pixel layout to save just some money over other monitors (like I for some reason am), this is a good cheap monitor so far. If you think it's stupid to have to do something like that on an item you spent any money on - I also agree - and therein lies the catch for this monitor.

As said I'll post more as I'm able to calibrate/test more features.
 
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