Gigabyte G34WQC Monitor Review

The Gigabyte G34WQC has a simple design that looks almost identical to the Gigabyte G32QC but in an ultrawide format. It has the same V-shaped stand and thin borders.

The stand takes up a fair amount of desk space, but it supports the monitor well and doesn't wobble much.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has poor ergonomics. Due to its ultrawide format, it's somewhat expected that it can't rotate to portrait mode. Unfortunately, it also lacks swivel adjustment.

The back of the monitor is plain except for the branding and the glossy top portion. There's a small cutout at the bottom of the stand for cable management. There's no quick-release feature to remove the stand for VESA-mounting.

The borders are thin and aren't distracting.

Both the monitor and the stand are thick, so you need a fairly deep desk to put it on.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has a good build quality, similar to the Gigabyte G32QC. It's mostly plastic, and although there's a bit of flex on the back panel, it feels sturdy overall. The stand supports the monitor well and doesn't wobble much. The height and tilt adjustments feel stable and solid, but the plastic covering the hinges feel cheap, and the same goes for the plastic covering the stand's base. There aren't any brackets holding the monitor to the stand, so they're attached with screws only. This means that if you need to remove the stand to VESA-mount it, you have to be careful not to let the monitor fall after unscrewing it from the stand.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has a great contrast ratio that allows it to produce deep blacks, making it a good option for dark rooms. It's slightly higher than the advertised 3000:1; however, contrast can vary between individual units.

The Gigabyte G34WQC doesn't have a local dimming feature. The video above is provided for reference only.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has great SDR peak brightness, a little above the advertised 350 cd/m². It's remarkably consistent when displaying different scenes, and it's bright enough to overcome glare in nearly any lighting conditions.

We measured the SDR peak brightness after calibration in the 'Custom 1' Picture Mode and with Brightness set to max.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has decent HDR peak brightness and meets the required 400 cd/m² for its DisplayHDR 400 certification. Like in SDR, the brightness is very consistent across different content. It's bright enough to deliver an okay HDR experience in video games, especially if you game in a dark room, but it isn't enough for HDR movies.

We measured the HDR peak brightness in the 'Custom 1' Picture Mode with HDR on. The Brightness is locked to max when HDR is enabled.

As is expected of most VA panels, the Gigabyte G34WQC has sub-par horizontal viewing angles. You lose image accuracy as soon as you move off-center, which isn't ideal for sharing content on your screen or playing co-op games.

The vertical viewing angles are poor, making images look inaccurate if you have the screen mounted above eye level.

Our Gigabyte G34WQC has excellent gray uniformity; however, this can vary between units. The sides are a little darker, but there's almost no dirty screen effect, and uniformity is better in dark scenes.

Black uniformity is okay, but this varies between units. There's visible backlight bleed along the top and bottom edges, which can be distracting in dark scenes.

Before calibration, the Gigabyte G34QC has decent accuracy, although this varies between individual units. Most colors and shades of gray are somewhat inaccurate, and it has a cold color temperature that gives the image a slight blueish tint. Gamma doesn't follow the target curve at all. Most scenes appear too bright, and very bright scenes are too dark.

After calibration, the Gigabyte G34WQC's accuracy is exceptional. The remaining color inaccuracies shouldn't be visible to the naked eye, and white balance is nearly perfect. The color temperature is much closer to our 6500K target. Gamma is much improved, but dark and bright scenes are over-brightened.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and shouldn't be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit due to manufacturing tolerances, even for the same model.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has an outstanding SDR color gamut. It covers the commonly-used sRGB color space almost entirely, and it has great coverage of the Adobe RGB color space used mostly in photo editing.

The SDR color volume is exceptional; however, it has some difficulty displaying very dark and saturated colors, even though it has a high contrast ratio.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has an okay HDR color gamut. It has decent coverage of the commonly-used DCI P3, but its coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space is mediocre. If you want a similar monitor with wider DCI P3 coverage, check out the ASUS TUF Gaming VG34VQL1B.

Our measurement of the DCI P3 coverage is lower than the advertised 90% due to how we measure it. We measure it by sending a Rec. 2020 signal, but unlike most reviewers, we limit the colors to the DCI P3 primaries. This results in a lower but arguably more accurate measurement.

The HDR color volume is okay, mainly limited by the HDR color gamut.

There's a tiny amount of image retention after exposing a high-contrast image for ten minutes. However, it dissipates quickly, and this can vary between units.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has exceptional gradient handling. There's only a little bit of banding in the grays and greens. This monitor is advertised as having an 8-bit panel; however, it's identified as a 10-bit panel in the NVIDIA control panel and the Radeon app. It may be 8-bit+FRC, but we're unable to confirm it.

The Gigabyte G34WQC doesn't show any signs of color bleed.

Good reflection handling. The matte anti-reflective coating works well in reducing the intensity of reflected lights. Combined with the screen's high peak brightness, you shouldn't have any visibility issues.

Good text clarity. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) makes the letters look bolder and improves the appearance of diagonal lines, such as on the R and N.

Update 12/03/2020: We mistakenly indicated the dark total response time as 185.1ms instead of 18.1ms. It has been fixed and the score has been adjusted accordingly.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has a great response time at its max refresh rate, but just like the Gigabyte G32QC, there's black smearing behind fast-moving objects. The best overdrive setting is 'Balance', as it provides the best performance with minimal overshoot. If you want an ultrawide gaming monitor with better response time, check out the LG 34GP83A-B.

The response time at 60Hz is good. The best overdrive setting is again 'Balance' because the 'Picture Quality' option is slower and results in a blurrier image, and the 'Speed' option has too much overshoot.

The backlight is entirely flicker-free, which minimizes image duplication and can help reduce eye strain.

The Gigabyte G34WQC has an optional Black Frame Insertion feature to improve motion clarity called 'Aim Stabilizer'. There's less black smearing when enabled, but it causes slight image duplication. It isn't usable while VRR is active, and it locks the overdrive setting to 'Speed'.

The Gigabyte G34WQC supports FreeSync natively to reduce screen tearing when gaming. It's compatible with NVIDIA's G-SYNC as well, but it only works over a DisplayPort connection. The refresh rate is limited to 100Hz over HDMI. If you want something with a slightly higher 165Hz refresh rate, then check out the Samsung Odyssey G5 LC34G55T.