Gigabyte M27Q X Monitor Review

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a simple design and looks nearly identical to the Gigabyte M27Q. It has thin borders on three sides, with a slightly thicker bottom bezel and a flat V-shaped stand. There's a noticeable dead zone between the side and top bezels and the first pixels, which is a bit distracting in a multi-monitor setup.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has good build quality. It's pretty similar to other Gigabyte monitors, and even though it's entirely made of plastic, it feels sturdy. The glossy section at the top of the back panel is terrible for fingerprints, and the stand feels a little cheap. Overall, it's not very premium, but there are no significant issues.

There are a few quality control issues with our unit, including 2 dead pixels and a streak that's noticeable in near-black content. These likely aren't widespread issues, but they could indicate quality control issues.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has okay ergonomics. It has a fairly standard tilt range and an excellent height adjustment range, so you can easily place it in an ideal viewing position. It doesn't swivel, so you have to turn the entire base if you want to share your screen with someone else.

The stand doesn't take up much desk space, and since it's flat, you can still put things on top of it. It feels sturdy, and the screen doesn't wobble much when nudged.

There's a single joystick on the right backside of the screen. It lets you power the monitor On/Off and navigate the on-screen menu. The KVM button is to switch between the two devices when using the KVM feature.

• DisplayPort cable
• 3x power cords (NA, EU, and Australia)
• User guide
• USB-A to USB-B upstream cable
• HDMI cable
• Power supply

The Gigabyte M27Q X has mediocre contrast, so blacks look gray in a dark room. Unfortunately, there's no local dimming feature to improve contrast. If you're looking for a monitor that offers better contrast, look into the Samsung Odyssey G6 S32BG65.

The Gigabyte M27Q X doesn't have a local dimming feature. We still film the local dimming on each monitor, so you can see how the test clip compares to a different display with local dimming.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has impressive peak brightness in SDR. There's no noticeable variation in peak brightness with different content, and it's bright enough to overcome glare in a bright room. These measurements are in the 'Custom 1' Picture Mode, after calibration, with Brightness set to max.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has decent peak brightness in HDR. It far exceeds the minimum requirements for its DisplayHDR400 certification, which doesn't deliver a very impactful HDR experience overall, but it looks good in some games. The monitor tracks the PQ EOTF well, and most scenes display at the correct brightness. There's also a smooth roll-off near the monitor's peak brightness, which is better than most HDR monitors. These measurements are with the default picture settings with HDR enabled, as there are no other picture modes in HDR with this display.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a great horizontal viewing angle. The image washes out a bit at a moderate angle, but it's good enough that everyone will see the same thing if you're sharing your screen with someone else. It's also great if you sit close to your screen, as the sides remain uniform.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a very good vertical viewing angle. Like with the horizontal viewing angle, the image appears a bit washed out at a moderate angle, but you won't have any issues if you're standing above the monitor or looking up at it.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has decent gray uniformity. There's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center of the screen, and the sides are a bit darker, but it's not really noticeable with real content.

Unfortunately, there are some issues with black uniformity. The backlight bleeds through a few spots around the outer edges of the screen, and the screen is cloudy due to the low contrast ratio. Unfortunately, there's a red discoloration on our screen that's especially noticeable in near-dark scenes.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has exceptional accuracy out of the box with the sRGB emulation mode. The white balance and most colors are incredibly accurate, and the color temperature is very close to the 6500K target. Gamma is a bit lower than the sRGB curve, and most scenes are a bit brighter than they should be.

The sRGB mode effectively limits colors to the sRGB color space, so they don't appear oversaturated and unnatural, but this mode also locks down pretty much all picture quality settings, including the pixel overdrive mode. If you want to adjust the image to your liking, the 'Custom 1' mode is the most accurate, but colors aren't clamped to sRGB, and they're horribly oversaturated.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has superb accuracy after calibration. Visually, there's very little difference between the calibrated results and the factory pre-calibration with the sRGB mode. The main advantage to calibrating this display is that it allows you to adjust settings that are normally locked in the sRGB mode.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has an outstanding SDR color gamut. It has complete coverage of the sRGB color space used by most current desktop and web content, including most games. It also has nearly full coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has fantastic color volume in SDR. It doesn't display dark saturated colors well due to its low contrast ratio, but colors are bright and vibrant.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a great HDR color gamut. It has incredibly coverage of the most common DCI-P3 color space. Unfortunately, the tone mapping is off when displaying certain signals, resulting in much lower coverage of the DCI-P3 color space. It only occurs when the content you're watching is mastered at a high peak brightness with the DCI-P3 primaries, which is rare. A lot of content is mastered at lower peak brightness levels, and when sending a signal mastered at 1000 nits, the tone mapping is much better, resulting in a wider DCI-P3 color gamut, but it doesn't track the PQ EOTF as well, as most scenes are too bright.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has mediocre HDR color volume. Unfortunately, the tone mapping is off when displaying certain signals, resulting in much lower coverage of the DCI-P3 color space and, consequently, worse color volume. It only occurs when the content you're watching is mastered at a high peak brightness with the DCI-P3 primaries, which is rare. A lot of content is mastered at lower peak brightness levels, and when sending a signal mastered at 1000 nits, the tone mapping is much better.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has very good reflection handling. The matte anti-reflective finish significantly reduces the intensity of lights. It also gets very bright, so if you still see glare, you can just increase the backlight setting; it's bright enough to overcome almost any glare.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has good text clarity. Although the previous version of this monitor, the Gigabyte M27Q, used a suboptimal BGR subpixel structure, the new model uses a standard RGB subpixel structure. It results in clearer text, especially after running the Windows ClearType wizard (top photo). The matte coating adds a slight haze to the screen, as you can see in the pixel photo.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has fantastic gradient handling. There's very little banding in most shades.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has an extremely fast refresh rate, which is great for gaming. Like most displays, the maximum refresh rate is only supported over DisplayPort.

The Gigabyte M27Q X supports FreeSync Premium variable refresh rate technology (VRR), and it's also compatible with NVIDIA's G-SYNC Compatible mode, but G-SYNC only works over DisplayPort on this monitor. The VRR feature works across an extremely wide range of refresh rates. Below about 48Hz low framerate compensation (LFC) kicks in automatically, ensuring a consistent gaming experience even with low framerates.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a superb response time at the maximum refresh rate. There's no noticeable overshoot in the recommended 'Picture Quality' Overdrive Mode, and the rise/fall time is fast enough to deliver very clear motion, with almost no noticeable blur behind fast-moving objects. The 'Speed' and 'Balance' modes offer faster rise/fall times, but they have a lot of overshoot, so they look worse than 'Picture Quality' overall.

Like most recent Gigabyte monitors, there's a 'Smart OD' feature that is supposed to automatically adjust the overdrive depending on the frame rate coming from the source. Unfortunately, it doesn't work and locks you to the 'Balance' setting. The 'Picture Quality' mode delivers the most consistent performance, so it's the best choice if you're looking for a set-and-forget mode that works well across all frame rates.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a great response time at 120Hz, resulting in a smooth console gaming experience for PS5 and Xbox Series X gamers. It performs similarly to the max refresh rate, but there's more overshoot, resulting in a slower overall response time and a slight trail of inverse ghosting. The 'Picture Quality' setting still delivers the best performance overall.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a great response time at 60Hz. The 'Off' setting delivers the best performance at 60Hz, as the other modes all have way too much overshoot. Still, if you're looking for a 'set and forget' mode that you won't change, 'Picture Quality' isn't too bad. There's a bit of overshoot in darker transitions, so there's a noticeable line of inverse ghosting, but it's okay overall. However, if you prefer something with a faster response time at 60Hz, then consider the Dell Alienware AW2723DF.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion or BFI. Unlike most monitors, you can enable this feature at the same time as the variable refresh rate feature (VRR). When you enable it with VRR, it works down to 80Hz, but there are more noticeable artifacts due to a double pulse pattern. With a fixed refresh rate, the strobing feature is only available down to 120Hz.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a completely flicker-free backlight, which helps reduce eye-strain with longer play sessions. The backlight doesn't flicker at any brightness level.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has fantastically low input lag, resulting in an extremely responsive gaming experience, especially at the max refresh rate.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a large screen and high resolution, providing an immersive gaming experience and plenty of space for work and media consumption.

The Gigabyte M27Q X is compatible with most features supported by the PS5. Despite its 1440p native resolution, it supports 4k @ 60Hz gaming on the PS5. However, it downscales the image to 1440. Unfortunately, even though it supports VRR, it doesn't support HDMI Forum VRR, which is the only type of VRR supported by the PS5.

The Gigabyte M27Q X supports almost everything from the Xbox Series S|X. Despite having a native resolution of 1440p, it accepts and displays a 4k resolution and downscales it to 1440p, resulting in a slightly sharper image than a native 1440p signal. Due to bandwidth limitations, it only supports 4k @ 60Hz. Note that the Xbox Series S|X only support HDR over 4k, so you have to choose between 120Hz gaming and HDR, this monitor can't do both from the Xbox.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a KVM feature that allows you to use one set of mouse and keyboard to control two devices. To use it, plug the mouse and keyboard into the USB 3.0 ports and the secondary device into the USB-C port. Then, press the KVM button (located above the monitor's main control joystick) to switch between the two devices.

The USB-C port supports DisplayPort Alt Mode, which lets you display an image from a compatible device and charge it simultaneously with a single cable. However, this port only delivers 18W of power, which is only enough to trickle charge most computers.

The Gigabyte M27Q X works well with recent MacBooks. The variable refresh rate feature and HDR both work well, and windows return to their original position after waking up from sleep mode. The USB-C port works properly, as does the KVM switch feature.

The Gigabyte M27Q X has many features, including:

• Game Assist: There are a few different virtual overlays available, including a timer, virtual crosshairs, and a refresh rate counter.
• Eagle Eye: This monitor is compatible with Gigabyte's Eagle Eye feature, which zooms an area of the screen, making it easier to make precise movements in some games, especially FPS titles. Note that enabling this feature on this monitor reduces the maximum refresh rate to 165Hz.
• OSD Sidekick: Lets you control the monitor's settings with keyboard and mouse.
• Dashboard: Overlay that displays system information like CPU temperature, usage, frame rate, etc.
• Black Equalizer: Makes objects more visible in dark scenes.
• Picture-in-Picture and Picture-by-Picture: Displays two input signals simultaneously, either side by side or as an overlay.
• KVM: Lets you control two devices with one set of mouse and keyboard.