Gigabyte M27Q X  Monitor Review

The Gigabyte M27Q X has a simple design with an all-black plastic body. It doesn't have heavy gaming aesthetics, so it doesn't stand out in an office space.

The build quality is good. Even though it's entirely made of plastic, it feels sturdy. The stand feels a little cheap, and overall, it's not very premium, but there are no significant issues.

There are a few quality control issues with our unit, including two dead pixels and a streak that's noticeable in near-black content. These are likely quality control issues and not a widespread problem.

The ergonomics are decent. It's easy to adjust for yourself, but without swivel adjustment, it's hard to turn the screen for someone next to you. You can't rotate it into portrait mode either, but if you want something that does, check out the HP OMEN 27qs.

The stand 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 switch is also on the back.

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

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.

This monitor doesn't have a local dimming feature. We still film these videos on the monitor so you can compare the backlight performance with a monitor that has local dimming.

The SDR brightness is impressive. 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 HDR brightness is decent. While it gets bright, small highlights don't pop against the rest of the image. The PQ EOTF tracking is good, though, as it displays most content at the intended brightness, but with a slow-roll at the peak brightness, it doesn't let highlights get the brightest they could. These measurements are with the default picture settings with HDR enabled, as there are no other picture modes in HDR.

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 sees the same thing from the sides.

This monitor has a very good vertical 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 gray uniformity is decent. There's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center of the screen, and the sides are a bit darker, but it's hard to see with most 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.

This monitor has exceptional accuracy before calibration in the sRGB mode. The white balance and most colors are incredibly accurate, and the color temperature is very close to the 6500K target. The sRGB mode also locks colors well to the sRGB color space, so they aren't oversaturated. Gamma is a bit lower than the sRGB curve, so most scenes are a bit brighter than they should be.

Unfortunately, the sRGB mode locks down many picture 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, so they're horribly oversaturated.

The accuracy after calibration is superb. Visually, there's very little difference from before calibration, and the main advantage to calibrating this display is that it allows you to adjust settings that are 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, but some colors are oversaturated in that color space.

This monitor has a great HDR color gamut. It has incredible coverage of the most common DCI-P3 color space. Unfortunately, the tone mapping is off when displaying content mastered at 10,000 cd/m², resulting in much lower coverage of the DCI-P3 color space, but most content isn't mastered at such high brightness. Instead, when sending a signal mastered at 1,000 cd/m², the tone mapping is much better, resulting in a wider DCI-P3 color gamut, but it doesn't track the PQ EOTF as well since most scenes are too bright.

The HDR color volume is decent. While it displays a wide range of colors, it fails to properly display bright and dark colors.

The text clarity is good. Enabling Windows ClearType (top photo) improves the boldness of letters.

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 glare shouldn't be an issue in well-lit rooms.

The gradient handling is fantastic. There's very little banding with most shades.

Due to bandwidth limitations, you can only reach the max refresh rate with 8-bit color depth over DisplayPort. This means you'll see more banding, but it allows you to take full advantage of the monitor.

This monitor has good motion handling across its VRR range. While motion looks sharp at high refresh rates, there's more noticeable inverse ghosting as the refresh rate drops, even with the recommended 'Picture Quality' overdrive setting. The 'Smart OD' setting acts as a variable overdrive, as it changes its performance based on the refresh rate, which you can see in this alternative chart.

The refresh rate compliance is okay. Its response time isn't fast enough to make full color transitions before the monitor draws the next frame at the max refresh rate, but it's better at lower refresh rates.

The CAD at the max refresh rate of 240Hz is great. Motion looks sharp with the 'Balance' overdrive as it has the fastest response time, and 'Smart OD' is similar too. The other settings either have more blur or inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 120Hz is good. Motion looks sharp, but unlike at the max refresh rate, the recommended overdrive is 'Picture Quality' because the more aggressive settings, including 'Smart OD,' have too much inverse ghosting.

The CAD at 60Hz is decent. Unlike at higher refresh rates, only the 'Off' overdrive doesn't have any inverse ghosting, but it has noticeable blur.

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 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.

This monitor doesn't have noticeable VRR flicker with changing frame rates, which is fantastic for gaming.

This monitor has a completely flicker-free backlight, which helps reduce eye-strain if you're sensitive to it.

The input lag is incredibly low, resulting in an extremely responsive gaming experience.

Without HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, this monitor can't take full advantage of the PS5, but there aren't any compatibility issues besides that.

Without HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, this monitor can't take full advantage of the Xbox Series X|S, but there aren't any compatibility issues besides that. It even downscales a 4k signal, which is useful because the Xbox only supports HDR in 4k.

This monitor is limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, but if you want something with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, look into the LG 27GR83Q-B.

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 isn't enough to charge laptops.

The Gigabyte M27Q X works well with macOS. VRR and HDR both work well, and if you're using a MacBook, windows return to their original position after waking up from sleep mode. The USB-C port works properly, as does the KVM switch feature.

This monitor has many features, including:

• Black Equalizer: Makes objects more visible in dark scenes.
• Dashboard: Overlay that displays system information like CPU temperature, usage, frame rate, etc.
• Eagle Eye: 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.
• Game Assist: There are a few different virtual overlays available, including a timer, crosshairs, and a refresh rate counter.
• KVM: Lets you control two devices with one set of mouse and keyboard. You can easily switch between them with KVM button on the back
• OSD Sidekick: Lets you control the monitor's settings with a keyboard and mouse.