The Gigabyte M32UC is a large gaming monitor with a high native resolution and a fast refresh rate. It's very similar to the Gigabyte M32U, but instead of a flat IPS panel, it uses a VA panel with a gentle curve, so it's intended for dim or dark rooms. It's designed with console gamers in mind, featuring HDMI 2.1 bandwidth for Xbox Series X and PS5 gamers, and it supports 4k @ 120Hz gaming from both consoles. It's part of Gigabyte's M Series gaming monitors, which are designed for gaming but also offer great productivity features, including a built-in keyboard, video, and mouse switch, letting you switch between two different sources and control both with a single set of keyboard and mouse.
Our Verdict
The Gigabyte M32UC is a great monitor for most uses. It's an excellent gaming monitor, with an excellent response time at the max refresh rate and low input lag for a responsive gaming experience. It's also great for office use or media creation, as the large, high-resolution screen makes it easier to see more of your work at once, and it has some neat office features, including a keyboard, video, and mouse switch. It's also good for watching videos, with a high contrast ratio for dark room viewing, but it's not ideal for sharing with a group of people, as the image degrades at an angle. Finally, although it supports HDR, HDR adds very little, as it doesn't have a local dimming feature and has mediocre color volume.
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High-resolution screen and high pixel density.
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Superb text clarity.
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Great gray uniformity.
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Excellent peak brightness.
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle.
The Gigabyte M32UC is a great monitor for office work. The large, high-resolution screen makes it easier to multitask, as you can have multiple windows open, and it delivers superb text clarity. It also has a few great productivity features, including a built-in keyboard, video, and mouse switch, meaning you can control two sources with a single set of input devices. It looks great in a bright room, thanks to its excellent SDR peak brightness and good reflection handling. Sadly, it has limited ergonomics and just an okay horizontal viewing angle, so it's not ideal for sharing your screen.
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High-resolution screen and high pixel density.
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Superb text clarity.
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Great gray uniformity.
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Excellent peak brightness.
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Noticeable black smearing with dark backgrounds.
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle.
The Gigabyte M32UC delivers an excellent gaming experience. It has an excellent response time at the max refresh rate, resulting in clear motion with little blur behind fast-moving objects. It also has low input lag for a responsive gaming experience, and it supports FreeSync variable refresh rate technology, but only if you disable the optional overclock. It's fully compatible with the PS5 and Xbox Series X, thanks to its two HDMI ports, both of which support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth.
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Supports 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the Xbox Series X and PS5.
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Incredible response time.
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Fast refresh rate.
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Excellent peak brightness.
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Optional overclock disables variable refresh rate.
The Gigabyte M32UC is a good choice for watching videos, especially if you're in a dark room. It has good contrast and decent black uniformity, so blacks look deep and uniform in the dark. The large, high-resolution screen is great for watching the latest videos in 4k. It has excellent peak brightness in SDR and an excellent SDR color gamut, so colors look bright and vivid. It also supports HDR, but because it lacks a local dimming feature and it has mediocre HDR color volume, HDR content looks dull and muted, so this doesn't add much overall. Sadly, it has narrow viewing angles, so it's not ideal for watching videos with other people.
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High-resolution screen and high pixel density.
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Good accuracy out of the box.
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Great gray uniformity.
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Excellent peak brightness.
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Most accurate sRGB mode locks down almost all settings.
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle.
The Gigabyte M32UC is a great monitor for media creators. The large, high-resolution screen makes it easy to see more of your workflow at once, and the superb text clarity makes it easier to see fine details. It also has good accuracy out of the box, but the most accurate sRGB mode locks you out of most picture settings, so you'll need to calibrate it if you want to be able to adjust picture settings to your liking.
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High-resolution screen and high pixel density.
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Good accuracy out of the box.
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Great gray uniformity.
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Excellent peak brightness.
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Most accurate sRGB mode locks down almost all settings.
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Noticeable black smearing with dark backgrounds.
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Image degrades when viewed at an angle.
The Gigabyte M32UC delivers an okay HDR experience overall. It has a good contrast ratio and decent uniformity, resulting in deep, uniform blacks. It gets decently bright in HDR, but since it lacks a local dimming feature, bright highlights also increase the brightness of the entire screen, so they don't stand out as much. Sadly, although it can display a wide color gamut, it has mediocre color volume, and colors aren't as bright and vivid as they should be.
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Wide color gamut.
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Fantastic gradient handling.
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No local dimming.
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Mediocre HDR color volume.
- 8.0 Mixed Usage
- 8.0 Office
- 8.7 Gaming
- 7.7 Media Consumption
- 8.0 Media Creation
- 6.8 HDR
- Updated Jun 02, 2023: Added that the MSI Optix G321CU has higher HDMI bandwidth in Video and Audio Ports.
- Updated May 15, 2023: Added that the Gigabyte M27U is another 160Hz monitor that has a faster Response Time at the Max Refresh Rate.
- Updated Apr 18, 2023: Confirmed that 1440p @ 60Hz works on this monitor with the PS5.
- Updated Aug 08, 2022: Added a comparison to the recently reviewed Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 in the Refresh Rate section.
- Updated Jun 14, 2022: Review published.
- Updated Jun 09, 2022: Early access published.
- Updated May 31, 2022: Our testers have started testing this product.
- Updated May 30, 2022: The product has arrived in our lab, and our testers will start evaluating it soon.
- Updated May 23, 2022: We've purchased the product and are waiting for it to arrive in our lab.
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Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the 32-inch Gigabyte M32UC, which is the only size available. It's a variant of the very popular Gigabyte M32U, which features a flat IPS panel instead of the curved VA panel on this monitor. It's also available in a 1440p variant known as the Gigabyte M32QC.
| Model | Size | Native Resolution | Max Refresh Rate | Panel Type | Curved |
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| M32UC | 32" | 4k | 160Hz | VA | Yes |
| M32Q | 32" | 1440p | 170Hz | IPS | No |
| M32U | 32" | 4k | 144Hz | IPS | No |
| M28U | 28" | 4k | 144Hz | IPS | No |
| M27Q (rev. 1.0) | 27" | 1440p | 170Hz | IPS | No |
| M27F | 27" | 1080p | 144Hz | IPS | No |
| M32QC | 32" | 1440p | 170Hz | VA | Yes |
If you come across a different type of panel or your Gigabyte M32UC doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we'll update the review. Note that some tests, like gray uniformity, may vary between individual units.
Our unit was manufactured in March 2022; you can see the label here.
Compared To Other Monitors
The Gigabyte M32UC is an impressive gaming monitor. It's a great choice for console gamers looking to game with a PS5 or Xbox One X, and of course, it's amazing for PC gamers. Along with its IPS cousins, the Gigabyte M32U and the Gigabyte M28U, these are among the best gaming monitors on the market.
For more options, check out our recommendations for the best monitors for PS5, the best monitors for Xbox Series X, and the best gaming monitors.
The Gigabyte M32U and the Gigabyte M32UC offer very similar overall performance, but the best one depends mainly on your viewing conditions. The M32U is better for most people as it has better ergonomics, better viewing angles, and better motion handling with very little black smear. The M32UC specifically targets users in a dark or dim room, as it has a much better contrast ratio, resulting in deeper, more uniform blacks in a dark room.
The Gigabyte M32UC is better for gaming than the MSI Optix G321CU. While both monitors have smearing with fast-moving objects, the Gigabyte has less overshoot and improved motion handling, particularly at high refresh rates. The picture quality on the Gigabyte is also better as it gets much brighter, and it has a better contrast ratio. On the other hand, the MSI has the full 48 Gbps bandwidth of HDMI 2.1, while the Gigabyte is limited to 24 Gbps, so your graphics card doesn't need to use compression when sending high-bandwidth signals.
The Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 S32BG75 and the Gigabyte M32UC are similar gaming monitors. They each have a VA panel with a 4k resolution, but the main difference is that the Samsung has Mini LED backlighting, which the Gigabyte doesn't have. It means it has better dark room performance for deeper blacks, but the Gigabyte still gets brighter in SDR if you want to use it in a well-lit room. While the Samsung monitor has better motion handling, there are fewer bugs with the VRR support on the Gigabyte, especially with low-frame-rate games.
The Gigabyte M32UC and the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 S32BG85 are both excellent 4k gaming monitors with a few differences. The Samsung is more future-proof because it has a higher 240Hz refresh rate than 160Hz on the Gigabyte. The Samsung monitor also uses Mini LED backlighting to deliver deeper blacks and brighter highlights. Motion also looks better on the Samsung, but the Gigabyte doesn't have flicker issues at low frame rates like on the Samsung.
The Dell G3223Q is better than the Gigabyte M32UC for most users. The Dell has a faster response time, resulting in much clearer motion, especially in dark scenes. The Dell also has much better viewing angles, so the image looks the same even if you're not sitting directly in front. If you're in a dark room, though, the Gigabyte is a better choice, as it has a much higher contrast ratio, resulting in darker, more uniform blacks.
The Gigabyte M32UC and the Samsung Odyssey G7/G70B S32BG70 are both great 4k, 32-inch monitors with a few differences. They have different panel types, so while the Samsung has wider viewing angles, the Gigabyte has a better contrast for deeper blacks. The Gigabyte also gets brighter both in SDR and HDR. However, in terms of gaming, the Samsung monitor has better motion handling thanks to its quicker response time.
The Gigabyte M32UC is better than the Dell S3422DWG. The Gigabyte has a much higher native resolution, resulting in sharper text, and it has a faster response time, with less black smear. The Gigabyte is especially good for console gamers, as it supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth on both of its HDMI ports, which enables 4k @ 120Hz gaming from the new consoles.
The Gigabyte AORUS FI32U is better than the Gigabyte M32UC for most users. The FI32U has wider viewing angles and better ergonomics, so it's easier to place it in an ideal viewing position or share your screen with someone else. The AORUS also has a faster response time, so there's less blur behind fast-moving objects and less black smear. On the other hand, if you're in a dark or dim room, the M32UC is the better choice, as it has a much higher contrast ratio, resulting in deeper, more uniform blacks.
Test Results
The Gigabyte M32UC looks a lot like the other Gigabyte M Series monitors, with a slightly understated design and a matte finish. The front bezels are thin on three sides, but there's a small gap between the bezels and the first pixels.
The Gigabyte M32UC has good overall build quality. The flat base stabilizes the stand well, and even though there's a bit of wobble, it's not really an issue. The stand and body of the monitor are mostly made of plastic, and there are no noticeable issues. There's a bit of flex to the back panel, but this is common, and it's not likely to cause you any issues.
The Gigabyte M32UC has mediocre ergonomics. It has a fairly standard tilt range, but the height adjustment is smaller than most comparable displays, and the maximum height extension is too low for most people. Unlike the Gigabyte M32U, it can't swivel, so it's a bit harder to share your screen with someone else. The back of the monitor is plain, with a uniform matte coating and no RGB bias lighting. There's a quick-release button for the stand, and there's a hole in the stand for basic cable management.
The flat stand supports the monitor well, but takes up a bit of space. There's a bit of wobble, but it's not too bad. The stand is a bit different from the Gigabyte M32U, and it's significantly lighter.
You can control the OSD using the joystick button at the back of the monitor, similar to most LG monitors. There's also a dedicated button for the KVM switch.
- 3 different power cables (Type B, I, and J)
- DisplayPort cable
- HDMI cable
- USB-B upstream cable
- User manuals
The Gigabyte M32UC has good contrast, resulting in deep blacks in a dark room. There's no local dimming to improve contrast, so blacks aren't as deep in bright scenes in HDR or at high brightness levels.
Unlike the Gigabyte M32U, the Gigabyte M32UC 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 Gigabyte M32UC has excellent peak brightness in SDR. There's no noticeable variation in peak brightness with different scenes, which is great. It's a lot brighter than the Gigabyte's advertised peak brightness of 350 cd/m², which is unusual. These measurements were taken after calibration, in the 'Custom 1' Picture Mode, with the backlight at max.
The Gigabyte M32UC has decent peak brightness in HDR. It's bright enough to deliver an impactful gaming experience in HDR, but it's not bright enough for a true cinematic experience. There's very little difference in peak brightness with different scenes, which is great. Unfortunately, the peak brightness doesn't track the EOTF very well, as near-black areas are brighter than they should be, and all other scenes are a bit too dim. On the other hand, there's a very smooth roll-off near the monitor's peak brightness, so highlights aren't clipped at all, which is great. These measurements were taken with HDR enabled. There are no picture settings in HDR on this monitor.
The Gigabyte M32UC has an okay horizontal viewing angle. Colors don't lose accuracy at an angle, which is great, but the brightness decreases at a moderate angle, and the black levels rise quickly, causing the image to appear washed out. It isn't an issue if you're sitting directly in front of the screen, as the curve brings the sides of the screen into your field of view, but it's not ideal for sharing the screen with someone sitting beside you.
The Gigabyte M32UC has a mediocre vertical viewing angle. Again, colors don't lose accuracy if you're not looking directly in front of the monitor, but the image appears washed out if the monitor isn't at eye level.
The Gigabyte M32UC has great gray uniformity. All four sides of the screen are a bit darker than the center, but this isn't very noticeable with regular content. There's very little dirty screen effect in the center, which is great for browsing the web or playing sports games, as large areas of uniform color appear uniform.
The Gigabyte M32UC has decent black uniformity. There's some backlight bleed along the top and bottom edge, but the center of the screen is fairly uniform and looks good in the dark. Sadly, there's no local dimming feature to improve dark room performance.
The Gigabyte M32UC has good accuracy out of the box. Color accuracy is good overall, and even though there are slight inaccuracies in all colors, they're not noticeable. The white balance is a bit worse, as most shades of gray are noticeably off. Gamma doesn't follow the sRGB target curve at all but is instead closer to a flat gamma of 2.4, so almost all scenes are darker than they should be. The color temperature is a bit cool, giving everything a slightly bluish tint. Finally, the sRGB emulation mode locks colors to the sRGB color space well.
Out of the box, the most accurate picture mode is the sRGB mode. Unfortunately, this mode brings some limitations; all settings except for the brightness are locked down and can't be changed, including the color temperature and overdrive setting, which is locked to 'Smart OD'. If you prefer a picture mode with unlocked settings, the 'Custom 1' mode delivers the second-best results, but colors are oversaturated.
After calibration, the Gigabyte M32UC has outstanding accuracy, with no noticeable issues at all. The white balance and colors are nearly perfect, and gamma is much closer to the sRGB target curve.
The Gigabyte M32UC has an excellent SDR color gamut. It can display almost all of the sRGB color space used by most current desktop and web content. For professional content creators, it has decent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space, but it can't display the full range of greens, and reds are oversaturated.
The Gigabyte M32UC has superb color volume in SDR. Colors are nearly as bright as pure white, and it fills out the sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces well. Unfortunately, despite the low contrast ratio, it can't display dark saturated colors well.
The Gigabyte M32UC has a decent HDR color gamut. It has excellent coverage of the most commonly used DCI-P3 color space, so most HDR games and movies look vivid and lifelike. It has good tone mapping in the DCI-P3 color space, but saturated colors are clipped in the wider Rec. 2020 color space, but since very little content uses that color space, this isn't really an issue.
Unfortunately, the Gigabyte M32UC has mediocre color volume in HDR. Colors aren't very bright in the DCI-P3 color space, and it's much worse overall than the Gigabyte M32U.
The Gigabyte M32UC has good reflection handling. The matte anti-reflective coating handles moderate amounts of glare well. Since this monitor can get very bright, you can always increase the backlight to overcome brighter light sources. The monitor's curve stretches reflections horizontally, but this is only noticeable when the monitor is off.
Thanks to the high pixel density, the Gigabyte M32UC has superb text clarity, even in apps that don't support ClearType or if you choose not to run the wizard. The matte coating adds a slightly hazy look to the screen, as you can see in the pixel macro photo here, so the image isn't as sharp as glossy coatings.
The Gigabyte M32UC has fantastic gradient handling. There's almost no banding in any shade. Although advertised as an 8-bit panel, this model accepts a 10-bit signal and displays it well, so it's most likely using dithering to approximate a 10-bit panel. It's also known as 8-bit + FRC.
The Gigabyte M32UC has a fast refresh rate, great for gamers. Thanks to the inclusion of HDMI 2.1 bandwidth ports, there's no difference in the supported formats between DisplayPort and HDMI, as long as you're using a source that supports HDMI 2.1 bandwidth. If you're using a graphics card that only supports HDMI 2.0 bandwidth, the supported formats are a bit different over HDMI. You can read more about what to expect and what's supported in the additional review notes we posted for the Gigabyte M28U, which are also valid for this monitor. Unlike the Gigabyte M32U, there's an optional overclock on this monitor, but unfortunately, enabling it locks you out of the variable refresh rate (VRR) feature. The maximum refresh rate that supports VRR is 144Hz, but if you want a 4k monitor with a higher 240Hz refresh rate, then check out the Samsung Odyssey Neo G8 S32BG85.
The Gigabyte M32UC supports FreeSync variable refresh rate technology (VRR) over both HDMI and DisplayPort. Although it's not officially certified by NVIDIA, it also works well with their G-SYNC Compatible mode. Since the optional overclock locks you out of VRR, the maximum refresh rate for VRR is 144Hz.
160Hz:
| Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
| Off | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Smart OD | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Picture Quality | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Balance | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Speed | Chart | Table | Photo |
144Hz with VRR:
| Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
| VRR Off | Chart | Table | Photo |
| VRR Smart OD | Chart | Table | Photo |
| VRR Picture Quality | Chart | Table | Photo |
| VRR Balance | Chart | Table | Photo |
| VRR Speed | Chart | Table | Photo |
The Gigabyte M32UC defaults to a max refresh rate of 144Hz with the variable refresh rate feature (VRR) enabled, but it also has an optional overclock to 160Hz. Enabling the overclock disables VRR. At both a fixed 160Hz refresh rate and 144Hz with VRR, the average response time is excellent, and there's very little difference between both modes. Like most gaming monitors, you can customize the level of overdrive. The 'Picture Quality' setting delivers the best results, with the least overshoot and the fastest rise/fall times. Like most VA monitors, in this mode, there's significant overshoot out of black areas, causing black smear in dark areas. It's especially distracting when scrolling the web with a dark background or using a dark user interface. It's not as noticeable when gaming or watching videos. If the black smearing bothers you, there's less of it in the 'Balance' setting, but there's an inverse ghosting (white) trail behind fast-moving objects instead. Like most monitors, the fastest setting, 'Speed', has terrible overshoot in most transitions. However, if you want a 160Hz monitor with better motion handling, consider the Gigabyte M27U.
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. Like most recent Gigabyte monitors, 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.
| Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
| Off | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Smart OD | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Picture Quality | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Balance | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Speed | Chart | Table | Photo |
The Gigabyte M32UC has a great response time at 120Hz, resulting in a smooth console gaming experience for PS5 and Xbox Series X gamers. It performs about the same as at the max refresh rate, with a fast rise-fall time that results in clear motion, but there's noticeable black smearing and a bit of overshoot. The 'Picture Quality' setting still delivers the best choice overall, but if the black smear bothers you, 'Balance' is a good alternative.
| Overdrive Setting | Response Time Chart | Response Time Tables | Motion Blur Photo |
| Off | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Smart OD | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Picture Quality | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Balance | Chart | Table | Photo |
| Speed | Chart | Table | Photo |
The Gigabyte M32UC has an okay response time at 60Hz. There's significantly more overshoot than higher refresh rates, even in the recommended 'Picture Quality' mode. The 'Off' setting eliminates this overshoot. However, it looks worse overall as the average response time is significantly slower, and there's a long trail of black smearing behind fast-moving objects.
| Refresh Rate | VRR | Motion Blur Photo |
| 160Hz | Off | Photo |
| 144Hz | On | Photo |
| 120Hz | On | Photo |
| Off | Photo |
The Gigabyte M32UC has an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion. Unlike most monitors, you can enable this feature at the same time as the variable refresh rate feature (VRR), but only up to 144Hz, as the overclock disables VRR.
The Gigabyte M32UC has a completely flicker-free backlight at all brightness levels, which is great.
The Gigabyte M32UC has excellent low input lag, resulting in a very responsive gaming and desktop experience.
The Gigabyte M32UC has superb screen real estate and a very high native resolution, resulting in a high pixel density and superb text clarity. It's also an excellent choice for multitasking.
The Gigabyte M32UC supports almost all formats supported by the PS5, except 1440p @ 120Hz. Since its HDMI ports require display stream compression (DSC) to support the highest bandwidth signals, the PS5 is limited to 4:2:0 when gaming at 4k @ 120Hz, as the PS5 doesn't fully support DSC. It isn't noticeable with moving content like games or movies; it mainly affects text clarity when used as a PC monitor.
The Gigabyte M32UC supports all formats from the Xbox Series S|X.
The Gigabyte M32UC has two HDMI 2.1 ports, making it a great choice for PS5 and Xbox Series S|X console gamers. Although it supports HDMI 2.1, like most of the other HDMI 2.1 monitors we've tested, it's limited to 24Gbps. It requires Display Stream Compression (DSC) 1.2a for anything that requires higher bandwidth, so there are some limits on the supported resolutions depending on the source device. You can read more about the supported resolutions here. This article is from our Gigabyte M28U review but is also valid for this monitor. If you prefer something that has higher HDMI bandwidth and doesn't require compression, then check out the MSI Optix G321CU.
There's one USB-C port; it supports a few advanced USB-C features, including DisplayPort Alt Mode and 15W fast charging for supported devices. The power delivery feature is too low to fully charge most laptops, but it'll extend the battery life a bit. The USB-C port allows you to use the monitor as a KVM switch (keyboard, video, and mouse), so you can view and control two sources with a single set of input devices, which is great if you're working from home and want to use a business and personal computer with a single screen.
Unfortunately, there are a few strange issues when using this monitor with a recent MacBook Pro. To unlock the maximum refresh rate, USB-C Compatibility has to be disabled from the monitor's UI; otherwise, you're limited to 60Hz. Unless you have the overclock enabled, macOS thinks this monitor has a 2560x1440 native resolution. It also flickers at the top of the screen if you have the overclock enabled and leave it set to a fixed 144Hz refresh rate. For best results, leave the overclock enabled and limit the refresh rate to 120Hz.
The Gigabyte M32UC has a few additional productivity and gaming features. It also supports Picture-in-Picture or Picture-by-Picture, allowing you to display two sources at once, but this feature isn't available in HDR or if FreeSync is enabled. Some of the other features include:
- Virtual Crosshair: There are four virtual crosshairs to choose from. Unlike software virtual crosshairs, these can't be detected by your games.
- Frame Counter: Displays the current number of frames per second received from the source.
- Black Equalizer: Adjusts gamma to make it easier to spot other players/enemies in shadows.
- KVM: The main feature of Gigabyte's M Series monitors, the KVM button at the back of the monitor allows you to quickly switch from controlling one device to another, with just one keyboard and mouse, by connecting them to the back of the monitor instead of your PC.
- Dashboard: This feature allows you to display vital statistics from your computer, including CPU and GPU temps, fan speeds, memory usage, etc.
