Gigabyte M32U Monitor Review

The Gigabyte M32U has an understated design, with thin bezels on three sides and a flat base that supports the monitor well, though it takes up a bit of space. The back of the monitor has a glossy section near the top.

The build quality is good. It's entirely plastic, with no metal components, though the plastic seems to be of decent quality. There's a little bit of flex on the back panel, but otherwise, it's fairly solid.

When we first tested the monitor, we noted no consistent issues with noise. However, after using the monitor extensively since our initial test, it now produces several added noises. When black frame insertion (BFI) is on, the monitor has a pulsating coil-whine-type noise. Additionally, when the monitor operates between 120 and 144Hz, it produces a consistent hum/buzz. The monitor is also loud when the brightness is between 30 and 70 in some modes.

The ergonomics are good. You can adjust it in many different ways, but it doesn't rotate, so you can't use it in portrait mode for reading long documents or put two monitors side by side in a vertical dual-screen setup. The stand features a loop for cable management. If you want something with even better ergonomics, check out the Dell U3223QE.

The flat stand supports the monitor well, though it takes up some space. While there's a bit of wobble, it's not too bad.

The back of the monitor has a joystick for controlling the on-screen display, which also serves as a power button. Additionally, there's a dedicated button for the KVM switch.

• User manuals
• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• USB-B upstream cable
• Three different power cables (Type B, I, and J)

The contrast is mediocre, and deep blacks look gray next to bright highlights in a dark room. While the monitor has local dimming, it doesn't improve the contrast. If you want a 4k monitor with much better contrast, look into the Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 S32BG75.

Unfortunately, although this monitor has a local dimming feature, it's terrible. In most real content, the local dimming feature doesn't activate. The monitor is edge-lit, with approximately 16 large dimming zones, so when local dimming does activate, the transitions are very noticeable and distracting.

Enabling the Local Dimming feature locks out a few settings. It enables DCR, which negatively impacts scene brightness accuracy and locks the brightness at maximum.

The SDR brightness is very good, and it gets bright enough to fight glare in most environments. Different content causes some variation in peak brightness, and the monitor dims very small highlights slightly, but most content doesn't show noticeable dimming.

These results are from after calibration in the 'Custom 1' Picture mode with the Brightness at its max and Local Dimming enabled. If you want something brighter, then check out the Dell G3223Q.

The HDR brightness is okay, though small highlights are dimmer and won't pop. There's a sharp cut-off at the peak brightness, but this means that the monitor doesn't tone map before your computer does. However, much of the image is slightly less bright than it should be, and very dark scenes are over-brightened. If you care about HDR brightness, then check out the Cooler Master Tempest GP27U, which gets much brighter in HDR.

These results are with HDR and Local Dimming 'On.'

The Gigabyte M32U monitor has a decent horizontal viewing angle. While you can still share your screen with someone else, the image appears slightly washed out at wider angles.

The monitor has a very good vertical viewing angle, so the image is consistent if you stand up and look down at the monitor.

The gray uniformity is great. There's only a bit of dirty screen effect near the center, which isn't enough to be distracting when browsing the web or playing games with large areas of similar color.

The Gigabyte M32U SA has unremarkable black uniformity. There's quite a bit of cloudiness throughout the screen and significant backlight bleed along the top and bottom edge when local dimming is off. Local dimming reduces backlight bleed and cloudiness away from some brighter content, though it worsens black uniformity.

The accuracy before calibration in the sRGB mode is excellent, and it follows the sRGB curve fairly well. The white balance is great, and the color temperature is fairly close to the calibration target. The monitor slightly oversaturates red, but there are no significant issues with any color.

Unfortunately, using the 'sRGB' Picture Mode setting locks other settings, including Contrast and Dynamic Contrast Ratio. So, if you want to use those settings, you need to change Picture Mode to 'Custom 1,' which delivers the second-best results but worse overall performance, as you can see here.

The accuracy after calibration is exceptional. White balance and colors are nearly perfect, and any remaining inaccuracies aren't noticeable. After calibration, you can use any of the settings that are locked out in sRGB mode.

The SDR color gamut is fantastic. It can display the entire sRGB color space most current desktop and web content uses. However, it has only decent coverage of the Adobe RGB color space. It also has significant issues displaying greens accurately in Adobe RGB, which isn't ideal for professional publishing.

The HDR color gamut is good. It has good coverage and tone mapping in the DCI-P3 color space used by most current HDR content, though worse coverage in the Rec. 2020 color space.

The HDR color volume is decent. It can't display very dark colors well, and its incomplete color gamut limits it.

This monitor has superb text clarity. The 4k resolution and high pixel density help it display sharp text. With ClearType turned on (top photo), text appears bolder. These photos are in Windows 10.

The reflection handling is decent. It doesn't have too much glare in most environments, though it struggles with very bright light sources, like opposite a sunny window.

The Gigabyte M32U has superb reflection handling, and you won't notice any banding in scenes with shades of a similar color.

This monitor has HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, so both DisplayPort and HDMI provide the same speeds and capabilities. Your card must support Display Screen Compression to reach these maximum speeds over DisplayPort or HDMI.

On top of supporting FreeSync and G-SYNC compatibility, it also supports HDMI Forum VRR.

The motion handling is good across its VRR range, but there's still blur with fast-moving objects and inverse ghosting at lower refresh rates. The 'Picture Quality' overdrive setting produces the consistently best results across the VRR range, but 'Balance' is better at higher refresh rates. Unfortunately, the other overdrive settings have such high CAD that it passes the limits of the chart, and you can see an alternative chart here. This includes the variable overdrive setting, which is called 'Smart OD', and results in noticeable inverse ghosting.

The refresh rate compliance is decent. Its response time isn't fast enough to make full color transitions at the max refresh rate and at 120Hz, but it's better at 60Hz.

The CAD at the max refresh rate of 144Hz is good. The 'Balance' overdrive setting has the lowest CAD, so there's the least amount of blur, but it has overshoot and a bit of noticeable inverse ghosting. The 'Picture Quality' setting is a better choice if that bothers you.

The CAD at 120Hz is good. It's similar to its max refresh rate as the recommended overdrive setting of 'Balance' has some overshoot, so the 'Picture Quality' setting is better if that bothers you, but it has a bit more blur.

The CAD at 60Hz is okay, as there's noticeable blur and inverse ghosting. Unlike at higher refresh rates, the recommended overdrive is 'Picture Quality' because 'Balance' has more overshoot, so you may have to change settings if you switch games or sources. Only the 'Off' setting doesn't have any overshoot.

This monitor supports backlight strobing to reduce persistence blur. The first time we enabled the feature with VRR, the backlight strobing continued to function as low as 10Hz, but below 55Hz, it flickers in multiples of the framerate. Unfortunately, the backlight kept fluctuating and was borderline unusable, as shown in this slow motion video filmed between 54 and 55Hz (Note: This video contains rapid, bright flashing). The effect isn't that noticeable in real life, though.

After experiencing this issue, we power cycled the monitor and restarted the PC, and the BFI feature behaved more like the other Gigabyte monitors we tested. Below 85Hz, the backlight stops strobing, and there are no distracting backlight fluctuations. With VRR off, it only works with 144Hz and 120Hz signals.

The Gigabyte M32U monitor doesn't have any noticeable VRR flicker with changing frame rates, which is great for gaming.

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

The Gigabyte M32U has low input lag, so you won't notice any delay and get a responsive feel. However, it's important to ensure the monitor's firmware is F06 or newer, as previous firmware versions have an issue with input lag.

The Gigabyte M32U works well with the Xbox Series X|S. You only need to enable the console's HDMI override setting for 1440p @ 60Hz, which disables VRR. Also, keep in mind that the console only supports HDR with 4k signals.

The Gigabyte M32U has two HDMI 2.1 ports, making it a great choice for someone who has a console and an HDMI 2.1 graphics card.

The monitor has a USB-C port and supports a few advanced USB-C features, including DisplayPort Alt Mode and 15W fast charging for supported devices. However, the power delivery feature doesn't deliver enough power to recharge most laptops while in use; if you want a monitor with similar performance and greater power delivery over USB-C, you can look into the Lenovo Legion Y32p-30.

The M32U's USB-C port allows you to use the monitor as a KVM (keyboard, video, and mouse) switch, 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 at the same desk.

This monitor works well with macOS. VRR and HDR function properly and can be enabled simultaneously on macOS. When using a MacBook, windows return to their original position when reopening the lid or waking the laptop up from sleep.

The Gigabyte M32U has a few extra features, including:

• Virtual Crosshair: There are four virtual crosshairs to choose from.
• 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 the shadows.
• KVM: Allows quick keyboard and mouse switching between multiple connected computers.
• Dashboard: This feature allows you to display statistics from your computer like CPU and GPU temps, fan speeds, memory usage, etc.

It also supports Picture-in-Picture or Picture-by-Picture, allowing you to display two sources simultaneously, though this feature isn't available in HDR or if FreeSync is enabled.