GIGABYTE M32UC Review: 32″ 4K Gaming Monitor

High-resolution screen
High pixel density
Good accuracy out of the box
Great gray uniformity
Excellent peak brightness
Has a Good Contrast

SKU: GIGABYTE-M32UC-MON Category: Monitors

The GIGABYTE M32UC Gaming Monitor offers high-end performance in a compact design. The M32UC delivers a seamless and bright gaming experience in 4K resolution with a 1ms response time, 144Hz (160Hz OC) refresh rate, and graphics card software compatibility.

The M32UC is a prominent gaming monitor with a high native resolution and a quick refresh rate. It’s comparable to the Gigabyte M32U, except instead of a flat IPS screen, it has a VA panel with a mild curvature, making it ideal for dim or gloomy environments. It’s built for console players, with HDMI 2.1 bandwidth for Xbox Series X and PS5 gamers, and it supports 4k @ 120Hz gameplay from both consoles. It’s part of Gigabyte’s M Series gaming monitors, which are meant for gaming but also provide fantastic productivity features like a built-in keyboard, video, and mouse switch, which allows you to switch between two distinct sources while controlling both with a single pair of keyboard and mouse.

Even with HDR enabled, the Gigabyte M32UC displays a pretty flat and poorly illuminated picture from the start. After experimenting with different brightness, contrast, color adjustments, and HDR settings, the visual experience were simply spectacular.

With 93 percent DCI-P3 ultra wide-gamut color, colors burst brilliantly with deep blacks. There is also an anti-glare coating, so playing in a brightly lit room or near a window with direct sunlight will not degrade the visual clarity. It was also a visual pleasure to edit images in Photoshop or watch Netflix movies.

The GIGABYTE M32UC incorporates SuperSpeed VA technology, which limits reaction times to 1ms, and the FreeSync deployment went off without a hitch. This enabled playing multiplayer modes in games like Call of Duty Vanguard and Halo Infinite, an entertaining and competitive experience.

Overclocking allows you to increase the refresh rate to 160Hz; however, this disables a variable refresh rate, which may be an issue for some. Buyers who want to go farther into tailoring their experience with the M32UC may use Gigabyte’s OSD Sidekick software, which allows for even more fine-tuning of picture and performance.

You may also like to read LG 34WP60C-B and Acer XFA240 bmjdpr Gaming G-SYNC Monitor Review

My Honest GIGABYTE M32UC Gaming Monitor Review

Thanks to some lottery-style picks, I could purchase a PS5 and an RTX 3070ti (coupled with a Ryzen 9 5950X) at retail pricing last year. But my 27 “1080p MSI Optix G27C4, although a good monitor, didn’t allow my PS5 and PC to show their true colors. I was hoping to go 4K and 32 “. After some investigation, it seemed that the Gigabyte M32U was the best presently available, topping several lists. Then I found that the newly introduced M32UC was cheaper and had superior specifications, and because I’d be the only one using it, I didn’t mind that it had a curved VA panel. Even though there are very few reviews, I decided to take a risk and go for it.

I’ve just had the monitor for two days, but I’m already impressed! First and foremost, construction was simple; the base was robust, and the stand slid smoothly; it lacked the down tilt I desired, but it served its purpose. I’m pleased to report that there were no stuck/dead/bright pixels on my display. Also, if you purchase this outside of the United States, it comes with three different plug choices out of the power brick, so you won’t have to worry about getting the correct version with the right plug. Interestingly, the power brick is flat, making it more of a power slab; I’ve never seen one before. It comes with all of the necessary connections, including USB, DP 1.4, and HDMI 2.1, but they’re just about 3 feet long, and the DP barely reached my PC right beneath the left corner of my desk.

My initial impression of the monitor was that it was rather gloomy, and I began to worry whether I had made a terrible mistake. Going through the options, I immediately discovered that the default display mode is a low-power “green.” Even though the natural brightness setting is only 65, switching to “standard” lightened everything up significantly. Higher than 65 was too bright and challenging on the eyes for me. My prior MSI monitor was brilliant at 100, which is a significant jump. The GIGABYTE M32UC is edge lighted, so while the screen is dark, there is substantial lighting in the corners, but it remains rather black due to its 3000:1 contrast ratio (the M32U has a worse 1000:1 contrast). As is, I was only receiving 8bit color from this monitor, which is what the specifications claim it can do, but after I enabled HDR in Windows, I got 10bit, which is not included in the specs, so that’s excellent. It also achieves 144Hz relatively quickly; however, it can be overclocked to 160Hz in the screen settings. So far, the only PC game I’ve played is WWE 2K22, which isn’t correctly optimized for PC, and the visuals are bound to the FPS, so anything above 60FPS gets sped up, so it’s not a great test game, but it did look wonderful!

The PS5 quickly identified the display as HDR enabled and guided me through some unique configurations. I tried it out with Horizon Forbidden West, and what little I toyed with looked fantastic. With movement, there was some ghosting, but turning off Overdrive in the display settings immediately cured it. I’m excited to play a lot more AAA games on this display!

Overall, GIGABYTE M32UC is a fantastic monitor that fulfills all of my requirements. I doubt I’ll ever use the KVM feature, and I’m not sure if I’ll ever use the USB, but I don’t care since this monitor does everything I need and is well worth the money!

Side note: the box is relatively light in weight, with a single carrying handle on the top, and yet UPS plastered “heavy” and “team lift” stickers.

Reviews

There are no reviews yet.

Be the first to review “GIGABYTE M32UC Review: 32″ 4K Gaming Monitor”

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Product Brand

Gigabyte