Review on GIGABYTE M32U-SA: FreeSync Compatible 4K Ultra HD Monitor, 144Hz Refresh Rate, Adaptive Sync, HDMI Connectivity by James Davis

Last year I was lucky enough to get both the PS5 and the RTX 3070ti (paired with the Ryzen 9 5950X) at retail prices thanks to a lottery-style selection. But my 27-inch 1080p MSI Optix G27C4 monitor, while a great monitor, just didn't let my PS5 and PC flex their true muscles. I was dying to upgrade to 4K and a 32 inch screen and after some research the Gigabyte M32U turned out to be the best. is currently at the top of many lists. Then I noticed that the recently released M32UC was cheaper but also had better specs and since I'm the only one using it I didn't care that it was a curved VA panel. Despite the fact that there are very few reviews, I decided to take a chance and do it. I've only had the monitor for two days, but my first impressions are great! Firstly, assembly was easy, the base is very solid and the stand moves well although it doesn't really have the downward tilt I was looking for, but it does what it's supposed to. I'm happy to report that there were no stuck/dead/bright pixels on my monitor. If you buy it outside of the US, three different connection options will come out of the power supply. So don't worry about getting the right one with the right connector. Interestingly, the Power Brick is flat, making it look more like a never-before-seen Power Slab. It comes with all the cables you'll need anyway, including USB, DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 cables, but they're only about 3 feet long, the DP barely reaching my PC just below the left corner of my desk. The first impression of the monitor was pretty dim and I started to wonder if I had made a big mistake. Looking through the settings, I quickly realized that the default display setting is the "green" power saving setting. Switching to "Standard" made things much better, although the actual brightness setting is only 65. I found over 65 too light and hard on the eyes. I thought my old MSI monitor was bright at 100 so this is an upgrade. The M32UC is edge-lit, so there's noticeable brightness in the corners when the screen is dark, but it's still fairly dim thanks to its 3000:1 contrast ratio (the M32U's 1000:1 contrast ratio is worse). As I only got 8-bit color from this monitor, which the specs say it's capable of, but once I enabled HDR in Windows I actually got 10-bit color, which the specs doesn't list as fine . It also overclocks to 144Hz fairly easily, but can be overclocked to 160Hz in the display settings. The only PC game I've tried so far is WWE 2K22, which isn't that well optimized for PC, and the graphics are FPS-locked, so anything over 60fps speeds up, so it's not a great test game, but she looked amazing! On the PS5, it immediately recognized the HDR-capable monitor and walked me through some custom settings. I tested it with Horizon Forbidden West and the little one I was playing around with looked amazing. There was some ghosting when moving, but disabling overdrive in the monitor settings eliminated that immediately. I look forward to playing many more AAA games on this monitor! All in all this is just an amazing monitor that does everything I was looking for. I doubt I will ever use the KVM feature, I don't even know if I will use USB and I don't care, this monitor does everything I need and is worth the money! light weight, and the crate has a single handle at the top, and yet UPS put "Heavy" and "Teamlift" stickers all over the crate. :D