Last year I was luck enough to get both a PS5 and an RTX 3070ti (paired with a Ryzen 9 5950X) at retail prices thanks to some lottery style selections. But my 27" 1080p MSI Optix G27C4, while a fine monitor, just didn't let my PS5 and PC flex their true muscles. I really wanted to go 4K and 32" and after some research it looked like the Gigabyte M32U was the best there currently is coming in at the top of many lists. Then I noticed 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's a curved VA panel. Even though there are very few reviews out there I decided to take a chance and go for it.
I've only had the monitor for two days, but my first impressions are great! First off the assembly was easy, the base is very sturdy and the stand moves well, though it doesn't really have the down tilt I was looking for, but it does what it needs to. Happy to say there were no stuck/dead/bright pixels on my monitor. Also if you're buying this from outside of the US it does come with three different plug options coming out of the power brick so no worries of coming up with the right version with the right plug. Interestingly the power brick is flat so it's more of a power slab, never seen one of those before. Anyway, it comes with all of the cables you need including the USB, DP 1.4 and HDMI 2.1 cables, but they're only about 3 feet long, the DP just barely reached my PC just under the left corner of my desk.
Actually using the monitor my first impression was that it was pretty dark, and I was starting to wonder if I had made a big mistake. Going through the settings I quickly realized the default display setting is the low power "green" setting. Changing to "standerd" brightened things up considerably even though the actual brightness setting is only at 65. I found higher than 65 to be too bright and hard on the eyes. I thought my old MSI monitor was bright at 100 so this is quite the upgrade. The M32UC is edge lit so when the screen is dark there is a noticeable brightness in the corners, but it's still pretty dark thanks to its 3000:1 contrast (the M32U has a worse 1000:1 contrast). As is I was only getting 8bit color from this monitor which is what the specs say it's capable of, but once I turned HDR on in windows I actually got 10bit which is not listed in the specs so that's nice. Also it does 144Hz pretty easy, but it will overclock to 160Hz in the screen settings. Only PC game I've tried so far is WWE 2K22 which isn't all that well optimized on PC and the graphics are locked to the FPS so anything over 60FPS is sped up so it isn't a great test game but it did look fantastic!
On PS5 it recognized the monitor as HDR capable immediately and ran me through some special setups. Tested it out with Horizon Forbidden West and what little I messed around with looked incredible. There was some ghosting with movement, but turning off Overdrive in the monitor settings cleared that right up. I look forward to playing a lot more AAA titles with this monitor!
Overall it's just an amazing monitor that does everything I was looking for. I doubt I'll ever use the KVM function, I don't even know if I'll use the USB and I don't care, this monitor does everything I need it to, well worth the money!
Side note, it's pretty light weight and the box has a single carrying handle on the top, and yet UPS plastered "heavy" and "team lift" stickers all over the box. :D
| Standing screen display size | 31.5 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 3840x2160 |
| Max Screen Resolution | 3840 x 2160 Pixels |
| Number of USB 2.0 Ports | 1 |
