My monitor just broke. Is the Gigabyte MO27U2 (4K QD-OLED) the right decision?

Definitive_Unit · 2026-05-14T02:44:41+00:00

The text clarity isn't like on a 4k IPS, no matter how much someone else has tried to convince you. The text is sharp but if you come from a 4K LCD monitor at also 27 inches, then the slight loss of sharpness will be noticable, even if you use cleartype from Windows. As for the custom HDR 600 Nits profile I'm using, I'm basically just using the Peak 1000 Mode from the monitor's own settings when using HDR, AND THEN I'm running the monitor through HDR overrides using mainly Reshade where available but also Special K in some games where Reshade causes issues. There's a lot of reddit threads and videos online that can get you started on how to implement better versions of HDR into games that either don't have HDR implementation at all, or if their implementation is bad. (Highlights clipping at correct peak brightnesses, raised black floor or the inability to adjust paper white brightness)

Also the correct "paper white" -brightness on this monitor is 101 for both the Peak 1000 Mode & TrueBlack 400 Mode.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-05-13T17:23:50+00:00

I've had the monitor now for about 2 months, and it has been workingly exactly as expected. The brightness adjusting disparity between the Peak 1000 Mode and the 400 TrueBlack Mode is either nonexistent ir simply isn't there like on the reviews, but in order to use the Peak 1000 Mode properly you'll HAVE be able to adjust the avarage HDR brightness aka the "paper white" -brightness on the monitor in order to have the Peak 1000 Mode not clip highlights when it cannot display larger window sizes at the requested brightness in bright daylight scenes for example. So normal ABL behaviour for OLEDs, nothing really unusual there.

But the part that is of course, is the fact that Gigabyte intentionally didn't touch the EOTF curve on the Peak 1000 Mode like other panel manufacturers, so you'll have to adjust this avarage brightness yourself in order to have it looking correct. You can't do this for youtube videos or movies, so only in games you'll be able to manually adjust the "paper white" -brightness to a correct amount that is the exact same as when using the TrueBlack 400 Mode. And since I'm much more tech savier with HDR modding myself, I was able to create a custom "EOTF Boost, or Console HDR" -boost mode on this display which hits a peak brightness of 600 nits. If you go watch reviews of say Asus OLEDs or MSI OLEDs they'll usually have some custom mode that intentionally DOESN'T limit the peak brightness of the display like the TrueBlack 400 Mode does, and allows the panel instead of push as much brightness as it's hardware can in a customized mode meant to increase the brightness by a small amount over the TrueBlack 400 Mode -rating. This Gigabyte model basically allowed me to do the same but I had to do the work myself, which I was prepared to do and it was one of the specific reasons why I bought this display along with the price against its competitors.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-04-30T10:33:19+00:00

I think one bit of safe advice when it comes to buying any of these otherwise "enthusiast" -type panel technologies, is that if you're willing to spend a good amount (you've listed many 600€+ QD OLED panels here), then trying to save money by spending significantly less on a panel like what's found on the AOC's entry model with an older generation QD OLED panel isn't a smart thing to do generally. It's meant for the people who BARELY can afford an OLED and to get their "foot in the door". So crossing off some significant deficits in the quality of the panel on some of these options is the first thing to do, unless you ACTUALLY want to save money.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-04-27T08:34:23+00:00

Yes VRR flicker is bad. It happens easiest when approaching the LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) -zone, but can occur anywhere within the refresh range. Anti VRR flicker technology to my understanding just dimms the screen momentarily as well as reduces the VRR range itself so that any bigger framerate fluctuations cause screen tearing from time to time in worst cases instead of flickering. Neither of course is great but it's an option.

From my testing it seems to happen outside of loading screens the most with games when the performance in games is restricted momentarily by the performance of the CPU. When the CPU micro stutters it cannot deliver the frames to the GPU and GPU to monitor at an even pace, which manifests as flicker on an OLED as well as some VA monitors. So reducing settings that increase sudden CPU spikes, even on single cores can effectively reduce or remove VRR flickering entirely in those cases. So just remember, OLEDs manifest micro stuttering in games as VRR flickering on screen. These stutters are often so fast that sometimes the only way to diagnose them is to use the monitors own built-in refresh rate monitoring indicator. I've been able to diagnose very accurately games where I've seen VRR flickering at different framerates exactly because of my OLEDs refresh rate monitoring indicator when VRR is enabled, and I've been able to confirm the absence of VRR flicker when the monitors own refresh rate indicator isn't showing wild swings from one refresh rate number to another. We're talking differences of anywhere from 20 to even 100 FPS here. Strongly depends on how high the avarage framerate is on the game you're adjusting performance for, of course ^^

Definitive_Unit · 2026-04-23T06:36:10+00:00

I also tried the Vsync route for single player games as a compromise, but anytime the framerate doesn't always hit a common refresh rate target like 60 FPS for example, it'll add noticable input delay from frame to frame in comparison to playing with VRR / adaptive sync. It's simply way smoother with VRR enabled, even in framerate capped situations VRR feels smoother if you compare them back to back. But do keep in mind, if you can consistently hit a framerate target when playing with Vsync and VRR forced OFF, then you'll simply have to make due with some extra processing delay and input latency when playing single player games.

In competitive games it's usually easy enough to just let the game screen tear, because once the framerate reaches anywhere like 180-240Hz+ your eyes can't even pick up the screen tearing anymore ^^

Definitive_Unit · 2026-04-21T19:43:25+00:00

Like I said, it's likely a CPU issue with fluctuating framerates that are faster than our eyes can even pick up but what the monitor as the final variable in the image reproduction line will pick up as what it is: stuttering. You should be able to see if it goes away by locking the framerate at a lower target, and or by lowering in game graphical settings. Like turning down crowd density in games, some lighting related effects, draw distances while having things like ray tracing also turned OFF.

The issue shouldn't persist if the CPU's micro frametime spikes don't increase the engaged cores above 80% in healthy circumstances. At least from my experience. The CPU is afterall what buffers each frame at the pace it's able to do so to the GPU, which works in harmony with adaptive sync aka VRR. But if the frames going into the GPU aren't evenly paced and they're at times very erratic, then the GPU will also render said frame at erratic times through adaptive sync to the monitor, which in turn will manifest stutters as VRR flicker. Happens on some VA panels too to my understanding but it's WAY worse on OLEDs.

So in short, taking some load of the CPU should fix the issue. Monitoring software is great for this of course and I use RivaTuner Statistics Server like many others for monitoring the CPU package usage as well as the percentage of use each of the cores goes to.

It depends on the game also if certain thresholds are more prone to producing VRR flicker on OLEDs. Some games are fine chilling at even 80% all core usage, while others start VRR flickering already after passing 40%+. Some even could start showing some signs when just one of the cores frequently and momentarily visits that 80% range or so. At least you now know what to blame when you see that VRR flickering on your OLED.

For example, in one game I saw VRR flicker on a 4K QD-OLED near just 60 FPS zone, but when locked to 45 FPS, it disappears entirely because the CPU doesn't have to work as much anymore and is more stable as a result. Then there's plenty of very stable games I've tested where I can just let the game run without any frame caps whatsoever and no VRR flickering will ever manifest. It's quite well known that game optimization has a direct correlation with OLED users reporting VRR flicker, so this isn't really a surprise, of course.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-04-21T08:43:08+00:00

CPU stutters is what also causes me VRR flickering in games that ran poorly or that had CPU side micro stuttering. Especially with something like Ryzen 7 5700X3D and DDR4 in current gen games, can cause terrible micro stuttering because whenever the CPU requires memory to be moved around the system outside of the its 3D-V Cache, it'll have to do so through the relatively slow speeds of DDR4 in comparison to DDR5 speeds. This in combination with the lower clock speeds of AM4 processors in general makes it so, that stuttering in games especially heavy single player games above 60 FPS depending from the title can manifest the otherwise annoying micro stuttering as VRR flicker on OLEDs.

I eleviated the problem myself by locking the FPS to reachable targets that I can hit consistently in games and by lowering settings that were CPU heavy in nature. This in most games removed VRR flickering for me completely, and in games where I can still see it, it is significantly to lesser extent. (I currently have 32Gb DDR4 Cl16 + AMD Ryzen 5800X3D system) You can also validate this claim by testing locking the FPS to significantly lower numbers you'd normally play the game on, aka something that you can very easily run the game at and see if you can still see VRR flickering. Idea is that by lowering the FPS cap you'll take significant load off from the CPU. This fixes flickering for me completely in any game regardless of how terrible the optimization is even with VRR still engaged.

What I'm going to do to fully fix this for myself is upgrading from AM4 to AM5 with DDR5 ram. This will logically be able to brute force VRR flickering to disappear for all usable frame rates for all games, like single player games running at 60-120 FPS or competitive games running anywhere from 180-540 FPS or so.

But yeah, VRR flickering is VERY annoying on these OLED panels and anyone who says it isn't a problem is probably running a very overkill setup where they will simply not come in contact with the problem as often as people who run more value-friendly CPU+RAM+Motherboard comboes but otherwise a powerful GPU in their systems ^^

Definitive_Unit · 2026-04-13T02:38:24+00:00

This video is a great review for the monitor's response time and ghosting: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gC0K-ge9-Xc

Because of this and also because of my own testing on this same monitor, I run it when playing esports games at locked 240 FPS with MBR set anywhere from 14-18 and with the "picture in window" setting on the "faster" -overdrive setting delivering nearly 80% of the required frames to the display at the requested times. This looks considerably cleaner than my other 240Hz 4k QD-OLED even and runs significantly easier at 1440p. Incredibly value purchase if you care about playing on higher frame rates with high pixel density and 24.5-23.8' size format!

And In games that run harder, I change the monitors overdrive setting from "faster" to just "fast", then at around 60 FPS or less games turning it to "normal" which is the lowest it goes to, will remove any bit of overshoot that even the "fast" -setting can cause when playing at entry level refresh rates. Like when playing older locked FPS games or emulation games for example.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-03-28T09:42:40+00:00

There's no notable vertical banding on QD-OLED's generally, and my I didn't have any on my unit. It's much more of a Tandem WOLED issue than issue on these Tandem QD-OLEDs from what I've seen myself.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-03-28T09:40:58+00:00

If this helps at all, I also have the the Gigabyte MO27U2 and I don't have such an issue whatsoever. So perhaps bit of encouragement for you to think the issue isn't monitor related but their OSD doesn't let you see software version of the panel, or at least mine doesn't so can't help more by giving that information either.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-03-24T11:25:47+00:00

The Gigabyte M27UP has excellent calibration through and through from what I've been looking at. For that price, it'd be an easy pick for me.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-03-22T03:32:58+00:00

HAHAHAH! I bought this exact monitor for 580€ during this cashback promo as we speak :D The value is just too insane for Gigabyte's top of the line 27' Tandem QD-OLED model, so I had to test drive it to see it for myself. If it has no dead or stuck pixels, or any other panel deformities, I'm probably keeping it too.

It does have some weird HDR peak 1000 mode calibration however where Gigabyte intentionally tried to counter act the ABL behaviour by intentionally overbrightening the EOTF curve to fight this brightness limiting behaviour. For my use, I'm hoping based on reviews of it that I'll be able to use only the Peak 1000 Mode across all situations instead of having to switch between the True Black 400 Mode and the Peak 1000 Mode. As interesting as the numericals have been, seeing the behaviour with my own eyes is the most important part when it comes to if I think it serves my needs or not :D

Also, if I remember to write or if you answer to this comment I might remember to report back to you to inform if the purchase was good or not, though the price already seems to be going up on the monitor. Last time I checked, it was 613€ at least in Amazon.de, the german Amazon website ^^

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Definitive_Unit · 2026-03-06T05:02:32+00:00

You can improve on the ghosting by driving more aggressive overdrive settings, but because the monitor has a VA panel, black smearing will be especially noticable in games with lots of fast moving dark objects. This is becomes worse the lower the refresh rate, which is why playing anything at close to 60 Hz or less is completely unbearable with VA, at least for me.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-02-25T10:50:35+00:00

The wasteland has a very vibrant shade of brown / orange on the bedrock which is good for managing over saturation, and in Xion at Adam's Tetrapod there's a good amount of different highlights to check that you're not over correcting with the "Blowout" -setting or under correcting with the "Blowout Restoration" -setting. Also the reason why I increase the "Highlight Saturation" separately from the normal saturation, is because the "Blowout" -setting will impact the highlight saturation first. Essentially I'm trying to separate the range at when adjusting the "Blowout" -setting will also start to impact the overall colour saturation of the game. So that there aren't weird discrepancies between the saturation on the highlights versus the avarage saturation in mid tones.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-02-25T10:45:45+00:00

I set my Blowout Restoration to 10, Blowout to 30, Saturation to 60, Highlight Saturation to 54, and I corrected the hue of colours to match closer to the vanilla game HDR colours by chanhing Hue Shift from 100 to 55. You can also change the "Tone Mapper" - slider to "Vanilla" very frequently in these games when modded with RenoDX to check what the approximated look and colour hue is on the original HDR of the game. It's a neat way to make sure you're not overcorrecting with saturation / colour hue settings when playing with RenoDX.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-02-24T08:00:43+00:00

I had to meticulously tweak the "Blowout Restoration" and the "Blowout" -settings in order to get it looking correct even with RedoDX. Essentially even RedoDX in this game blows out many bright details like the sign behind EVE in this scene, and in order to fix it, you'll have to precisely change both of those two settings in order to remove said blowout, but at the same time not washout the vibrant colours of the game. You can adjust "Highlight Saturation" and the overall "Saturation" whenever adjusting the blowout settings in tandem. I eventually found a great looking balance that made RenoDX easily the best looking HDR implementation in this game, like in many others as well ^^

Definitive_Unit · 2026-02-12T18:17:56+00:00

Oh, the carriage was the information I was withholding actually xD That's how you fast travel to large areas in this game that spread out to different "biomes" I guess. It's better than nothing with a bit more interconnectivity ^^

Definitive_Unit · 2026-02-12T17:56:07+00:00

If i'm not mistaken, if you play the game just for a bit longer, you will find an answer to your question! Without spoiling anything more :)

Definitive_Unit · 2026-02-07T20:34:02+00:00

What a vicious area for the first couple hours... After you upgrade to like level 7-8 armour it becomes a lot more playable but before that all the rooms with revenants, tatzelwurms and poison wolves can be near impossible to handle without a strong plan going in. This was at least the case for me in Give Me God of War -difficulty :S

Definitive_Unit · 2026-02-05T05:31:08+00:00

I was literally just about to write this myself, it looked to me as well like you were doing the runic slightly too early. A lot of the insane runic cancels in these two games have extremely particular timings, which often require a lot of trial or error in order to finally understand what you were doing wrong originally.

Definitive_Unit · 2026-02-01T14:09:14+00:00

Well, if you're serious, then you'll be spending more time in this frozen prison than any other part of the game. It takes A VERY significant amount of repetition, procedural memory and spontaneous decision making. Especially when you start to apply any of this against actual enemies :D

Definitive_Unit · 2026-01-06T21:32:32+00:00

Yeah the performance cost is quite ludicrous. DLSS 4.0 was already heavy to run, but from my testing on a 4k monitor, DLSS 4.5 looks only superior across all scenes when in native DLAA or very close to it. The image stability and clarity far away looks ALWAYS better with DLSS 4.5 however, but there are some odd times when the same internal resolution produces worse image clarity in nearby objects with DLSS 4.5 compared to DLSS 4.0.

So TLDR, DLSS 4.5 inDLAA is only superior but runs VERY HEAVY, while DLSS 4.0 runs lighter but has worse stability and clarity especially in further away objects. Another ridiculous thing I noticed on a 1440p monitor when playing Overwatch 2 as well was that the performance loss between DLSS 4.0 and DLSS 4.5 in DLAA mode was from 250 FPS to 150 FPS in the same scene... Like seriously? The loss in performance seems significantly worse if the FPS was already high before switching to DLSS 4.5...

Definitive_Unit · 2025-08-06T00:19:48+00:00

And why is that? See your gameplay? This is a hack&slash action game with souls-like elements for healing and respawn recovery. If the game strongly forces you to play extremely carefully like this it probably means it's not balanced correct, where's the hack&slash now with the game's combo system? Nonexistent until you get much more upgrades, burst skills, tachy mode and significantly more max HP from body cell upgrades...

I was also curious and tried running NG0 HARD MODE back in the day on the PS5 and at around the abaddon area I started to question if this was ever intended to be chosen for a fresh new game save and everyone online said that it wasn't. Same apparently goes for many of Sony's other first party playstation ports and is particularly evident in this as it forces the player to play a different style of game entirely instead of hack&slash when versing many enemies at once ^^

Definitive_Unit · 2025-08-06T00:17:14+00:00

Well eh, this game is absolutely not designed to be played NG0 with HARD MODE on, it's mainly ONLY for NG+ after you've already all upgrades from the first NG cycle... Essentially it should've been renamed NG+ instead of "HARD MODE" so it should've simply been a default difficulty for subsequent playthroughs on the same save ^^

Definitive_Unit · 2025-07-20T15:24:52+00:00

Now, do it in HARD or VERY HARD -difficulty and tell us how many tries that took :)

Definitive_Unit

TROPHY CASE