GIGABYTE GS27Q gaming monitor review: A great gaming monitor with minor drawbacks

Published On: 24 Mar, 2025

Budget gaming monitors have come a long way and now pack features once reserved for flagship models — and all within the ₹20K price bracket. While high-end monitors now offer QD-OLED panels, HDMI 2.1, and DisplayPort 2.1, budget options remain an exciting space for both console and PC gamers. This neatly brings us to the GIGABYTE GS27Q. This is a 27-inch 1440p IPS monitor with a 165Hz refresh rate (overclockable to 170Hz), 1 ms response time, and solid connectivity. But is it the best you can get under ₹20K in India?

Table of Contents

Key Specifications at a Glance

Display Size: 27-inch
Display Resolution: 2560x1440p
Refresh Rate: 165Hz (OC to 170Hz)
Panel Type: IPS
Claimed Brightness: 300 nits
Connectivity: 2 x HDMI 2.0 ports, 1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x 3.5mm audio port
Height adjustment: No
Tilt adjustment: Yes (-5°~+20°)
Built-in Audio: No

Design

Simple and subtle is the best way to describe the design of the monitor. It has relatively thin borders on three sides, with the thickest bezel at the bottom with the GIGABYTE branding. It has a slim profile (for its price) and has a minimal stand that is easy to install. While there is tilt adjustment, there is no height adjustment in the monitor, it’s not something I needed as the height looks to be built on the “one size fits all” form factor we have come to expect from budget monitors.

Below the GIGABYTE branding, we have the standard single-button joystick that is used to power on/off the monitor as well as navigate the settings. It is easy to use. The connectivity options and power port are downward-facing, behind the monitor. If table-mounting isn’t your thing, you can also wall-mount the monitor.

HDR Performance

Before we get into the meat of the matter, let’s get one crucial factor out of the way – HDR performance. The monitor does not have dimming zones and boasts a peak brightness of 300 nits. This is in line with most budget TVs we’ve reviewed, and the HDR performance of the monitor is OK.

Don’t expect retina-burning brightness or the contrast we’ve seen from the GIGABYTE AORUS CO49DQ Gaming Monitor (review). While you can play games and watch content on this monitor in HDR, I highly recommend switching to SDR, as that gives the best experience.

Audio

The monitor does not have built-in speakers, which might be a dealbreaker for some. However, given the average quality of most monitor speakers, it’s not a huge loss. If you’re using the monitor for console or PC gaming, I highly recommend pairing it with a decent set of 2.1 speakers or headphones. Fortunately, the GS27Q has a 3.5mm audio output, making it easy to connect external speakers or headphones.

Performance

Let’s break down the performance into 4 sections – PC gaming, console gaming, content consumption and productivity.

PC Gaming

For PC gaming, I hooked up the monitor to the Dell Alienware X16 R2, whose specs and review you can check out here. On the PC I played some Baldurs Gate 3, Gears Tactics, Balatro and some Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. All the games look absolutely stunning and thanks to the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090 in the Alienware, I could enjoy all the glory of Ray-tracing on the monitor with acceptable framerates. While I used DLSS to upscale the game, the experience on the monitor was sublime.

Gears Tactics is a slightly older game so getting it to perform at a native 1440p resolution with all settings maxed out, I crossed the 170hz threshold of the monitor with ease. While the game has a lot of dark environments, I did notice some blooming playing in a pitch-dark room, but switch on a light in the room, and that problem goes away. However, it is important to note that blooming is a common issue with IPS panels, especially those with lower contrast ratios. This is not necessarily a defect of this specific monitor.

Of course, a lot of gamers will be eyeing this monitor for competitive shooters as well, so I also tested Valorant with this monitor. As expected, the 170Hz refresh rate comes in clutch, and I was able to frag enemies with ease. The 1ms response time isn’t the fastest out there for sure, but for the price tag, I’m not complaining, and most folks won’t be able to notice the difference.

Console Gaming

I hooked up both my PS5 and Xbox Series X to the monitor for some console gaming. The monitor only comes with HDMI 2.0 ports, so we can’t expect to take advantage of the HDMI 2.1 features offered on the consoles. On both the PS5 and Xbox Series X, you can drop the resolution to 1440p or 1080p in the settings for a higher refresh rate, but I have a different suggestion that gave me a stellar experience on the monitor. Keep the resolution output of the consoles to 4K. That way, you are targeting the best resolution the console has to offer. And since the monitor is 1440p, the image will be supersampled to 1440p, leading to a crisper image and an almost locked 60fps for most games.

I played games like Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Dirt 5, Astro Bot and Ratchet and Clank on the monitor, and it all worked very well. The image was very good with the reds and blues in Spider-Man’s suit looking vibrant and the cityscape looking immersive. Even in Grand Turismo 5, I played a music rally race in the night setting, and the game had visuals that popped. Ratchet and Clank has some fast-paced action, and the response was butter-smooth on the monitor.

Moving over to the Xbox, Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a stunning game to test displays, and the visuals did not disappoint here, either. The cherry on the cake was that the game rendered at 6K supersampled to 1400p on the display at 60FPS, making the experience truly sublime from a visual perspective.

Content Consumption

I played a standard slew of content, including TV shows and movies, on the monitor, and the experience was surprisingly good. You get a good amount of customisation options including picture presets like Standard and Movie. I consumed most of the content keeping the monitor in the Movie preset, keeping the brightness at full and changing the colour temperature to warm. Consuming TV shows like Young Sheldon or Succession, I chose the Standard preset as that worked well. The monitor settings are well laid out and easy to navigate.

Productivity

Even when it comes to productivity, the monitor works quite well. Since it is 1440p, the text is crisp and easy to read, be it on websites or when writing documents, the monitor works well for basic multitasking and with 45 tabs open in Chrome, I could navigate quite well. You can also play around with the settings to reduce the brightness and control the colour temperature for a comfortable experience during long productivity sessions.

Verdict

Let’s answer the Rs 20,000 question. Should you purchase the GIGABYTE GS27Q? The answer depends on what you are looking for. As of writing this review, the monitor is priced at Rs 19,300 on Amazon, and there are a few options available at this price range with homogenous specifications. What the GIGABYTE GS27Q has going for it is very good picture quality in SDR, decent connectivity options, and very good overall performance for gaming, productivity, and content consumption at the price point. What works against it is the average HDR performance.

Editor’s Rating: 8 / 10

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