Author: Adam Simmons

Date published: April 24th 2020



As a veteran of the PC gaming market more broadly, it was only a matter of time before Gigabyte entered the gaming monitor scene. The first model released, through their AORUS sub-brand, was the AD27QD. A pretty solid initial showing, really, offering strong performance in many key areas. The Gigabyte AORUS FI27Q-P (and slightly cut-down FI27Q) follows up on this, slightly increasing the maximum refresh rate from 144Hz to 165Hz. The ‘P’ variant, which we’re reviewing here, also supports HBR3 (High Bit Rate 3) to enhance its bandwidth capabilities. Allowing the monitor to handle a 10-bit colour signal at high refresh rates and under HDR, rather than relying on GPU-level dithering to fill in some gaps. That just covers the ‘on paper’ changes, there’s potential for further tweaking that the specifications won’t tell you about. We put this monitor through its paces to see how it performs in our usual suite of ‘real world’ tests.





The monitor adopts a 27” AAS (Azimuthal Anchoring Switch) panel from Innolux technology. More specifically, an IPS-type (In-Plane Switching) iteration of AAS, which confusingly enough also comes in VA (Vertical Alignment) flavour. This supports a 2560 x 1440 resolution, 165Hz refresh rate and 10-bit colour (8-bit + FRC dithering). A 1ms MPRT (Moving Picture Response Time) is specified, with the monitor using its strobe backlight function. Some of the key ‘talking points’ for this monitor have been highlighted in blue below.





Screen size: 27 inches

Panel type: Innolux M270KCJ—K7B AAS (Azimuthal Anchoring Switch) LCD

Native resolution: 2560 x 1440

Typical maximum brightness: 350 cd/m²

Colour support: 1.07 billion (8-bits per subpixel plus dithering)

Response time (MPRT): 1ms

Refresh rate: 165Hz (variable, with Adaptive-Sync)

Weight: 8.0kg

Contrast ratio: 1000:1

Viewing angle: 178º horizontal, 178º vertical

Power consumption: 90W (max)

Backlight: WLED (White Light Emitting Diode)

Typical price as reviewed: $600 USD (£600)

The monitor has a ‘gameresque’ appearance from the front, with sharp lines and a fairly aggressive appearance. Matte black is used extensively without flashy RGB LEDs at the front or other flashes of colour. The overall styling is not too dissimilar to some recent Acer Predator models. The Y-shaped stand base has a matte black powder-coated metal finish, for a premium look and feel. The top and side bezels are quite slim, with a dual-stage (‘3-side borderless’) design. This includes a slender panel border that’s flush with the rest of the screen, plus a slim hard plastic outer component. The bottom bezel is thicker, matte black plastic with a central shiny silver-coloured AORUS logo, with a glossy black (mirror-finish) surround. The total thickness of the bezels is ~7.5mm (0.30 inches) at the top and sides and ~25mm (1.00 inch) at the bottom including a sliver of panel border. The main feature from the front is the 27” screen, with a light matte anti-glare finish as we explore later.





The OSD (On Screen Display) is controlled by a joystick at the bottom of the monitor, facing downwards beneath the central logo. Beneath this logo (facing forwards) is a small power LED that glows cool white when the monitor is on and amber when it enters a low power state. If preferred, you can disable the power LED during normal monitor operation in the OSD. The menu system and RGB LED lighting feature (controllable using ‘RGB Fusion 2.0’ software) is explored in the video below. We also look at the OSD Sidekick software as an alternative method of OSD control.





The screen is fairly slender at the side, ~16mm (0.63 inches) at thinnest point but lumping out further centrally at the stand attachment point. The stand offers full ergonomic flexibility; tilt (5° forwards, 21° backwards), swivel (20° left and 20° right), height (130mm or 5.12 inches) and pivot adjustment (90° clockwise rotation into portrait). At lowest height the bottom of the monitor sits ~70mm (2.76 inches) above the desk, with the top of the screen ~440mm (17.32 inches) above the desk surface. There’s also a carrying handle at the top of the stand neck poking up ~46mm (1.81 inches) above the top of the screen with the stand set to its lowest height. The total depth of the monitor including stand is ~250mm (9.84 inches), with the screen lined up well with the front edges of the stand base. The stand is therefore less of a desk depth hog than many models, particularly those with distinct ‘gaming monitor’ designs. It takes up a bit more desk space than some 27” models, however.





At the rear the monitor combines matte black and dark grey plastics with a few glossy plastic areas. These glossy elements include wing-like areas either side of the stand neck and a feature towards the top of the stand neck. Within these glossy areas there are embedded RGB LEDs. These include some linear patterns at the sides and a central AORUS flacon logo. Additional RGB LEDs are found in some glossy regions at the side of the stand neck. The RGB LED lighting feature is explored in the OSD video featured earlier in the review. The top of the stand neck includes a carrying handle, whilst the bottom includes a hexagonal cable-tidy loop. The included stand has a quick-release mechanism, with the screen easily removable by pinching two ‘buttons’ either side of the attachment point inwards. This will reveal 100 x 100mm VESA holes for alternative mounting. The ports face downwards and include; AC power input (internal power converter), 3.5mm headphone jack, 3.5mm microphone jack, 2 HDMI 2.0 ports, DP 1.4 (HBR3) and 2 USB 3.2 downstream ports (plus upstream). A K-Slot is located between the power input and headphone jack.





The full capability of the monitor including the 165Hz refresh rate, Adaptive-Sync (includes AMD FreeSync and Nvidia’s ‘G-SYNC Compatible Mode’) and HDR requires DP 1.4. The monitor leverages HBR3 via DP to allow these features to be used alongside 10-bit colour processing, where applicable. HDMI 2.0 is limited to 144Hz max and supports AMD FreeSync but not Nvidia’s ‘G-SYNC Compatible Mode’. Standard accessories include a DP cable, HDMI cable, USB cable and power cable. The images below show the refresh rates available for the Full HD resolution (top two images) and native WQHD resolution (bottom image), when using DisplayPort.





If connected via HDMI, a ‘4k x 2k, 3840 x 2160’ resolution is also listed, downsampling the ‘4K’ UHD resolution. This is shown in the image below. Such functionality is useful for devices such as games consoles that might not natively support the 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) resolution, so they’re able to use a ‘4K’ signal. PC users can also run this upscaled resolution if they wish, but it’s limited to 60Hz so using a similar feature in the graphics driver might make more sense.









The images below are macro photographs taken on Notepad with ClearType disabled. The letters ‘PCM’ are typed out to help highlight any potential text rendering issues related to unusual subpixel structure, whilst the white space more clearly shows the actual subpixel layout alongside a rough indication of screen surface. This model uses a light matte anti-glare screen surface with relatively smooth surface texture. This offers quite good glare handling, avoiding the sort of distinct reflections you’d see on a glossy screen. It also preserves clarity and vibrancy better than ‘stronger’ matte screen surfaces. There’s a light misty graininess when observing lighter content that most users will be fine with and many won’t even notice at all. The screen surface texture is just slightly less smooth than some competing models (using LG Nano IPS panels, for example) but significantly smoother than competing 27” WQHD VA models.







As illustrated above the standard RGB (Red, Green and Blue) stripe subpixel layout is used. This is the default expected by modern operating systems such as Microsoft Windows and Apple MacOS. You needn’t worry about text fringing from non-standard subpixel layouts as a Mac user and don’t need to run ClearType as a Windows user. You may still wish to run through the ClearType wizard and adjust according to preferences, however. The subpixel layout and arrangement is normal and we had no subpixel-related concerns related to sharpness or text clarity on this model.





The monitor includes a range of ‘Picture Mode’ image presets; ‘Standard’, ‘AORUS’, ‘FPS’, ‘RTS/RPG’, ‘Movie’, ‘Reader’, ‘sRGB’, ‘Custom 1’, ‘Custom 2’ and ‘Custom 3’. As is often the case most of these presets simply change various OSD settings that could simply be adjusted manually and some grey out various settings. We take a brief look at these in the OSD video, but for this section we’ll mainly focus on manual adjustments. The 3 numbered ‘Custom’ picture modes are useful as they give you full flexibility in the OSD and allow you to easily store and recall 3 different sets of settings. The following provides key readings (gamma and white point) taken using a DataColor SpyderX Elite colorimeter, alongside some general observations.

Our test system uses Windows 10 with an Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti, connected using the supplied DisplayPort cable. Additional testing was performed using an AMD Radeon RX 580 and also using HDMI 2.0, although observations in this table didn’t vary significantly between the GPUs or inputs. No additional monitor drivers or ICC profiles were specifically loaded. The screen was left to run for over 2 hours before readings were taken or observations made. Aside from our ‘Test Settings’ where various adjustments are made, assume factory defaults were used. The refresh rate was set to 165Hz in Windows, but that didn’t significantly affect the values or observations in this table. When viewing the figures in this table, note that for most PC users ‘6500K’ for white point and ‘2.2’ for gamma are good targets to aim for. Individual targets depend on individual uses, tastes and the lighting environment, however.

We upgraded the firmware to the latest available revision (‘F03’) using the OSD Sidekick utility available on Gigabyte’s website. This was a simple process that the software guides you through – it requires that the USB upstream cable is connected to the monitor.

Straight from the box the monitor provided a vibrant image with a noticeable cool tint. There was some shade crushing for more saturated shades due to the ‘Color Vibrance’ being set to ‘11’ rather than the neutral and optimal setting of ’10’. This was easily corrected. Gamma tracked closely to the desirable ‘2.2’ curve. The graph below shows gamma tracking under our ‘Test Settings’, which is similar to the factory defaults. Given the intended uses for monitor, inter-unit variation and strong performance with just OSD tweaking we will not be using any ICC profiles for this review. We wouldn’t recommend using them unless created for your specific unit with your own calibration device, either. We appreciate some users still like to use profiles and some aspects such as gamut mapping for colour-aware applications can be useful. You can download our ICC profile for this model if you wish, which was created using our ‘Test Settings’ as a base. But note again it is not used in this review.



Gamma 'Test Settings' The monitor also has a few different Low Blue Light (LBL) settings. Reducing blue light exposure is particularly important in the hours leading up to sleep as blue light is stimulating to the body and impacts sleep hormone levels. It keeps the body alert and makes it more difficult to relax, which isn’t conducive to relaxing. The main ‘Low Blue Light’ setting can be set to varying levels of effectiveness between ‘1’ (weakest effect) and ‘10’ (strongest effect). Using the strongest setting, there was a significant blue light reduction with a warmer and somewhat green tint to the image. The green tint was due to the green channel remaining relatively strong. We preferred the balance to the image using the alternative LBL setting, achieved by setting ‘Color Temperature’ to ‘Warm’. There was no green cast, which as we explore later has a minor contrast impact. We used this setting for our own viewing comfort in the evening, but not for specific testing outside of that involving the setting itself. It’s also worth noting that the panel used in this monitor has a shifted blue light energy peak from the usual 450nm to 455nm, regardless of whether LBL settings are being used or not. This may not sound like much, but it’s an important viewing comfort consideration for some users. It’s enough to give a potentially ‘gentler’ or ‘less harsh’ look to the image compared to models using the more common and energetic 450nm blue peak. This includes models using current LG Nano IPS panels, such as the ViewSonic XG270QG.



Test Settings Our ‘Test Settings’ involved switching to one of the ‘Custom’ presets and making a few tweaks including reducing brightness. The ‘Standard’ setting could also have been used, but ‘Color Vibrance’ is set to ‘11’ rather than the neutral (and optimal) value of ‘10’ under that preset. This can be adjusted, but it’s already set correctly with the ‘Custom’ presets. Note that individual units and preferences vary, so these settings are simply a suggestion and shouldn’t be expected to work optimally in all cases. Assume any setting not mentioned, including ‘Contrast’ and ‘Gamma’, was left at default. We’ve also included the refresh rate used in Windows and our preferred ‘Overdrive’ setting, just for reference. Note that these settings apply to SDR, which is used for the bulk of the review. HDR locks off most settings and configures things automatically.





Picture Mode = Custom 1 (other ‘Custom’ presets can be used if preferred) Picture Mode = Custom 1 (other ‘Custom’ presets can be used if preferred) Brightness= 30 (according to preferences and lighting) Color Temp. = User Define R= 98 Green= 100 Blue= 98 Overdrive= Speed FreeSync= On Refresh rate (Windows setting)= 165Hz

Contrast and brightness Contrast ratios An X-Rite i1Display Pro was used to measure the luminance of white and black using various monitor settings, including those discussed earlier. From these values static contrast ratios were recorded. As shown in the table below. Blue highlights indicate the results under our ‘Test Settings’ and with HDR active. Black highlights indicate the highest white luminance, lowest black luminance and highest contrast ratio recorded (HDR and ‘Aim Stabilizer’ deactivated). Assume any setting not mentioned was left at default, aside from the exceptions noted here or in the calibration section. Monitor Settings White luminance (cd/m²) Black luminance (cd/m²) Contrast ratio (x:1) 100% brightness 437 0.39 1121 80% brightness 366 0.32 1144 60% brightness 289 0.26 1112 40% brightness 211 0.19 1111 20% brightness 127 0.11 1155 0% brightness 36 0.03 1200 85% brightness (Factory Defaults) 385 0.34 1132 HDR* 434 0.41 1059 Gamma = 1 388 0.34 1141 Gamma = 2 387 0.34 1138 Gamma = 3 385 0.34 1132 Gamma = 4 384 0.34 1129 Gamma = 5 383 0.34 1126 Low Blue Light = 10 375 0.34 1103 Color Temperature = Warm 362 0.34 1065 Color Temperature = User Define 400 0.34 1176 Color Temperature = User Define (100% brightness) 456 0.39 1169 Picture Mode = Reader 233 0.26 896 Picture Mode = sRGB 162 0.15 1080 Aim Stabilizer @120Hz 131 0.12 1092 Aim Stabilizer @144Hz 151 0.13 1162 Aim Stabilizer @165Hz 158 0.14 1129 Test Settings 175 0.15 1167

*HDR measurements were made using this YouTube HDR brightness test video, running full screen at ‘1440p HDR’ on Google Chrome. The maximum reading from the smallest patch size (measurement area) that comfortably covered the entire sensor area and colorimeter housing was used for the white luminance measurement, which was ‘4% of all pixels’ in this case. The black luminance was taken at the same point of the video with the colorimeter offset to the side of the white test patch, equidistant between the test patch and edge of the monitor bezel.

The average static contrast with only brightness adjusted was 1139:1, quite respectable for the panel type. This was marginally higher under our ‘Test Settings’, at 1167:1. A contrast ratio beyond the specified 1000:1 was maintained under all settings tested, aside from the ‘Reader’ setting which lowered the ‘Contrast’ setting by default. The highest white luminance recorded was 437 cd/m², whilst the minimum white luminance recorded was 36 cd/m². This provides a luminance adjustment range of 401 cd/m², with a fairly low minimum and quite bright maximum. Activating HDR on the monitor yielded a peak brightness of 434 cd/m², slightly below the peak recorded under SDR but likely due to the backlight compensating slightly for the dark background surrounding the white square used in the test. There was no contrast advantage under HDR as the monitor does not support local dimming.

The monitor offers no local dimming and therefore there was no contrast benefit under HDR. The peak luminance recorded was 495 cd/m², using the ‘Game HDRi’ and ‘Cinema HDRi’ modes in a very bright room. And by this, we mean lots of sunlight streaming into the room on a bright day. These settings respond to ambient lighting using the ‘B.I.+’ technology discussed shortly, so the backlight brightness is raised as much as possible to try to compete with that bright ambient light. Dimmer luminance values were recorded in a moderately bright room (fairly bright day but no sun streaming directly in) and significantly dimmer in a dark room. Even in a moderately bright room the recorded luminance level was distinctly ‘non-HDR’ in terms of brightness levels and a fair bit below the peak luminance recorded under SDR even. The ‘Display HDR’ setting provided a rather bright 466 cd/m², although this was held back slightly due to the fact the test uses a white square surrounded by black rather than a white screen fill. This is more representative of actual viewing conditions, though, as you wouldn’t typically have the entire screen displaying white.

The monitor also includes a ‘Dynamic Contrast’ setting, allowing the backlight to adjust in a similar fashion under SDR as well. You can set this between ‘1’ and ‘5’ with a higher setting simply increasing gamma – even ‘1’ increases this significantly compared to the setting disabled under our ‘Test Settings’. You can manually adjust the brightness which allows you to cap the maximum luminance, so the setting only dims from there for darker content. This is a good flexibility to have and makes it a better implementation than many models offer, but we still prefer manually setting the brightness level.





PWM (Pulse Width Modulation)

The FI27Q-P does not use PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) under any brightness setting and instead uses DC (Direct Current) to regulate backlight brightness. The backlight is therefore considered ‘flicker-free’, which will come as welcome news to those sensitive to flickering or worried about the side-effects of PWM usage. The exception to this is with ‘Aim Stabilizer’ function active, as this is a strobe backlight function which causes the backlight to flicker at a frequency matching the refresh rate of the display.





Luminance uniformity