Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD

Interlace pattern artifacts

On some monitors, particularly but not exclusively those with high refresh rates, interlace patterns can be seen during certain transitions. We refer to these as ‘interlace pattern artifacts’ but some users refer to them as ‘inversion artifacts’ and others as ‘scan lines’. They may appear as an interference pattern, mesh or interlaced lines which break up a given shade into a darker and lighter version of what is intended. They often catch the eye due to their dynamic nature, on models where they manifest themselves in this way. Alternatively, static interlace patterns may be seen with some shades appearing as faint horizontal or vertical bands of a slightly lighter and slightly darker version of the intended shade. We did not observe either artifact type on this monitor.

Responsiveness

Input lag

We used a small tool called SMTT 2.0 and a sensitive camera to compare the AD27QD’s latency with a screen of known latency. To help maximise accuracy, over 30 repeat readings were taken. Using the method, we measured 3.43ms (a little under 1 frame @144Hz) of input lag. There was no measurable difference depending on the ‘FreeSync’ setting in the OSD. This value is influenced both by the element of input lag you ‘feel’ (signal delay) and the element you ‘see’ (pixel responsiveness). It indicates a low signal delay which shouldn’t bother even sensitive users. We don’t have the means to accurately measure input lag with FreeSync active in a variable refresh rate environment or with HDR active in an HDR environment.

Perceived blur (pursuit photography)

Our article on responsiveness explores some of the key concepts surrounding monitor responsiveness. Chief amongst these is the concept of perceived blur, which is contributed to by both the pixel responsiveness of the monitor and the movement of your eyes as you track motion on the screen. This second factor is dominant on modern monitors, although slower than optimal pixel responses are still an important contributor. We also look at ‘pursuit photography’, an image capture technique which uses a moving camera to capture motion on a screen in a way that reflects both elements of perceived blur.

The images below are pursuit photographs taken using the UFO Motion Test for ghosting, where the UFO moves across the screen from left to right at a frame rate matching the refresh rate of the display. The test is set to run at its default speed of 960 pixels per second, which is a practical speed for such photographs and sufficient to help highlight key weaknesses. The monitor was tested at 60Hz (directly below), 120Hz and 144Hz with all of the ‘Overdrive’ settings tested; ‘Picture Quality’, ‘Balance’ and ‘Speed’. All rows of the UFO Motion Test were used, to show a range of pixel transitions between various shades. The final columns show some reference screens for comparison, where possible. The first is the ViewSonic XG2703-GS, a G-SYNC competitor to this model. Whilst the second is the ViewSonic XG240R, a fast and well-tuned TN model (particularly at high refresh rates) that shows how things look where pixel responsiveness isn’t really a limiting factor.

At 60Hz, shown above, the UFO appears relatively softly focussed without sharp detail. This reflects a significant level of perceived blur due to eye (camera) movement. This aspect is shared with the reference shots, even the top right shot (XG240R, dark background) where pixel responsiveness is excellent for this refresh rate. There is also varying degrees of trailing behind the UFOs, caused by weaknesses in pixel responsiveness. The ‘Picture Quality’ setting offers the weakest level of acceleration, giving significant powdery trailing behind the object – particularly for the dark background (top row). The ‘Balance’ setting increases the effectiveness of the pixel overdrive, getting rid of some of this ‘powdery’ trailing. A little overshoot is introduced in places, particularly for the light background, but this is minor. The ‘Speed’ setting removes any trace of conventional trailing and instead provides strong overshoot. You can see bright and eye-catching colourful blue trailing behind the object. From this analysis and broader observations, we’d consider ‘Balance’ to be the optimal setting at 60Hz. The following image shows how things look with the refresh rate doubled, to 120Hz.

At 120Hz, shown above, the UFO is significantly narrower and more sharply focused. This reflects a significant decrease in perceived blur due to eye movement. Varying degrees of trailing can be seen behind the UFOs, again reflecting some weaknesses in pixel responsiveness. The ‘Picture Quality’ setting clearly uses a level of pixel overdrive that’s too weak and ineffective for this refresh rate. There is significant trailing behind the object, with a bold appearance – particularly for the dark and medium backgrounds. The ‘Balance’ setting’ decreases this somewhat, although there are still distinct weaknesses. The ‘Speed’ setting reacts very differently to at 60Hz. It does introduce overshoot in the form of bright ‘halo’ trails, particularly for the medium and light background, but this isn’t as extreme as it was at 60Hz. From broader analysis we consider ‘Speed’ to the optimal setting at this refresh rate. The image below shows what things look like with a slight bump up in refresh rate to 144Hz.

At 144Hz, above, the UFO appears very slightly narrower and more sharply focused. This indicates a slight decrease in perceived blur due to eye movement – not an extraordinary change, this is only an extra 24Hz after all. The overall pixel response behaviour is similar to at 120Hz. We again consider the ‘Speed’ setting optimal. The XG2703-GS reference shot shows some overshoot, but it’s darker and more blended (with a slightly ‘dirty’ appearance rather than ‘halo’ trailing) – in practice, this doesn’t stand out as much. The XG240R, meanwhile, gives something of a pixel responsiveness master class with a very ‘clean’ 144Hz performance. Free from any real overshoot or conventional trailing.

As well as increasing refresh rate to minimise perceived blur due to eye movement, the monitor offers an alternative in the form of its ‘Aim Stabilizer’ feature. This is a strobe backlight setting that causes the backlight to pulse at a frequency matching the refresh rate of the display – either 120Hz or 144Hz. Using this mode the backlight flickers – individual sensitivity to this flickering varies. Some users may notice accelerated eye fatigue when using this setting even if they aren’t actively noticing any flickering. The pursuit photographs below were taken with the monitor set to 144Hz using its ‘Aim Stabilizer’ feature. Results at 120Hz were very similar, we decided not to include them and dedicate time to analysing them for this reason. A few reference screens are also shown for comparison, using their respective strobe backlight settings at 144Hz. The AOC AG251FG using ULMB (‘Ultra Low Motion Blur’) and a Samsung C24FG70 using ‘Impulsive Scanning’.

With ‘Aim Stabilizer’, you can see that the object itself appears significantly sharper with much clearer details. You can even count the notches on the UFO body now (more or less). This indicates a significant decrease in perceived blur due to eye movement, which is the main aim of a strobe backlight setting such as this. However; you can also see a lot of trailing behind the object. This is fragmented due to the strobing nature of the backlight using this setting. There is some overshoot in places (bright ‘halo’ trailing’) but also some bold repetitions of the object itself. These repetitions are due primarily to the pixel responses not keeping up with the rigorous demands of the refresh cycle. The all-encompassing term ‘strobe crosstalk’ is used to describe this fragmented trailing around the object (behind in these examples – but it can also be in front). Because not all areas of the screen refresh simultaneously, the appearance of strobe crosstalk can differ depending on how high up or low down on the screen the movement is being observed. The image below shows pursuit photographs running from the top to bottom regions of the screen, with the monitor set to 144Hz and using ‘Aim Stabilizer’.

You can see considerable strobe crosstalk throughout the screen. Further up the screen it is fainter and it’s more overshoot that’s visible. A little further down (still above centre) a bold initial trail becomes apparent, getting bolder further down the screen. In the centre of the screen, which is where your eyes spend much of their time when gaming, it’s about as bold as the object itself. This has significant implications for motion clarity using this setting, as we explore shortly. Further down the screen there is essentially a replication of the object in front and behind due to heavy strobe crosstalk – quite messy.

Responsiveness in games and movies

On Battlefield V, where the frame rate kept pace with the 144Hz refresh rate, the monitor provided a responsive look and feel overall. With up to 2.4 times as much information being displayed each second compared to a 60Hz monitor (at 60fps), there was excellent precision and fluidity when interacting with the game world. This is an important part of what we call a strong ‘connected feel’ – the low input lag also helped in this respect, but that alone doesn’t deliver the sort of high refresh rate high frame rate feeling on offer here. This high refresh rate and frame rate combination also delivered a significant decrease in overall perceived blur compared to lower frame rates or refresh rates. This gave a nice competitive edge in terms of making tracking and engaging enemies easier. And some users would simply find this less ‘dizzying’ than gaming on significantly slower screens.

There were some weaknesses in terms of pixel responsiveness, however. Although most pixel transitions occurred fast enough for a very competent 144Hz performance, some pixel transitions were slower than optimal. Even using our preferred ‘Speed’ overdrive setting. These weaknesses were most evident for some very light and very dark shades (high contrast transitions) and formed a ‘powdery’ trailing that extended back from the object a bit. This was nowhere near as noticeable as the sort of ‘smeary’ trailing you’d typically see for such transitions on a VA model, however. And it was secondary to a more noticeable issue; overshoot. There was a moderate amount of this in places, particularly where lighter shades were involved in the transition. Playing on brighter maps revealed this usually as a sort of over-sharpening during movement due to widespread ‘halo’ trailing that is brighter than either the object or background colour. There were some less subtle and more eye-catching examples of overshoot as well. Such as the bright flashes of cyan that trailed behind dark grey or green aircraft as they moved against brighter areas of sky. Or moving past lightly painted buildings with fairly deep (saturated) blue sky in the background, producing overshoot trailing that was significantly brighter than the object or background colour. Scrolling pages with dark text on a light background on the desktop revealed this stronger overshoot as well. Overall, the overshoot was more noticeable and widespread than on the Dell S2719DGF and somewhat more noticeable than on the S2716DG we tested, using our preferred settings in all cases. But it wasn’t what we’d consider extreme overshoot and isn’t something every user would find bothersome. Some examples of this are shown in the video below.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider provided a similar experience in that there was significant benefit from the 144Hz refresh rate, at high frame rates. And the monitor provided snappy pixel responses overall. There were again some instances of ‘powdery’ trailing, but more noticeable were some instances of overshoot. Again, the most noticeable examples of this were bright ‘halo’ trails that occurred in some scenes, such as when moving past medium-grey rocks against brighter areas of sky. The overshoot here was not extreme, but was moderate overall with some isolated examples of strong overshoot – so sensitive users may find it a bit bothersome. We don’t feel using the ‘Balance’ setting is a worthy compromise, because whilst it greatly reduces overshoot it also tones down the pixel response speeds too much for a decent 144Hz high frame rate performance. There are then obvious weaknesses including ‘heavy powdery’ and ‘smeary’ trailing typical of what you might expect to see on some VA models. This ‘Balance’ setting gives a much weaker performance than on the Dell S2719DGF using its low-overshoot ‘Normal’ setting, too.

We also observed movie and video content at a variety of frame rates, including ~24 – 30fps and 60fps content. Naturally, such content didn’t put the refresh rate of the monitor to such good use – but weaknesses were not really pronounced, either. There were some instances of overshoot even for the lowest frame rate content (~24fps), but this was not widespread, it was short and sharp and not something we found eye-catching. There were no obvious weaknesses in terms of slower than optimal pixel responses. So overall, a good performance from the monitor for such content – and it’s really the frame rate of the content itself that’s the main barrier to fluidity.

FreeSync – the technology and activating it

AMD FreeSync is a variable refresh rate technology, an AMD-specific alternative to Nvidia G-SYNC. Where possible, the monitor dynamically adjusts its refresh rate so that it matches the frame rate being outputted by the GPU. Both our responsiveness article and the G-SYNC article linked to explore the importance of these two elements being synchronised. At a basic level, a mismatch between the frame rate and refresh rate can cause stuttering (VSync on) or tearing and juddering (VSync off). FreeSync also boasts reduced latency compared to running with VSync enabled, in the variable frame rate environment in which it operates.

FreeSync requires a compatible AMD GPU such as the Radeon RX 580 used in our test system. There is a list of GPUs which support the technology here, with the expectation that future AMD GPUs will also support the feature. The monitor itself must support ‘VESA Adaptive-Sync’ for at least one of its display connectors, as this is the protocol that FreeSync uses. The AD27QD supports FreeSync via DP and HDMI on compatible GPUs and systems. Note that HDR can be activated (at the same time as FreeSync) via DP 1.2+ or HDMI 2.0. If fully installed, AMD drivers feature Radeon Settings, which makes activation of the technology very simple and something that usually occurs automatically. First make sure that you have ‘FreeSync’ set to ‘ON’ in the ’Gaming section of the OSD. You should then make sure the GPU driver is setup correctly to use FreeSync, so open ‘AMD Radeon Settings’ and click on ‘Display’. You should then ensure that the first slider, ‘AMD FreeSync’, is set to ‘On’. If you hover over this, it will also report the variable refresh rate display supported by the display.



The Gigabyte AORUS supports a variable refresh rate range of 48 – 144Hz. That means that if the game is running between 48fps and 144fps, the monitor will adjust its refresh rate to match. When the frame rate rises above 144fps, the monitor will stay at 144Hz and the GPU will respect your selection of ‘VSync on’ or ‘VSync off’ in the graphics driver. With ‘VSync on’ the frame rate will not be allowed to rise above 144fps, at which point VSync activates and imposes the usual associated latency penalty. With ‘VSync off’ the frame rate is free to climb as high as the GPU will output (potentially >144fps). AMD LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) is also supported by this model, which means that the refresh rate will stick to multiples of the frame rate where it falls below the 48Hz (48fps) floor of operation for FreeSync. If a game ran at 40fps, for example, the refresh rate would be 80Hz to help keep tearing and stuttering at bay. This feature is used regardless of VSync setting, so it’s only above the ceiling of operation where the VSync setting makes a difference.

VSync is configured in the ‘Gaming’ section of ‘Radeon Settings’, where it is referred to as ‘Wait for Vertical Refresh’. You can either configure this globally under ‘Global Settings’ or for each game individually. The default is ‘Off, unless application specifies’ which means that VSync will only be active if you enable it within the game itself, if there is such an option. Such an option does usually exist – it may be called ‘sync every frame’ or something along those lines rather than simply ‘VSync’. Most users will probably wish to enable VSync when using FreeSync to ensure that they don’t get any tearing. You’d therefore select either the third or fourth option in the list, shown in the image below. The final option, ‘Enhanced Sync’, is a relatively new addition to the driver. This is an alternative to VSync which allows the frame rate to rise above the refresh rate (no VSync latency penalty) whilst potentially keeping the experience free from tearing or juddering. This requires that the frame rate comfortably exceeds the refresh rate, not just peaks slightly above it. We won’t be going into this in detail as it’s a GPU feature than a monitor feature.



Some users prefer to leave VSync enabled but use a frame rate limiter set a few frames below the maximum supported (e.g. 141fps) instead, avoiding any VSync latency penalty at frame rates near the ceiling of operation or tearing from frame rates rising above the refresh rate. If you enable ‘Refresh Rate’ under ‘AORUS Info’ in the ‘GameAssist’ section of the OSD, this will display the refresh rate of the display and therefore indicate the frame rate if ‘FreeSync’ is active and the frame rate is within the variable refresh rate range of the display. Finally, it’s worth noting that FreeSync only removes stuttering or juddering related to mismatches between frame rate and refresh rate. It can’t compensate for other interruptions to smooth game play, for example network latency or insufficient system memory. Some game engines will also show stuttering (or ‘hitching’) for various other reasons which won’t be eliminated by the technology.

FreeSync – the experience

We used this monitor with various game titles, with FreeSync enabled, and as usual found things works much the same way on all titles. If any issues were identified on one title but not another, it would indicate an issue with the game or GPU driver rather than the monitor. We’ll therefore simply focus on a single title for this section; Battlefield V. With a high level of flexibility with its graphics options, this is also a suitable title to use to test the full range of refresh rates supported. With the Radeon RX 580 used in our test system, maintaining a consistent 144fps at 2560 x 1440 was difficult on this title. Even with some significant graphical compromises, dips below this were common. Without FreeSync active, these dips resulted in obvious (to us) tearing if VSync was disabled or stuttering if VSync was enabled. Even if the dip was only very slight. Sensitivity to such issues varies, but we were certainly glad to see FreeSync take care of these issues by eliminating frame rate and refresh rate mismatches.

Driving up the graphics further and bringing average frame rates closer to 100fps again highlighted the advantages of the technology. Tearing and stuttering from refresh rate and frame rate mismatches was eliminated, helping this flow better. The reduced frame rate was still noticeable to us, however. The level of perceived blur was significantly higher than at 144fps and ‘connected feel’ was noticeable worse. The overall perceived blur level and ‘connected feel’ was still quite decent at ~100fps, though, and playability was certainly better than at significantly lower frame rates. A particular issue we had, though, was that the already moderate to strong overshoot now became stronger and in some cases quite extreme. There were bright ‘halo’ trails that really caught the eye and these were quite common. Reducing the ‘Overdrive’ setting to ‘Balance’ greatly reduced the overshoot, but there were some notable instances of conventional trailing instead. Particularly where darker shades were involved in the transition, there was almost a VA panel like smeary quality. This was reduced somewhat compared to at higher frame rates, simply as the pixel response demands are lower, but it still significantly impacted perceived blur.

As frame rate dropped further (due to ramping up graphical settings, for example), FreeSync still did its thing. But the overshoot levels became extreme – if you’re frequently well into the double digits, closer to 50fps than 100fps, we’d actually recommend sticking with the ‘Balance’ overdrive setting. It certainly isn’t perfect as there are still some stand-out weaknesses in pixel responses (‘powdery trailing’) that aren’t present with the ‘Speed’ setting. But the lower pixel response requirements at these reduced frame rates meant they didn’t stand out in the same way and didn’t impact the perceived blur so severely. It is common for FreeSync models to exhibit issues such as more noticeable overshoot when refresh rate decreases, although this model was even worse than average in that respect. It’s something that G-SYNC models generally handle a lot better, with Nvidia employing ‘variable overdrive’ that slackens off the aggressiveness of the pixel overdrive appropriately as refresh rate reduces. FreeSync monitors such as this tend to be tuned for their maximum refresh rate and don’t adjust the response behaviour (reduce acceleration levels) appropriately as refresh rate reduces, leaving behind more extreme overshoot. This is tied to a drop in refresh rate, specifically, so isn’t observed if you run the monitor at a static 144Hz even if the frame rate drops.

Where the frame rate dipped below the floor of operation for FreeSync (48fps / 48Hz, LFC (Low Frame Rate Compensation) kicked in. This kept tearing and stuttering from frame rate and refresh rate mismatches at bay, ensuring an even division of the frame rate into the refresh rate. There was a momentary stuttering when this activated or deactivated, something we commonly observe, but this was not extreme and isn’t something most users will notice unless they’re consistently passing the LFC boundary (48fps).

Nvidia Adaptive-Sync (‘G-SYNC Compatible’)

As noted earlier, AMD FreeSync makes use of Adaptive-Sync technology on a compatible monitor. As of driver version 417.71, users with Nvidia GPUs (GTX 10 series and newer) and Windows 10 can also make use of this Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) technology. When a monitor is used in this way, it is something which Nvidia refers to as ‘G-SYNC Compatible’. The AD27QD is amongst models which are specifically validated as G-SYNC compatible, which means it has been specifically tested by Nvidia and passes specific quality checks. With the AD27QD, you need to connect the monitor up via DisplayPort and enable ‘FreeSync’ in the ‘Gaming’ section of the OSD. When you open up Nvidia Control Panel, you should then see ‘Set up G-SYNC’ listed in the ‘Display’ section. Ensure the ‘Enable G-SYNC, G-SYNC Compatible’ checkbox and ‘Enable settings for the selected display model’ is checked as shown below. Press OK, then turn the monitor off then on again so that it re-establishes connection – the technology should now be active.



As noted previously and as highlighted in Nvidia Control Panel, this model has been specifically tested and validated as ‘G-SYNC Compatible’ by Nvidia. The experience using Nvidia Adaptive-Sync (G-Sync Compatible Mode) was very similar to the experience using AMD FreeSync on this model. This includes HDR being supported whilst Adaptive-Sync is active. A slight difference is that the floor of operation appeared to be 60Hz (60fps) rather than 48Hz (48fps). However; an LFC-like technology was supported, with the monitor keeping at a multiple of the frame rate with its refresh rate. If anything this was preferable to having the refresh rate dip below 60Hz due to the even more extreme overshoot that would introduce. Although, even at 60Hz or anything near it, we’d still describe the overshoot as pretty extreme using the ‘Speed’ setting of the OSD. As noted in the FreeSync section, pixel overdrive tuning for a broad range of refresh rates is certainly something that Nvidia G-SYNC models handle better than this one.

Our suggestions regarding use of VSync also apply, but obviously you’re using Nvidia Control Panel rather than Radeon Settings to control this. The setting is found in ‘Manage 3D settings’ under ‘Vertical sync’, where the final option (‘Fast’) is equivalent to AMD’s ‘Enhanced Sync’ setting. You’ll also notice ‘G-SYNC Compatible’ listed under ‘Monitor Technology’ in this section, as shown below. Make sure this is selected (it should be if you’ve set everything up correctly in ‘Set up G-SYNC’).



Finally, note again that you can activate ‘Refresh Rate’ under ‘AORUS Info’ in the ‘GameAssist’ section of the OSD, to see if the technology is working. This will rapidly adjust as frame rate fluctuates, whereas if Adaptive-Sync isn’t being used it will stay at the static refresh rate you’ve selected.

Aim Stabilizer

We’ve already introduced the ‘Aim Stabilizer’ feature, its principles of operation and how it performs using specific tests. When using ‘Aim Stabilizer’ or any strobe backlight feature, it’s imperative that your frame rate matches the refresh rate of the display exactly. Without this, you’re left with extremely obvious stuttering or juddering. This stands out particularly well because there is very little perceived blur due to eye movement to mask it. As we demonstrated in the previous section, there was significant strobe crosstalk with this feature active. This was reflected on our in-game testing, including with Battlefield V running at a solid 144fps and the monitor set to 144Hz (lower refresh rates with matching frame rates told a similar story). There were fragmented trails in places due to the strobe crosstalk that were only slightly fainter than the main object, plus some obvious overshoot (bright trailing) for some transitions. We found this very distracting and it significantly hampered motion clarity, preventing this from being a ‘clean’ strobe backlight performance or a particularly useful one in our view.

We also noticed a few other issues. There were obvious flashes of green and magenta when observing lighter shades, particularly slender bright objects. This is not uncommon to a degree with strobe backlight implementations, particularly on models with generous colour gamuts. But it was more obvious than usual in this case. The backlight flickering itself was generally more tolerable than these flashes – although individual sensitivity to that does vary and not everyone gets on with strobe backlight settings at all. There were also some noticeable dynamic interlace patterns, as explored earlier. All in all, even disregarding image quality and focusing on competitive play, we didn’t feel the ‘Aim Stabilizer’ feature was very useful or particularly well-implemented. Very inflexible, quite ineffective at reducing perceived blur and in many respects uncomfortable to use.

HDR (High Dynamic Range)

HDR (High Dynamic Range) on a monitor describes the ability to distinctly display very deep dark shades and very bright light shades simultaneously. The display of a large range of shades between these, from very muted to highly saturated is also important. Ideally the monitor would be able to control the illumination of each pixel individually, a capability reserved for backlightless technologies such as OLED. For LCDs, it’s desirable for the monitor to use a complex backlight solution with hundreds if not more dimming zones – referred to as FALD (Full Array Local Dimming). By controlling illumination with high precision, the monitor can correctly display intricate mixtures of dark and light content. Some parts of the screen can be illuminated to high brightness levels so that bright shades have good ‘pop’ and stand out nicely, whilst other sections of the screen displaying darker shades would be illuminated to much lower levels. Keeping the black depth nice and low and the deeper shades appearing suitably ‘inky’. But HDR isn’t just about contrast on a monitor, it’s also about being able to display a huge range of colours. The ultimate goal with this in mind is coverage of a massive colour gamut known as Rec. 2020. A more achievable near-term aim is for a monitor to offer 90% DCI-P3 (a Digital Cinema Initiatives standard colour space). Finally, HDR makes use of 10-bit+ precision per channel, so it’s desirable for the monitor to support (at least) 10-bits per subpixel.

It is specifically the HDR10 pipeline which is used on monitors at the moment and the common standard supported most widely in games and other applications. For most games and other full screen applications that support HDR, the Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD will automatically switch into its HDR operating mode. You’ll know HDR is active on the monitor as it will give you a little message on the screen once it switches. If you go into the ‘Picture’ section of the OSD, you will also see ‘HDR ON’ listed towards the top left. As of the latest Windows 10 update, relevant HDR settings in Windows are found in ‘Windows HD Color settings’ which can be accessed via ‘Display settings’ (right click the desktop). Most game titles will activate HDR correctly when the appropriate in-game setting is selected. A minority of game titles that support HDR will only run in HDR if the setting is active in Windows as well. Specifically, the toggle which says ‘Play HDR games and apps’. If you want to view HDR movies on a compatible web browser, for example, you’d also need to activate the ‘Stream HDR Video’ setting. These settings are shown below. Also note that there’s a slider that allows you to adjust the overall balance of SDR content if HDR is active in Windows. In this case it simply acts as a digital brightness slider, so you lose but never gain contrast by adjusting it. Regardless of what this was set to, the image appeared fairly dull when viewing SDR content under HDR. So we’d recommend only activating HDR in Windows if you’re about to specifically use an HDR application that requires it, and have it deactivated when viewing normal SDR content on the monitor.

The Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD is VESA DisplayHDR 400 certified. This is the most basic level of certification that VESA will give to an HDR capable display and it means that only a basic HDR experience is offered, with some but not all desirable HDR boxes ticked. One area where the AORUS achieves and actually exceeds the VESA DisplayHDR 400 requirements is colour gamut, with 95% DCI-P3 specified by the manufacturer. On this point alone the monitor is technically able to achieve the DisplayHDR 1000 certification level – but there are of course other boxes that have to be ticked as well. Our colorimeter software doesn’t allow direct comparison with DCI-P3, but you can see from the gamut measured earlier (and shown again shortly) that the gamut is wide with significant extension beyond sRGB. We have no reason to doubt the 95% DCI-P3 claim by Gigabyte. Because DCI-P3 is the near-term standard game developers and HDR movie directors have in mind when creating HDR content, it makes sense to have good coverage of this colour space for HDR purposes.

Although our testing is focused on HDR PC gaming, our observations also apply to HDR movie content and running HDR on a compatible games console. The experience is dictated and, in many respects limited, by the capabilities of the screen itself. We tested a range of titles under HDR, but will simply be focusing on two titles in this section that we know offer good HDR performance on screens with a good HDR implementation; Battlefield V and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. The saturation levels were noticeably more muted under HDR compared to SDR, which makes sense given that the developer is targeting the DCI-P3 gamut rather than sRGB. The excessive red hues on some areas of earth, wood and skin tones were toned down – Lara’s face no longer had an excessively tanned appearance. Some of the more muted greens of vegetation were also displayed more appropriately, without the overly bright and somewhat yellow appearance they gain under SDR. But a proper HDR implementation would also display deeply shades in an intense and eye-catching way. This was the case on our AMD GPU (AMD Radeon RX 580) but not our Nvidia GPU (Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti). On the Nvidia GPU, brightly coloured paint and roaring flames on Battlefield V, for example, appeared decidedly lacklustre and certainly not as it should appear under HDR. Everything really appeared quite washed out in places, as if gamma is too low. Changing the gamma setting (which, curiously, is available for the user to tweak even under HDR) changes the image but it just ended up looking dull for other reasons. With raised gamma, many shades appeared (too) deep, but a lack of eye-catching vibrancy or brightly saturated shades. On our AMD GPU there were excellent licks of vibrancy, with some very intense orange fires and a lovely array of deep woody tones. Plus some beautifully lush-looking deep green vegetation. As a quick reminder, the monitor’s gamut (red triangle below) extends significantly beyond sRGB (green triangle below) and comes close to the DCI-P3 colour space targeted by game developers. So this isn’t a gamut issue. Remember that the purple triangle represents the Adobe RGB reference, not DCI-P3.

Colour gamut 'Test Settings'

In addition to having a suitable colour gamut for HDR, the monitor supports 10-bit colour reproduction via the usual 8-bit + FRC dithering route for all refresh rates. This potentially allows enhanced precision within the HDR pipeline. The impressive precision that we’ve seen on some (but not all) other HDR monitors was not present here. It was better on our AMD GPU than on our Nvidia GPU, but it was still lacking something. The distinctions between closely matching dark shades under HDR has the potential to give a much more believable look to scenes and deliver something beyond the usual SDR experience. Likewise, a nuanced variety of bright shades with varied intensity can help lift up the image. In this case things just looked rather flat – more so on our GTX 1080 Ti, but to a fair degree on our RX 580 as well. The level of flexibility the user retains under HDR is also quite curious on this model, extending beyond just giving the user flexibility to adjust gamma as noted previously. Colour channels, brightness, contrast – any image setting you can adjust under SDR can also be adjusted under HDR on this model. This runs contrary to what HDR is supposed to do – offer a tightly controlled pipeline between the game, GPU and monitor with limited scope for the user to adjust things.

One significant drawback of the basic VESA DisplayHDR 400 certification is that it does not mandate any sort of local dimming. This model’s backlight is controlled as one unit, which as noted in the contrast section means there is no contrast advantage to using HDR. An effective local dimming solution is a key ingredient for a ‘proper HDR experience’, without question. On this model dark areas clearly lacked depth, whether the scene was predominantly dark or whether there were just little bits of dark intertwined with brighter shades. You can adjust brightness levels in the OSD, but setting this to a low value simply makes brighter shades appear too dim. There’s really nothing particularly ‘dynamic’ about the experience here. This isn’t rectified by enabling the ‘Dynamic Contrast’ setting, either, as the backlight already responds in a similar way under HDR – this setting essentially just skews the gamma curve. Unfortunately, the lack of distinction in dark areas coupled with less than impressive nuanced shade variety means that shadow detail is lacking, whilst the unimpressive display of brighter shades saps highlight details of the required variety or vivacity. Whilst you should never expect miracles from a VESA DisplayHDR 400 level display, models like the AOC AG273QCX and Acer XB273K show that there are still some decent HDR implementations at this level out there. The HDR implementation there combines more appropriate backlight control with superior precision, so at least delivers some semblance of ‘HDR’ to the experience. HDR on this model just looks worn out, by comparison. The section of the video review below runs through our HDR experiences on this model using specific in-game examples.

Interpolation and upscaling

Some users might want to use a lower resolution than the native 2560 x 1440 (WQHD) of the display. Either for extra performance or because they’re using a device such as a games console that doesn’t support the resolution. The monitor provides scaling functionality via both DP and HDMI. It can be run at resolutions such as 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) at up to 60Hz and can use an interpolation (scaling) process to fill the pixels of the screen up. The monitor also supports internal upscaling to 3840 x 2160 (‘4K UHD’) at up to 60Hz, which is useful for devices such as games consoles that support UHD but not WQHD output. To ensure the monitor rather than GPU is handling the scaling process, as a PC user, you need to ensure the GPU driver is correctly configured so that the GPU doesn’t take over the scaling process. For AMD GPU users, the driver is set up correctly by default to allow the monitor to interpolate where possible. Nvidia users should open Nvidia Control Panel and navigate to ‘Display – Adjust desktop size and position’. Ensure that ‘No Scaling’ is selected and ‘Perform scaling on:’ is set to ‘Display’ as shown in the following image.

The monitor offers various ‘Display Mode’ settings in the ‘Gaming’ section of the OSD, as explored in the OSD video. This includes, amongst others, a ‘1:1’ pixel mapping feature that will display only the pixels called for in the source resolution with a black border for the remainder. And the default option, ‘Full’, which will use interpolation and map the source resolution onto the 2560 x 1440 pixels of the display. Considering the Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution, the monitor’s interpolation process is one of the better ones we’ve come across. There was a fair degree of softening compared to viewing a native 1920 x 1080 (Full HD) screen with decent sharpness. This could be partly offset by using the ‘Sharpness’ setting in the OSD or alternatively ‘Super Resolution’ (found in the ‘Gaming’ section). We actually quite liked the look that setting ‘Super Resolution’ to ‘1’ gave the image when running in interpolated Full HD. It didn’t look as crisp and detailed as a native Full HD display, but was surprisingly good in that respect and better than we’ve seen on most monitors. Users should experiment with different settings according to their own preferences, however.

As usual, if you’re running the monitor at 2560 x 1440 and viewing 1920 x 1080 content (for example a video over the internet or a Blu-ray, using movie software) then it is the GPU and software that handles the upscaling. That’s got nothing to do with the monitor itself – there is a little bit of softening to the image compared to viewing such content on a native Full HD monitor, but it’s not extreme and shouldn’t bother most users.

Video review

The video below summarises some of the key points raised in this written review and shows the monitor in action. The video review is designed to complement the written piece and is not nearly as comprehensive.

Timestamps:
Features & Aesthetics
Contrast
Colour reproduction
HDR (High Dynamic Range)
Responsiveness

Conclusion

27” 2560 x 1440 high refresh rate models are all the rage amongst gamers after a nice mixture of image quality and performance. There is an ever-expanding range of screens on offer of varying panel type. The Gigabyte AORUS AD27QD takes the path of the colour-conscious, with an IPS-type panel. The screen size and resolution worked nicely for both work and play, delivering decent levels of detail and ‘desktop real estate’ without requiring immense GPU horsepower. As with many gaming monitors, the design of the monitor isn’t something that will find universal appeal. But it does the ‘gamer’ look without anything overly bright and offensive. The angular and robust stand offers full ergonomic flexibility and a nice premium feel, whilst the screen itself adopts the now popular dual-stage bezel design. The OSD was very extensive on this model, as was the OSD Sidekick and RGB Fusion 2.0 software that enabled some additional functionality. One such function was control of the RGB LED lighting feature at the rear of the monitor. A nice addition if you can see the back of the monitor, pretty useless if like on our desk that’s just facing a wall.

The monitor was set up well out of the box in terms of gamma handling and, after a few simple OSD tweaks, delivered a vibrant and varied image with good overall balance. Colour reproduction is undoubtedly the key strength of this model. With a generous colour gamut and strong colour consistency from the IPS-type panel, a nice array of vibrant shades were presented throughout the screen. A light matte screen surface with smooth finish was employed, keeping the image free from obvious graininess and enhancing the vibrancy and clarity potential. Aside from ‘IPS glow’, which was typical for a panel of this type, there were no real contrast issues to speak of. Static contrast was about as good as we’ve seen from the panel type and our unit was free from major dark uniformity issues – as noted in the review, though, mileage may vary in that respect. The monitor also provided HDR, at the VESA DisplayHDR 400 level. On our AMD GPU, at least, this worked well in terms of colour reproduction, giving a faithful representation of the game world with a good mixture of vibrant and more muted shades. Things were decidedly more muted on our Nvidia GPU. But regardless of GPU vendor, the monitor did not deliver the sort of shade precision or contrast required for anything approaching a ‘true’ HDR experience. We certainly don’t consider the feature “worthless”, but it’s certainly not the best HDR experience we’ve had even at the VESA DisplayHDR 400 level.

The responsiveness of the monitor was good overall, delivering a decent 144Hz experience. Input lag was nice and low and many pixel responses were performed fast enough for a solid 144Hz performance. There were some slight weaknesses in terms of slower than optimal pixel responses, using our preferred overdrive setting (‘Speed’). But more noticeable to us was the overshoot, which was fairly noticeable and eye-catching in places. It wasn’t what we’d call extreme, at least at high refresh rates, but users who are sensitive to this might find it bothersome. The monitor provided a good Adaptive-Sync experience on both our AMD GPU (via FreeSync) and Nvidia GPU (via ‘G-SYNC Compatible Mode’) in terms of getting rid of tearing and stuttering from frame and refresh rate mismatches. Significant falloff in frame rate revealed ever-stronger levels of overshoot, though. This is often something we comment on as it’s something ‘proper’ G-SYNC models handle better with their variable overdrive. But in this case the overshoot levels using our preferred ‘Speed’ setting became really rather extreme as refresh rate dipped significantly. The more toned down ‘Balance’ overdrive setting is better suited to the low refresh rates – but alas, not so for the higher refresh rates. And in many game titles you’ll experience both, so having your monitor’s refresh rate constantly adjusting to the frame rate under Adaptive-Sync can be a mixed blessing.

The monitor also provided an alternative, a strobe backlight setting called ‘Aim Stabilizer’. This was marred by multiple issues, though, so we don’t think most users would find this practical. Even if they’re normally a fan of strobe backlight settings. Overall, we feel this monitor was a decent first attempt by the company and a welcome addition to the gaming monitor market. With its significantly lower price, superior pixel responsiveness and lack of ‘IPS glow’ some users may well be swayed by the Dell S2719DGF as a key alternative. But if you’re primarily interested in strong colour output with decent performance elsewhere, and you’re happy with the pricing, the AORUS is certainly one to consider.

The bottom line; a monitor with vibrant and varied colour output, respectable responsiveness and decent contrast – not a bad first monitor from Gigabyte AORUS.

 

Donations are also greatly appreciated.