Gigabyte G34WQCA Review 2022: Everything You Must Know

Bottom Line

The Gigabyte G34WQCA is a 34″ 3440×1440 144Hz ultrawide curved gaming monitor with FreeSync, DisplayHDR 400, and an affordable price tag. If you’re looking for an immersive gaming experience, it’s one of the best value gaming monitors for around $300!

Design: (4.5)Display: (4.8)Performance: (4.0)Price/Value: (4.0) 4.3 See Price

There are quite a few ultrawide gaming monitors using the 34″ 3440×1440 144Hz curved VA panel by Samsung!

Gigabyte’s model, however, offers an excellent set of features at an affordable price, which makes it stand out from the crowd.

The Gigabyte G34WQCA (G34WQC A-SA) is the updated model of the original G34WQC. The main difference is that it offers a bit higher 4,000:1 contrast ratio.

Image Quality

The Gigabyte G34WQCA is a 34″ ultrawide gaming monitor with a high 3440×1440 UQWHD screen resolution. This results in a pixel density of ~110 PPI (pixels per inch).

In other words, you get plenty of screen space while the details and text are sharp and crisp, without any scaling necessary! For most people, it’s the ideal pixel-per-inch ratio.

The ultrawide format further improves the immersion by increasing your FOV (field of view) in compatible video games, providing you with extra horizontal screen space (great for video editing and productivity work), and displaying movies closer to their native aspect ratio.

A 34″ 3440×1440 ultrawide monitor is basically a 27″ 2560×1440 screen that’s ~33% wider.

Moving on, the Gigabyte G34WQCA monitor uses a VA (Vertical Alignment) panel with a high 4,000:1 contrast ratio, which results in deep and inky blacks, unlike grayish blacks of IPS panel displays with a contrast ratio of ~1,000:1.

Next, it has a rather decent 350-nit peak brightness, making the monitor more than bright enough under normal lighting conditions.

It supports 1.07 billion colors through dithering (8-bit + FRC) and has a wide 90% DCI-P3 color gamut (equivalent to ~120% sRGB) for vibrant and lifelike colors.

There’s also an sRGB clamp available, which limits the gamut to ~100% sRGB for a more accurate sRGB color output, but just how accurately this mode is calibrated varies across different units of the monitor.

Related:What Is Panel Variance And What Does It Imply?

The monitor has 178° wide viewing angles, but some shifts in gamma, contrast, brightness, and color are expected. For everyday use and even basic content creation, this won’t be an issue, but if you need professional-level color accuracy, you will need an IPS monitor.

HDR (High Dynamic Range) is supported as well with VESA’s DisplayHDR 400 certification. Thanks to the monitor’s good contrast ratio, wide color gamut, and decent peak brightness (a bit over 400-nits for HDR content), some HDR content will look a bit better.

However, for a noteworthy HDR viewing experience, it would need a notably higher peak brightness and contrast ratio as well as some sort of localized dimming, which is simply not available on monitors at this price range.

Performance

The Gigabyte G34WQCA has a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz, which provides you with a significantly smoother gaming experience in comparison to the standard 60Hz/75Hz monitors – provided that you can output a higher frame rate.

It also supports AMD FreeSync with a 48-144 VRR (variable refresh rate) range for tear-free gameplay up to 144FPS.

While the monitor is not certified as G-SYNC Compatible by NVIDIA, you can use FreeSync with compatible GeForce cards (GTX 10-series or newer) over DisplayPort.

Unfortunately, as it’s the case with most VA panel gaming monitors, some units suffer from VRR brightness flickering when FreeSync/G-SYNC is enabled.

Related:What Is VRR Brightness Flickering And Can You Fix It?

On the affected units, brightness flickering mostly occurs at the LFC (Low Framerate Compensation) threshold (~48FPS) and while in in-game menus and loading screens.

You can eliminate it entirely by disabling FreeSync/G-SYNC, and using V-Sync to prevent tearing instead, but V-Sync has a notably higher input lag penalty.

Alternatively, you can use the Aim Stabilizer technology, which via backlight strobing improves motion clarity at a cost of picture brightness. It cannot be active at the same time as VRR and it might introduce some strobe crosstalk (double images).

Now, there are three pixel response time overdrive modes: Picture Quality, Balanced, and Speed.

We recommend setting the overdrive setting to ‘Balance’ as it will push the pixels to change faster for less ghosting without introducing pixel overshoot.

At lower refresh rates, you may want to dial it back to ‘Balanced’ to prevent inverse ghosting.

Some trailing behind fast-moving objects will be noticeable, more so in darker scenes, but for casual gaming, it’s tolerable unless you’re very sensitive to ghosting.

For highly competitive gaming, there are much better and faster displays available at this price range, anyway. The Gigabyte G34WQCA is all about immersion, but you’ll still be able to enjoy fast-paced games.

Features

The OSD (On-Screen Display) menu of the monitor is well-organized and easy to work with thanks to the directional joystick placed at the rear of the monitor.

Noteworthy gaming features include Black Equalizer (improves visibility in darker scenes by altering the gamma curvature) and Color Vibrance (color saturation adjustment).

You’ll also find various pre-calibrated picture presets (FPS, RTS/RPG, Reader, sRGB, and three Custom modes).

Additionally, there’s an on-screen timer, a custom crosshair overlay, and a refresh rate tracker. Picture in Picture and Picture by Picture modes are supported as well.

The backlight of the monitor is flicker-free (unless Aim Stabilizer is enabled) and there’s an integrated low-blue light filter with 10 intensity levels.

Design & Connectivity

The stand of the monitor is fairly sturdy and even offers height adjustment up to 100mm. You can also tilt the screen by -5°/20° or VESA mount it via the 100x100mm pattern.

The screen has a steep 1500R curvature, which helps improve the immersion, and there’s a matte anti-glare coating that eliminates reflections.

Connectivity options include two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs, two HDMI 2.0 ports, a headphone jack, and dual 2W integrated speakers.

The HDMI ports are limited to 100Hz.

Price & Similar Monitors

The Gigabyte G34WQCA usually goes for ~$310, which is excellent value for the money.

Other popular recommended ultrawide models include the MSI MAG342CQR and the KTC H34S18S based on the same panel. These can be found for less than $300 on sale, though the KTC model doesn’t have an sRGB emulation mode.

You can also find similar 34″ 3440×1440 high refresh rate curved VA models without wide color gamut (99% sRGB) at a lower price ($250 – $300):

• Aopen 34HC5CURP
• LG 34GP63A
• LG 34WP60C – tilt-only version of the 34GP63A

There are a few good alternatives with a wide 90% DCI-P3 color gamut available as well:

• AOC CU34G2X
• Dell S3422DWG
• HP Omen 34c
• Sceptre C345B-QUT168 (85% DCI-P3)

All four of the above-mentioned ultrawide monitors use the same (or a very similar) panel, so the image quality and performance will be basically identical.

Therefore, you can simply choose according to your preference of the design/features or go for whichever is available/cheaper. Not sure which one to pick? Leave us a comment below!

If you don’t want to deal with slow response time and VRR brightness flickering, you’ll need an ultrawide monitor with an IPS panel, such as the Sceptre E345B-QUN168W with a flat screen or the Acer XR343CKP with a curved screen.

Visit our comprehensive and always up-to-date best gaming monitor buyer’s guide for more information and the best deals available.

Conclusion

The Gigabyte G34WQCA is an exceptional gaming monitor for the money. You get both a responsive and immersive gaming experience as well as plenty of useful features! However, if you’re sensitive to smearing and screen tearing, consider the IPS variant instead.

Specifications

Screen Size	34-inch
Screen Curvature	1500R
Resolution	3440×1440 (UWQHD)
Panel Type	VA
Aspect Ratio	21:9 (UltraWide)
Refresh Rate	144Hz
Response Time (GtG)	4ms (GtG)
Response Time (Aim Stabilizer)	1ms (MPRT)
Adaptive-Sync	FreeSync (48-144Hz)
Speakers	2x2W
Ports	2x DisplayPort 1.4, 2x HDMI 2.0
Other Ports	Headphone Jack
Brightness	350 cd/m²
Brightness (HDR)	400 cd/m²
Contrast Ratio	4000:1 (static)
Colors	1.07 billion (8-bit + FRC)90% DCI-P3, 120% sRGB
HDR	DisplayHDR 400
VESA	Yes (100x100mm)

The Pros:

• Excellent value for the price
• Immersive image quality with high pixel density, contrast, and wide color gamut
• Plenty of gaming features including FreeSync and MBR
• Height-adjustable stand

The Cons:

• Minor ghosting in fast-paced games, mainly in darker scenes
• Some units of the monitor have flickering issues with FreeSync enabled

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