Cooler Master GM32-FQ review

Our Verdict

78%

Its response time is a little sluggish, but it’s otherwise a great-value all-rounder.

Despite being billed as a display that balances work and play, the Cooler Master GM32-FQ still boasts a 165Hz refresh rate, adaptive sync support, and a backlight strobing blur reduction mode, so there’s plenty to keep fast-twitch gamers interested.

It’s also incredibly thin. With a full view of the back, you can plainly see the thick lower middle section that holds all the connections and other paraphernalia, but from any front angle this display cuts a sleek figure.

Unsurprisingly, this slimness results in poor backlight uniformity, with notable drops in brightness in the top corners, but it’s still not so bad as to be a major concern for users of this type of panel – it’s not a professional image-editing display.

It also has a slim stand and a dainty base, though it’s a little wobbly. However, the stand amazingly still manages to offer height, rotation and tilt adjustment, which is impressive for its size. Connections are similar to competing monitors, with the addition of a USB Type-C video input for connecting laptops or other mobile devices that support DisplayPort Alt mode over USB.

The two USB 3.0 ports can also be shared with devices connected to the Type-C port and the display will provide up to 15W of power to connected devices. Enabling a full single-cable system for your laptop, the display even has speakers, but they’re so weedy that your laptop’s speakers might be better anyway.

A column of buttons down the right rear of the panel controls the menus. The menus are ok but sometimes options feel like they’re not in the place you expect and the buttons are less intuitive than a mini joystick. All the options you need are included, though.

Meanwhile, the display itself uses an IPS panel so viewing angles and image stability are excellent. Contrast is also notably a little higher than some IPS panels, giving the image slightly more depth than lower-contrast models.

This is also a high color-gamut display that stretches to 95 per cent of the DCI-P3 color space, or 130 per cent of the sRGB space. That’s not quite as massive a colour range as the likes of the Corsair 32QHD165, but it’s still enough to technically meet most HDR colour requirements. There’s also an sRGB mode with adjustable brightness, if you need or like to limit the colour range.

The Cooler Master’s maximum brightness of 370cd/m² isn’t all that high but adequate for any non-HDR use. Out-of-the-box colour accuracy is also impressive, with very good colour balance and decent gamma.

As for gaming, adaptive sync means tearing and stuttering are eliminated with modern AMD and Nvidia graphics cards. Turn this off and you can also enable a backlight-strobing blur reduction mode that tightens up the in-motion sharpness of the panel even further.

However, the response times are a little sluggish. At its lowest overdrive setting, the average of nearly 12ms is very slow for a 165Hz IPS panel. Even at maximum overdrive, the panel only manages 8.3ms, which is nearly double that of some other panels on test. The gaming experience is still decent, but other IPS panels are notably snappier.

Cooler Master GM32-FQ pros and cons

Pros

• Excellent image quality
• Impressively slim
• USB Type-C video input

Cons

• Wobbly stand
• Sluggish response time
• Disappointing panel uniformity

Cooler Master GM32-FQ specs

The Cooler Master GM32-FQ specs list is:

Cooler Master GM32-FQ price

The Cooler Master GM32-FQ price is impressively low for all the features you get, making this a great value gaming monitor.

Price: Expect to pay $400 / £350

Cooler Master GM32-FQ review conclusion

With its low price, decent all-round image quality and USB Type-C connection, the GM32-FQ is a solid option. Its response time is a little sluggish, though, so those seeking a panel that errs more towards gaming responsiveness will be better off elsewhere. For more gaming monitor recommendations check out our best gaming monitors list.