Cooler Master GM27-CQS Gaming Monitor Review

Performance

First things first, set the monitor up in Windows, it’s 165Hz, but you can actually natively set it to 170Hz in Windows; a free 5Hz upgrade? Sure, why not!

A 27″ panel is really the sweet spot for a lot of PC users, as it offers a great amount of screenspace, but also comes in a fair bit cheaper than equivalent 32″ panels. I also find that for 2560 x 1440 the pixel density of a 27″ panel is really fantastic, much like I prefer to move to 4K for a 32″ and above panel. I can comfortably have two windows side by side on this monitor and the text is perfectly clear and easy to read.

The overall colour reproduction on this monitor is fantastic, and while I have yet to put the Spyder monitor tool on to test it, I can just tell by my trained eye that things are looking really good here. There’s a good contrast, crisp black and whites, and just really clean looking colours and gradients in all games and applications I’ve played with.

Even in photos, I think the overall colours and contrast are shown off really well, it’s just a very clean and surprisingly evenly backlit image.

For movies, TV, or watching Andy talk about the Cooler Master HAF PC case, it’s going to look great!

Gaming is just awesome on this monitor 165-170Hz at 1440 is a breeze for most modern mid-to-high-end graphics cards. Take Forza Horizon 5, maxed out graphics and running like a dream at 165 FPS (RTX 4090 but still only about 60% GPU load), but it has DLSS 3 now too, which I haven’t tested, so lower cards should be able to get big FPS. Anyway, the monitor… there’s no issue with ghosting or smudge here, and while it has a bunch of overdrive modes, I was happy with the performance with those disabled or enabled, but your results may vary based on what you’re playing.

The vibrant colours are a treat for the eyes though, so games like Rocket League, Fortnite, Apex, which all have very broad colours really pop.

It’s just a great monitor all around, for any type of gaming, the colours, the fast refresh rate, and the curved 27″ panel, it’s just a big thumbs up from me on all fronts, to be honest, work, gaming, wasting time on reddit, it’s a solid all-rounder.