Published: February 9, 2024 | Source: Cooler Master | Author: Tom Logan

Cooler Master GM34-CWQ2 UWQHD Monitor Review

Introduction and Technical Specifications

Introduction

If you are in the mood to game a lot you might check around to see what you’re missing. If so you must have come across ultra-wide gaming. For those of us who play racing games, or FPS titles, the extra visual range you get from a 21:9 display can really help. Obviously there are benefits in other titles from having a wider field of view. But any competitive title will give you an advantage by seeing more than your competition. The Cooler Master GM34-CWQ2 boasts a 34″ VA panel with Quantum Dots. For those of you who like a curve it’s fairly bent, as we’ll see in a moment, boasting a 1500R curve.

1500 What?

Should you wonder what 1500R means, or how it compares to other curves, then the answer is simple. The number indicates the curve as a radius in millimetres. Smaller numbers mean more curve, higher ones, less. At 1500R the CM GM34 is on the bendy end of the spectrum. However, it also has a 21:9 UWQHD resolution. UW = Ultra Wide, QHD = Quad HD. Not quite as many pixels as a full 4K panel. This Cooler Master GM34 has 4,953,600 pixels total. A 4K monitor has a whopping 8,294,400. Naturally this has a massive effect on the demands of your GPU. If you’re the owner of a graphics card that monsters 1440P but can’t quite reach 4K gameplay, going ultrawide might be the way to get better visuals without impacting performance too badly.

Other things to note about the GM34-CWQ2 is its 165Hz refresh rate that can be overclocked to 180Hz. It has a reasonable 4000:1 contrast ratio and 320 nits peak brightness. Not staggering, but okay. Obviously a VA panel is squarely aimed at gamers thanks to its affordability, so we’re curious as to how the GM34 performs. Certainly 2ms GtG – grey to grey – and support for Freesync Premium should eliminate the ghosting and tearing that can adversely affect your gaming prowess. If it’s remotely as good as our recently reviewed Cooler Master Tempest GP2711 then we’re in for a treat.