Cooler Master GM27-CQS monitor review: cheap and cheerful
Table of Contents
The Cooler Master GM27-CQS is a 27 inch monitor designed with gamers in mind. As their name suggests, Cooler Master as a brand is more well known for computer cases, cooling solutions (AIO setups etc.), and other internal components in a PC build, however back in 2020 they started releasing monitors as well, and they've managed to come out with some solid affordable options.
The brand has released various monitors with various panel types in the interim, but the gaming monitor we're looking at today comes with a VA panel (not something you see as often on monitors these days) and a 170Hz refresh rate, along with a slightly curved screen.
The GM27-CQS comes in at an affordable price but as a consequence is a fairly stripped-back offering. Let's see if the sum of its parts is worth the cash.
- Refresh rate: 165Hz/170Hz with overclock enabled
- Screen Size: 26.5″
- Resolution : 2560 x 1440
- Panel type: VA (Ultraspeed)
- Curve: 1500R
- I/O ports: 1x DisplayPort 1.2, 2x HDMI 2.0, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack
If you can still find one of these monitors for sale, the Cooler Master GM27-CQS is a great budget monitor, available for an impressively low price. Although it lags behind more expensive offerings in terms of its brightness (which isn't bad but isn't great either), its limited connectivity and HDR implementation, it does most of the basics well considering how affordable it is, and even comes with FreeSync premium.
- Very affordable
- FreeSync Premium
- Good contrast ratio & deep blacks
- Solid sRGB color replication
- Sturdy stand
- Very limited ports and connectivity
- Underwhelming SDR brightness
- Black smearing & ghosting, though less than most cheap VA panels
- Poor HDR implementation
Pricing & availability
There are a good number of Cooler Master 27-inch monitors with similar sounding names out there, so if you're shopping about be careful that it's the correct one you're looking at. For instance there's the Tempest GP27U Mini-LED variant with 4K resolution, which goes for around $730, and the Tempest GZ2711 OLED we've reviewed that retails for around $700.
The VA monitor we're reviewing here today, the Cooler Master GM27-CQS, was originally released for around $280 in 2023, but it's now actually quite difficult to find a new one on the sites of US retailers, so it's hard to say what you can pick one up for. European customers could originally find one for £219.99 / €219.99 but again they're pretty thin on the ground now, even when buying second hand.
Design & specifications
The GM27-CQS comes with a matte-finish screen on its VA panel to reduce reflections, at the expense of a bit of the vibrancy you get with glossier models. The screen has a slight curvature – 1500R – but nothing too dramatic and you can still view what's on the display from the side without too much issue. At around 9mm, the bezels on the top and sides are fairly thin, although not quite up there with the thinnest we've seen. The bottom bezel is substantially thicker, as is typical, containing the OSD joystick on the rear and the power bottom on the reverse right side.
The majority of the screen chassis is made of plastic, though the base is of a fairly heavy metal construction, with the same rounded-hexagonal base (the shape of the Cooler Master logo) as the previous screen we reviewed from the same brand: the Tempest GZ2711. It's a sturdy base which is what's most important, but does add to the weight of the monitor and its grey metal appearance isn't aesthetically the nicest in our opinion. If you wish you can also choose to swap out the stand for a 100 x 100 mm VESA mount.
Adjustability of the stand could be better, as there is no pivot whatsoever, although you do get a tilt of -5° to +20°, a swivel of ±15°, and a height adjustment of 0-130mm.
The port connectivity of this display is very limited: you only get a single DisplayPort 1.2 socket, along with one HDMI 2.0 port and a single 3.5mm audio jack; there are no USB ports to speak of.
The native max refresh rate of the display is 165Hz, but this is boosted very slightly to 170Hz with overclock enabled. To take advantage of this you'll need to use the DisplayPort connection – the refresh rate is limited to 144Hz if you use the HDMI port.
You do get two 2W stereo speakers with this display, but as with almost all monitors they're of a pretty poor standard.
OSD, features, settings & warranty
The OSD on Cooler Master monitors tends to be one of our least favourite parts, with the controls being needlessly unintuitive – requiring you to move the joystick downwards instead of clicking it in to ‘select' anything. Layout-wise the menus and sub-menus are relatively fine however.
The monitor comes with AMD FreeSync (just the basic variant, not the Premium version) and is also G-Sync compatible, though this is not fully supported. As you'd probably expect from such a stripped-back gaming product, the monitor lacks a KVM switch.
The warranty you get on Cooler Master displays tends to be your standard 3-year affair, but this obviously doesn't apply to second-hand displays. It's wise to double check this before you buy from whichever retailer you get it from.
Screen testing & performance
Color gamut
As you can see in the image above, we recorded a gamut coverage of 98.9% across the sRGB space, plus a 88.6% DCI-P3 coverage and an 82.6% Adobe RGB coverage. Based on this alone we wouldn't recommend trying to do any color-accurate work in these latter two spaces.
Color accuracy, contrast, gamma & brightness
In the table below are the results we recorded for the different presets we tested from the OSD menu. We tested for white point, black point, contrast ratio, average deltaE*00 (a measure of color accuracy), gamma, and brightness. In the topmost row, we've listed what is considered the ideal value for each of these data points, though to an extent this is just from a technical standpoint: the preset you actually prefer ultimately depends on your subjective preference and what media you happen to be viewing on the monitor.
| Preset | White | Black | Contrast | Average DeltaE*00 | Gamma | Brightness |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IDEAL | 6500K | 0cd/m² | infinity:1 | 0 | 2.2 | |
| Standard | 6746K | 0.0533cd/m² | 3811.2:1 | 2.23 | 2.17 | 203.79cd/m2 |
| GAMER 1 (Game) | 6868K | 0.0916cd/m² | 2869:1 | 2.72 | 2.04 | 262.71cd/m2 |
| GAMER 2 (Game) | 6749K | 0.0535cd/m² | 3811.8:1 | 2.32 | 2.17 | 203.69cd/m2 |
| FPS (Game) | 6202K | 0.0918cd/m² | 4198.9:1 | 6.26 | 1.66 | 387.08cd/m2 |
| Movie | 5558K | 0.0918cd/m² | 3755.4:1 | 4.07 | 2.08 | 345.24cd/m2 |
| Web | 6721K | 0.0429cd/m² | 3832.8:1 | 2.37 | 2.17 | 164.05cd/m2 |
| sRGB | 7323K | 0.0918 cd/m² | 3547.8:1 | 4.13 | 1.94 | 326.65cd/m2 |
| User Mode ( R:47, G:46: B:50, Brightness 36) | 6485K | 0.0317cd/m² | 3795.5:1 | 2.28 | 2.18 | 120.00cd/m2 |
‘Standard' mode, ‘Gamer 2', and ‘Web' gave the best results overall, though the white point was higher than ideal on all three. Interestingly the ‘sRGB' preset was among the worst, which is the opposite of what you'd normally expect, with this more typically being the preset used for color-accuracy. Instead we'd recommend starting from ‘Standard' and then going into the User Settings to modify the color temperature manually to the following: Red:47, Green:46: Blue:50, Brightness: 36. This should give you an average deltaE*00 score of 2.28 as well as a near perfect white point and an improved black point.
The maximum SDR brightness we recorded was 341 nits in the ‘Standard' preset, with the lowest being around 40 nits on the same preset. The brightness setting which most closely equates to 120cd/m² (the approximate value for natural light) was 38%. This max brightness is a bit disappointing for a non-OLED display and means that the screen might struggle in very brightly lit environments, though in most offices it should do the job to a decent level.
Panel uniformity
Our panel uniformity test measures the consistency of luminance and color replication across the whole screen. The display is split into a 5×5 grid and the central square acts the reference point from which every other square is tested for variance.
Variance below 1.00 shows up as green, which is the result you're looking for, meaning a variance that is imperceptible to the naked eye. Yellow represents a greater degree of variance between 1.00 – 3.00, though at the lower end of this range this is still unlikely to be discernible to the untrained eye, and doesn't necessarily preclude the display from color accurate work. Greater variance is more of a problem, and shows up as red.
As we can see from the image above, the majority of the screen scored well, with only four panels showing a greater degree of variance in yellow. Still, for the non-professional grade, this is still sufficiently low for color-accurate work; it's certainly good enough to game on. The caveat to all the above is that this is the result given by our specific unit – the panel lottery applies meaning there may be variation from the specific monitor you buy, still, it typically gives a good guide as to what expect.
Viewing angles
VA panel monitors typically give very good viewing angles, and the GM27-CQS holds up this trend. Although not quite as good in this department as an OLED monitor would be, up to the 178° mark, there was only very little shift in color and brightness.
Gaming performance & response time
We took the GM27-CQS for a spin on our usual range of games to see how it faired: CS2, Doom Eternal, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Cyberpunk 2077.
Darker scenes looked particularly good thanks to the high contrast ratio and deep blacks: not as good as what you'd get in an OLED obviously (which would cost considerably more money), but notably better than an IPS screen. Color replication was solid, though they didn't pop quite as much as you'd see on a glossy screen.
When it came to fast-movement, there was some visible ghosting and black smearing at times, with VA panels typically struggling with response time related artefacting more than you'd get in an IPS screen, however it wasn't too bad – being better than average for this panel-type. Ultimately it depends on how sensitive you are to this sort of thing. It was a similar story during the Alien UFO test.
Screen tearing was kept nicely in check by FreeSync Premium throughout our session.
General performance & productivity
Although Cooler Master designed this to be a gaming monitor, the majority of consumers will also be using it for general productivity purposes as well, so it's still important to know how it fairs in this area.
Text legibility on this monitor is solid, with the high contrast ratio making dark lettering pop against a white background, and you don't get the text fringing issues that you do on many OLED monitors. The matte coating also helps to minimize screen glare in more brightly lit environments.
The peak SDR brightness of around 341-387 nits just about reasonable for general use in well lit areas – a bit disappointing but not the worst out there – it's certainly higher than what you'd get on an OLED display though.
The monitor is lacking in connectivity as discussed, which isn't ideal for users that require a lot of ports, although most people will just rely on their PC ports anyway.
Finally, when it comes to color-accurate work we wouldn't recommend this display for any high-end professional work, although when using the ‘Standard' preset or calibrating the screen yourself you can certainly get it to a good enough standard to use in the sRGB space for amateur-level work.
Cooler Master GM27-CQS monitor
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