Usage & Testing
Getting the Viotek GN27D setup is very easy. Just connect your cables and you are good to go. One thing to note is that the stand does not have any cable management, typically lower cost panels do not. So you’ll have at least two cables coming out of the bottom of the panel. You could easily organize things with cable ties or velcro ties.
The first thing you want to do when you turn on a display for the first time is check for dead pixels or bleed. I am pleased to report that there were no dead pixels or monitor bleed on this display. Another thing that I noticed right off the bat is that the power LED is under the display rather than on the front. I like this as looking at that LED just gets annoying. As a reminder this is a 27-inch display with a 1440p (2560 x 1440) resolution and 144 Hz refresh rate. In order to get that refresh rate you’ll need to be connected via DisplayPort, which is included with the display. The NVIDIA Control Panel does give me the option of 60 Hz, 100 Hz, 120 Hz or 144 Hz.
I have been using this display for the past few weeks and I really like working on the 1440p (2560 x 1440) resolution. Even though this is a smaller panel than Viotek’s GN32Q, which I was using previously (27in vs 32in) I am still able to have two windows open side-by-side without it feeling mushed together. This of course is ideal for being productive and multi-tasking. The display is also large enough that working in Adobe Premiere does not seem cramped.
In the past few weeks I’ve been playing a lot of Fortnite, Star Wars Battlefront II, and DOOM. Since the GN27D came with the proper DisplayPort cable to achieve the 144 Hz refresh rate that is what we played games at, and it is sure a treat. 1440p at 144 Hz is smooth and fluid, there was not any noticeable screen tearing or ghosting. Everything looked just great! The 27-inch screen size might just be perfect for gaming too, I have a 24-inch panel I’ll be testing soon, but 27-inches seems just about right. The monitor has different modes including Game, FPS, RTS, Standard, Text, and Movie. I personally preferred Movie for most things, including gaming. If you do have an AMD graphics card you can enable Freesync on the display.
Viotek calls this display a “bezel-less”, so on the two sides and top you have a very thin plastic bezel, then there is a black section. Even though this is not completely bezel-less I prefer this design over a larger plastic piece that takes up just as much space.
The menu on the display is pretty basic, hitting the “M” button brings up a small menu, which gives you your different options. Hitting the “M” button again will bring up the menu, the down arrow will cycle through the different display modes we listed previously, the down button will put a crosshair in the center of the screen (there are a few different ones to choose from), the “E” button will switch the RGB range between Full and Limited, and finally you have the power button. Inside the menu you can do things like switch the input, change the brightness / contrast, color setting, picture quality, display, audio, multi-window, and more.
