Is this their first time? Cooler Master GM34-CW

Cooler Master have been known for their peripherals, cases and PSUs so they have now joined in on the monitor market as well. They have released 2 monitors so far, a 27” and a 34” ultrawide, which is the one we are going to take a look at today. 

Price

So for Cooler masters now flagship monitor, it retails for around $750 or R15 000 here in South Africa. So it is definitely on the more pricey side, but you do get a lot of monitor for the price, a full 34 inches of monitor.

Specs

But what else do we get from this GM34? So specs wise we are looking at a resolution of 3440×1440 running at 144hz, 400 NITS and a 1500R curve to it. But what makes the GM34 special is the IPS panel used for the screen, as it features a color gamut of 95% DCI-P3 or 125% sRGB. So for someone that wants a decent gaming screen and does some color work, like photoshop, this is a very good screen to go for. 

Design

As for the design, the first thing that you will probably notice is the stand for the screen, as the foot of the stand is actually Cooler masters hexagon logo, the back of the screen has a gaming aesthetic to it, with 3 lights that feature Cooler master’s purple color, no RGB this time. The lights are also not bright enough to shine against a wall, so you would still need a RGB strip for that. There is also some branding going on, on the top left corner. 

At the front of the screen we have a borderless design, with the cooler master logo in the bottom middle of the screen with marked buttons on the right bottom side of the screen. 

So taking a look at the back lets see what we have for IO, so there are 2x display ports 1.4’s, 2x HDMI ports and an earphone out port. I would’ve liked to see a USB pass through hub as well but it’s not a deal breaker at least. 

Now probably one of the best things about this monitor is the build quality of this screen. The screen really feels very sturdy and the materials used for the screen are very premium. 

But how was it to use for a daily driver, now the sheer size of this screen is just amazing especially having the picture in picture, running two apps next to each other feels so much better. Yes you can have the same experience with 2 separate screens but let’s be honest everyone just hates the border line between the screens, and with this its just one huge screen no line breaks or anything like that. 

Gaming

The gaming experience was fantastic, the wide screen made the viewing angles great and it was very easy to identify enemies with the vivid colors and quick response times, and I always enjoy the smoothness of 144Hz. Even though the Freesync on this is G-Sync compatible, I still noticed screen tearing going on which is unfortunate. 

Panel

As for the panel they used, the color grade out of the box was a little on the cooler side, so tweaking the color to your liking will be one of the first things that you will have to do, as we did make it a little bit warmer. But as for the colors from the GM34, they really are very vibrant and just pop out. We didn’t see any ghosting going on. I have to say that even for this size screen we didn’t see any backlight bleed, which is remarkable for a 34”. You do also get HDR as a feature, but considering that it only has 400 NITS brightness, it is a bit of a useless feature, so if we won’t recommend buying the screen purely for that feature. Another nice to have is the Freesync 2 that cooler master added as well.

One of the only complaints I have about this screen is the on screen menu that they used, as it feels really old and clunky. It features the basics you get on a screen and other than a on screen crosshair there aren’t really other gaming features. 

Conclusion

Now for a first try Cooler Master really did a bang on job here, the GM34 is a great screen even considering that cooler master has never made a screen before. I am really excited to see what they are going to bring out in the future. I welcome any cooler master products as they have really stepped up their game in all sectors of the market.