Curved displays have become increasingly popular lately, taking a sizable slice of the gaming monitor market. And for good reason—gamers seem to appreciate the wide field of view and improved color ratios that add to an immersive experience. Cooler Master is likely far from the first brand you think of when it comes to monitors (the company recently entered the market), but its new 34-inch curved panel, the $649.99 GM34-CWQ ARGB, aims to deliver a captivating curve at a digestible price point and largely sticks the landing, offering an impressive color range and feature set right out of the box. Pretty good for a first-timer.

Immersion, Now Curved

Curved monitors are certainly statement showpieces on any desktop, and Cooler Master has a looker on its hands with the GM34-CWQ. Sporting a minimalist aesthetic, the display rocks a thin black bezel without any garish gaming fanfare. That part is relegated to its hexagon-shaped base, complete with customizable ARGB lighting. The lights are separately powered, however, which means you must run a micro USB cable from the monitor's base to your PC to activate and control the lights.

Base aside, the stand is sturdy and adjustable for height (up to 3 inches) and can swivel about 15 degrees in each direction. It's not as flexible as the Alienware 38 in that regard, but it gets the job done. Counting the stand, the GM34-CWQ ARGB measures 27.6 by 52.8 by 3.5 (HWD) inches and weighs 21.8 pounds. That's in the ballpark of most curved 34-inch displays we've seen, such as the BenQ Mobiuz EX3410R, and much lighter than the hefty 35 pounds of the Alienware 34 QD-OLED. You're free to ditch the stand and use an external VESA mount if you prefer.

Turning the monitor around, you'll find a mini-joystick at lower right that controls the onscreen display (OSD) menu. It's a bit touchy and clunky, but it works well enough. More interesting is the display's array of ports, which combines two HDMI 2.0 ports, a DisplayPort, and one USB Type-C and one Type-B. Two USB-A ports are also provided, but located on the left side of the screen for ease of access. Two 5-watt speakers provide decent-quality sound, especially when cranked to the max.

But while speakers and ports are necessary components, they're side dishes to the main course that is the display panel. The GM34-CWQ ARGB is a 34-inch vertical alignment (VA) ultrawide display with 3,440-by-1,440-pixel resolution and a 144Hz refresh rate. Hunting for a gaming monitor often involves trading resolution for fast refresh, so the Cooler Master occupies a solid middle ground between sharpness and speed.

The GM34-CWQ features a curve of 1500R, meaning that given the degree of curvature, a ring of these monitors edge to edge would complete a circle with a radius of 1,500mm. The deep curvature makes the screen look bigger than it is and helps reduce glare and deliver deeper perceived blacks, which enhances the immersive feel while gaming.

The display meets DisplayHDR 400 specifications and has a contrast ratio of 4,000:1. The choice of VA over IPS technology is interesting, as VA monitors are known for delivering deeper blacks and enhanced shadow highlights and detail, but are often behind the curve (no pun intended) on color accuracy when compared to IPS panels. The Cooler Master tries to buck that trend with Quantum Dot technology, which makes use of tiny phosphorescent crystals to react to light and electricity, leading to higher saturation and more accurate colors than an average LED-backlit screen. We'll see how well it works in our benchmark tests below.

Testing the Cooler Master GM34-CWQ ARGB: An Impressive Color Range

Many monitors deliver brightness and color response good enough for casual gaming use, to be sure. But to get a better idea of how the Cooler Master GM34-CWQ ARGB stacks up, we ran it through our standard test cycle using a Datacolor SpyderX Elite monitor calibration sensor and its software to compare it to displays of similar size and resolution. Here's what we found.

To begin, we test the monitor fresh out of the box in its default picture mode with an SDR signal. The Cooler Master reached a brightness of 215 nits and a black level of 0.1, which yields a contrast ratio of 2,330:1. Yes, that's lower than the advertised 4,000:1, but the numbers are still pretty solid for a display not yet configured.

Contrast ratio is important because it indicates the luminance of the brightest white and darkest black that a monitor can produce. A higher contrast ratio means deeper blacks and brighter whites. It makes a huge difference in picture quality, especially during dark scenes in gameplay. Gaming monitors with IPS panels typically shoot for a contrast ratio of 1,000:1 or better.

Next, we rerun the brightness measurement after switching to HDR mode. This time, the GM34-CWQ registered at 506 nits, flying past its DisplayHDR 400 rating. The screen shone brighter than all the other monitors in our comparison group save the 34-inch Alienware OLED.

Our next test measures the monitor's color coverage. The Cooler Master spanned 100% of the sRGB color gamut, 91% of Adobe RGB, and 95% of DCI-P3—great results for a curved monitor in its price range, even against more costly curved screens like the MSI Optix MPG321UR-QD.

Color accuracy was also pretty good out of the box, with an uncalibrated Delta E reading of 1.5...

A higher Delta E number means that common colors tend to stray from their purest form; a value under 1 is ideal, especially for content creation applications. Gamers usually don't care as much about pin-precise color accuracy, but they're always interested in performance, which leads into our next section.

Media and Gaming Performance

The GM34-CWQ is a fine-looking curved monitor, but how does it rate as a gaming monitor? To quantify that, we measure input lag, the most important stat for hardcore gamers. Using an HDFury Diva, we measured input lag at 3.6 milliseconds. While that's not as prompt as the MSI Optix or the ViewSonic Elite XG320U, it's fast enough to satisfy all but the most furious esports players.

Taking the display for a spin, I spent some time with Hitman and F1 2022, two games that play very well on ultrawide monitors. At 144Hz, both games performed admirably, with swift response times and no messy artifacts or ghosting to speak of. For multiplayer fans, I tried Halo Infinite and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive as well. The Cooler Master supports FreeSync Premium, an added bonus for play at refresh rates above 60fps with a compliant Radeon video card. Overall, this is a top-shelf performer.

An Ultrawide as Cool as the Other Side of the Pillow

The Cooler Master GM34-CWQ ARGB delivers solid performance and a good-looking curved screen if you have the high grade of video card to push it to lofty refresh rates. The cherry on top is its relatively affordable price.

At $649.99, we can overlook the minor issues in the monitor's design and appreciate its great color range and low input lag. While it doesn't quite qualify as a budget monitor, we still give the CM34-CWQ ARGB a thumbs up, though if you're chasing even higher refresh rates and money is no object, the Asus ROG Swift PG35VQ still reigns at the top of the food chain.