Gigabyte joins the OLED monitor battle at CES
OLED gaming monitors are everywhere right now and CES 2026 has turned the floodgates wide open. Among the many brands showing off new displays, Gigabyte is pushing hard to stand out with a feature it calls HyperNits.
If you have been shopping for a high end gaming monitor, you have probably noticed that OLED panels offer amazing contrast and deep blacks, but HDR brightness can sometimes feel a bit off. That is exactly the problem Gigabyte is trying to solve.
The first display to ship with this new tech is the Gigabyte MO34WQC36. It is a 34 inch ultrawide gaming monitor based on a Samsung QD OLED panel and it is clearly positioned to go head to head with monitors like MSI's MPG 341CQR QD OLED X36.
So what is HyperNits and why should PC gamers care?
What HyperNits actually does
Gigabyte describes HyperNits as a smart tuning feature that uses a custom algorithm to reshape the EOTF curve. That sounds very technical, but the goal is simple. Make HDR content look brighter and more impactful without blowing out the highlights or crushing detail.
EOTF stands for Electro Optical Transfer Function. Think of it as the map that tells your monitor how to convert the digital signal from your GPU into actual light on the screen. For HDR, this mapping is crucial. It defines how bright different parts of the image should be, from dark shadows to tiny specular highlights like sun glints and explosions.
The issue many OLED gaming monitors face is a trade off between two HDR modes:
- One mode gives you the highest full screen brightness so the entire image looks more lively, but it can limit peak brightness for small highlights.
- Another mode allows the brightest possible peaks for those tiny details, but the overall image can look noticeably dimmer.
MSI tackled this problem with its EOTF Boost feature on several OLED models. EOTF Boost aims to combine the strengths of both HDR behaviors at once. It tries to deliver strong full screen brightness while still preserving intense highlights for small bright elements.
Gigabyte's HyperNits appears to be doing something very similar. The company says HyperNits can boost brightness by up to 30 percent while still preserving critical highlight detail. Users can choose between two levels:
- HyperNits High for maximum brightness emphasis.
- HyperNits Medium for about a 20 percent lift, better suited to darker rooms where you do not want the screen to be blinding.
It is important to understand that HyperNits does not magically increase the physical brightness limits of the OLED panel. The peak and sustained brightness capabilities of the panel remain the same. Instead, HyperNits optimizes how those capabilities are used by adjusting the EOTF curve so the monitor feels punchier and more vivid in real games and movies.
In other words, it is clever tuning rather than a hardware level power boost, but if implemented well it can make HDR gaming look much better without sacrificing detail.
Inside the Gigabyte MO34WQC36 QD OLED
The first monitor to showcase HyperNits is the Gigabyte MO34WQC36, a 34 inch ultrawide OLED gaming display.
This screen uses a Samsung QD OLED panel with specifications that closely mirror MSI's latest 34 inch QD OLED ultrawide. While exact numbers were not all detailed, it shares similar brightness and refresh rate targets, putting it squarely in the enthusiast gaming category.
Key aspects for PC gamers include:
- 34 inch ultrawide format that is great for immersive gaming, racing sims and productivity.
- QD OLED technology for deep blacks, excellent contrast and vivid colors.
- High refresh rate suitable for fast paced titles and competitive play.
- HDR support enhanced by HyperNits tuning for brighter and more impactful scenes.
Gigabyte also mentions an ambient light filter designed to reduce the purple tint that some earlier QD OLED panels could show, especially on lighter backgrounds. This should help the MO34WQC36 look more neutral and clean in day to day use.
While the company does not explicitly confirm it, it is likely that this monitor uses Samsung's newer RGB stripe subpixel structure. That layout can improve text clarity and reduce color fringing compared to older QD OLED arrangements, which is good news if you also use your gaming monitor for work or browsing.
Pricing is not yet announced, but Gigabyte has built a reputation as one of the more aggressive big brands when it comes to monitor pricing. If the MO34WQC36 can match MSI's similar QD OLED on performance while undercutting it on cost, it could become a very attractive option for PC gamers who want a premium OLED experience without paying top tier boutique prices.
Why this matters for PC gamers
For anyone building or upgrading a gaming PC, the monitor has become just as important as the CPU or GPU. High refresh OLED panels deliver amazing motion clarity, near instant response times and incredible contrast, but HDR implementation has been a weak spot for many models.
Technologies like HyperNits and MSI's EOTF Boost show that monitor makers are now focusing on smart tuning, not just raw specs. Instead of simply pushing higher peak nits on a spec sheet, they are working on how the brightness is used in actual content so games look better to your eyes.
If you play a lot of HDR compatible games, a monitor that balances full screen brightness and highlight detail well can make a big difference. Explosions, magic effects, sunlight and neon signs can pop more without losing fine detail or making the rest of the image look dull.
The Gigabyte MO34WQC36 with HyperNits looks set to be an interesting competitor in the 34 inch ultrawide OLED space. As more brands adopt similar EOTF tuning tricks, PC gamers will have a growing list of options that deliver not just great panels on paper but genuinely better HDR experiences in real world gaming.
Original article and image: https://www.pcgamer.com/hardware/gaming-monitors/gigabytes-new-oled-gaming-monitor-debuts-hypernits-brightness-tech-so-are-screens-with-regular-nits-now-second-best/
