This mega-ultrawide OLED gaming monitor was too hot to handle at MSRP but it's just cooled off to $1,000

A Gigabyte QD OLED gaming monitor on a blue background
(Image credit: Gigabyte)
Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ | 49-inch | QD OLED | 5120 x 1440 | 144 Hz | 0.03 ms response time | $1,099.99 $999.99 at Amazon (save $100)

Gigabyte Aorus CO49DQ | 49-inch | QD OLED | 5120 x 1440 | 144 Hz | 0.03 ms response time | $1,099.99 $999.99 at Amazon (save $100)
Just mere months ago this extreme gaming monitor was going for $1,300. Now Gigabyte is practically giving it away at $1,000. Just joking, I'm not that out of touch. I couldn't afford this gaming monitor myself, it's a helluva lot of money, but you won't find a cheaper 49-inch QD OLED panel from Samsung or Asus just yet.

A 49-inch OLED gaming monitor, it doesn't get much better than this. I'm talking immersion out the wazoo, but even in very real terms, you're looking at a 5120 x 1440, 144 Hz, QD-OLED panel stuffed into this monitor, which offers an unbeatable 0.03 ms response time.

We've reviewed the Samsung Odyssey OLED G9 and Asus ROG Swift OLED PG49WCD, the latter I did personally. However, we've not yet had a chance to look at the Gigabyte ourselves. These monitors share many similarities, including the same Samsung-made OLED panel, so many of the things that I and my colleague Jeremy loved about those two nearly-matching monitors are largely true of the Aorus CO49DQ as well.

That 49-inch screen, for starters. There's no escaping the engulfing gameplay of anything you play writ large on this size screen. Yet the important thing is the 5120 x 1440 resolution isn't actually as demanding on your hardware as it may appear. You'll need a high-end graphics card, no doubt about that, but you can get solid frame rates up to this screen's 144 Hz refresh rate (depending on the game, of course) with most 4K capable cards.

The OLED screen is most impressive while gaming. In my experience with the Asus 49-inch OLED, I found it produces some of the most vivid and engrossing images I've experienced outside of the cinema. The experience on this OLED shouldn't be dissimilar from those we've tested, either, though it could be tweaked as manufacturers often set up panels slightly differently.

Though for a massively ultrawide gaming monitor, with an OLED panel no less, this is a fine price indeed. Definitely worth a look if you're in the market and won't settle for something less than absurd.

Jacob Ridley
Managing Editor, Hardware

Jacob earned his first byline writing for his own tech blog, before graduating into breaking things professionally at PCGamesN. Now he's managing editor of the hardware team at PC Gamer, and you'll usually find him testing the latest components or building a gaming PC.