If anyone has specific suggestions for monitor settings I should try before I decide to return it, I'd love to hear them. I guess ultimately my question is if this is a 'fixable' problem, or if I'm better off returning the monitor and going for an IPS (or TN I guess) monitor next time one goes on sale. However, that preset feels uncomfortably bright (and a bit washed out), so I'd rather avoid using it if possible.

The one thing that did seem to help a fair bit (issue was almost gone) was turning on the 'RTS' setting. Fiddling with overdrive helped a little bit, but I still wasn't satisfied. I tried messing around with a variety of the monitor settings, but focused primarily on changing the overdrive & MBR settings. I'm not very knowledgeable when it comes to monitors, so I might've missed something obvious. What troubleshooting steps have you already taken? I also noticed this problem (to a lesser extent) when scrolling around websites which have horizontal black bars on them.

However, the AOC has better ergonomics and a Black Frame Insertion feature to help improve motion clarity. The Gigabyte has a higher refresh rate, faster response time at 60Hz, and gets brighter.

More specifically, my item filter in Path of Exile (where I first noticed the issue) highlights some things in a black box, and there's a very noticeable afterimage when the 'highlight' box moves around my screen. Overall, the Gigabyte G27QC is a bit better than the AOC CQ27G2.

Issue: New monitor, most games/websites are fine but I noticed some really bad ghosting (pretty sure it's ghosting and not motion blur, but not 100% sure) when moving around 'dark' objects.

Aoc cq27g2 micro center