The Asus ROG SWIFT PG278Q – a 27” 1400p 144Hz Monitor with G-SYNC

Soldato
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it amuses me how much negativity and doom and gloom there is around this being a TN Film based model, before anyone has even seen or used this screen!
It's not so much the negativity because it's a TN panel, it's the fact that it's a TN panel and is going to be north of £600 here in the UK.
 
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It's not so much the negativity because it's a TN panel, it's the fact that it's a TN panel and is going to be north of £600 here in the UK.

It is the first 1440p 120hz monitor though and it includes gsync so the price is expected.

Anybody remember the alienware AW2310? It was one of the first 120hz displays around and cost £400 which was pretty expensive even compared to the other 120hz screens at the time. I bought one anyway and it was fantastic. Great colours, good blacks and no backlight bleed whatsoever, you could hardly tell the screen was on with a black background. It did have some pretty bad crosstalk in 3D though so I decided to "upgrade" to a benq 11t early last year. The benq was horrible in comparison and I have regretted getting rid of the alienware ever since.

I'm currently running a 27" 1440p IPS but I'd trade it in for a 1440p version of that alienware TN any day of the week.
 
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I definitely want one of these, praying for good reviews...

If I do review it, which I hope I do following the success of my VG248QE review, then I'll give it a good review. I can't guarantee it will be positive, but the review itself will be good. ;)

It seems this model has got most of the interest, understandable given its 2560 x 1440 resolution. More interest than the likes of the BenQ XL2420G, XL2720G and others at any rate.
 
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Very exciting news! Its a certain sign of things to come, these next 2 years in tech are going to be very exciting times!

Now i want 3 of these and enough GPU grunt to play 7680x1440@120fps hah..... damn.
 
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Definately a step in right direction for me.. Currently got both a 1400p monitor & a 144hz monitor (1080p). Ended up having to switch between the two when I want to play games as I like the extra "real estate" that comes with higher resolution, but really struggle going back to 60hz for faster games

Shall be looking forward to seeing the reviews, although I do wonder if 2 Titans will have enough grunt to drive BF4 @ 1440p & 120fps
 
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Definately a step in right direction for me.. Currently got both a 1400p monitor & a 144hz monitor (1080p). Ended up having to switch between the two when I want to play games as I like the extra "real estate" that comes with higher resolution, but really struggle going back to 60hz for faster games

Shall be looking forward to seeing the reviews, although I do wonder if 2 Titans will have enough grunt to drive BF4 @ 1440p & 120fps

Probably (depending on settings). But remember G-SYNC really shines in situations where the frame rate does fluctuate and drops below what would be the static refresh rate of the monitor. So if you're getting say 90-120fps it should feel much better than 90-120fps on a non G-SYNC monitor because you don't get stuttering/tearing or the V-SYNC latency penalty. At 120fps solid the benefits of G-SYNC are diminished and the experience should be quite similar to on a non G-SYNC monitor. But obviously you can benefit from the most fluid WQHD experience out there at the moment anyway. ;)
 
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It's not so much the negativity because it's a TN panel, it's the fact that it's a TN panel and is going to be north of £600 here in the UK.

Asus gaming monitors are overpriced. Also, they've added the RoG brand to this and made it look pretty, so they're going to price it as high as they can. Add to this that it's the first of its kind and possibly only one announced at CES.

On the other side of the coin, by the time this actually goes on sale in April, you'll almost certainly have cheaper, multiple model offerings from BenQ (panel is probably AU Optronics anyway) and AOC. These will likely be significantly more affordable, probably offer better image quality (if current offerings are anything to go by) and have better connectivity options (no HDMI 2.0, really?).

P.S. No way it will go on sale above £600.
 
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Soldato
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better connectivity options (no HDMI 2.0, really?).

Interesting thought. Remember that G-SYNC requires data packet transfer which is only available via DisplayPort, not HDMI 2.0. It is possible that a manufacturer could offer HDMI 2.0 without G-SYNC support for games consoles etc. as I know there are users who want G-SYNC on the PC and console gaming as a secondary option.
 
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Interesting thought. Remember that G-SYNC requires data packet transfer which is only available via DisplayPort, not HDMI 2.0. It is possible that a manufacturer could offer HDMI 2.0 without G-SYNC support for games consoles etc. as I know there are users who want G-SYNC on the PC and console gaming as a secondary option.

I now have a PS4. There are plenty of other HDMI devices, too. The fact that the monitor appears to make no provision whatsoever for them is pretty much unprecedented in a gaming monitor ... presumably also means that scaling hardware is absent (which makes it seem even more like Asus have cheaped out) so you'll have to play everything at native resolution. Personally I'd like my next monitor to have both resolution scaling (as hopefully it'll be 2560x1440 @ more than 120hz) and refresh rate 'scaling', like the new Eizo VA gaming panel can do. The biggest disappointment for me playing Knack and Resogun on the PS4 is that everything looks so blurry at 60hz on my monitor, coming from the PC ... this will change when I get a tv which can output more than 60hz from a 60hz input, but a lot of people do use monitors for consoles - me included for the time being.

Anyway, G-SYNC certainly isn't something I'm interested in, as the amount of screen tearing I see these days is either so minimal as to be almost unnoticeable, or absent entirely ... and besides, there is no way I'd ever want my monitor displaying less than its maximum refresh rate - I've become accustomed to 120+ and my eyes don't like less. Also, AMD will probably push out FreeSync soon, which will be a cheaper (free) alternative for AMD card owners. I'd imagine BenQ at least will do versions of their monitors with and without G-SYNC, as with the newly announced 'G' versions of their existing 3 gaming monitors (2411 / 2420 / 2720).
 
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Soldato
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PCM, it isnt that Asus cheaped out on the scaler, gsync module doesnt have a scaler because PC doesnt need one :)
This monitor is aimed squarely at nvidia users

(you might be waiting a while on freesync, doesnt look like any desktop monitors currently support variable vblank hence why they needed to use laptops for the demo)
 
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PCM, it isnt that Asus cheaped out on the scaler, gsync module doesnt have a scaler because PC doesnt need one :)
This monitor is aimed squarely at nvidia users

(you might be waiting a while on freesync, doesnt look like any desktop monitors currently support variable vblank hence why they needed to use laptops for the demo)

Some FPS players (and RTS players where higher resolution doesn't increase FoV) play on lower resolution. This is meant to be a competitive gaming / creme de la creme of gaming monitors ... also, legacy games. It's a pretty inexcusable omission if it isn't present on a monitor this expensive. I doubt very much if it's aimed squarely or solely at NVIDIA users, it just includes G-Sync because it's another box to tick and NVIDIA are pushing it. 2560x1440 at high refresh rate is the selling feature, not G-Synch.

Hardware wise, supposedly almost all recent decent monitors support Vblank. Firmware or driver needs upgrading though.
 
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I game on an Asus VG278H 120Hz and right next to that I have a Dell 1440P. I was expecting the Dell to blow the Asus away but it didn't. Sure the Dell has deeper colours and a slightly sharper image but the tearing or input lag has me gaming on the Asus.

Now I have the option of 120Hz 1440P with a 1ms response time and G-Sync... From my experience, I don't care it is TN, I want one.
 
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People need to remember the more ports on something the more scalers and electronics the signal has to go through to appear on the monitor. The reason the monitor only has one input is to keep input lag to an absolute minimum.

I'm perfectly happy for this to only have one display port — in fact, that's part of the attraction for me.

Price still needs to come down a little though :p
 
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As someone who has tried the korean pls monitors at 120hz, I can honestly say that unless they fix the ghosting and image retention I'll be sticking with TN even though the colours will be better with pls. The price is off-putting though :(
 
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