Asus ROG Swift PG329Q

tharealgc · 22 Nov 2020 at 22:21

Hello People,

Anyone has bought this panel and stayed happy with it?
On my first try I was absolutely blown away by this panel, but there was a dead/stuck green pixel in the lower middle of the screen accompanied by a yellowish smudge right next to it, so it had to be sent back.
On my 2nd try I got a panel with no dead/stuck pixels, but quite an excessive glow in 3 corners and bleed from top of the forth one...
Here you can see how it looks in both lit and unlit room: https://imgur.com/a/7bajn40
FYI: The pictures are taken with default monitor Brightness of 90, the glow goes away if I take the brightness down to 0, but come on, nobody uses their screens at 0 brightness...

I decided to try my luck for the last time and give it another go, keeping whatever will look best, just because I fell in love with this panel and won't be able to leave myself without one at this point...

Any suggestions or experiences?

FoxEye · 22 Nov 2020 at 22:26

That's one of the worst examples I've ever seen! Wow, that's awful.

tharealgc · 22 Nov 2020 at 22:32

FoxEye said:
That's one of the worst examples I've ever seen! Wow, that's awful.

I am glad that someone is on board with me and I am not just a crazy person having unrealistic expectations...
Yeah it's not that bad to a naked eye as it is to a camera, but I see it with my eyes just fine every time there is a dark scene in a game or movie.
First panel was excellent in sense of bleed/glow was next to none, but the pixel and smudge didn't allow me to keep it.
Turns out I'm just unlucky AF...

tharealgc · 24 Nov 2020 at 11:01

Got my 3rd... It has much better black uniformity and acceptable glow/bleed levels... BUT it also has a stuck pixel!
The stuck fellow is PINK on white, BLACK on green and PINK on Yellow.
Further investigation showed that that pixel so far is unable to turn itself green while happily going red, blue and black, BUT only in MAX colour, if the colour is gray (light black) or light blue or light red it cannot reproduce that because it lacks green... it's a weird one.
Will be running pixel un-sticker for the day hoping it will go away...

UPDATE: 9 hours of UDPixel and JScreenFix didn't help... another excellent panel has to go back because of a darn pixel...

This is the second time in my life that I have been traumatized by picking a new monitor... picking a new monitor is a terrible event in my book now and I think it's a gamble worse then scratch lottery, except a ticket costs you over half a grand.
ASUS has a TERRIBLE QC...

Anybody knows any other models of FLAT high refresh IPS panels?
Everything else I've seen is curved now, even VA panels and I hate curved monitors...

Any suggestions?

_chief_ · 25 Nov 2020 at 06:26

Acer XB323U GP
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/j8nz8u/acer_predator_xb232u_gp_my_initial_thoughts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/jsk8c5/asus_rog_swift_pg329q_my_quick_initial_1st_day/

Postmodum · 25 Nov 2020 at 11:44

yeah, that's the only one i recall, the Acer.
I'm torn between those two also ... i have a 32" 32GK850G but I want to go IPS plus, something that supports both AMD and Nvidia so I'm not stuck ...

I was decided on the Asus, but now I'm having second thoughts

tharealgc · 25 Nov 2020 at 13:36

Comparison of Brown IPS glow vs regular IPS glow which is almost unseen by my eyes:
https://imgur.com/a/U28Cbtf < this is in a fully lit room.
The brown glow is only visible to eye on dark content, like watching a movie that has black lines on top and bottom, playing Phasmophobia or any other dark game.
Black uniformity is also quite terrible on that.
I often play at night, because I mostly work at daytime, so I'm a little torn apart with my feelings...
Would you keep the panel on the left or would you just return all and give up?

That Acer seems nice, but nowhere to be found atm.

tharealgc · 25 Nov 2020 at 18:07

I am terribly sorry for the OCUK staff for having to deal with terrible QC from Asus and customers like me that are unable to live with a flawed panel.
I thank people here that agree with me that they would not be happy to keep flawed panels like these, you helped me in keeping me sane and not feeling like an idiot with exaggerated standards.

The last panel with a dead sub pixel which was unable to turn green was excellent in every other way, minimal bleed that was almost unseen by human eye, perfect black uniformity and colours.
Despite that dead pixel it was the best panel I have seen and if you can live with a dead pixel I would absolutely recommend that to anyone as the best IPS panel at this point of time.
Hight refresh rate without ghosting is also excellent (I did not use ELMB as that did introduce a little overshooting ghosting), IMO it was perfect without it.

Here are some last pictures of the panel with no bad pixels, but has terrible BROWN glow.
https://imgur.com/a/VyePnHi

I am almost crying while packing up these panels as I know the potential they hold...

If there would be an option to pay extra, so that staff can check the panel for dead pixels and bleed before sending it out I would absolutely take that over gambling with quality, torturous waiting and fear over the fact of not knowing what you will get.
I am spent and can't even start to describe the feeling of being so unlucky.

Again I am extremely sorry for OCUK having to deal with this and extremely angry at Asus for their quality control on the panel that can be perfect...
I am done trying to get a good Asus Panel.

tharealgc · 29 Nov 2020 at 06:07

_chief_ said:
Acer XB323U GP
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/j8nz8u/acer_predator_xb232u_gp_my_initial_thoughts/
https://www.reddit.com/r/Monitors/comments/jsk8c5/asus_rog_swift_pg329q_my_quick_initial_1st_day/

Thanks Chief, this was really helpful.
I also love how he says "I am not a fan of paying more for Asus's ROG branding and not only that they tend to have a reputation for poorer QC'ing of their panels. I've always stayed within the Dell and Acer realms as I've had better luck with them. My personal experiences have just been bad with Asus monitors as I've bought at least 3 Asus gaming monitors over the years and each one had awful bleeding and uniformity issues, ended up returning them for other brands." which is totally true in my case.
But I guess that's why Asus is cheaper this time around.

I also have found this nice review of Acer it you are interested... they even have 1:20hr long video review.
https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/acer-xb323u-gp/

I will try to find Acer next when I get refunded as I am all out of money because of this excruciating experience.

_chief_ · 29 Nov 2020 at 13:08

tharealgc said:
Thanks Chief, this was really helpful.
I also love how he says "I am not a fan of paying more for Asus's ROG branding and not only that they tend to have a reputation for poorer QC'ing of their panels. I've always stayed within the Dell and Acer realms as I've had better luck with them. My personal experiences have just been bad with Asus monitors as I've bought at least 3 Asus gaming monitors over the years and each one had awful bleeding and uniformity issues, ended up returning them for other brands." which is totally true in my case.
But I guess that's why Asus is cheaper this time around.

I also have found this nice review of Acer it you are interested... they even have 1:20hr long video review.
https://pcmonitors.info/reviews/acer-xb323u-gp/

I will try to find Acer next when I get refunded as I am all out of money because of this excruciating experience.

Thanks, that's a new review. Will go through it.

efish · 4 Jul 2021 at 13:20

tharealgc said:
........... I know the potential they hold...

Yes, I do as well.

Mine has really mimimal backlight bleed, aside from a distinct glow centre left of the screen. Not noticable, in most games, but something like shadow of the tombraider, its really noticible as its effectily like some glowing shadow right next to Lara, eye gets constantly drawn to it. Any dark scene 3rd person game, its an imersion breaker.
Really its position means its constantly noticable.

Also got a stuck red pixel, but only when overclocked, so not ideal but not a deal breaker.

Have you replaced it with something else? The image quality/ clarity of motion/ fluidity, with Asus, it is awsome. Did you find an alternative that is up to the same quality (image wise rather than q.c.) as the Asus or did you manage to get an acceptable screen?

Really never had an issue with a screen before this is the most expensive monitor I have ever bought. I don't expect perfection, but don't expect faults like this on such an expensive screen that really only cause issues when gaming, which is the whole point of paying more for the screen.

tyler_jrb · 4 Jul 2021 at 14:11

One of the reasons i stay away from IPS. VA can be a bit ghosty and generally not quite as colourful but generally its a good comprimise to end up with decent blacks and no glow or bleed.

I too went through many IPS monitor returns and took me a while to get a decent one. I had a PG349Q which was a £1000 monitor and that was terrible almost unusable even in the daylight.

Went through several PG279Q's due to poor uniformity, half the screen had a yellow tint to it. Got lucky with an acer 27" IPS on the first try. Since then it died (tried another acer, half screen yellow) so i just gave up and got a VA panel.

Some minimal ghosting on the desktop with certain dark colours but in games it isn't noticed and of course you dont get any bleed or glow. White uniformity is also very good.

efish · 4 Jul 2021 at 14:31

tyler_jrb said:
One of the reasons i stay away from IPS. VA can be a bit ghosty and generally not quite as colourful but generally its a good comprimise to end up with decent blacks and no glow or bleed.

I too went through many IPS monitor returns and took me a while to get a decent one. I had a PG349Q which was a £1000 monitor and that was terrible almost unusable even in the daylight.

Went through several PG279Q's due to poor uniformity, half the screen had a yellow tint to it. Got lucky with an acer 27" IPS on the first try. Since then it died (tried another acer, half screen yellow) so i just gave up and got a VA panel.

Some minimal ghosting on the desktop with certain dark colours but in games it isn't noticed and of course you dont get any bleed or glow. White uniformity is also very good.

I can live with a degree of glow, more that its slap bang centre of the screen. Just luck (ed. bad luck/ poor q.c.). Never used a V.A. Not really stuck on I.P.S. I switched to Dell T.N. high refresh last time from an ultrasharp aside from the lack of colour accuracy, surprisingly good, once you're eyes adjusted to the difference. Like the Asus, I would probable not have noticed the poor contrast if I did not own an OLED, don't expect a monitor to match that.

32-34 inch 4k O.L.E.D with no burn in issue would be the monitor of my dreams, but as that does not exist I can live with some comprimises and for gaming, the speed and colour pop of the newer monitors seems enough.

tyler_jrb · 4 Jul 2021 at 15:12

efish said:
I can live with a degree of glow, more that its slap bang centre of the screen. Just luck (ed. bad luck/ poor q.c.). Never used a V.A. Not really stuck on I.P.S. I switched to Dell T.N. high refresh last time from an ultrasharp aside from the lack of colour accuracy, surprisingly good, once you're eyes adjusted to the difference. Like the Asus, I would probable not have noticed the poor contrast if I did not own an OLED, don't expect a monitor to match that.

32-34 inch 4k O.L.E.D with no burn in issue would be the monitor of my dreams, but as that does not exist I can live with some comprimises and for gaming, the speed and colour pop of the newer monitors seems enough.

Same after owning an OLED nothing really compares colours, viewing angles, response time or even black wise so I just went for the option I know is likely to bother me the least and was pretty cheap. Suprisingly good for a VA, I tend to game a lot on the night time so glow and bleed would probably bother me the most if I had to put up with it anyway.

I had a decent 27” IPS that I got lucky with which was a great monitor. Just the current QC means that getting a “decent” one unlikely. At least in my experience. But since having the 32” I find it hard to go back to anything less

.

I too am waiting for a 32” OLED but I know that is still likely a long way off in terms of being reasonably affordable. Judging by the £3.5k 32” FALD asus are bringing out anyway

.

efish · 4 Jul 2021 at 16:06

tyler_jrb said:
Same after owning an OLED nothing really compares colours, viewing angles, response time or even black wise so I just went for the option I know is likely to bother me the least and was pretty cheap. Suprisingly good for a VA, I tend to game a lot on the night time so glow and bleed would probably bother me the most if I had to put up with it anyway.

I had a decent 27” IPS that I got lucky with which was a great monitor. Just the current QC means that getting a “decent” one unlikely. At least in my experience. But since having the 32” I find it hard to go back to anything less .

I too am waiting for a 32” OLED but I know that is still likely a long way off in terms of being reasonably affordable. Judging by the £3.5k 32” FALD asus are bringing out anyway .

I prefer night gaming, so I.P.S was a comprimise, need some bias lighting. But the glow is noticable regrdless day and night and more so in my favroute genre. Play with it tonight, see if I can live with it.

otherwise

Acer XB323U GP and if that fails I may well look at V.A., never used one. Or I may just lick my wounds for a while with what I had. Hassle of sending stuff back, and the roll of the dice nature in terms of quality. Monitors most stressfull components to buy.

The blacks of the OLED, when I first got mine, I like to watch movies with all the light's out, when the screen goes black, so does the whole room. a whole new experiance, along with the mind blowing visual quality. Hands down one of the most pleasing things I have owned.

Sony OLED also has a steam app, not tried it yet, but give it spin. Really like to see just how well p.c. games do HDR and handle on the OLED.

tharealgc · 4 Jul 2021 at 19:38

efish said:
Yes, I do as well.

Mine has really mimimal backlight bleed, aside from a distinct glow centre left of the screen. Not noticable, in most games, but something like shadow of the tombraider, its really noticible as its effectily like some glowing shadow right next to Lara, eye gets constantly drawn to it. Any dark scene 3rd person game, its an imersion breaker.
Really its position means its constantly noticable.

Also got a stuck red pixel, but only when overclocked, so not ideal but not a deal breaker.

Have you replaced it with something else? The image quality/ clarity of motion/ fluidity, with Asus, it is awsome. Did you find an alternative that is up to the same quality (image wise rather than q.c.) as the Asus or did you manage to get an acceptable screen?

Really never had an issue with a screen before this is the most expensive monitor I have ever bought. I don't expect perfection, but don't expect faults like this on such an expensive screen that really only cause issues when gaming, which is the whole point of paying more for the screen.

Yeah, I waited for that Acer XB323UGP... they use the same panel, but QA is a nice bit better with Acer.

Here is a breakdown:

From 3 Asus monitors I've checked it was either dead/stuck pixels or huge bad brownish glow in the corners or even the panel itself that sat in the frame uneven or at an angle.

Acer quality of build is better than Asus and all frames that I've seen sat nice and even. The dead pixels on the other hand were the same as on Asus panels, so I ended up checking 4 Acer screens (luckily Amazon did not mind me sending them back like cheap hookers)
The backlight bleed on Acer is also less than any of Asus panels I checked and was more consistent, meaning I have not seen a bad bleed on any of 4 panels I checked.

So after 3 Asus monitors and 3 Acer monitors, on my 4th Acer try I got a decent panel with minimal glow and no dead pixels.
+ in addition Acer really can run 10bit @ 170hz and has nice USB ports on the side of the monitor.

All in all if you can get a decent XB323UGP I would stick to that, (try Amazon while they have some and be safe knowing you can replace them or just send them back if you are not happy.

From Negatives on Acer I can only find 1: You have to manually switch HDR on on the monitor if you want to use HDR content.

P.S If that last Acer I checked would end up bad, I too was thinking looking at VA panel, but I am glad it turned out nice as IPS is IPS and it is really noticeable in fast paced games where VA would get smears.

efish · 5 Jul 2021 at 14:10

tharealgc said:
Yeah, I waited for that Acer XB323UGP... they use the same panel, but QA is a nice bit better with Acer.

Here is a breakdown:

From 3 Asus monitors I've checked it was either dead/stuck pixels or huge bad brownish glow in the corners or even the panel itself that sat in the frame uneven or at an angle.

Acer quality of build is better than Asus and all frames that I've seen sat nice and even. The dead pixels on the other hand were the same as on Asus panels, so I ended up checking 4 Acer screens (luckily Amazon did not mind me sending them back like cheap hookers)
The backlight bleed on Acer is also less than any of Asus panels I checked and was more consistent, meaning I have not seen a bad bleed on any of 4 panels I checked.

So after 3 Asus monitors and 3 Acer monitors, on my 4th Acer try I got a decent panel with minimal glow and no dead pixels.
+ in addition Acer really can run 10bit @ 170hz and has nice USB ports on the side of the monitor.

All in all if you can get a decent XB323UGP I would stick to that, (try Amazon while they have some and be safe knowing you can replace them or just send them back if you are not happy.

From Negatives on Acer I can only find 1: You have to manually switch HDR on on the monitor if you want to use HDR content.

P.S If that last Acer I checked would end up bad, I too was thinking looking at VA panel, but I am glad it turned out nice as IPS is IPS and it is really noticeable in fast paced games where VA would get smears.

Thanks really helpfull!

I really do have mimimal glow, just one bright spot is centre screen at the bottom, if it was on the far right or left it would not be an issue.

I really like the monitor, loath to send it back.

Going to set up a philips hue light, see if I can adjust the room lighting to make a difference. I turned all the lights on last night, not distracting in most games. Not tried darker games yet do that tonight. Not going to be perfect but if I can find a lighting level where its not distracting, it will be fine.

I notced one of the settings in nividias fillters also toned it down further, but the final result was off, but hoping a mix/ of tweaking settings adjusting room lighting might be enough.

Always going to be a degree of glow but I may be lucky and find a comprimise where its not distracting. Fingers crossed.

tharealgc · 5 Jul 2021 at 14:34

efish said:
Thanks really helpfull!

I really do have mimimal glow, just one bright spot is centre screen at the bottom, if it was on the far right or left it would not be an issue.

I really like the monitor, loath to send it back.

Going to set up a philips hue light, see if I can adjust the room lighting to make a difference. I turned all the lights on last night, not distracting in most games. Not tried darker games yet do that tonight. Not going to be perfect but if I can find a lighting level where its not distracting, it will be fine.

I notced one of the settings in nividias fillters also toned it down further, but the final result was off, but hoping a mix/ of tweaking settings adjusting room lighting might be enough.

Always going to be a degree of glow but I may be lucky and find a comprimise where its not distracting. Fingers crossed.

I know exactly how you feel... The only Asus I had without the dead/stuck pixels had a terrible bleed and I was trying to get myself get used to that, but I just could not, so I ended up returning that and waiting for Acer...

All in all it was a 5 months struggle for me until I finally got a good unit.
I hope I will not have to get a new monitor in next 5-10 years as I absolutely dread it... or if I do I hope they will adjust the manufacturing process so we can be sure the screens are with 0 dead/stuck pixels.

efish · 5 Jul 2021 at 16:30

tharealgc said:
I know exactly how you feel... The only Asus I had without the dead/stuck pixels had a terrible bleed and I was trying to get myself get used to that, but I just could not, so I ended up returning that and waiting for Acer...

All in all it was a 5 months struggle for me until I finally got a good unit.
I hope I will not have to get a new monitor in next 5-10 years as I absolutely dread it... or if I do I hope they will adjust the manufacturing process so we can be sure the screens are with 0 dead/stuck pixels.

5 months! Really hoping I get away keeping this one. I've really been lucky never had an issue with a monitor, until I buy a more expensive gaming monitor it would seem.

But its just on the borderline, I may get away with it.

efish · 7 Jul 2021 at 01:36

Meh. I resolved to keep this today, I play in the light bleed is not really an issue.

Half an hour ago stuck pixel same place. Actually it seems to be a little 3d cluster of them. Perminantly visible in Ghost recon, switch to Assasins Creed, visible after the first blackscreen and disappeares. Switch to Ghost recon, perminantly visible. Tomb raider, it flashes on and of slowly then disappears.

Turn a game off: use a black screen on you tube nothing aside from the bleed. Its impossible to spot other than in game.

Only in games, responds consistently and differently in each of the games I have tried. It disappears in Assasin's creed during loading at the same time and spot.

Odd.

Last time it stopped when I cranked back the refresh rate to 165, although no effect this time if I lower it. I also turned the refresh rate up to o.c. and the screen looked like it does when windows is turned on to H.D.R mode. Some glitching when games load at first and the colours go totally weird for a second or so before reverting to normall.

Really not experianced so many odd glitches with a panel before. Going back, no confidence its not going to develop further faults sooner rather than later.

Bummer, revert to a 27 inch t.n. tommorow. My eyes have grown use to the clarity of this screen which is amazing, just a pity it does not function properly.

edit if I switch from display port to HDMI no stuck pixel. Although if I remeber right no gsynic over H.D.M.I.

Hmmm. Display port gsynic on, stuck pixels: display port gysinc off, no issue.

G-SYNC Compatible, delivering a seamless, tear-free gaming experience by enabling VRR (variable refresh rate) by default.

Not with my screen it would seem.

So not a stuck pixel. I can turn it on or off and it actual looks like a tiny strand of red thread, stuck in the screen, rather than a single pixel. Got a new 3080, have to try it in my old system with the 1080 see if the problem presists.