ASUS Announces ROG SWIFT PG278Q Premium Gaming Monitor

I ended up biting on a Catleap....I'm anxious to hear about how smooth g-sync + 144hz actually is. I've been using TN panels forever though, I wanted to get some IPS love in for once in my life. It's a shame I did it during a time when the Swift came out.

That and I'm happy to spend 450 bones less.

So the ULMB setting...is there a heavy blue shift like there was in Lightboost? There's not much info on it. Got any pros/cons on Lightboost vs ULMB anyone who just picked the monitor up?

EDIT: Ignore that ULMB question. I did not realize TFT Central provided a review on ULMB in July. I'll wait for a price drop....one of these days.
 
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ULMB doesn't have the color tinting issue that the Lightboost hack did (which was to compensate for the 3d glasses color). IIRC tftcentral tested color accuracy in ULMB but I don't remember the results off hand.
 
I doubt you'll see much of a price drop before this monitor disappears. I don't see a massive quantity of these appearing on the market over the next 6 months.
 
Kronvict said:
I'm in Las Vegas as well thets where i bought mine earlier today lol. They had one left after i bought mine. Better hurry :D

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Actually ended up going down to Frys tonight.

Got one of em myself :] so far so good. Running beside my 32 inch Benq. Best of both worlds here =p Has anyone figured out how to turn on ULMB? Its greyed out on mine.
 
Marm0t said:
Actually ended up going down to Frys tonight.

Got one of em myself :] so far so good. Running beside my 32 inch Benq. Best of both worlds here =p Has anyone figured out how to turn on ULMB? Its greyed out on mine.
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Yeah i guess you got the last one left lol. How do you like it so far? I love mine.
 
Kronvict said:
Yeah i guess you got the last one left lol. How do you like it so far? I love mine.
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Absolutely in love with it. The dude i talked to at frys said he wasn't supposed to sell them yet, but since i asked for it he would...

It was confusing for me. =p I really wish the monitor was bigger... but seeing absolutely no tearing is something i guess i took for granted. It shames my 32 inch Benq i just picked up yesterday by a LARGE margin... Like 60hz feels like 30hz. Which was always the case anyway... But the craziest thing is the no tearing in League.. I can't get over how good the damn thing feels.


It also helps that this is by far the best TN panel ive ever used.. It looks better in terms of colors than my old 3011.. The 3200 has it beat in terms of popping colors and blacks.. but just barely.


I am thouroughly amazed at the quality of this panel... Shames every TN and MOST IPS panels ive used.


TN is coming back baby!
 
Marm0t said:
Has anyone figured out how to turn on ULMB? Its greyed out on mine.
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Set the monitor to 120 Hz, or 100 Hz. Then check.

I was wondering the same thing, and then I remembered, "DUH NOOB, LIGHTBOOST NEVER WORKED @ 144 Hz, so why would ULMB?". I gave myself the biggest face palm you can imagine when I realized that ;).

Some games do not work well in GSYNC, but by the sons of mars (playing too much Rome II) ULMB is so much better over the lightboost trick on my VG248QE.
 
Id like you to know that anyone that has this is a poopy face! I want one.... no daddy I want one NOW!!!!!
 
In the ASUS ROG forum a rep stated that bestbuy.com is going to get a few units. Does anyone know if brick & mortar Worst Buys are going to get any at some point? I plan on calling my local one when they open.
 
Bop said:
In the ASUS ROG forum a rep stated that bestbuy.com is going to get a few units. Does anyone know if brick & mortar Worst Buys are going to get any at some point? I plan on calling my local one when they open.
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Let us know what they say, I'll call mine as well
 
You can sometimes order things for store pickup, or even if you order to your house you can usually return things to the brick and mortar store if not satisfied within a short time frame of days.
 
Bop said:
In the ASUS ROG forum a rep stated that bestbuy.com is going to get a few units. Does anyone know if brick & mortar Worst Buys are going to get any at some point? I plan on calling my local one when they open.
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Best Buy employees use its own website for availability and pricing calls. It is pointless and useless to call them 99% of the time.
 
Here are some more impressions of the monitor:

* This is objectively the best Ultra Street Fighter 4 monitor in the world. You can edit your SF4 config to run at 144hz or 120hz (for ULMB), and it's just fantastic. Incredibly low input lag (it's night and day between this and the 360 version), crisp image, and high resolution. This is the setup they should be using for tournament SF4 games.

* The difference between 144hz and ULMB in terms of motion blur isn't as huge as I expected it to be. 144hz by itself actually does a pretty good job of reducing motion blur. ULMB dims the picture a bit, so it's kind of a crap shoot. I'm more or less fine with either.

* Running games in MAME is awesome on this thing. Mortal Kombat (54hz), R-Type (55hz), and DoDonPachi (57hz) all run glass smooth on this thing. G-Sync is the real deal for emulation. There's no going back to tearing or stuttering after experiencing this.

* I hacked up a special version of MAME that does black frame insertion so that I can use G-Sync and still reduce motion blur. It pretty much looks like a CRT. I'll eventually be putting one of these things in my arcade cabinet.

* Inserting black frames into software is actually better at reducing motion blur than ULMB is. My hacked up MAME looks better than running MAME with ULMB. I believe that games should start offering black frame insertion options in their games. It's trivial to add.

* I enjoy playing Quake 3 at 120hz with ULMB mode on. It feels like playing on a CRT. The image is so crisp compared to a blurry monitor.

* The backlight is uneven. I have to turn down the brightness a bit to hide it. For $800, a monitor shouldn't have an uneven backlight like this. It isn't horrible, but it isn't $800 good, either.

* I got lucky, and my panel doesn't seem to have any dead or stuck pixels.

* I love the fact that the monitor instantly turns off and on. I've never seen another monitor behave like this before. Usually, you turn on a monitor and have to wait a few seconds to get an image. This thing INSTANTLY comes on.

* In G-Sync mode, I noticed that the mouse cursor gets choppy during loading screens on Blizzard games. Both WOW and Diablo 3 have a choppy cursor on the loading screens with G-Sync. It's smooth on a normal setup.

* The colors are exceptionally good for a TN panel, but the viewing angles blow like pretty much any TN panel. You really need to have the height adjusted perfectly on this thing if you want to get a decent image. If you even slouch in your chair, you can see the color shift. If you're hyper sensitive to color shift, you won't be happy with this monitor. Personally, I value responsiveness and fluidity more than color shift, but everyone's different.

* My other monitor is an HP ZR30W. Even though the ZR30W has way better viewing angles, a far superior backlight, and better colors, the image quality of the PG278Q is good enough to the point where its advantages make it better for gaming. I don't want to go back from 144hz and this responsiveness. HOWEVER, I do miss the size of the ZR30W. I would love a 30" 4k version of this Asus display.

If anyone has any questions about the monitor, I'll check back and try to answer them.
 
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Can someone explain to me what Lightboost and ULMB are? I've only ever had the Korean 1440p displays so I have no idea what they are lol
 
ULMB and Lightboost are strobed backlight techniques. Normally, an LCD's backlight is always on. ULMB and Lightboost turn the backlight off and on constantly, and this reduces sample and hold motion blur.

Old CRT monitors constantly flickered, and that's why they had no motion blur. The backlights on normal LCDs are always on, so when a red pixel shifts to a blue pixel, you can see that transition, and it looks smudgy and blurry.

By turning the backlight off and on, you don't see the transition from red to blue. You just see red, nothing, then blue. The image looks crisp.

Of course, strobing the backlight means that you dim the picture a little bit, and very sensitive people might notice flickering similar to the flickering you might see on a 60hz CRT on the desktop.
 
can someone explain to me why the monitors that support lightboost are the only ones that can do it? shouldn't any led backlit display be able to strobe?
 
bigbluefe said:
ULMB and Lightboost are strobed backlight techniques. Normally, an LCD's backlight is always on. ULMB and Lightboost turn the backlight off and on constantly, and this reduces sample and hold motion blur.

Old CRT monitors constantly flickered, and that's why they had no motion blur. The backlights on normal LCDs are always on, so when a red pixel shifts to a blue pixel, you can see that transition, and it looks smudgy and blurry.

By turning the backlight off and on, you don't see the transition from red to blue. You just see red, nothing, then blue. The image looks crisp.

Of course, strobing the backlight means that you dim the picture a little bit, and very sensitive people might notice flickering similar to the flickering you might see on a 60hz CRT on the desktop.
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Ohhh ok got it. Thanks for that!
 
Odellus said:
can someone explain to me why the monitors that support lightboost are the only ones that can do it? shouldn't any led backlit display be able to strobe?
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They don't have the circuitry built in to control the strobing. It requires very precise timing.
 
bigbluefe said:
* In G-Sync mode, I noticed that the mouse cursor gets choppy during loading screens on Blizzard games. Both WOW and Diablo 3 have a choppy cursor on the loading screens with G-Sync. It's smooth on a normal setup.
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I have noticed this with League of Legends as well. During the loading screen it seems to drop down to 30hz. Perhaps lower. Only with G-sync enabled. I have a feeling it can be patched away with a driver update once G-Sync becomes more common.. But its definitely there. There also seems to be some flashing (weird.. dont know how to describe it) when buying in the store while IN GAME in LOL.

However, the game runs without issues with G-sync and the no tearing is still crazy to experience. As i stated before. Night and day. Its crazy.
 
Have anyone compared the Swift to the Samsung S27A750/950D?

The Samsung glossy models had maybe the nicest looking colors and contrast of all the TN's out there, and i absolutely loved my 950D.

Im planning a new build when X99 arrives, and the Rog Swift is of course tempting. But the last Asus monitor i had was sent back due to horrible colors and contrast/gamma (The VG278H)
 
Simkin said:
Have anyone compared the Swift to the Samsung S27A750/950D?

The Samsung glossy models had maybe the nicest looking colors and contrast of all the TN's out there, and i absolutely loved my 950D.

Im planning a new build when X99 arrives, and the Rog Swift is of course tempting. But the last Asus monitor i had was sent back due to horrible colors and contrast/gamma (The VG278H)
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I never used one of those samsungs. but the panel on the swift blows away the modern 27 inch benq's in terms of quality. Aside from the obvious viewing angle issues its hard to call it a TN panel when you see it
 
Bought one at fry's electronics in phoenix for 866 total. Sales person said it was the last one of three they received.
 
bigbluefe said:
* The difference between 144hz and ULMB in terms of motion blur isn't as huge as I expected it to be. 144hz by itself actually does a pretty good job of reducing motion blur. ULMB dims the picture a bit, so it's kind of a crap shoot. I'm more or less fine with either.
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Can you run the following in a A-B comparison between ULMB and normal 144 Hz:

http://testufo.com/#test=photo&photo=eiffel.jpg&pps=1440&pursuit=0&height=0

As long as your web browser is working properly running the Hz matched do your desktop (Chrome or IE), the ULMB clarity should be noticeably better.
 
Vega said:
As long as your web browser is working properly running the Hz matched do your desktop (Chrome or IE), the ULMB clarity should be noticeably better.
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Yeah for that test the difference is night and day. I cant see any blur at all. Everything is crystal with ULMB and 120hz enabled.

EDIT: It is immediately different to my eyes over the 144hz and G-sync. Wow that is crazy.

Hard to choose between G-Sync and ULMB at this point when it comes to twitch games.
 
Simkin said:
Have anyone compared the Swift to the Samsung S27A750/950D?

The Samsung glossy models had maybe the nicest looking colors and contrast of all the TN's out there, and i absolutely loved my 950D.

Im planning a new build when X99 arrives, and the Rog Swift is of course tempting. But the last Asus monitor i had was sent back due to horrible colors and contrast/gamma (The VG278H)
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I currently have the 950D. I feel...eh about it. I have the hardware to push 4k with max settings, and while it looked nice something seemed off. Maybe it's the size in relation to the 4k resolution? Not sure. I have gone back to my Dell U3011 and am blown away at the difference in color. Of course I knew that ahead of time. We are talking TN vs. IPS but it was really apparent when I switched over.

Anyway looking forward to this monitor. As a pure gaming display I am hyped for it. I went out and looked for it after seeing others having success. My Fry's didn't have them in, but he showed me the SKU in the computer. Looks like they'll be getting a shipment some time this week.
 
So do we need to make a change on the monitor each time we want to go from gsync to ULMB? Is there a way to profile this on the OS side so that it will switch to the one we want on a game by game basis?
 
zeroibis said:
So do we need to make a change on the monitor each time we want to go from gsync to ULMB? Is there a way to profile this on the OS side so that it will switch to the one we want on a game by game basis?
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I dont think so. You need to physically enable ULMB on the monitor itself, its greyed out unless you are running at less than 144hz.

You also need to disable G-Sync in the Nvidia control panel.
 
Dam that is going to be a bit annoying to need to manually switch configurations in multiple places every time I change programs. Too bad they did not just have a single toggle button or something.

Is it possible to make gsync in the nvidia control panel only be on for explicit programs but not others?
 
zeroibis said:
Dam that is going to be a bit annoying to need to manually switch configurations in multiple places every time I change programs. Too bad they did not just have a single toggle button or something.

Is it possible to make gsync in the nvidia control panel only be on for explicit programs but not others?
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Yes, instead of enabling gsync in "general settings", you enable it per program in "program settings"
 
Marm0t said:
Yeah for that test the difference is night and day. I cant see any blur at all. Everything is crystal with ULMB and 120hz enabled.

EDIT: It is immediately different to my eyes over the 144hz and G-sync. Wow that is crazy.

Hard to choose between G-Sync and ULMB at this point when it comes to twitch games.
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Yes, ULMB should be far better if you can maintain 120+ FPS. (although there are lower Hz for ULMB too).

It may not be as "apparent" in some games, but once you get used to ULMB strobing, even going back to 144 Hz G-Sync is hard to do. Your brain gets really used to the clarity. Use ULMB for a week straight I bet you won't go back. ;)
 
in stock at the pc stores i buy from here in AUS, but my rig has no GPU's waiting for the 880's, wonder if i should just pick up while in stock ?
 
It is appearing that this monitor will finally be released on amazon/newegg only when this thread hits 100 pages :p
 
phorkz said:
in stock at the pc stores i buy from here in AUS, but my rig has no GPU's waiting for the 880's, wonder if i should just pick up while in stock ?
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The GPU is only as good as the monitor attached to it.
 
Dcode said:
The GPU is only as good as the monitor attached to it.
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don't get what you are trying to say??

Either way i plan on picking one of these up once i get my 2x 880's, just wondering if i should pick it up now while in stock or wait
 
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