ASUS Announces ROG SWIFT PG278Q Premium Gaming Monitor

Just got mine from TigerDirect but I haven't had much time to test it. Mine has almost no backlight bleed except for a faint, barely noticeable strip along the bottom and I haven't found any dead pixels yet. I think I won the panel lottery (this is coming from a Samsung S23A950D which had lots of image quality problems).

Early impressions:
+The colors are pleasantly saturated out of the box, I don't have any problem with the overall vibrancy of the image. This is a nice step up from my S23A950D.
+Viewing angles are not as bad as I had expected them to be.
+1440p @ 27" seems just about right. Text is about about the same size as it was on my 23" 1080p monitor, maybe a little smaller, but not too small.
+For the first time ever I've got no problems with the default sharpness level, which is good because I don't think the PG278Q has an adjustable sharpness setting in the OSD menu(?)
+The mini-joystick used for navigating the OSD is a godsend. Other manufacturers should take note.
+It's a pretty cool looking monitor. More importantly, it manages to look cool while at the same time incorporating all the ergonomic features you could possibly want. Form is integrated seamlessly with function here.

-Out of the box the image was far too warm, resulting in a noticeable yellow hue, just like every other TN panel I've ever owned. I've had to significantly reduce the red and green channels in favor of the blue channel.
-Black levels are not so good with the monitor's default brightness setting (I believe it was set to 80). Lowering the brightness makes an improvement but only goes so far.
-Though I wouldn't exactly describe the image as "pasty" (my S23A950D was pretty bad in this regard), I still feel like the gamma is higher than it should be. This is disappointing, one of the review copies floating around was measured to have near perfect gamma, and I was hoping mine would be similar.
-The matte coating is pretty fug. On one hand, not seeing my reflection in dark images is nice, but the image quality is definitely degraded versus what it could be if they had decided to make this beast a semigloss.
-The inner bezel, at least for me, creates the illusion of the image being smaller than it is. It's not that bad but I could have done without it.
-The red ring on the base will not be to everyone's liking. I find it to be kind of tacky and distracting and will likely be turning it off.

The monitor definitely has its flaws, but since I got a near-perfect panel I won't be returning it.

Still need to test gsync/ulmb, make some finer calibration tweaks, and tune it with Lagom. I had to leave for work soon after setting it up :(
 
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G-Sync sucks. There, I said it.

A bit of tearing is a lot better than having any motion at all causing the whole screen to degenerate into a blurred mass of transitioning pixels. You can't use low-persistance with G-Sync, so G-Sync is a piece of shit that no one should use. Low-persistance works fine on VGA and any other analog technologies.

Well thats just like, your opinion man.
 
If you are coming from 1080p or perhaps a low-end 2560 x 1440, you will like the Asus. If you are coming from 3440 x 1440, you WONT.

what you're really saying is you prefer size over speed

that's fine, and the sizes and speeds of these monitors are well advertised so everyone can make their decision

it's a no-brainer that the huge monitor is nice. but some people won't settle for that IPS slowness ever again, no matter how nice the size. thus this monitor and thread
 
I guess so. I wish there was both. The snappiness of the 278Q combined with the screen size and color quality of the LG 34". But, right now, there just isn't. Hoping 2015 settles this issue.



Edit: My pref. really is "game-dependant". Yesterday I gamed exclusively with the PG278Q. Today, I plugged the LG 34" back in. My reaction depends on the game. For Fallout New Vegas, after gaming on the 278Q for a day then going to the LG at 3440 x 1440 (Fallout NV requires a short .ini edit for it to work right), it's like OHH MY GOD this is SOO much more amazing on the LG!! The massive left to right screen space is like playing a freaking movie screen and the colors are so much deeper. Same feeling with Wasteland 2; vastly superior experience on the LG.

But then I fired up BF4, and instantly I missed the hard-ware aim point the Asus supports as well as the 100 fps + frame rates and instant response time. Same with Heroes and Generals. I def score more kills playing with the Asus.

It sucks we can't have both right now.

(But yeah, it's nice to have first world problems)

A member requested some pics of the LG playing a certain youtube video in a dark room. I posted some pics of it as well as the ASUS in this thread:
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?t=1834794
 
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Only a CRT that is failing does that. In fact, a LCD with failing caps can do the same thing. One in good condition makes zero noise at all.
That's not always true. Electrical components can undergo physical stresses that cause resonances in the audio frequency range during normal operation. Ever hear the term "coil whine"?
 
I am sure this topic has been beaten to death but... anybody have this monitor AFTER having and using an IPS monitor? I would be concerned about picture quality and color accuracy in comparison.
 
I reserved my next roll of the dice at Microcenter. Will be going to get it after work again.

Considering my last two trials at Fry's, I've already steeled myself for the worst. I'm ready for dead and stuck pixels and some backlight bleed. Just please don't have a random annoying scar on the right side... >_>

Oh, and please don't randomly horrifically die on me while I'm playing games. That's kind of the thing of nightmares.


I am sure this topic has been beaten to death but... anybody have this monitor AFTER having and using an IPS monitor? I would be concerned about picture quality and color accuracy in comparison.

Yeah, pretty much everyone has. TL;DR:
- Slightly worse colors (somewhat negligible, especially when doing its purpose, which is playing games)
- Worse horizontal viewing angles (not a big deal)
- Much worse vertical viewing angles (the biggest issue imo as someone that slouches sometimes).



Motion clarity and whatnot is huge.
 
third party seller 'BizBuy' on amazon is selling this for $1,195.52. yikes. ships from Korea.
 
Yeah well my phone was on silent so I didn't find out until I drove there, but Microcenter actually sold mine off to someone else before I had even called. The guy answering just apparently did not know. I was quite happy.

Frankly, I give up on getting (a decent) one of these before my birthday.
 
Got my second one from Amazon today. I packed it up for return within 5 minutes of turning it on. At least two stuck pixels (didn't bother looking for more), some weird dark mark (possibly dust behind the screen) in the dead center of the screen, and horrible backlight blotching all over the place.

I've decided that this monitor isn't for me. The quality control is abysmal to say the least. To advertise this as a premium TN is an absolute joke. I'll save my $800 for something worthwhile. Thanks for nothing Asus!
 
G-Sync sucks. There, I said it.

A bit of tearing is a lot better than having any motion at all causing the whole screen to degenerate into a blurred mass of transitioning pixels. You can't use low-persistance with G-Sync, so G-Sync is a piece of shit that no one should use. Low-persistance works fine on VGA and any other analog technologies.

hi rabidz, did you buy the ROG? I'm coming from an eizo fg2421, which has great motion clarity. Are you saying that this monitor has too much motion blur with Gsync to make it acceptable? I am worried about this exact thing, worried I would think the motion clarity is a downgrade. Can you confirm?

thanks
 
hi rabidz, did you buy the ROG? I'm coming from an eizo fg2421, which has great motion clarity. Are you saying that this monitor has too much motion blur with Gsync to make it acceptable? I am worried about this exact thing, worried I would think the motion clarity is a downgrade. Can you confirm?

thanks

I would just ignore that guy as he seems like the type for who anything but CRT is no good. The response time is probably among the best available for LCDs.
 
I would just ignore that guy as he seems like the type for who anything but CRT is no good. The response time is probably among the best available for LCDs.

Anything that is not either: a CRT, SED, or FED can not compete. Sure, you can have "blazing" 1ms response time, but phosphor is instant. The instant it is hit by an electron, it changes state.
 
hi rabidz, did you buy the ROG? I'm coming from an eizo fg2421, which has great motion clarity. Are you saying that this monitor has too much motion blur with Gsync to make it acceptable? I am worried about this exact thing, worried I would think the motion clarity is a downgrade. Can you confirm?

thanks

I don't have a Swift. Any monitor that doesn't have a calibrated flicker will have motion blur. The Swift can have ULMB flicker, which eliminates blur. The Swift is fine with ULMB, but you can't use ULMB and G-Sync at the same time. You also can't use ULMB with ATI GPUs ore pre-6xx nVidia GPUs. If you have a recent nVidia GPU and don't mind matte or bad color, get a Swift. If you don't have a recent nVidia GPU, want accurate color, or want a glossy screen, get a FW900. My CRT stopped working, so I am looking for a repair place to fix it and also waiting for Vega to return so that I can get a Swift and get the matte coat removed professionally. My PC is currently out of order (due to having no monitor) and I am using my '05 Apple PowerBook as my main computer.
 
Anything that is not either: a CRT, SED, or FED can not compete. Sure, you can have "blazing" 1ms response time, but phosphor is instant. The instant it is hit by an electron, it changes state.
I'm not sure if you're being serious or not. Higher refresh rates in the 24->60->120 range are definitely noticeable, and more latency is always bad, but once you've gotten to 1ms response, you're more than 2 orders of magnitude faster than human response time. Does it really make a difference at that point? Can we even perceive it? Time to consult the literature.

Based on papers I can find, 1ms is below the detectable threshold for humans by roughly 1 order of magnitude, depending on who you cite.
 
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I'm not sure if you're being serious or not. Higher refresh rates in the 24->60->120 range are definitely noticeable, and more latency is always bad, but once you've gotten to 1ms response, you're more than 2 orders of magnitude faster than human response time. Does it really make a difference at that point? Can we even perceive it? Time to consult the literature.

Based on papers I can find, 1ms is below the detectable threshold for humans by roughly 1 order of magnitude, depending on who you cite.

The response time also effects the time it takes for pixels to change state. A 1ms response time TN is limited to about 480Hz before pixels enter a perpetual state change, while a CRT, SED, or FED has no refresh rate limits.
 
The response time also effects the time it takes for pixels to change state. A 1ms response time TN is limited to about 480Hz before pixels enter a perpetual state change, while a CRT, SED, or FED has no refresh rate limits.
Ah, I assumed your response comment was focused on latency. That certainly makes sense.
 
Based on papers I can find, 1ms is below the detectable threshold for humans by roughly 1 order of magnitude, depending on who you cite.

see any oled tv it has 1 microsecond response time. the difference between that and 1ms is massive, super easy to perceive. no need for any literature.
 
Please take your X display tech vs Y display tech discussion to another thread. This thread is already chock full of useless "I ordered from X" stuff that any real info on the performance of the ASUS display is going to end up unfoundable.

It's not worth anyone's time debating display tech that is no longer made or has never entered consumer production. I think by now we all know the good and bad parts of CRT and LCD tech and have to live with it by either sticking with CRT or LCD depending on what you value.
 
Fulfilled by Amazon, not a third-party seller. They had five when I saw them, but they were sold out within 15 minutes.



Yep, my order was sold directly by Amazon. It was weird, though. had to refresh a few times to even get the three that were left to show up, and I had to act fast. I have a feeling replacements aren't going to be so easy with this thing on Amazon. How is ASUS RMA in the US for monitors like this? I know I suggested one of the Europe folks do an RMA with then and it worked out well there... but idk about US service.
 
see any oled tv it has 1 microsecond response time. the difference between that and 1ms is massive, super easy to perceive. no need for any literature.

Too bad they also use sample and hold to refresh the image. There goes your motion clarity.
 
oled would still require some sort of backlight strobing. The oculus rift is oled, and they are shooting for 90hz+ with some sort of low image persistence ~ blur reduction tech. The hz alone along with the response time would help slightly but not enough. They spoke about blur reduction as being mind blowing compared to not having it, and that it is fundamental to VR. They called it "blanking the display". I'm guessing that they are strobing the backlight or something very similar.

This interview was before the latest in house version of the rift, but still applies to their goals.
http://www.web-cyb.org/hardware-info/oculus-rift_ces-interview-transcript.htm

What we're doing with our low persistence display is rendering the image, sending it to the screen, we show it for a tiny period of time - then we blank the display. So it's black until we have another image. So we're only showing the image when we have a correct, up to date frame from the computer to show. If you do that at a high enough frame rate, you don't perceive it as multiple discreet frames, you perceive it as continuous motion , but because you have no garbage data - you know, nothing for your retina to try to focus on except correct data - you end up with a crystal clear image.

That's probably the biggest update we've made to this prototype. It's a major breakthrough in terms of immersion, comfort, and actually visual stability of the scene. Now you can actually read text, not only because of the high resolution, but with text in the world before, even if you were moving your head just a little bit, which most of us naturally are as we are looking around a scene, the text would just smear - very heavily. Now with low persistence, all of the objects feel a lot more visually stable and locked in place.

low persistence is a breakthrough. In that it was unexpected..it was, we did not expect to see the kind of jump in quality that we saw - where we said this isn't just one of those "every little bit helps" , it is a killer - it completely changes the way that, it completely changes the experience.. fundamentally."

So, it can be done on oled just like it can on lcd - if a manufacturer decides to make it.
 
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oled would still require some sort of backlight strobing. The oculus rift is oled, and they are shooting for 90hz+ with some sort of low image persistence ~ blur reduction tech. The hz alone along with the response time would help slightly but not enough. They spoke about blur reduction as being mind blowing compared to not having it, and that it is fundamental to VR. They called it "blanking the display". I'm guessing that they are strobing the backlight or something very similar.
There is no backlight in an OLED display, the pixels themselves produce light. When they say blank the display they mean literally that, they make the screen blank by I assume setting every pixel to full black.
 
To clarify, OLED displays don't have backlights. What he's talking about is simply low-persistence. Meaning the OLEDs emitting light in the display are only active for as long as it takes to display the frame, then they're turned off. How long they stay on before they are turned off is the "persistence" of the display. The higher the persistence, the more motion blur, because it looks to your visual system like moving things are in more than one place at once, so they smear everywhere. The problem with low-framerate low-persistence is you get flickering, and the problem with low-persistence itself is the brightness of the image is reduced proportionally. As OLED tech matures this should be alleviated by brighter and more powerful OLEDs themselves, relative to their degradation rate.

EDIT: beaten to the punch, now I look silly.
 
So are they doing 90hz (or more if they can manage it) + 90 more screen blankings? From what you said it is indeed an "off" state after every frame rendered. Anyway the point is you can apparently use screen blanking on oled to greatly reduce or eliminate blur vs sample-and-hold, similar to what some lcds do with backlight strobing. In either case the screen is going "black" between frames. So it is doable if an oled display mfg decides to implement it in a gaming display.

The brightness (dimness) and flickering (at low fps~hz) are issues on lcd backlight strobing too. My point was in response to someone who was saying "there goes your motion clarity" if you go with oled. Not necessarily so.

Thanks for the further explanations.
 
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So are they doing 90hz (or more if they can manage it) + 90 more screen blankings? From what you said it is indeed an "off" state after every frame rendered. Anyway the point is you can apparently use screen blanking on oled to greatly reduce or eliminate blur vs sample-and-hold, similar to what some lcds do with backlight strobing. In either case the screen is going "black" between frames. So it is doable if an oled display mfg decides to implement it in a gaming display.

The brightness (dimness) and flickering (at low fps~hz) are issues on lcd backlight strobing too. My point was in response to someone who was saying "there goes your motion clarity" if you go with oled. Not necessarily so.

Thanks for the further explanations.

Yep, the screen is cycled 90 times per second for an interval of 11 ms, and I'm guessing the OLED is on less than a quarter of that time (don't know the exact figure, but I don't think DK2 is at 1ms persistence yet). Oculus is concerned with more than persistence, however, but latency as well, so that's why they want as fast a refresh as possible. Low-persistence can be done with 60 hz - as it was with CRTs, but low latency is also it's own thing.
 
<snip> ....
Low-persistence can be done with 60 hz - as it was with CRTs, but low latency is also it's own thing.

yes but people are sensitive to flickering. I'm guessing anything much under 100hz of strobing or blanking would start to look flickery, especially to people with "fast" eyesight (like me).

I used my fw900 at 85 - 90hz or more.

I'm aware of their latency goals too, and I'm glad they are focusing on that as well - I just didn't quote that part of the interview directly.
 
yes but people are sensitive to flickering. I'm guessing anything much under 100hz of strobing or blanking would start to look flickery, especially to people with "fast" eyesight (like me).

I used my fw900 at 85 - 90hz or more.

I'm aware of their latency goals too, and I'm glad they are focusing on that as well - I just didn't quote that part of the interview directly.

That's definitely true. Also, yeah, I know you know. I'm just blabbering, really. Some random person might learn something from it, so I let myself go on a little.
 
Too bad they also use sample and hold to refresh the image. There goes your motion clarity.

noo idea about that but motion is absolutely gorgeous to see! i dont think you have any idea about oleds
 
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So are they doing 90hz (or more if they can manage it) + 90 more screen blankings? From what you said it is indeed an "off" state after every frame rendered. Anyway the point is you can apparently use screen blanking on oled to greatly reduce or eliminate blur vs sample-and-hold, similar to what some lcds do with backlight strobing. In either case the screen is going "black" between frames. So it is doable if an oled display mfg decides to implement it in a gaming display.

The brightness (dimness) and flickering (at low fps~hz) are issues on lcd backlight strobing too. My point was in response to someone who was saying "there goes your motion clarity" if you go with oled. Not necessarily so.

Thanks for the further explanations.

oleds are good for 1000hz or 1 khz
 
A heads up for people experiencing the random black/dropped frame issue: after upgrading to a GTX 980 it is occurring more often to me.

EDIT: Hmm it seems after switching to the supplied 6ft cable the problem hasn't reoccurred. I know 1440p @ 120hz requires a lot of bandwidth, but does the signal degrade too much over a 10ft cable? It's interesting to note that DP only actually supports a length of 2m @ 1600p/60hz, but states longer lengths are possible (http://www.displayport.org/faq/). I'll keep running it with the 6ft cable and keep an eye out for the issue.
 
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I don't have one of these yet but I can tell you that on a 25' + 1' end extension run of thick (24awg) minidp extension cable my 780ti 's signal would blink and go out of range/drop, and I couldn't even run both my 2560x 60hz minidp monitor + my 1080p 120hz dp monitor at the same time for some reason. (There was no problem doing so off my amd 6990 for years on the 25'+ run).

I've since moved my pc (case) to the room just above my desk and have 15' displayport and mini displayport cables from the 780ti, single 15' run to each monitor with no breaks and it works great. Hopefully this weak displayport signal issue won't be in issue with the PG278Q on this setup. If it is, I'd consider returning it.

I'm using these cables in particular by the way. Again, that's on my samsung 1080p 120hz A750D and not the PG278Q.
 
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Any in stock sources with reasonable prices for the on topic monitor?
 
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