PCPer Reviews the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ 4k 144Hz G-SYNC Monitor

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Ken Addison over at PC Perspective dove into ASUS' new ROG Swift PG27UQ, a 27", 4k, 144Hz, G-SYNC, HDR monitor. The 27" IPS screen can throw out 1000 nits of brightness, but only if you're willing to throw down $2,000. Check out the review here.

It's a monitor.... with 3GB of DDR4-2400. What more can really be said.

To say that the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ has been a long time coming is a bit of an understatement. In the computer hardware world where we are generally lucky to know about a product for 6-months, the PG27UQ is a product that has been around in some form or another for at least 18 months.
 
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if you're willing to spend ~$1000 for a GPU then $2000 for a 4K HDR monitor sounds like a bargain since the monitor will last 8+ years
 
if you're willing to spend ~$1000 for a GPU then $2000 for a 4K HDR monitor sounds like a bargain since the monitor will last 8+ years

Somehow this doesn't track for me. I have spent substantial sums on gear, but not all gear ...feels...the same.
 
I honestly don't see the appeal of being blinded while gaming. I mean, sure, it's nice to have the dynamic range, but if we can't do it without blinding ourselves, then I think I'll pass...I'm already turning down the brightness on my non-hdr displays as it is (including my phone).

I prefer a high-contrast display with medium brightness (not blinding, but bright enough that I do have to turn it down a little to be comfortable).
 
I honestly don't see the appeal of being blinded while gaming. I mean, sure, it's nice to have the dynamic range, but if we can't do it without blinding ourselves, then I think I'll pass...I'm already turning down the brightness on my non-hdr displays as it is (including my phone).

I prefer a high-contrast display with medium brightness (not blinding, but bright enough that I do have to turn it down a little to be comfortable).
Don't kid yourself or talk yourself out of it. HDR looks outstanding for gaming. I turn my backlight up to 100% when it's bright in my living room. It's not blinding. It looks nice.
 
if you're willing to spend ~$1000 for a GPU then $2000 for a 4K HDR monitor sounds like a bargain since the monitor will last 8+ years
These 4k 144hz hdr monitors are dead on arrival, no hdmi 2.1 means 4k hdr is capped to 98hz. They should of waited till the next gpu's with hdmi 2.1 come out but got greedy and pushed them out the door too soon, no point in wasting any money on these.
 
Don't kid yourself or talk yourself out of it. HDR looks outstanding for gaming. I turn my backlight up to 100% when it's bright in my living room. It's not blinding. It looks nice.
Guess I'll have to see one, then. Would be nice if they had these up at office depot or target, but I guess they'd need to put them in a glass case with how expensive they are. lol
 
I honestly don't see the appeal of being blinded while gaming. I mean, sure, it's nice to have the dynamic range, but if we can't do it without blinding ourselves, then I think I'll pass...I'm already turning down the brightness on my non-hdr displays as it is (including my phone).

I prefer a high-contrast display with medium brightness (not blinding, but bright enough that I do have to turn it down a little to be comfortable).

I never played any HDR games but I do have an LG 4K Dolby Vision TV and native 4K HDR content looks amazing...
 
These 4k 144hz hdr monitors are dead on arrival, no hdmi 2.1 means 4k hdr is capped to 98hz. They should of waited till the next gpu's with hdmi 2.1 come out but got greedy and pushed them out the door too soon, no point in wasting any money on these.
Too soon? These were suppose to come out last year! But yeah even with a extra years they still dropped the ball.
 
I feel is the monitor was a non VFR but still 4K UHD HDR monitor it would have been a better option until HDMI 2.1 GPUs launch. Gamers will still be better off with a nice HDR tv at this price point overall for HDR content and it makes me sad that monitors have fallen so far behind . You can almost get a UHD hdr projector for this price point too.

Given how long a good monitor lasts , I think most people should just pass on this gen and hope that eventually the updated models become viable soon because at this price point dealing with 4:2:2 color and active cooling and the lack of Dolby Vision support makes this first gen a non-starter that will only seem a ok but expensive option for maybe a year or two. but as it stands , no way this model is a good investment.
 
Any FreeSync II versions coming out? How much is GSync adding to the picture and is the GSync module the culprit for the limitations?

My first thought is nope! While it would be nice, it is not $2000 nice. At least the 27" 4K part is right :D
 
Let's see, 75" 4k HDR TV or 144hz 27" 4k monitor. I wonder what I should choose. What blows my mind is that a lot of gamers would actually choose the 27" monitor.

not sure if serious

NOTSUREIF.jpg
 
noko, I don't know if you didn't read the thread or are drunk but if you had read the thread you'd see the problem is the interconnect, the connector between gpu and monitor doesn't have the bandwidth for 2160p hdr 4:4:4 chroma at 144hz.
 
I'm pretty much totally converted to gaming from the couch on my TV. I'm on a 55" 4k60Hz panel, that will also do 1080p120Hz, sitting about 5 feet away. Basically I have just enough room for the stand I built for my G27 wheel. I built a lap pad from spruce scraps, ran a USB 3.0 powered hub to the couch, and haven't looked back as far as gaming and media is concerned. If I work from home I have a desk, that's essentially a hobby station otherwise. I'm still shopping the perfect surround receiver, but for now I've got 120w/ch (stereo) @ .06 THD thru Klipsch R-15Ms backed up by a Dayton Audio DA1200 sub. I just can't go back to desk gaming. While I could go with a slightly smaller screen and acheive the same FOV saturation, it wouldn't be as comfortable for M/KB games, and using the wheel would be a pain in the ass since I could never achieve the orientation I can with the stand. Seriously, this setup rocks for racing games. It's also great for other game styles: RPGs are epic, RTSs are truly strategic feeling, FPS are immensely engaging, Witcher 3\Shadow of Mordor is insane. Being able to just switch inputs to the Switch is a nice bonus. It's also really nice using real speakers instead of headphones. I can wear my helmet when I play F1 2017. :D

I've seen G-Sync and FreeSync in action, along with HDR in it's various forms. VRR is borderline transcendent, and HDR pushes it over the edge, though it is really nice by itself with the right content. I'm waiting to see how HDMI 2.1 shakes out before buying another screen. Maybe I'll make the jump from this to VRR/HDR + Atmos all at once. (y)

I want all the cookies.
 
I was at Microcenter today and they had one of these out on display. They had unigine heaven running on medium no AA or tessellation with a 1080Ti. Now I want to go back and turn the brightness all the way up to see how blinding it really is, too bad its limited by DP.
 
That "review" reads like a brochure. They should really leave that stuff to someone that knows what they're doing.

Also, a loud fan monitor with IPS glow, probably BLB since it's Asus, and FALD haloing...for $2000...laughable.
 
"While our original speculation as to the $2,000 price point of the first G-SYNC HDR monitors was mostly based on potential LCD panel cost, it's now more clear that the new G-SYNC module makes up a substantial cost.

It's an unstocked item, without a large bulk quantity price break, but you can actually find this exact same FPGA on both Digikey and Mouser, available to buy. It's clear that NVIDIA isn't paying the $2600 per each FPGA that both sites are asking, but it shows that these are not cheap components in the least. I wouldn't be surprised to see that this FPGA alone makes up $500 of the final price point of these new displays, let alone the costly DDR4 memory."

So that's what you're paying for.

Utterly not worth it imho. I mean last month I just dropped a grand on a 55" Sony XE900 (FALD, VA, HDR).


...or I could pay twice that, have less than half the screen size, IPS glow, and 2 fans to listen to!! :rolleyes:

Honestly, hands up, who here is actually gunna buy one of these at $2,000?! o_O
 
Because 60hz is far too low for many games?

dude, I used to be that guy

I argued with people on here about how anything over 30FPS was just vanity epeen BS...now, if my system drops out of 60 sync I notice it IMMEDIATELY.

So I guess I learned my lesson, I haven't owned a faster monitor yet, but I'm not doubting that once you get used to it you never go back.
 
27" in 4k is just way to small as far as I'm concerned, at least at this moment in time. Sure pixel density is great but I'd rather have 1440p and higher framerates if I was going to choose between the 2 in a 27" format especially at that price point.

Now what I have been wanting for the last year is a damned Ultrawide with 3440x1440 35" or higher at 120hz+ with proper HDR support. Now I'm reading that even with the delays they still dont have proper HDR and the price point speculation seems to blowing through my fun money limit.

Buying a large 4k OLED and a comfy recliner is sounding better by the day to be honest. I bought a Roccat Sova lapboard for my living room and use a steam Link, I'm finding it more than adequate for most of the gaming I do now. My only worry with OLED is the screen burn-in.
 
dude, I used to be that guy

I argued with people on here about how anything over 30FPS was just vanity epeen BS...now, if my system drops out of 60 sync I notice it IMMEDIATELY.

So I guess I learned my lesson, I haven't owned a faster monitor yet, but I'm not doubting that once you get used to it you never go back.

I grabbed a 1440p 144hz monitor a few months ago. The 144hz was nice, I'm running a 1080ti and there are very few AAA games I was running anywhere near 100fps (let alone 144) without starting to turn off options. I couldn't tell a massive difference after 100fps and for me 60fps is still really nice. I'd much rather have all the bells and whistles turned on and have a consistent frame rate rather than my screen going from 144 to 80 fps constantly. I returned mine becuase there was a problem with gamma setting on the monitor and decided to not repurchase another one. I'm running my current monitor at 60hz. I suppose if I got use to 100 fps I may have an issue but the jump from 60 to 100+ fps was no where near the difference that 30 to 60 was. That said I'm no competitive gamer playing FPS games constantly.
 
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Will many people really pay $2k for a monitor? Seems like a lot of cash to me.

There are people who will spend stupid amounts of money just to have bragging rights, even though they do not realize bragging about it usually causes most people to snicker behind their backs.

To be fair. There are times when spending stupid amounts of money on something actually gets you something to brag about, but in this case,....nah.
 
These 4k 144hz hdr monitors are dead on arrival, no hdmi 2.1 means 4k hdr is capped to 98hz. They should of waited till the next gpu's with hdmi 2.1 come out but got greedy and pushed them out the door too soon, no point in wasting any money on these.


Would that actually help? afaik G-sync only works with DP so higher bandwith HDMI wont solve all the problems.

What's even worse is that in Europe from what I have seen they charge 2.500 € minimum, that's around 3.000$ can't imagine they will sell a ton at those rates.

I might have paid 1.500 € for a good 4k 144 hz HDR monitor, but not double of that amount.
 
is this the same panel that goes chroma subsampling when at high refresh rate ?
 
Outside of not being in the budget I have no problems with the price tag, if it didn't have all these known limits and issues. fix them, and i'll start saving.
 
1000 nits in a 27" screen 3 feet from your face...yeah that sounds awesome. I can't handle the 400 nits thrown out by my current monitor after heavy usage, the eyestrain is killer.
 
4K 144 Hz 10-bit HDR works and looks just brilliant with 4:2:2. That is more chroma than 4K Blu-rays use for HDR (4:2:0) and has basically zero effect on game image quality. Only on the desktop for text do you need to "drop down to" 120 Hz.

PCPerspective quote: It's clear that the ASUS PG27UQ is the best gaming monitor we have ever laid eyes on, and it is not even close. The color and the brightness that lead to the best HDR implementation to date, along with the variable refresh rate capability of G-SYNC, not to mention the 4K resolution, create a truly awe-inspiring combination. Gaming on the panel was unlike anything else, and we still sit around the office and just stare at it when idling at a game screen.

Totally true. No other gaming monitor even comes close, and I've tested like all of them. Plus I have a C8 OLED next to it.
 
Wow they are praising the crap out of it, Honestly though its a bit shallow that 4:2:2 Chroma subsampling is ugly after 98 htz.

Well, I think this is a major failure, It would have been better to just make 120htz 1440p Ultrawide IPS panels with HDR certs.

Ultrawide 21:9 is the new hotness anyways despite the Special Olympics marathon of getting it to play nicely in Windows but the same can be said for HDR and SLI/Crossfire as they tend to always have issues
.
 
Hopefully the next generation of these monitors will offer larger screen sizes. I'm just not interested in a 27" 4k display.
 
For this much money this is way to small a screen for 4k. If it was 32inch plus I would might consider it. I currently have a 4k 40inch Samsung. I love the 40 inch size for 4k it's perfect desktop size and productivity. If nvidia supports VRR in the next line of video cards I'll wait for a TV in the 40 inch size with VRR. Perfect monitor would be an OLED 40-43 inch with VRR, sure i'll have to dream about that for 3-4 more years.
 
An impressive monitor to be sure, but my friend paid about $1400 for a 65" Samsung KS8000 in 2016. Aside from the 144 Hz (which would be damn nice to have), it's kinda hard for me to see the value in the ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ. 27" is also too small for 2160p, at least to me. At that size I'd wouldn't go above 1440p. 1920x1200 works out really well in the 24"-27" range. 2160p calls for a much larger display size. I'm fine with 27" for PC use (my primary display is currently 24", and I'd like a 30" with 2560x1600 res), I don't need to use a fucking 65" HDTV as my primary display, but often the HDTVs turn out to be better values. I wish HDTVs supported DisplayPort though. I'd like to start seeing a lot more OLED monitors hit the market.
 
PCPerspective quote: It's clear that the ASUS PG27UQ is the best gaming monitor we have ever laid eyes on, and it is not even close. The color and the brightness that lead to the best HDR implementation to date, along with the variable refresh rate capability of G-SYNC, not to mention the 4K resolution, create a truly awe-inspiring combination. Gaming on the panel was unlike anything else, and we still sit around the office and just stare at it when idling at a game screen.

Totally true. No other gaming monitor even comes close, and I've tested like all of them. Plus I have a C8 OLED next to it.
Grey blacks, milky IPS glow and haloing are a far cry from a best gaming monitor, but to each their own. I would take the C8 over it any day.
 
Vega knows his display setups, that's for sure. No way I'm early adopting this myself, but it is nice to see the way forward.
 
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