QuakeWorld.nu

Browse

Bloggers

Renzo

Age :45

Group: Moderator

Location: Funland

Activity killed the cat?

Renzo

Misc / 4 Aug 2014, 16:31

Asus ROG Swift PG278Q 144Hz monitor

So I finally received the monitor and have been playing around with it for some time now. Time to give out some initial impressions of the monitor. I will be comparing the monitor to the previous Asus monitor I had, which was also "reviewed" here almost two years ago

The first things first. The monitor stand is more sturdy than what I've seen on any of my monitors. It has all the possible adjustments available, like VG278HE had. There isn't much to add to be honest, the monitor is just standing firmly which is good.

As for the image, yeah, being 27" doesn't really strike me as much, but the huge resolution of 2560*1440 is really something else. There's so much room on the desktop now that it is surreal. In games this means lower fps so be prepared. The panel the monitor has seems to be one of the better TN ones, so it does look pretty good. Colors and gamma are okay, also worth mentioning that there isn't pretty much any backlight bleeding, but I can confirm this only later tonight when the sun sets down.

Response time seems ok, input lag feels extremely low. I haven't tested the ULMB mode on the monitor yet, because it doesn't work at 144Hz so I'd be limited to 120Hz when testing that. I did, however, test the G-sync, which seems to give extremely smooth experience in gaming. I don't know if I'd recommend this for QW, but I did test it and it had none of the problems vsync imposes. Also note that you can't really run the game at 144fps with G-sync as it will introduce some input lag. So run the game at lower fps like 140 or even 135.

Well I guess that's the most important parts. Overall I'm pretty satisfied with the monitor.and I will get some more experience with it in the near future, but I don't know if there's anything to add at this point at least.

Comments

2014-08-04, 16:51

Faustov

So you enable vsync in drivers (and qw?) when using g-sync?

2014-08-04, 17:04

peckB

Did you try 24" 144Hz monitors?

2014-08-04, 17:08

Renzo

No, you enable G-sync in drivers and that's it. Ingame V-sync options do not matter at this point anymore, as they can't override or affect G-sync.

I can't say that I have really "tried" any of the 24" 144Hz monitors, since the time I spent on them was merely looking at the screen and test patterns and moving the mouse trying to figure out inputlag or latency on desktop.

2014-08-04, 17:32

Adrenalin

yo renzi nice!!!!
what do u exactly meen by that
* I don't know if I'd recommend this for QW, but I did test it and it had none of the problems vsync imposes*
because my benq 144hz had some problem with vid_vsync it always felt like it was on although it turned it off in qw and graphics card options therefore it lagged and wasnt playable...

2014-08-04, 18:46

ParadokS

I really realllly wanted this monitor but have to wait unfortunately. I was curious as well how this would run with QW. And why would 144hz cause input lag while 130hz does not?

Would you just run same cl_maxfps in QW as the monitor. or still like 1001 fps (as high fps as possible dividable by 77)?

2014-08-04, 19:01

ParadokS

I guess the lag you mentioned was related to this article: http://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/preview2/ concerning input lag when G-SYNC hz is capped.

So it sounds like in reality you only get a 120hz G-SYNC monitor. but that sounds pretty sweet still. I don't know how big difference you see from 120hz to 144hz anyway, although difference from 60hz to 120hz was massive. The real benefits are the G-SYNC itself removing all tearing/stuttering. So for that alone i would buy it

and with that good of a panel and so low latency 120hz is acceptable in my book. When do we see a proper monitor review using 120hz/144hz and AMD's opensource alternative FreeSync or AdaptiveSync?

2014-08-04, 19:34

Renzo

Actually I was testing all the features in QW just now so I can shed some light on that.

Starting with pure 144Hz mode (vsync=off), QW feels really responsive. I don't know how to describe it really, but it feels "easier" to move your mouse than with any other TFT I've tested. I suppose this could be the very low "display lag" the monitor has (source: tftcentral review).

Moving on to 120Hz with ULMB (ultra low motion blur, which is pretty much the same as "lightboost hack" ). It does certainly make the QW look a lot more sharp. You can verify this with various tests on the internet (testufo for example), but there's really no need for that. For some reason QW felt a lot worse than it did at 144Hz, it's as if there is some slight inputlag introduced? I can't say for certain, but it did feel different (worse).

Next in line would be the 144Hz G-sync enabled (140fps in QW) and it does feel like smooth and tearingless and it even feels that maybe there is no inputlag, it is very responsive. However running ezQuake at 140fps will make the game feel different than when you are running it at say, 616fps. I don't know if you could get used to this or not, like I said I haven't really touched QW in a long time so I can't really tell.

So in my opinion I would rate the modes for QW at this time like so:

1) 144Hz vsync=off
2) 144Hz gsync=on
3) 120Hz ULMB=on

2014-08-04, 20:15

Faustov

Your final ranking is as I would have expected it having read about the technology in place. Good stuff, thanks.

2014-08-11, 12:59

mushi

ty Renzo, great as always!

2014-08-16, 10:47

#10

Faustov

There is a new review by Hot Hardware if someone likes: http://hothardware.com/Reviews/ASUS-ROG-SWIFT-PG278Q-GSYNC-Monitor-Review/

2014-09-06, 15:11

#11

iko

Thanks for the review.
Iam very interested into the new Asus Monitor. How is youre aim on such a high resolution? i have a benq 2420t and even on 1080 everyhing is small. thats why iam "playing" on native 1440x1080p(4:3).

2014-09-16, 22:20

#12

mushi

interesting stuff: http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=135

2014-11-16, 15:27

#13

overflow

Anyone else with that display? How are people using it for qw?

2014-12-04, 14:08

#14

Rikoll

I'm using it, with G_SYNC. Feels totally fine and smooth with cl_maxfps 140. Also the resolution and 27" is a big plus for general use. Costs aside, this is an awesome monitor, but due to the costs I can't really recommend it over other 120 hz / 144 hz screens at the moment if all you think about is QW/gaming performance.

Some claim G_SYNC adds input lag, but I can't really say I notice it. The monitor works good with the regular G_SYNC off and cl_maxfps 77 * x settings as well, if you're skeptical to all this G_SYNC stuff. But why invest in a screen like this if you don't want to use one of it's main new feature? G_SYNC seems to be working great in other games I've tested it with also, specially in games where you don't have much control of what fps you got and stuff like that. Then it is much smoother, from my experience.

Also, if you plan on playing QW, or any game for that matter, in the native resolution, be prepared to take a BIG hit on your frames per second! At least the max fps I could get in QW was much lower in 2560 than on 1920.

2014-12-18, 18:07

#15

tsobo

is crt always better than flatscreen. i have a 19" crt and room enough. should I buy a flatscreen?