Asus ROG Swift PG278Q Monitor My Honest Review

SmokeDarKnight

Author Level
Hey Guys,

I just picked up a Asus ROG Swift PG278Q and have been playing with it for a few days now and thought i would post up my honest review.

The machine looks the part, beautifully designed, looks good switched on or off and moves into any position you require. It has a small power brick about the same size as apple macbook power supply but thinner. Single cable to my GTX 980 which is Displayport which makes your connection options simple. Also comes with a USB3 hub built in but only 2 ports for inputs, i would have liked to seen 4 on it.

Switching the monitor on it comes up with a nice Asus screen and thats most likely the last time you will ever see it. Switching the monitor on and off is instant into your computer, doesn't need any time to warm up etc its there and its bright. I also like the red ring at the bottom of the base where it swivels too, although not bringing any usefulness it looks cool.

I bought this monitor as a sort of experiment, i needed a new monitor and i was conflicted between resolution and refresh rate. In the end i couldn't decide and took the jump to this beast. More than i really wanted to pay retailing at around the £600 mark but convinced myself to go for it.

From here on i will be comparing the monitors features to my old Samsung 60hz 1080 5ms monitor

Resolution:- The step up from 1080 to 1440

Personally i still think that 1080 is a beautiful resolution. 1080 is crisp and clear and having the monitors side by side to compare there isn't any sort of "WOW" in my opinion from the resolution, there is an improvement don't get me wrong but taking into account the price mark i just felt like i would have been blown away more. Playing Dota 2 there wasn't a massive improvement, but Batman Arkham Origin it did shine a little i must admit.

Thoughs:- If i had the choice i would have been happy with a 1080 monitor again if 'im honest.

Refresh Rate:- The step up from 60hz to 144hz and 5ms to 1ms

I certainly noticed the difference here, without the restriction of my 60hz monitor i felt that games looked a lot smoother with the restriction of 60hz lifted. Looking at the frame rate instead of floating around the 58-61fps mark games were settling in about 90fps with my usual settings. This made it much more comfortable on the eyes and a delight to play. Even in windows moving the mouse around you can see the difference.

Thoughts:- I can really see the difference with this feature whether as much as 144hz is required i can't tell but i would grade this more important than resolution at the moment. I know you can get 120hz monitors out there but i think there pretty rare.

Synchroning:- The step up from None/Vsync to Gsync NVIDIA USERS ONLY, AMD USERS CHECK OUT FREESYNC MONITORS

WOW, just wow. Gsync is where this think makes the big difference. Games that i had deemed unplayable such as Far Cry 4, Grand Theft Auto 5 story mode even Assassins Creed Unity this feature made a really good job at sorting out. Frame rate changes were almost undetectable, even dropping below 60fps this gsync magic seemed to hug me and shield me from from that horrible experience when jumping between 60+ and 60-. GTA5 Story mode was sitting anywhere between 70fps and 45 fps and when i turned the fps counter off i couldn't have noticed any drops. It was a pleasure to game with this feature. No screen tearing, The movements were so smooth, i cannot big up this feature enough. Input lag also was not noticeable at all. Normally i would play Dota 2 with the Vsync off an put up with screen tearing and stutter but now its just awsome.

Thoughts:- Never buying a non Gsync monitor again. In my opinion of you are looking at a new monitor make this feature top of your must have list. I believe this will also help your machine age better, once games start taking your system as it gets older the Monitor and you GPU(S) will chat away to each other to help you get a pleasent viewing experience.

Final Thoughts

My advice for anyone looking for a new monitor at the moment is to make a budget and try to squeeze GSync into it. If you can afford it and want all singing and dancing by all means this is an awesome monitor and i highly recommend it. All three features together make for an awesome experience i'm sure but even a 1080 GSync monitor would still have blown me away i think. Refresh rate i would advise as your second thought, a higher 60hz monitor can unlock some advantages in the smoothness of games.

Priority list

1, GSync
2, Refreshrate/responce time
3, Resolution

Pro's

Nice size at 27"
Gsync
Feels like a good addition to a high end rig
Makes games that were unplayable playable.

Con's

1440 might not be as bit an improvement as you had hoped
Gsync only works with Nvidia GPU, for AMD look up Freesync monitors

Additional

This monitor does come with some features i would class as gimiky and perhaps even borderling cheating such as an on screen cross hair but they didn't really influence my decision so i din't include them in my review sorry.

Hope this helps anyone looking at buying a new monitor and please also note that your results may vary between systems and games. I tested out this system on my rig in my signature and with Tomb Raider, Borderlands TPS, GTAV Story and Onlne (Online ran a lot smoother btw), Dota 2, Batman Arkham Origin, Assassin's Creed Unity.

Thank for reading, any questions feel free to message me or put them below

Please note that this monitor is also available to order with PCS Machine and through the upgrade page.

Mike
 
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SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Really nice review, Smokey, I especially like the user opinion on G-Sync as I've been umming and ahing on whether or not to give it a go, but couldn't see the overall benefit for my eyes, but after your insight its given me some gusto to look further into it.
 

SmokeDarKnight

Author Level
Thanks spider, its not a 100% improvement but if it can make Assassin's Creed Unity bearable i think it deserves some good props. As i say though, i wouldn't be purchasing a monitor again without this feature.
 

SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
Thanks spider, its not a 100% improvement but if it can make Assassin's Creed Unity bearable i think it deserves some good props. As i say though, i wouldn't be purchasing a monitor again without this feature.

And that's the proof that I would need, anyone saying "I wouldn't go back" makes me think it's enough of an improvement to make a marked increase in quality for gaming, which is all I care about. It's the price hike I found difficult to justify without someone I trusted saying it was worth it.
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Great review. I'm thinking of going for something nearly identical but with FreeSync instead of GSync. Only issue is with Freesync is 24fps video can cause issues. The minimum on most Freesync/Gsync monitors is 40fps. Nvidia uses 48fps for 24fps video but AMD currently sets it to lowest and therefore 24/40 can cause some frame lag. I think once this issue is fixed, Gsync will die off if I am quite honest. Freesync is free and open source. For that reason, Intel (20% of video cards on steam), will likely implement it into their systems. Developers would prefer to have to develop for only one of these systems and with Freesync being cheaper to develop for, I think it will be prioritised and Nvidia will be forced to add it to their cards in a couple years.
 

SmokeDarKnight

Author Level
Yeah i think you might be right wozza, i haven't experienced Freesync to compare it but im guessing it does the same job. There is a video or an article of a Nvidia engineer discussing AMD's Freesync and why its inferior but he's bound to say that really.

I think the trouble, for me in my location anyway, is that there is no where you can go and experience these products. We just have to order and hope for the best. I find that PC World for example do not have real high end equipment or experience to demonstrate the technologies out there and without that hands on approach some of these technologies will be hard to push and missed.

I think Nvidia cards may have to adopt Mantel at some point too i hope.
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
Agreed, with the technology market moving primarily online there is nowhere to go and view these products. I have one of the biggest shopping centres in the country within walking distance of my home and another also within walking distance of my university. One has a Maplin's and a huge Currys/PC world store and yet it still doesn't have any of the latest tech to go and try out especially in the enthusiast section. They have the latest and greatest TVs, Apple Macs etc but I think the best graphics card I saw last time I went in there was a 670.

I don't think Mantle will ever become really that popular, DirectX already does a good job and DX12 will be addressing the issues that Mantle was designed to fix (large CPU overhead). DX is already there, even if it wasn't the best I would prefer a single solution wherever possible to make it easier for developers to develop good games and worrying less about having to rewrite it for different systems APIs.

and I think that Gsync is the better performer but factoring in price and extra development etc, is it really worth it? Monitor producers have to pay to have it in their monitors and its not cheap either. I think as Freesync is free and a software rather than hardware solution we might start seeing it included in even lower end monitors because it costs little more to implement and could tempt a lot more buyers. I'm sure AMD may do some persuading as well to the monitor manufacturers to include it so that people buy their graphics cards too. And like I said on DX/Mantle, it's not necessarily about the best performing solution, it should be about what makes it easier for developers to get on with what they want to do and single, open source solutions are usually best as it allows high compatibility but being open source can still be customised and improved by different companies.
 
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SpyderTracks

We love you Ukraine
After reading your review I looked up a few G-Sync/Freesync monitors on a favourite tech site of mine and was surprised to see that Samsung are only supporting FreeSync?
 

Wozza63

Biblical Poster
After reading your review I looked up a few G-Sync/Freesync monitors on a favourite tech site of mine and was surprised to see that Samsung are only supporting FreeSync?

Acer have one being released soon called XG270HU which should be released soon.
 

Bear

New member
I was sorely tempted by the ROG Swift, I was put off by the lack of IPS, but lured by the refresh and response. I spoke to a friend who already uses big screens (my current is a woeful 19") and he said that in his opinion, IPS was more important than the refresh/response times.

I decided to be patient, as my computer wouldn't be ready till after 20/04/15, I made the choice to get the new Acer Predator 2k, 144hz, 1440, G-Sync IPS monitor. When I'd been looking at monitors I was suprised there was no option to have the fast refresh, the G-Sync and IPS in one piece of kit, perhaps the tech was incompatible or something. Then I found an article about the new monitors on show at expo's. I can't review the Predator yet as it's not released till 20/04 but once I have it I'll post one up here.
 
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