ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q - The King is Back
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2016-05-06
·
1,705 words · ~8 min read
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the hotly anticipated ASUS rog swift
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pg279q is it a worthy successor to the pg278q
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the monitor that i declared to be the best gaming monitor yet
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let's find out
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so for those of you who have got other to do i'm going to cut to the chase a
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little bit here the swift pg279q is even better than its
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predecessor in almost every conceivable way with the only trade-off being
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marginally slower pixel response times due to its use of an ips or specifically
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ahva but i'll use the broader term for the rest of this video panel instead of
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the tn panel in the 278 model so if you
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want the best of the best 16x9 1440p
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display look no further but for the folks who
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think that tldr just isn't enough to go on to make an informed buying decision
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and the ones that watch our videos to drool over the tech porn as much as
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anything else let's get into what makes the swift pg279q special and where it
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falls in the rest of the competitive landscape first the physical tour if
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you've seen the previous rog swift you've pretty much seen this one sex
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horrifically slim bezels with even the logo adorned chin bar being skinnier
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than the side and top bezels of the monitors of days past a sturdy and
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flexible stand design that allows tilt swivel pivot and height adjust an
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intuitive menu system with a handful of quick access buttons and a joystick for
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the meat and potatoes of the osd options seriously i cannot emphasize enough how
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much of a relief this was coming from the abominable on-screen controls of the
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acer predator x34 and an aesthetic that
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with the optional red ring and rog logo
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lighting effects enabled looks sufficiently gamery without being a
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complete eyesore if your gaming rig happens to also be in the middle of your
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living room so yeah they didn't change much about the exterior but why would
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they i already loved everything about the predecessor from the outside with my
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one complaint being the while very good considering it's a tn
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panel the tn panel that just couldn't deliver the color performance and
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viewing angles of an ips display and that's where the pg-279's upgraded guts
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start to come in the 27 inch 1440p panel
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has been changed out to ips and on top
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of that the 144 hertz maximum refresh
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rate that made the original swift such an amazing gaming display assuming you
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had the kind of hardware horses to push that kind of frame rate in your games
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has been upgraded and through a setting in the on-screen menu can be pushed even
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further so with NVIDIA's g-sync variable refresh rate technology you can run your
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display at anywhere from 30 to 165
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hertz depending on the frame rate that your game is being output at and that's
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not the only thing that comes with the newer g-sync implementation now to
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accompany the displayport 1.2 port there's a secondary HDMI 1.4 port if you
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have a game console or a laptop or some other device that you want to be able to
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switch to on the fly because even though
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these other devices might not be capable of outputting games at higher than 1080p
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60hz there are benefits to using a high
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performance display backlight bleed was a non-issue on my sample the measured
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total display leg with my leo bodner tester was 12.5 milliseconds on the 60hz
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HDMI input a very fine result the motion
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blur or ghosting in the normal default
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overdrive setting was the best i've ever seen on an ips display with moving
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images especially at the high refresh rates like 144 and 165 hertz almost
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being eerily clear and thanks to the ips
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panel color reproduction was nothing short of awesome with a stellar contrast
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ratio and color accuracy across the board coming in below a delta e of five
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with both gamma and white point being within acceptable margins right out of
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the box with no adjustments made other than to overclock the panel to 165 hertz
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before running my tests flipping awesome but something to
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consider is that getting the panel overclocked to that level isn't a guarantee
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first of all you will need to abandon all hope of running ultra low motion
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blur backlight strobing since that only operates at 120 hertz or lower with
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g-sync disabled second you'll need a gtx 960 or newer
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maxwell architecture card from NVIDIA with owners of older NVIDIA and AMD
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graphics cards for the most part limited to 144 hertz and finally while i can't
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comment on whether this will be an issue for this monitor because i only have one
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of them mine worked fine and they don't seem to be available to the public at
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the time of recording this video it was pointed out to me that some users are
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not getting the full advertised 100hz overclock on their acer x34 predator
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displays so there might be some variability there which i guess raises
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the question does it actually matter anyway from my experience no not really
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i mean overclocking the x34 predator from 60 to 100 hertz takes it from just
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an ultra wide with g-sync to the kind of thing that dreams are made of
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overclocking the pg279q takes it from wicked amazing fast to wicked amazing
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slightly faster if you're playing easy to drive games
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like team fortress 2 or cs go at 165 freaking FPS or if you have some kind of
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like liquid nitrogen cooled space age machine that can run newer aaa games at
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that kind of a frame rate while maintaining decent settings because that
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is kind of the point of a g-sync display right smoother animations even when the
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frame rate dips a little bit allowing you to turn up eye candy like lara
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croft's pair for a better gaming experience
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so the last thing then to talk about is price it's not cheap but honestly i
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think ASUS pretty much nailed the positioning of this product it's about a
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hundred and fifty dollars more than its tn film predecessor but you get an ips
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panel slightly faster refresh rate and an HDMI input it also costs about a
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hundred dollars more than the ips panel equipped acer xb270hu
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that we reviewed back here but offers a faster refresh rate and an HDMI input
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and also to my tastes a superior aesthetic design
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so simply put then it's expensive but for competitive gamers who don't
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care about ultrawide note that i am not one of them and i prefer the predator x
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34's curvy sexiness if not its price
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it's the best gaming monitor ever this
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is the kind of gear especially if you're coming from run-of-the-mill 60 hertz
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equipment that actually makes it easier
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to track opponents and nail head shots well done ASUS you've upped the ante
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let's see how long you can hold the crown
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