Esports Monitor Asus Pg279q: Is It Worthy?

The Asus ROG Swift PG279Q is a 27-inch 1440p 165Hz IPS G-Sync monitor. It is considered one of the best gaming monitors ever made, offering an exceptional balance of picture quality, motion handling, and responsiveness, enhanced by a generous amount of premium features. The monitor's native contrast ratio of 1131:1, peak brightness of 350 nits, and average color error dE of 1.6 ensure that the color inaccuracies are so small that the human eye can’t spot them. The monitor's G-Sync support eliminates screen tearing and stutter, allowing it to synchronize its refresh rate with the framerate of your Nvidia graphics card. The PG279Q also has an impressive horizontal viewing angle, wide range of ergonomic adjustments, and a built-in low blue light filter to reduce eye fatigue.

The newer model, the Asus ROG Swift PG279QM, is a 1440p, 240Hz gaming monitor with a 27-inch screen. It has a higher refresh rate and native G-Sync VRR support, and features that can only be used with an NVIDIA graphics card, like the NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer. It also has three HDMI ports, but none support HDMI 2.1 bandwidth, so a DisplayPort connection is required to take advantage of the monitor's refresh rate. The PG279QM is a good choice for competitive gaming and has excellent color accuracy, but it has limited picture quality due to its low contrast ratio and poor local dimming feature.

The Asus ROG Swift PG279QM is a good choice for Esports

High Refresh Rate and Fast Response Time

The PG279QM features a high refresh rate of 240Hz, which is a significant advantage for competitive gaming. It also has a fast response time, ensuring that motion looks sharp and there is minimal blur even at lower refresh rates. The combination of a high refresh rate and fast response time provides a smooth and responsive gaming experience, reducing motion blur and input lag.

Native G-SYNC Support

The monitor includes native support for NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology, which synchronizes the display's refresh rate with the GPU's frame rate. This eliminates screen tearing and minimizes stuttering and input lag, resulting in a smoother and more fluid gaming experience. This feature is particularly useful for Esports players who require low latency and seamless visuals.

NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer

The PG279QM includes the NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer feature, which allows you to measure the latency of each part of your gaming setup. This can be useful for optimizing your system for competitive gaming, ensuring that you have minimal delays and the best possible response times.

Excellent Ergonomics and Brightness

The monitor offers impressive ergonomics, allowing for easy adjustment to find the ideal viewing position. It also gets sufficiently bright to combat glare in well-lit rooms and has good reflection handling, making it suitable for a variety of lighting conditions.

Wide Viewing Angles

The PG279QM provides wide viewing angles, ensuring that the image remains consistent when viewed from different angles. This is beneficial if you need to share your screen with others or if you frequently adjust your viewing position.

Accurate Color Reproduction

The monitor delivers accurate color reproduction, covering a wide range of colors and providing an accurate sRGB mode. This is important for Esports players who require precise and consistent color representation, especially in games where color differentiation is crucial.

It has a high refresh rate and low input lag

The Asus ROG Swift PG279Q is a 27-inch monitor with a high refresh rate of 144Hz, which can be overclocked to 165Hz, and a low input lag of 3.25ms. The high refresh rate ensures that everything on the screen remains perfectly smooth, and the low input lag provides a lag-free and connected gaming experience. The input lag is an essential parameter for a gaming monitor as it tells how much time a monitor needs to process a frame generated by a computer.

The monitor's high refresh rate and low input lag are complemented by its G-Sync functionality, which allows the monitor to synchronise its refresh rate with the frame rate of the graphics card. This eliminates screen tearing, stuttering, and frame pacing, making everything feel smoother and more natural.

The monitor also has two useful overdrive settings, which are usually pure marketing gimmicks. The "eSports" overdrive setting has a bit less ghosting in the UFO test, but the difference is so minimal that it is unclear why both settings exist.

The Asus ROG Swift PG279Q is an excellent choice for a gaming monitor, offering a high refresh rate, low input lag, and G-Sync functionality, all of which contribute to a smooth and responsive gaming experience.

It has a native G-Sync support

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM is a 27-inch gaming monitor with native G-Sync support. This means that it can synchronise its refresh rate with the framerate of your Nvidia graphics card, eliminating screen tearing and stuttering. This is a key feature for competitive gaming, where even the smallest amount of screen tearing can affect your performance.

Native G-Sync support also gives you access to Nvidia Reflex Latency Analyzer, which lets you measure the latency of your setup. This is a useful feature for competitive gaming, as it allows you to see which devices are causing the most delay.

The PG279QM has a variable refresh rate range of 30-240Hz, which is impressive. This means that you can take advantage of the monitor's high refresh rate even when playing graphically demanding games. The monitor also has a fast response time, ensuring that motion looks sharp with fast-moving objects.

However, it's worth noting that some users have reported issues with the monitor's local dimming feature, which can be ineffective at improving dark scene performance. Additionally, the monitor's gamma is set higher than usual, which may make dark greys appear lighter.

It has a very gamer-oriented design

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has a very gamer-oriented design. The gamer aesthetic is evident on the back, with lines etched in the back panel and a large ROG logo that doubles as RGB bias lighting. The monitor's buttons are located on the back, which can be inconvenient for the user, and produce a cheap and hollow sound when pressed. The on-screen display (OSD) is confusing, with various gaming presets that seem unnecessary and do not provide much clarity on their function. The stand is also quite deep and may not fit on smaller desks.

The monitor features a cable management system, which allows users to organise and hide their cables to keep their gaming area tidy. The stand is designed with the gamer's comfort in mind, with tilt, swivel, pivot, and height adjustment options to ensure the screen is always at an ideal viewing position. The ultra-low blue light technology and flicker-free technology help to reduce eye strain and other damaging effects during long gaming sessions.

The ROG Swift PG279QM is part of the Republic of Gamers lineup and is an upgrade from the PG279Q and PG279QZ models, offering a higher refresh rate and improved features.

It has a reasonable price

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q is a reasonably priced gaming monitor, retailing at around $700. It is a 27-inch monitor with a 1440p IPS panel, a 165Hz refresh rate, and G-Sync variable refresh rate functionality. The monitor's resolution and size are ideal for most users, offering a good balance between in-game field of view, aspect ratio, and performance.

The PG279Q's IPS panel delivers decent color reproduction, contrast, and viewing angles. Its 165Hz refresh rate can be overclocked to 165Hz, which, although resulting in a slight increase in image blur, is a nice option to have. The monitor's G-Sync functionality ensures smooth gameplay by allowing the monitor to synchronise its refresh rate with the framerate of your Nvidia graphics card.

The PG279Q's design is simple and fits well in any decor. The stand is sturdy and offers great ergonomics, allowing for easy adjustment to an ideal viewing position. The monitor also has a slim bezel design, giving the image a magical, futuristic feel.

In terms of additional features, the PG279Q includes a built-in USB hub, a headphone jack, and speakers. The on-screen display is intuitive and easy to navigate, controlled by a joystick on the back of the monitor.

Overall, the ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q is an excellent gaming monitor with a reasonable price tag. It offers a great balance of performance, features, and aesthetics, making it a popular choice among gamers.

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