A gaming platform is as strong as its weakest component. Think about it: it makes sense to spend thousands on a state-of-the-art graphics card, a processor powerful enough not to crash it, and a wild amount of storage, such as 2 TB of SSDs and 128 GB of RAM, just to turn around and connect it to a 21.5-inch monitor taken out of a Best Buy trash can? (And no, it’s not better if you connect it to more garbage monitors.)
There is probably some kind of middle monitor between “found in the trash can” and the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ. But since I just spent two weeks playing video games instead of finishing this review, because every time I came back to test something on PG27UQ, I was absorbed in beautiful everything was… Well, why bother with mediocrity when you can get a monitor so beautiful that it destroys your productivity?
Possibly because the ROG Swift PG27UQ is more more than $ 1,000 (prices range from $ 1,200 to $ 1,500 online). That’s right: this monitor is not only the most expensive, but it can cost more than the whole computer. But God is so cute.
It’s hard to justify a $ 1,200 price tag price, but listen to me. The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a sleek yet rugged 27-inch game monitor with a 4K UHD dot quantum display with full-array backlighting and a DCI-3P color gamut. It supports Nvidia G-Sync HDR technology and also has at least three different ways to display the ROG (Republic of Gamers) eye logo. Oh, and the lights are compatible with Asus’ Aura Sync technology, so you can sync your monitor lights with any other ROG peripherals you happen to have around.
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However, here it is: it is not a new monitor. PG27UQ appeared in June 2018 – that’s right, it’s more than two years old. And, although it holds up pretty well against the competition – it’s a great monitor even by current standards – it’s starting to show its age, especially now that state-of-the-art consoles have dropped. The PG27UQ has two digital display inputs, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1x HDMI 2.0 (it also has 2x USB 3.0 downstream, 1x USB 3.0 upstream and 1x 3.5mm audio jack; all ports are hidden under a panel in removable plastic back). But both Microsoft Xbox 5 and Sony PlayStation 5 have HDMI 2.1 ports.
These days there are generally two types of digital display inputs: DisplayPort and HDMI. Both inputs have undergone several revisions since their debut – current versions are DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 – and each new standard brings increased transmission bandwidth. This is important for you to take full The advantage of PG27UQ’s 4K UHD resolution is the overclocked refresh rate of 144Hz, you need a lot of bandwidth – more bandwidth than an HDMI 2.0 standard gives you. With HDMI 2.0, you can get a maximum data rate of about 14.4 Gbps, but with HDMI 2.1 you can get a maximum data rate of about 42.6 Gbps – that’s a pretty big difference. DisplayPort 1.4 gives you a maximum data rate of about 25.92 Gbps – not as much as HDMI 2.1, but still quite a bit higher than HDMI 2.0.
If you’re a PC gamer and just a PC gamer, it may not seem like a huge deal. DisplayPort 1.4 shouldn’t be too much trouble when trying to access the 144Hz refresh rate. However, if you are a console player – specifically a state-of-the-art console player – this could be a dealbreaker. You’ll be able to play your Xbox 5 or PS5 on this monitor, but I’m not sure it makes sense to throw two monitors on the monitor to finish all the monitors if you can’t get both ultra high definition image and very fast refresh rates when play the latest games on the console. This is just something you need to keep in mind. This monitor was a good buy a few years ago, but it has depreciated at least since then.
Digital input drama aside, this screen is gorgeous. I’m not talking about physical aesthetics – it’s a sleek looking monitor, but I’ll get back to that – I’m talking about image.
Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a 4K UHD display with a 16: 9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 3840 x 2160. The screen measures 27 inches diagonally, which is a good size for a monitor (more than 27 inches is starting to become difficult). The Windows 10 interface looks great, scaled up to 125%, and if you’re not as easily distracted as I am by attractive displays, this would make a monitor work great.
The PG27UQ has full backlighting, which means there are full-screen LEDs that turn it on, as opposed to just the edges. That means a few things. First, the screen may become very bright. The PG27UQ can reach 1000 nits, which is … well, very bright. For reference, the iPhone 12 Pro has a “typical” maximum brightness level of 800 nits and a maximum HDR brightness level of 1200 nits. The phones are designed to be used outdoors in direct sunlight, while giant gaming monitors are not usual, so 1000 nits is very bright.
The second benefit of full-array backlighting is how it affects HDR (high dynamic range) and contrast. The full-array backlight allows more precise control over local dimming, and the PG27UQ has 384 LED zones that can be controlled independently (dimmed or illuminated). This means that the screen can produce images with excellent contrast ratios – very dark blacks, blacks and bright, vibrant colors, without compromising image quality. This is great for darker, rougher games with HDR-like support Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There is a lot of depth and detail, without renewal. It is also good for brighter and more vibrant games such as No Man’s Sky. Even games without HDR support, such as Subnautica, are fascinating on this monitor.
Calibrating the PG27UQ is a quick moment. At the back of the display, in the lower right corner, there are four buttons and a mini-joystick for navigating through the on-screen menus of the monitor. The main menu, which you can navigate exclusively with the joystick, is where you will find options such as overclocking, blue light filtering and screen calibration, as well as options for controlling many lights on the monitor and stand (and Aura Sync).
The PG27UQ actually looks pretty good out of the box. He didn’t need to a lot calibration, but it was not perfect, so it helped further. The monitor also has several visual preset modes – landscape, racing, cinema, RPG, FPS, sRGB – as well as a GamePlus menu, which has some player-friendly tools such as timers, an FPS counter and a tool for alignment of multiple screens. .
Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is built as a tank – a sleek, stylish tank, but still a tank. It comes in a larger box than my TV (which, of course, isn’t that big at just 32 inches) and includes several accessories: a stand, input cables (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB), a package objectives for the built-in logo of the light stand and instructions.
I really liked the tripod-style stand. It looks neat, with blade-like legs, a downward-pointing light projecting the ROG logo on the desk, and a back-facing light projecting the ROG logo on the wall behind it. But it’s not so tiringly exaggerated that it could only be used as a game monitor and you can turn off the ROG projection lights in the on-screen menu. It is also incredibly sturdy and well built, both adjustable and ergonomic. It’s easy to adjust the height of the monitor, rotate it from side to side, tilt it, and even rotate it 90 degrees for a vertical display.
The stand takes up a little more space than I initially expected, but it’s a pretty thick monitor. After all, it has its own ventilation / cooling system. Together, the monitor and stand weigh just over 20 pounds, which is about twice the size of the other 27-inch monitor (a modest, budget-friendly BenQ I picked up from a basket). storage at Fry’s a few years ago).
The monitor itself is a nice mix of clean style, classic front and more aggressive player-oriented style on the back. From the front, the display is almost trivial: just a 27-inch screen with an anti-glare coating and a medium-sized matte black frame. You may realize that it’s a premium monitor, but it doesn’t look like a futuristic alien thing (see: Acer Predator x27 and its hood), which means it would easily blend into an office or home office.
The back of the monitor is starting to become more gamer-oriented, though not as aggressive as some ROG products. The back of the monitor has a giant ROG eye logo that lights up and syncs with Asus’ Aura Sync technology. Although I don’t think I would use the back light of the stand logo, I like that this monitor has lights for both the user and the viewer. It’s a little disappointing to buy a cool gaming device and never admire the lights alone.
And this is definitely a monitor for a very specific type of player, especially one with a decent Nvidia graphics card, because you will need at least one Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti for the PG27UQ. The monitor supports Nvidia G-Sync HDR, but not FreeSync, so if you have an AMD graphics card … go ahead. You also need to connect via DisplayPort if you want that overclocked refresh rate, because HDMI rises to a 60Hz refresh rate.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ monitor is impressive, even after a few years on the market, but all this said: It’s worth $ 1,200?
Well, if you’re an Nvidia fan who hates the console, with maximum equipment, this is still a great monitor. You can often find it for sale – I’ve seen it sometimes drop by almost 50% off – which would make it an even more compelling purchase. It has a beautiful screen, wide color gmute, fast refresh rate (via DisplayPort) and is definitely built to last. It’s not as impressive or as resilient to the future as it once was, now that the future is actually here.
readme
- Absolutely gorgeous.
- Absolutely expensive.