A gaming platform is only as powerful as its weakest component. Think about it: it really makes sense to spend thousands on a cutting-edge graphics card, a CPU powerful enough not to have a bottleneck, and an immense amount of storage, like 2 TB of SDS and 128 GB of RAM, only to flip it over and plug it into a 21.5-inch monitor ripped from a Best Buy authorization container? (And no, it’s not better if you connect it various garbage monitors.)
There’s probably some sort of mid-range monitor between “found in the trash” 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 turned around to try something at PG27UQ it made me see how beautiful everything was… well, why bother with mediocrity when you can get a monitor so beautiful that it will destroy your productivity?
Possibly because the ROG Swift PG27UQ is more over $ 1,000 (price ranges from $ 1,200 to $ 1,500 online). True: this monitor is not only the most expensive, but it can cost more than the whole computer. But God is so beautiful.
It’s hard to justify about $ 1,200 price, but listen to me. The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a sleek, rugged 27-inch gaming monitor with a quantum dot IPS 4K UHD dot screen with full-range backlighting and a DCI-3P color gamut. It supports Nvidia’s G-Sync HDR technology and also has at least three different ways to display the ROG (Republic of Gamers) eye logo on lights. Oh, and the lights are compatible with Asus Aura Sync technology, so you can sync monitor lights with any other ROG peripherals you have around.
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That’s what it is, though: it’s not a new monitor. The PG27UQ came out in June 2018; true, he is over two years old. And while it has held up well in the face of competition (it’s a magnificent monitor even by current standards), it’s starting to show its age, especially now that next-generation consoles have fallen. The PG27UQ has two digital display inputs, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1x HDMI 2.0 (it also has 2x USB 3.0 downlink, 1x USB 3.0 uplink and 1x 3.5mm audio jack; all ports are hidden under a plastic back panel removable). But both the Microsoft Xbox 5 and the Sony PlayStation 5 have HDMI 2.1 ports.
There are currently generally two types of digital display inputs: DisplayPort and HDMI. Both inputs have undergone several revisions since their debut (the current ones are DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.1) and each new standard provides increased transmission bandwidth. This is important for you to take full up The advantage of the PG27UQ’s 4K UHD resolution with an overclocked 144Hz refresh rate, you need a lot of bandwidth: more bandwidth than an HDMI 2.0 standard provides. 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 speed of about 42.6 Gbps, which is a pretty big difference. DisplayPort 1.4 gives you a maximum data rate of about 25.92 Gbps, not even as HDMI 2.1, but still a little more than HDMI 2.0.
If you’re a PC player and just a PC player, it may not seem like a huge problem. DisplayPort 1.4 shouldn’t be too much trouble when you try to increase the refresh rate by 144Hz. However, if you’re a console player, specifically a next-generation console player, it could be a deal breaker. You can still play your Xbox 5 or PS5 on this monitor, but I’m not sure it makes sense to leave two monitors on the monitor to finish off all monitors if you can’t get both ultra high definition images and super fast refresh rates when you play the latest console games. This should only be taken into account. This monitor was a good buy a couple of years ago, but has depreciated at least a bit since then.
Aside from the digital input drama, this screen is beautiful. I’m not talking about physical aesthetics – it’s an elegant-looking monitor, but I’ll get back to it – I’m talking about the image.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a 4K UHD display with a 16: 9 aspect ratio and a resolution of 3840 x 2160. The display measures 27 inches diagonally, which is a good size for a monitor (over 27 inches becomes difficult to handle). The Windows 10 interface has a great scale up to 125%, and if you don’t get distracted as easily as I do by the attractive screens, this would be a great working monitor.
The PG27UQ has full array backlighting, which means there are LEDs all over the screen illuminating it, unlike the edges. That means a couple of things. First, the screen can be very bright. The PG27UQ can reach 1000 nights, which is … well, very bright. For reference, the iPhone 12 Pro has a “typical” maximum brightness level of 800 nights and a maximum HDR brightness level of 1200 nights. The phones are designed to be used outdoors, in direct sunlight, while giant gaming monitors typically aren’t, so 1000 nights is very bright.
The second advantage of full backlighting is how it affects HDR (high dynamic range) and contrast. Full backlighting allows for 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 and dyes and bright, vivid colors without compromising image quality. This is great for darker, yellower games with HDR support, such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There is a lot of depth and detail, without getting dirty. It’s also good for brighter, more vibrant games, such as No Man’s Sky. Even games without HDR support, such as Subnautica, are lovely with this monitor.
Calibrating the PG27UQ is very fast. At the back of the screen, at the bottom right, are four buttons and a mini-joystick for navigating the monitor screen menus. The main menu, which you can navigate with the joystick only, is where you’ll find options like overclocking, blue light filtering, and screen calibration, as well as options for controlling the many lights on the monitor and stand (and Aura Sync).
Actually, the PG27UQ looks pretty good. It was not necessary a lot calibration, but it wasn’t perfect, so it helped. The monitor also has several predefined visual modes (scenarios, races, movies, RPG, FPS, sRGB), as well as a GamePlus menu, which contains some tools suitable for players, such as timers, an FPS counter and a tool to align various screens . .
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is built like a tank: a sleek, sleek tank, yet a tank. It comes in a larger box than my TV (which is true that is not as big at only 32 inches) and includes several accessories: a stand, input cables (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB), a lens package for to the integrated support logo. light and instructions.
I really loved the tripod style stand. It has a clean look, with leaf-like legs, a down light that projects the ROG logo on the desk, and a back light that projects the ROG logo on the back wall. But it’s not so unpleasantly excessive that it could only be used as a game monitor and you can turn off the ROG projection lights from the on-screen menu. It’s also incredibly sturdy and well built, both adjustable i 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 to get a vertical screen.
The stand takes up a bit more space than I initially expected, but it’s a pretty thick monitor. After all, it has its own fan / cooling system. Together, the monitor and stand weigh just over 20 pounds, which is about twice as much as my other 27-inch monitor (a cheap, economical BenQ module I took from a trash can at Fry’s a few years ago). years) ).
The monitor itself is a good combination of classic and clean style from the front and a more aggressive and player-oriented style at the back. From the front, the screen is almost mundane – just a 27-inch screen with an anti-glare coating and a medium-sized matte black bezel. It can be said to be a premium monitor, but it doesn’t look like a futuristic alien thing (see: Acer Predator x27 and its screen hood), which means it would easily blend in with an office or home office.
The back of the monitor is where it starts to be more player-oriented, though it doesn’t have a style as aggressive as some ROG products. The back of the monitor features a giant ROG eye logo that lights up and syncs with Asus Aura Sync technology. While I don’t necessarily think I would use the back-facing logo light, I like that this monitor has lights for both the user and the viewfinder. It is a bit disappointing to buy a fantastic gaming peripheral and then never admire the lights yourself.
And it’s definitely a monitor for a very specific type of player, specifically with a decently powerful Nvidia graphics card, because you’ll need at least an 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 for it. You also need to connect via DisplayPort if you want the overclock refresh rate, because the HDMI is completed with a 60Hz refresh rate.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ monitor is impressive, even after a couple of years on the market, but all that said, it’s worth $ 1,200?
Well, if you’re an Nvidia fan who hates the console with a maximum platform, it’s still a fantastic monitor. You can often find it on sale (sometimes I’ve seen it drop up to 50% off), which would make it an even more compelling purchase. It has a beautiful screen, wide color gamute, fast update speed (via DisplayPort), and is definitely built to last. It’s not as impressive or as future-proof as it used to be, now that the future is here.
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- Absolutely beautiful.
- Absolutely expensive.