A game rig is just as powerful as its weakest component. Think about it: does it really make sense to spend thousands on a leading graphics card, a CPU powerful enough not to bottle it, and a large amount of storage space, such as 2 TB SSDs and 128 GB RAM, just to to turn around and pluck in a 21.5-inch monitor plucked from a Best Buy clearing bin? (And no, it’s not better if you plug it in various cleaning-bin monitors.)
There’s probably some sort of mid-range monitor between ‘found in the cleanup bin’ and the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ. But since I only played video games for two weeks instead of completing this review, every time I turned around to test something on the PG27UQ, I sucked at how beautiful everything was… well, why bother if you get a monitor so beautiful that it will destroy your productivity?
Possibly because the ROG Swift PG27UQ is more over $ 1,000 (prices range from $ 1,200 to $ 1,500 online). That’s right: this monitor is not only on the more expensive side, it may cost more than your entire computer. But god it’s so beautiful.
It’s hard to justify $ 1,200 praise, but hear me out. The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a sleek yet sturdy 27-inch game monitor with a 4K UHD quantification IPS screen with full backlighting and a DCI-3P color gamut. It supports Nvidia’s G-Sync HDR technology, and it also has at least three different ways to display the ROG (Republic of Gamers) eye logo in lights. Oh, and the lights are compatible with Asus’ Aus Sync technology, so you can sync the monitor’s lights with any other ROG peripherals you lay around.
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However, this is the thing: this is not a new monitor. The PG27UQ appeared in June 2018 – that’s right, it’s over two years old. And while it holds up to competition pretty well – it’s a beautiful monitor, even by today’s standards – it’s starting to show its age, especially now that the next generation of consoles has dropped. The PG27UQ has two digital display inputs, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1x HDMI 2.0 (it also has 2x downstream USB 3.0, 1x upstream USB 3.0 and 1x 3.5mm audio jack; all ports are hidden under a removable plastic back panel). But both the Microsoft Xbox 5 and the Sony PlayStation 5 have HDMI 2.1 ports.
These days, there are usually two types of digital display inputs: DisplayPort and HDMI. Both of these inputs have undergone several revisions since their debut – the current versions are DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 – and each new standard has increased bandwidth for the transmission. This is important because to take full Taking advantage of the PG27UQ’s 4K UHD resolution at the clocked 144Hz refresh rate, you need a lot of bandwidth – more bandwidth than an HDMI 2.0 standard offers. With HDMI 2.0 you 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 around 25.92 Gbps – not quite as much as HDMI 2.1, but still a bit more than HDMI 2.0.
If you’re a PC gamer and only a PC gamer, this may not seem like a big deal. DisplayPort 1.4 should not cause too many problems if you try to increase the refresh rate to 144Hz. If you’re a console gamer, but specifically a next generation console gamer, this could be a dealbreaker. You will still be able to play your Xbox 5 or PS5 on this monitor, but I’m not sure if it makes sense to drop two grand on the monitor to end all monitors if you can not get both ultra high image and a super funny refresh rate when you play the latest console games. It’s just something to keep in mind. A few years ago, this monitor was a good buy, but has declined at least a bit since then.
Aside from the digital input drama, this show is beautiful. I’m not talking about the physical aesthetics – it’s a smooth monitor, but I’ll come back to that – I’m talking about the picture.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a 4K UHD screen 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 starting to get annoying). The Windows 10 interface looks tremendously scaled up to 125%, and if you are not as easily distracted as I am by attractive screens, it will be an excellent working monitor.
The PG27UQ has full illumination, which means there are LEDs all over the screen that illuminate it, as opposed to just the edges. It means a few things. First, the screen can become very bright. The PG27UQ can hit 1000 nets, which is … well, very clear. For reference, the iPhone 12 Pro has a ‘typical’ maximum brightness level of 800 nets and an HDR maximum brightness level of 1200 nets. Phones are designed to be used outdoors, in direct sunlight, while giant game monitors usually are not, so 1000 neat is very bright.
The second benefit of full illumination lighting is how it affects HDR (high dynamic range) and contrast. Full disk lighting provides more accurate control over local dimming, and the PG27UQ has 384 LED zones that can be independently controlled (dimmed or illuminated). This means that the screen can deliver images with excellent contrast ratios – super dark, inky black and bright, vibrant colors without compromising image quality. This is ideal for darker, grungier games with HDR support, such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There is a lot of depth and detail, no mudiness. It is also good for brighter, more lively games, such as No Man’s Sky. Even games without HDR support, like Subnautica, enter on this monitor.
The calibration of the PG27UQ is fast. At the back of the screen, in the lower right corner, there are four buttons and a mini joystick to navigate through the on-screen menus of the monitor. In the main menu, which you can navigate only with the joystick, you will find options such as overclocking, blue light filter and screen calibration, as well as options to control the many lights on the monitor and on the monitor (and Aura Sync). .
The PG27UQ actually looks pretty good outside the box. It did not need much calibration, but it was not perfect, so it still helped. The monitor also has several visual preset modes – scenery, racing, cinema, RPG, FPS, sRGB – as well as a GamePlus menu, with some play-friendly tools such as timers, an FPS counter and a tool to multiply align screens.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is built like a tank – a smooth, stylish tank, yet a tank. It comes in a box larger than my TV (which is admittedly not as large as only 32 inches) and contains several accessories: a stand, power cables (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB), a pack of lenses for the built-in logo of the stand. light, and instructions.
I really liked the tripod standard. It looks neat, with blade-like legs, a downward light projecting the ROG logo onto your desk and a rear light projecting the ROG logo onto the wall behind it. But it is not so unpleasant that it can only be used as a game monitor, and you can turn off the ROG projection lights from the on-screen menu. It is also incredibly sturdy and well built, both adjustable and ergonomically. It is easy to adjust the height of the monitor, turn it from side to side, tilt it and even rotate a full 90 degrees for a vertical display.
The stand does take up a bit more space than I initially expected, but it’s a pretty thick monitor. It did pack its own fan / cooling system. Together, the monitor weighs and stands a little over 20 pounds, which is about twice as much as my other 27-inch monitor (a modest, budget-friendly BenQ I actually got from a cleanup bin at Fry’s a few years ago picked up.).
The monitor itself is a beautiful blend of clean, classic style from the front and more aggressive gamer-oriented styling on the back. From the front, the screen is almost mundane: just a 27-inch screen with an anti-glare coating and a matte black medium-sized ring. You can see that it’s a premium monitor, but it does not look like a futuristic alien thing (see: Acer Predator x27 and its screen cap), which means it can easily blend into an office or a home office.
At the back of the monitor, the player starts to be more focused, although it is not nearly as aggressive as some ROG products. The back of the monitor has a giant ROG eye logo that is illuminated and synchronized with Asus’ Aura Sync technology. While I do not necessarily think I would use the logo’s rear-facing logo light, I do like that this monitor has lights for both the user and the viewer. It’s a bit disappointing to buy a cool peripheral and then never admire the lights yourself.
And it’s definitely a monitor for a very specific type of gamer, specifically one with a decent powerful Nvidia graphics card, because you need at least one Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti for the PG27UQ. The monitor supports Nvidia G-Sync HDR, but not FreeSync. If you have an AMD graphics card … then move on. You also need to connect via DisplayPort if you want the overclocked refresh rate, because the HDMI comes out at a refresh rate of 60Hz.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ monitor is impressive, even after a few years on the market, but all that being said: is it worth $ 1,200?
Well, if you hate an Nvidia fan with maximum equipment, it’s still an excellent monitor. You can often get it for sale – I have sometimes seen it at almost 50% off – which would make it an even more compelling buy. It has a beautiful display, wide color gvery fast refresh rate (via DisplayPort), and it’s definitely built to last. It’s just not as impressive or as future-proof as it used to be, now that the future is actually here.
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- Absolutely beautiful.
- Absolutely expensive.