At what point does the refresh rate of a gaming monitor reach diminishing returns, or otherwise become inconsequential? Ask any monitor maker and they'll tell you, 'Get out of here with such silly questions, gaming peasant!'. Okay, they probably wouldn't be as crass in their answer, but the latest evidence that monitor makers have no intention of slowing down is AOC's new Agon Pro AG276KF display.
The AG276KF is a display with a 27-inch 'Fast IPS' panel sporting a 1920x1080 resolution and insanely quick 520Hz refresh rate. We checked the math (extensively) and that's more than four times as high as 120Hz, over three times higher than 144Hz, and and more than twice as fast as 240Hz. Seriously, the numbers check out.
Interestingly enough, the AG276KF is not the fastest monitor in AOC's stable. That distinction belongs to the 24-inch AG246FK, which is capable of
hitting 540Hz. For gamers who care about such blistering speeds, the choice then becomes whether it's worth sacrificing a couple of inches for an additional 20Hz, or going slightly bigger and 'settling' for 520Hz. Also notable is that the smaller and faster 540Hz display uses a TN panel, whereas the bigger and slightly slower 520MHz model is IPS, which is arguably the bigger consideration.
"For competitive gamers, particularly in fast-paced FPS titles such as Counter-Strike 2 or Valorant, the 520Hz refresh rate of the AG276FK translates to one frame being displayed every 1.92 milliseconds. This unprecedented level of visual feedback allows players to track moving targets with exceptional clarity, making micro-adjustments that can mean the difference between victory and defeat," AOC explains.
Indeed, hyper-competitive gamers are the ones that monitor makers are targeting with these ultra-high refresh rates. You can debate the real-world benefits in the comments section, but for those who are convinced that 360Hz or even 480Hz are not fast enough, it's nice to see display makers push the envelope. (And while on the topic, see our newly published
Display 101 guide on what to look for when shopping a monitor or TV.)
Outside of the blistering refresh rate, the AG276FK features a 1ms gray-to-gray (GtG) response time, adaptive sync support (48-240Hz via HDMI 2.0 and 48-520Hz via DisplayPort 1.4), 94.4% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space (94.3% of Adobe RGB and 119.8% of sRGB), a 400 nits brightness rating, and DisplayHDR 400 certification.
This comes wrapped in a "3-sided frameless" design with RGB lighting. Other features include a pair of built-in 5W speakers, a Kensington Lock, two HDMI 2.0 inputs, two DisplayPort 1.4 inputs, two USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A ports (plus an upstream port), and a 3.5mm headphone jack.
AOC says the
Agon Pro AG276FK will be available this month for £499.99. That works out to around $634 in US currency, though US pricing and availability have not yet been announced.