ASUS ROG SWIFT PG278Q G-SYNC Monitor Review
Subjective Analysis
While the Lagom tests on the previous page lay out a monitor's performance in black and white (and blue and green and red and...), we also take into consideration a subjective analysis. After all, you're not purchasing a monitor to view test patterns for hours on end. To see how the ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q performed in the real world, we viewed a series of HD video clips and fired up a few games. Torturous, we know, but hey, you guys are worth every minute of our entertainment.
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Guardians of the Galaxy @ 1080P, Scaled To Full Screen
Watching movies on the ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q was very pleasurable. The screen offers bright whites, dark blacks and even without any fine-tuning, colors seems well saturated. The panel's high-refresh rate and fast response time meant there was no visible ghosting either. For video and multi-media tasks, the ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q should satisfy most users.
We also did quite a bit of gaming on the ASUS ROG Swift PG278Q, both with and without G-Sync. We played some older titles like Left 4 Dead 2 (which can run at very high frame rates), and some newer titles like Crysis 3 and Metro Last Light.
When playing games that run at very high frame rates, with the monitor configured at 144Hz, the effects of G-Sync aren't quite as noticeable. We're sure if you stopped and stared and looked specifically for visual artifacts, you'd find some, but during actual gameplay, the high refresh rate is such an improvement over the 60Hz typical of most monitors, you'll be happy anyway.
When playing more taxing games, however, with framerates that may fluctuate above or below 60 FPS or so, the effect G-Sync has on the on-screen imagery and / or lag is awesome. Disabling V-Sync may eliminate lag, but tearing is evident. And enabling V-Sync may eliminate the tearing, but the lag can be annoying. With, G-Sync though, the on-screen images don't suffer from visual artifacts and the tearing is gone too.
We wish there was an easy way to visually convey how G-Sync affects on-screen animation, but there isn’t. We don’t have a means to capture DisplayPort feeds and shooting video of the screen and hosting it on-line doesn’t capture the full effect either. In lieu of an easy visual method to show how effective G-SYNC is, you'll just have to take our word for it. G-Sync is great.
We should also mention that simply using a high 120Hz - 144Hz refresh rate on your desktop is also great. There is a noticeable improvement when mousing or even moving windows around the screen. If you're the type that gets headaches when looking at a 60Hz screen for too long, the higher refresh rates of the ASUS ROG SWIFT PG278Q may also help with that too.
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When playing games that run at very high frame rates, with the monitor configured at 144Hz, the effects of G-Sync aren't quite as noticeable. We're sure if you stopped and stared and looked specifically for visual artifacts, you'd find some, but during actual gameplay, the high refresh rate is such an improvement over the 60Hz typical of most monitors, you'll be happy anyway.
When playing more taxing games, however, with framerates that may fluctuate above or below 60 FPS or so, the effect G-Sync has on the on-screen imagery and / or lag is awesome. Disabling V-Sync may eliminate lag, but tearing is evident. And enabling V-Sync may eliminate the tearing, but the lag can be annoying. With, G-Sync though, the on-screen images don't suffer from visual artifacts and the tearing is gone too.
We wish there was an easy way to visually convey how G-Sync affects on-screen animation, but there isn’t. We don’t have a means to capture DisplayPort feeds and shooting video of the screen and hosting it on-line doesn’t capture the full effect either. In lieu of an easy visual method to show how effective G-SYNC is, you'll just have to take our word for it. G-Sync is great.
We should also mention that simply using a high 120Hz - 144Hz refresh rate on your desktop is also great. There is a noticeable improvement when mousing or even moving windows around the screen. If you're the type that gets headaches when looking at a 60Hz screen for too long, the higher refresh rates of the ASUS ROG SWIFT PG278Q may also help with that too.
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