Is the Asus ROG Swift Monitor for me?

Pavel Pokidaylo

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Hello all. I want a new Monitor to replace my old Dell 24 inch monitor that has served me well for the last I dunno 7 years? It still works perfectly fine but I want something better. My friend bought a 24inch Dell Ultrasharp monitor for 500 bucks around the time I bought this one. His monitor recently died but mine is still going strong. I played World of Warcraft a few times on his Ultrasharp monitor and noticed that the colors were much better than on mine. He recently bought another Ultrasharp monitor for around $700 and this one is 27inch and 1440p. It's a great looking monitor no doubt about it. One of the biggest reasons I want a new monitor is because I loved how the colors looked on his Ultrasharp. I have been doing my homework on the currently available monitors and found that there are a lot of things to consider here. His monitor has great picture quality and color depth and what not and it is 1440p which I want as well (although I am afraid of losing too much performance going up from 1080p) but it is also only 60hz refresh rate and does not have Gsync and I'm not sure about the MS on it. Right now I have absolutely no problem with 60hz in fact I love playing at 60hz but hate anything below it really. But I have never experienced playing a game on anything above 60hz. I've read that once you play FPS games at 144hz you don't want to go back.

This Asus monitor seems to have everything I could possibly want. The only thing I am uncertain of is the picture quality and color. I know those Ultrasharp monitors are IPS panels and this SWIFT monitor is a TN panel. But it is supposed to be a high quality TN panel and 8bit whatever that means :) If the picture quality and color is similar to that of an Ultrasharp monitor then I think this would be the perfect monitor for me.

Here are my specs...

Case- Corsair Carbide 500R
Mobo- MSI G45 z87 Gaming
CPU- i5 4670k
GPU- MSI 780 ti Gaming
RAM- 8GB Gskill Ripjaw 1600xmp
CPU Cooler- Noctua NH-D14
SSD- Samsung 840 pro 256gb
And 2 Hard Drives

I am anxiously waiting for this monitor to be released and someone to make a review on it. If anyone has any input it would be much appreciated thank you!

Here is a link to the Monitor http://rog.asus.com/296652014/news/rog-announces-the-pg278q-swift-27-inch-wqhd-g-sync-gaming-monitor/
 

Pavel Pokidaylo

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I don't see what's so funny

I'm sure ROG is good stuff but I got a good deal on the mobo and CPU combo on newegg and the card got the highes review on techpowerup. It's also super quiet even under full load and very cool.

http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/MSI/GTX_780_Ti_Gaming/
 
G-Sync:
The technology is truly amazing. There are Pros and Cons with IPS versus TN-panels. For example, IPS can have better colour and viewing angles, but also tends to have more ghosting due to the higher response time and other issues.

TN-panels (for now anyway) are the better choice overall for gaming. And yes, it is supposedly a high quality TN-panel though I haven't seen it.

*I recommend waiting until you can see one or at least read some feedback on the screen quality.

It's quite expensive at $800, but if that doesn't faze you I think you'll be impressed. Here's some more information:

1) Watch the "Product Demo Video" http://www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/g-sync

2) http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/64586-week-nvidias-g-sync-monitor.html

3) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PJjhBUSuHk

Other:
I have no idea what the above comments about "ROG" mean by Fidgetmaster.
 

Pavel Pokidaylo

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So I have a decked out MSI Gaming build instead :)

I'm not interested in the monitor because it's a ROG but because it has all those features for gaming.

JUICE- I'm sure you're right but I am interested in a higher resolution as well and since 4k is not feasible (GPU power wise) 1440p is the next best thing. But I may look into a monitor like you mentioned as well even though it is 1080p.

Photon- That's exactly what I'm going to do. I will wait to see some reviews on the monitor. I love everything the monitor has so far but I do want a monitor with good colors like the Ultrasharp montiors. 1440p, 144mhz, Gsync, 1ms all great stuff but if the colors are not similar to Ultrasharp then I don't know if it's worth it :( I hope they are though
 


I have the Dell U2711 which is a high quality, 2560x1440 IPS monitor. I love it, but quite frankly I don't find the picture quality much different than my dad's 6-year-old Sony which I know is not IPS.

I do notice some BLUR (smearing) when watching video especially when most of the scene is mostly dark. That's an issue with the higher response time that IPS still has. So pros and cons. Maybe I'm just not as sensitive to the differences. I don't know.

I'd still have to see the new ROG SWIFT or get a reliable review, but I suspect I'd buy it over an IPS panel for gaming (price aside).

I imagine the ROG SWIFT would be roughly the same for the average person for still picture quality, but without the BLUR at times and of course G-SYNC is simply incredible.

*FYI, you should read about the LIGHTBOOST technology if you get a monitor that supports this but my understanding is you should NOT enable this for gaming if you are dropping below 120FPS. For example, I'd probably run Crysis 3 at closer to 60FPS since that's really smooth especially on G-Sync and allows the quality settings to be far higher than running at 120FPS.

Also, be aware that GEFORCE EXPERIENCE is generally not a good idea to use especially using 1440p. It's based on running at 40FPS and chooses the "optimal" settings to get there. You can almost always tweak thing a bit better. For example, I often dropped to 1920x1080 and ran at 60FPS and it looked nearly identical but at a higher frame rate (plus I don't have G-Sync so I want to synch to 60FPS). I recommend running at least 50FPS using G-Sync.
 

Pavel Pokidaylo

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The monitor is almost out and I'm not even close to making a decision. There are so many things to consider now with monitors.

The Asus ROG Swift looks great so far. 1440p, 144Hz, 1MS, Gsync, and superb build quality. But... It isn't an IPS panel and it isn't 4k.

I have no clue why you did not see much difference between your Ultra-Sharp monitor and your fathers old Sony monitor. When I played WoW on my friends 24inch Ultra-sharp the colors were so much more vibrant. Maybe it's just how he had it calibrated I dunno.

What I've read is that no matter the quality, NO TN panel can match up to a good IPS panel as far as picture quality goes.

The other thing to consider is 4k. Someone said that going from 1080p to 1440p is a huge leap in quality but going from 1440p to 4k is not so much.
If I were to go 4k that would also mean that I'd either have to dial down settings in most games or buy another 780 ti for SLI just to achieve playable FPS. Also, those 4k monitors are not IPS panels either...

Right now the ROG Swift is looking like the winner but maybe I don't really need all the features it has and would be better off with a very nice Ultra-Sharp monitor. I don't know. They opened a Microcenter somewhere around here, maybe I can go there and see some of this stuff in person because without seeing it in action I can't really decide :(