Viewing Angles, Uniformity, Response & Lag
The AG271QX’s viewing angles are not stellar as shown by our photos. The side view is heavily biased toward red with a significant reduction in brightness. From the top down, detail is retained in all steps, but again, output is much lower, and gamma is lighter as well. 27" is about the limit for TN screens, because any larger size would be difficult to use given the poor side view you're likely to experience. With this monitor, you can sit pretty close thanks to its QHD resolution, but we suggest keeping back at least two feet to see the best image.
Screen Uniformity
To learn how we measure screen uniformity, please click here.
Our AG271QX sample returned one of the best uniformity results we’ve ever recorded for all three tests. Not only did it dominate this group, only a tiny handful of the monitors in our database have measured better, and then only slightly. There is no sign of bleed or glow in any area of the screen, and color looks perfect from edge to edge. There’s absolutely nothing to complain about here.
Pixel Response & Input Lag
Please click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.
It’s easy to see why TN panels are still popular among gamers. While many users wish for IPS, it adds to the cost, and only a few premium monitors can match speeds with the old-school tech. The Asus PG279Q wins the lag test by three milliseconds thanks to its 165Hz refresh rate. At real-world framerates, there would likely be no difference. The AG271QX acquits itself extremely well, taking the response crown and returning a low 29ms of input lag in our test. This translates to very smooth motion processing, and even lower FPS counts are playable. Motion blur is practically non-existent, so there’s no missing the ULMB feature seen on G-Sync monitors.
Gaming With FreeSync
With one of the largest FreeSync operating ranges out there, the AG271QX should provide an excellent experience with a wide variety of gaming systems. Being able to keep motion free of tearing down to 30Hz is a huge advantage when you don’t possess a video card that costs four figures. Right out of the gate, this monitor proved itself to be the low framerate king. We were able to play Tomb Raider on its highest detail setting with perfectly smooth motion at 45-55 FPS average. Many other monitors will start to stutter at this speed as they close in on the lower operating limit. Staying well above 30Hz meant the Agon was never switching modes.
We experienced much the same thing in Far Cry 4. This title demands a little more speed to cleanly render the extremely fine details in plants and trees. At 45 FPS there was no tearing, but complicated textures got a little blurry. Leaving the overdrive set to strong mitigated this artifact but couldn’t completely eliminate it. Still, we had no trouble playing the game thanks to zero perceptible input lag and no tearing at any time. Even on Ultra detail, the framerate stayed above 40 FPS with our Radeon R9 285-equipped tower. The AG271QX is obviously versatile and should offer high-end performance when used with expensive and modest systems alike.
