Asus ROG Strix XG279Q Gaming Monitor Review: Speed and Style

Asus’ ROG Strix XG279Q rocks our speed tests and delivers HDR with extended color.

Reviews
By published

Why you can trust Tom's Hardware Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.

The best gaming monitors strike a perfect balance between image quality and speed. Contrast and color accuracy are key components and now that we have HDR and extended color adorning more games and movies, we need monitors that can do justice to those technologies.

But speed is still paramount to the gaming experience. Adaptive sync is a must as is a high refresh rate. And unless you have a significant investment in your video board, it’s important to select a monitor that pairs well with your system. High pixel density is certainly a good thing but every step up in resolution puts a greater demand on connected hardware.

Asus ROG Strix XG279Q

(Image credit: Asus)

The Asus ROG Strix XG279Q delivers that balance. With 170Hz through overclock and both types of adaptive sync, it delivers smooth and responsive gameplay. And by making blur-reduction available with both FreeSync and G-Sync, Asus is offering something unique. In practice, there is occasional flickering but when adaptive sync and ELMB are working together, motion resolution is almost eerily sharp.

Asus addresses image quality well with one of the best IPS panels we’ve seen to date. It offers solid native contrast, a bright backlight capable of over 500 nits in HDR mode and a large color gamut with over 92% coverage of DCI-P3. HDR content looks fantastic thanks to a well-implemented dynamic contrast feature. Highlights pop and blacks are deep with color saturation that stands out from most other gaming monitors.

Flaws are few and insignificant. We saw a few murky shadows in HDR mode, and we preferred to use overdrive for blur-reduction rather than the ELMB backlight strobe. And that feature doesn’t work with HDR. Calibration was also required to achieve the best possible image quality. But none of these things detracted from the fact that the XG279Q is a superb gaming monitor. Playing at 170fps with instant control response makes gaming an addictive experience.

At around $600 street price, the XG279Q isn’t cheap, but it will save you some cash over a similar ROG Swift display. And it provides performance and image quality that can compete with some of the best HDR monitors we’ve tested. We think you should definitely check it out.

MORE: Best Gaming Monitors

MORE: How We Test Monitors

MORE: All Monitor Content

Christian Eberle
Christian Eberle
Contributing Editor

Christian Eberle is a Contributing Editor for Tom's Hardware US. He's a veteran reviewer of A/V equipment, specializing in monitors. Christian began his obsession with tech when he built his first PC in 1991, a 286 running DOS 3.0 at a blazing 12MHz. In 2006, he undertook training from the Imaging Science Foundation in video calibration and testing and thus started a passion for precise imaging that persists to this day. He is also a professional musician with a degree from the New England Conservatory as a classical bassoonist which he used to good effect as a performer with the West Point Army Band from 1987 to 2013. He enjoys watching movies and listening to high-end audio in his custom-built home theater and can be seen riding trails near his home on a race-ready ICE VTX recumbent trike. Christian enjoys the endless summer in Florida where he lives with his wife and Chihuahua and plays with orchestras around the state.

4 Comments Comment from the forums
  • DZIrl
    Are there any tests of monitor speed using high speed cameras?
    1ms means black to white or gray to gray? Under what circumstances?
    Reply
  • ArmandB
    I'd probably buy a monitor from another brand. I bought a VG279Q and a month out it would no longer run at 144hz without artifacting and blinking on/off. After a dozen ridiculous emails with suggestions like running the monitor at 60hz, finally sending the monitor in for an RMA to only have it come back two weeks later obviously not having been worked on as it had the same exact problem and me even sending a video of the issue which shows it happens instantly and is completely repeatable, I have given up and taken the monitor as a loss.

    Normally I like Asus, I've used ROG motherboards for my last few gaming systems, and like their WiFi routers. But after dealing with how completely incompetent their support is I won't buy from them again.
    Reply
  • Rockismyth
    Great review. I just purchased this and will be referencing the review for calibration when it arrives. I've been using the ASUS ROG PG27VQ for four years now and absolutely love it. I just started looking into purchasing a second for a dual setup. This seems to build upon that, so I'm excited to see how well it performs in what I'm going to throw at it. Gaming, Adobe's Creative Cloud suite, web/software dev and more. FTR this is will be my fourth ASUS monitor.
    Reply
  • tummybunny
    Still waiting patiently for HDMI 2.1 monitors that can accompany a new 2.1 GPU and console.
    Reply