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.
Viewing Angles, Uniformity, Response, Lag, & G-Sync
Viewing Angles
The PG27V’s TN panel offers quick response and low lag, but pays for it in the viewing angle department. The curve helps improve image quality though. When considering flat screens, 27” is pushing it for a TN monitor because the sides will show a color shift and brightness falloff even when viewing from the center seat. By bringing those sides inward, the image stays more uniform since it’s the same distance from the eye edge-to-edge. When viewed from 45°, the typical TN characteristics are obvious. The color shifts to reddish green and brightness drops by at least 60%. Color fidelity is maintained in the vertical plane, but detail washes out almost entirely. You will definitely want to occupy the money seat when gaming on this display.
Screen Uniformity
To learn how we measure screen uniformity, please click here.
Older TN parts were often weak in the uniformity department. That is happily not the case with the PG27V and other contemporary monitors. Our sample measured superbly in both the black and white field tests. Not a hotspot could be seen, nor was there any glow or bleed, even at the edges. Color uniformity was among the best we’ve seen from any monitor of any type. There may be users who shy away from TN screens, but uniformity should not be one of the reasons to look elsewhere.
Pixel Response & Input Lag
Please click here to read up on our pixel response and input lag testing procedures.
All the Asus PG27V’s specs (and its price) scream speed, and that's delivered with aplomb here. The screen draw time is only 1ms behind the fastest 240Hz displays. While we’re glad to see ULMB included, it’s not necessary for blur-free performance. When frame rates stay north of 100, motion is perfectly smooth with nary a hint of judder. There is no perceptible lag, either. A 25ms score puts the Asus PG27V among the fastest monitors we’ve tested. Gaming performance is exemplary in every way.
Gaming With G-Sync & ULMB
Playing games--especially shooters--on a fast monitor is always a pleasure. There are those that say they can’t see a difference between 80 and 120fps, but our eyse certainly can. While 240Hz may be beyond the range of perception, there is a serious bump upward in quality when rates enter the triple-digit range. Tomb Raider is an easy title with which to max a monitor’s refresh rate. With detail set to Ultimate, we routinely saw speeds at or near the 165fps maximum. And unlike many gaming monitors, we could leave overdrive on its highest setting without ghosting. You’ll want to use that feature for sure, since there’s a good bit of smearing when it’s off. But we saw no difference between the Normal and Extreme settings.
Far Cry 4 wouldn’t quite reach those same stratospheric framerates, but it rarely dropped below 100fps on Ultra detail. Lush landscapes with finely-rendered grass, trees, and leaves just slid effortlessly by as we explored the environment. Close-up detail in characters’ clothing, rock faces, and tree bark was especially tasty. These are textures you can almost feel. It’s hard to imagine it looking better even though many gamers with large budgets would rather go for Ultra HD monitors. We still maintain that a good balance between resolution and speed provides a better overall experience than pixel count alone.
If you’re wondering about ULMB, it works as advertised. Maxing speeds at 120Hz is child’s play for our GeForce 1080 Ti. Turning the brightness slider to 100 is also a must to maintain a workable 200 nit output level. We didn’t miss G-Sync too much, but occasional tears could be seen. ULMB has greater impact at lower refresh rates, but then tearing becomes more obvious, so you'll want to experiment to find the sweet spot where it’s most effective for you.
MORE: Best Gaming Monitors
MORE: Best Professional Monitors
MORE: How We Test Monitors
MORE: How To Choose A Monitor
MORE: All Monitor Content
