A gaming rig is only as powerful as its weakest component. Think about it: Does it really make sense to spend thousands on an advanced graphics card, a CPU powerful enough not to cause bottlenecks, and a massive amount of storage, like 2TB SSDs and 128GB RAM, just to to run and plug into a 21.5-inch monitor picked from a Best Buy clearance bin? (And no, it is no better if you plug it in multiple monitors with tidy bin.)
There is probably some sort of mid-ground monitor between “found in the cleanup bin” and the Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ. But since I just played video games for two weeks instead of finishing this review because every time I turned to test something on the PG27UQ I got sucked into how everything was beautiful… Well, why bother about mediocrity when you can get a monitor that is so beautiful it kills your productivity?
Possibly because the ROG Swift PG27UQ is more over $ 1,000 (price ranges from $ 1,200 to $ 1,500 online). That’s right: Not only is this monitor on the pricier side, it may cost more than your entire computer. But god it’s so beautiful.
It’s hard to justify a $ 1,200 price tag, but listen to me. The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a sleek but sturdy 27 ” gaming monitor with a 4K UHD quantum-dot IPS display with full-array backlighting and a DCI-3P color gamut. It supports Nvidia’s G-Sync HDR technology, and it also has at least three different ways to display the ROG (Republic of Gamers) eye logo in lights. Oh, and the bulbs are compatible with Asus’ Aura Sync technology, so you can sync the monitor lighting with other ROG peripherals you happen to have lying around.
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But here’s the thing: this isn’t a new monitor. The PG27UQ came out in June 2018 – that’s right, it’s over two years old. And while it has held its own against the competition – it’s a beautiful monitor, even by today’s standards – it’s starting to show its age, especially with the next-gen consoles dropped. The PG27UQ has two digital display inputs, 1x DisplayPort 1.4 and 1x HDMI 2.0 (it also has 2x downstream USB 3.0, 1x upstream USB 3.0 and 1x 3.5mm audio jack; all ports are hidden under a removable plastic back panel). But both the Microsoft Xbox 5 and Sony PlayStation 5 have HDMI 2.1 ports.
Today, there are generally two types of digital display inputs: DisplayPort and HDMI. Both inputs have undergone several revisions since their debut – the current revisions are DisplayPort 2.0 and HDMI 2.1 – and each new standard provides greater transmission bandwidth. This is important to take full Due to the PG27UQ’s 4K UHD resolution at its overclocked 144Hz refresh rate, you need a lot of bandwidth – more bandwidth than an HDMI 2.0 standard gives you. With HDMI 2.0 you can get a maximum data rate of around 14.4 Gbps, but with HDMI 2.1 you can get a maximum data rate of around 42.6 Gbps – that’s a pretty big difference. DisplayPort 1.4 gives you a maximum data rate of about 25.92 Gbps – not as much as HDMI 2.1, but quite a bit more than HDMI 2.0.
If you are a PC gamer and only a PC gamer, this may not seem like such a big deal. DisplayPort 1.4 shouldn’t be too much of a problem if you’re trying to hit that 144Hz refresh rate. However, if you’re a console gamer – especially a next-gen console gamer – this could be a deal breaker. You can still play your Xbox 5 or PS5 on this monitor, but I’m not sure it makes sense to drop two grand on the monitor to end all monitors if you don’t have both ultra high definition picture and super fast refresh rates like you play the latest console games. This is something to keep in mind. This monitor was a good buy a few years ago, but at least it has written off a bit since then.
Aside from the drama of the digital input, this screen is beautiful. I’m not talking about the physical aesthetic – it’s a sleek looking monitor, but I’ll come back to that – I’m talking about the photo.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is a 4K UHD display with an aspect ratio of 16: 9 and a resolution of 3840 x 2160. The screen measures diagonally 27 inches, which is a good size for a monitor (over 27 inches is starting to get awkward ). The Windows 10 interface looks great up to 125%, and if you’re not as easily distracted as I am by attractive displays, this would make an excellent work monitor.
The PG27UQ has full-array backlighting, which means there are LEDs all over the screen that illuminate it, rather than just the edges. This means a number of things. First, the screen can get very bright. The PG27UQ can hit 1000 nits, which is … well, very bright. For reference, the iPhone 12 Pro has a “typical” max brightness level of 800 nits and an HDR max brightness level of 1200 nits. Phones are designed to be used outdoors, in direct sunlight, while giant gaming monitors usually aren’t, so 1000 nits is very bright.
The second advantage of full array backlighting is how it affects HDR (high dynamic range) and contrast. Full-array backlighting provides more precise control over local dimming, and the PG27UQ has 384 LED zones that can be controlled independently (dim or bright). This means that the screen can produce images with excellent contrast ratios – super dark, inky blacks and bright, vivid colors without sacrificing image quality. This is great for darker, grittier games with HDR support, such as Shadow of the Tomb Raider. There is a lot of depth and detail, no cloudiness. It’s also good for brighter, more vibrant games like No Man’s Sky. Even games without HDR support, such as Subnautica, enchant on this monitor.
Calibrating the PG27UQ is a snap. On the back of the screen, in the lower right corner, are four buttons and a mini joystick for navigating the monitor’s on-screen menus. In the main menu, which you can navigate only with the joystick, you will find options such as overclocking, blue light filtering and screen calibration, as well as options for controlling the many lights on the monitor and standard (and Aura Sync).
The PG27UQ actually looks pretty good out of the box. It didn’t need to a lot of calibration, but it wasn’t perfect so it still helped. The monitor also has several visual preset modes – landscape, racing, cinema, RPG, FPS, sRGB – and a GamePlus menu with a number of gamer-friendly tools such as timers, an FPS counter and a multi-screen alignment tool.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ is built like a tank: a sleek, stylish tank, but a tank nonetheless. It comes in a box that’s bigger than my TV (which admittedly isn’t that big at just 32 inches) and includes several accessories: a stand, input cables (HDMI, DisplayPort, USB), a pack of lenses for the built-in logo of the standard light and instructions.
I really liked the tripod style kickstand. It looks neat, with blade-like legs, a downward-firing light that projects the ROG logo onto your desk, and a rear-firing light that projects the ROG logo on the wall behind it. But it’s not such an annoying exaggeration that it can only be used as a gaming monitor, and you can turn off the ROG projection lights from the on-screen menu. It’s also incredibly sturdy and well-built, both adjustable and ergonomic. It’s easy to adjust the height of the monitor, swivel it back and forth, tilt it and even rotate it 90 degrees for a vertical view.
The stand does take up a bit more space than I initially expected, but it’s a pretty chunky monitor. After all, it has packed its own fan / cooling system. Together, the monitor and stand weigh in at just over 20 pounds, which is about twice as much as my other 27-inch monitor (a modest, budget-friendly BenQ that I got out of a clearance bin at Fry’s a few years ago.).
The monitor itself is a nice mix of clean, classic styling on the front and more aggressive gamer-oriented styling on the back. On the front, the screen is almost mundane: just a 27-inch screen with an anti-reflective coating and a matte black medium-sized bezel. You can tell it’s a premium monitor, but it doesn’t look like a futuristic alien thing (see: Acer Predator x27 and its screen hood), which means it would easily fit in an office or home office.
The rear of the monitor is where it starts to get more gamer-oriented, although it’s not nearly as aggressively styled as some ROG products. The back of the monitor features a giant ROG eye logo that lights up and syncs with Asus’ Aura Sync technology. While I don’t necessarily think I would use the stand’s backward-facing logo light, I like that this monitor has lighting for both the user and the viewer. It’s a bit disappointing to buy a cool gaming peripheral and never admire the lights yourself afterwards.
And this is definitely a monitor for a very specific type of gamer, particularly one with a pretty powerful Nvidia graphics card, as you’ll need at least an Nvidia GTX 1080 Ti for the PG27UQ. The monitor supports Nvidia G-Sync HDR but not FreeSync, so if you have an AMD graphics card… go with it. You’ll also need to connect via DisplayPort if you want that overclocked refresh rate, as the HDMI comes out at a 60Hz refresh rate.
The Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ monitor is impressive even after a few years on the market, but all that said: is it worth $ 1,200??
Well, if you’re a console-hating Nvidia fan with a maxed-out rig, this is still a great monitor. You can often find it on sale – I’ve seen it drop to nearly 50% off at times – which would make it an even more attractive purchase. It has a beautiful screen, wide color gamut, fast refresh rate (over DisplayPort), and it’s definitely built to last. It’s just not as impressive or future-proof as it once was, now that the future really is.
Readme
- Absolutely gorgeous.
- Definitely expensive.