Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN review (2023) excellent for gaming

The first 1440p 360Hz monitor you can buy is the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN. Even though 360Hz monitors have been around for a while, the 27-inch screen and higher resolution make for a more immersive gaming experience than 25-inch 1080p monitors with the same refresh rate. It supports DisplayPort 1.4 bandwidth, so if you have a high-end graphics card that supports Display Stream Compression, you can get the maximum refresh rate and resolution. It comes with built-in support for G-SYNC variable refresh rate (VRR), which lets you get the most out of your NVIDIA graphics card.

Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN: Description

This also gives you a few extra features, such as the NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer, which measures the latency of your whole setup and helps you figure out where the most latency is coming from. The ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQN is the first 1440p monitor with a refresh rate of 360Hz. This makes it the perfect screen for gamers who like both competitive games and games with a lot of graphics.

The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN is the best choice if you are serious about competitive gaming and want to improve both the visuals and the clarity at the same time. It is a 1440p monitor, but unlike many other options on the market, it can go up to 360Hz. Because of its cutting-edge features, it costs a lot.

Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN: Pros and Cons

Specification Table

Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN: Design

The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN has the aggressive Republic of Gamers design language that people are used to seeing from the company. This includes a big, thick screen with an LED-lit ROG logo and a wide stand that looks like a tripod and has a cyclone design on its neck. It’s a look that is bold and in your face. The quality of the build is great. The thick plastic panels on the monitor make a bit of a creaking sound when pressed, but they feel sturdy and don’t bend much across the back and along the edges. The stand is a solid piece of furniture that holds the monitor in place.

It could also be used as a makeshift weapon in a zombie apocalypse. The stand can be changed in height, tilted, swiveled, and turned 90 degrees so that it can be used in portrait mode. This is good news for ergonomics, but I did notice a problem: the stand is a bit too deep, so the monitor was closer to me than we would have liked. This could be a problem if your desk is less than 30 inches deep. The monitor has a 100mm x 100mm VESA mount, so you can also use a thinner third-party stand or a monitor arm.

Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN: Display

The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN has a 27-inch fast IPS panel with a resolution of 2560 by 1440, a refresh rate of 360Hz, and a GTG response time of 1ms. The backlight has an output of 400 cd/m2 and a peak of 600 cd/m2, but the contrast is only 1000:1. This model is certified with VESA’s DisplayHDR 600, but it doesn’t have a full array of local dimming for the backlight. Instead, it only has edge-lit local dimming.

Even though 4K monitors are becoming more popular, 27-inch 1440p monitors are still popular because they have a good balance between sharpness and GPU demand. The picture looks better and has more details, but it doesn’t put as much strain on your eyes or GPU. It’s also being pushed as the next E-Sports format, which means that people will want to play it more in the near future.

The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN has a color range that is more than 100% sRGB and 93% DCI-P3. This gives games and movies a lot of color. Even better, its default accuracy has a deltaE average of only 1.73, which proves that Asus’s claim of a score under 2.0 is correct. Most people won’t need to calibrate it because it already works well for most uses.

After calibration, the monitor’s dE average went up to 0.78, which is great for a gaming screen and what you’d expect from a prosumer model. But to be sure of the same level of improvement, it would be best if you had a colorimeter. If you only play games, it’s a waste of money to buy the gadget, but if you work in a color-sensitive field, it’s a good idea.

Gaming Image Quality

The sRGB color gamut mode and dynamic backlighting were already on when we got this monitor. Because of this, the out-of-the-box color palette is smaller and less vivid than many players would expect, and the display can show vertical bands of gray in dark scenes. After noticing these issues, we switched to the wide gamut mode and turned off the dynamic backlight. Now that these changes have been made, the Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN works well in most games. It has a maximum brightness of 495 nits in SDR mode, which is very bright.

This means that the image always looks sharp, even in a room with a lot of light from the sun. The color accuracy is very good, and the wide color gamut covers 95% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and 89% of the sRGB color gamut. But there is a problem with how contrast and dark scenes work. The highest contrast ratio we measured was 870:1, which is on the lower end for a modern IPS monitor. The BenQ EX270QM got a slightly better ratio of 980:1, and the Gigabyte M27QX can reach 1140:1. Because of this, the PG27AQN has a problem called “IPS glow,” which is a hazy look that makes dark scenes look less clear.

Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN: Performance

The ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQN has an Ultrafast IPS panel made by AU Optronics and a new Dual-Layer Voltage Driver. Together, these two things give the screen the fast pixel response time it needs to keep up with the 360Hz refresh rate. At 360Hz, there is no noticeable trailing behind fast-moving objects. At lower refresh rates, there is no overshoot, and the dedicated G-SYNC module with variable overdrive makes sure there is no input lag longer than 1ms and tear-free gameplay up to 360FPS. To actually use 360Hz, you’ll need to be able to get such high frame rates, which means you’ll need a fast CPU. With an Intel 12th Gen or Ryzen 5000 series CPU and a good GPU, this won’t be a problem in popular eSports games with low or medium settings at 1440p.

If you have an AMD GPU and want to change the refresh rate, you can use Adaptive-Sync over DisplayPort. There are four modes for the response time overdrive: “Off,” “Normal,” “Esports,” and “Extreme.” Both Esports and Extreme add noticeable inverse ghosting, so the best thing to do is stick with Normal. If your frame rate drops below 100FPS, you may start to see inverse ghosting. If this happens, you should turn off the overdrive mode.

The ASUS PG27AQN also works with NVIDIA’s new ULMB 2 technology, which uses strobing of the backlight to improve the clarity of moving images at the expense of image brightness. Only certain refresh rates (up to 360Hz) work with it. The brightness is lowered to 275-nits, which is still plenty bright for most users.

Final Words

The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN is a great gaming monitor for the most serious gamers who want the best gear. It comes calibrated from the factory and is the fastest 1440p monitor on the market, so it’s a must-have for fans. We wish it looked better, but what’s more important is that it’s built so well.

The Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN’s main weakness, other than its price, is that it doesn’t do very well with HDR. It is certified for HDR 600, but the limited local dimming can be a letdown. It’s the best 1440p monitor for E-Sports, but it could be better, especially when you think about how much it costs.

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