Asus Rog Swift PG278Q

[ksheets]

I reinstalled Battlefield4 and WOW, this is like playing a different game!
It's so ...smooth..and no stuttering AT ALL. It's also made a huge difference in Titanfall, there's just no blurring or choppiness to the gameplay.

I would say that upgrading to the Swift and Gforce970 has been as big a revolution as the first time I fired up GLquake on my original Voodoo card, or the first time I booted my system from an SSD.

Gsync is one of those technologies that only comes along so often, but it is a definite step forward. That being said, I'm still not 100% sure it was worth the nearly $1200 upgrade cost- but I haven't bought anything for my PC for almost 4 years so I figure I was due. I do hope that Freesync is successful to keep Nvidia on their toes but say what you want, Nvidia is delivering the technology NOW- My next purchase may actually be a shield tablet now that I can Nvida stream games....
;p

 

[Keysplayr]

by that logic, all LCD monitors not using TN are complete garbage when it comes to motion clarity, even the overclocked IPS.

having impeccable color accuracy is pretty meaningless when its just a blurry smear of nonsense when in motion, and highly delayed as well.

Absolutely 100% well said.

 

[Black Octagon]

If you disable V-sync from within Skyrim, the problem doesn't happen, as long as the FPS doesn't sore past your refresh rate? Does the problem come back if you force it on within the control panel?

dont know about the control panel as I never tried and the game is now uninstalled, but yes, keeping fps below the refresh rate was something I needed to do to keep the physics problems (nearly completely) at bay. I also found it helped a lot with smoothness

 

[Aikouka]

Does anyone know what sort of cable length restrictions there are for using the ROG Swift display? I ordered a 15' cable from Amazon, but it appears to limit me to 85Hz. If I use the cable that came with the display (6'), I get all the options up to 144Hz. I have a fairly large desk (72" L-Desk), and my computer sits to the right of my desk where my main monitor is on the left (i.e. it's kind of far away). I could probably make due with a 10' cable, but I went with a 15' because that's how long my previous DVI cable was.

As for my thoughts on the monitor, I really wish they would have put the controls on the bottom. My main monitor (the Swift) always goes on the left where the other monitor goes on the right, which means there needs to be a gap or else you can't reach the controls.

 

[gideric]

You sure you have a good cable? Get one that VESA has tested and certified if you're going that length.

http://www.displayport.org/cables/how-to-choose-a-displayport-cable-and-not-get-a-bad-one/

 

[Eymar]

I bought this 10ft one back in September: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and been working so far at 1440p at 144Hz.

 

[Aikouka]

You sure you have a good cable? Get one that VESA has tested and certified if you're going that length.

http://www.displayport.org/cables/how-to-choose-a-displayport-cable-and-not-get-a-bad-one/

Yeah, I found that list, but oddly enough, apart from filtering out everything but cables, I couldn't get the other search functions to work. Although, I did some column sort changes, and I noticed that the longest cable listed for any manufacturer was 10 feet. So, since my cable was 15 feet, that probably explains why it didn't work completely.

I also noticed that my 3-foot DisplayPort extension cable wouldn't work at all... even when used with the 6-foot cable. Since the Swift only has a single input, I was hoping to use it to make swapping between PCs slightly easier as I tend to work from home at times.

I bought this 10ft one back in September: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00...?ie=UTF8&psc=1
and been working so far at 1440p at 144Hz.

It's their 15-foot cable that isn't allowing higher refresh rates. I did some browsing on various sites, and it looks like full bandwidth is really only guaranteed at cable lengths of 2 meters/6 feet. I ordered a different brand's 10-foot cable off Amazon earlier today, and I'll see how that works.

At worst, I can just rearrange my desk, but I'd prefer not to.

 

[Chaotic42]

Two left in stock on Amazon as of right now:

http://www.amazon.com/PG278Q-27-Inch-Screen-LED-Lit-Monitor/dp/B00MSOND8C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1411062295&sr=8-1&keywords=pg278q

 

[DooKey]

I just put one on back order from Newegg. Hopefully I get it in the next couple of weeks. Once it comes in I'll be sure to post about my experience.

 

[kasakka]

Does anyone know what sort of cable length restrictions there are for using the ROG Swift display? I ordered a 15' cable from Amazon, but it appears to limit me to 85Hz. If I use the cable that came with the display (6'), I get all the options up to 144Hz. I have a fairly large desk (72" L-Desk), and my computer sits to the right of my desk where my main monitor is on the left (i.e. it's kind of far away). I could probably make due with a 10' cable, but I went with a 15' because that's how long my previous DVI cable was.

For Displayport full bandwidth limitation is a 3m (9.8 feet) cable according to Wikipedia. So a 10 feet cable at most. But rearranging your desk or computer placement would be best.

 

[Aikouka]

I'm curious about two things...

What refresh rate do you guys use? My previous monitor was a VG278H, which is a 120Hz monitor. So, after I finally replaced my DisplayPort cable for the ROG Swift, I was able to use 144Hz. However, I noticed that my power usage was considerably higher. After some Googling, I found out that the NVIDIA drivers will not clock down the GPU if you're running at 144Hz, and I saw just that in HWiNFO as the GPU was running at about 800Mhz vs. the usual 300-ish when at 120Hz. So, I just dialed it back down to 120Hz.

What do you do to counteract the annoying DisplayPort disappearing monitor problem? When I first upgraded to my older Dell monitors, I decided to try out DisplayPort, but I noticed it had the same "problem" as HDMI where if you turn off the monitor, it will disappear to Windows, which shifts around your programs and icons. Now, this happens maybe once every 10-20 times that I turn on my ROG Swift, but it's still a bit irritating to have to move everything around. To note, my second monitor is hooked up via DVI.

EDIT:

For Displayport full bandwidth limitation is a 3m (9.8 feet) cable according to Wikipedia. So a 10 feet cable at most. But rearranging your desk or computer placement would be best.

I just made the shorter cable work. It doesn't fit as nicely as the 15-foot cable, but it works fine.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Are there any competitors to this monitor?

It's back-ordered everywhere, even on U.S-only websites.

Worse, I'm in Canada so that means it's going to be as such for over 3 weeks.

 

[OlyAR15]

Are there any competitors to this monitor?

It's back-ordered everywhere, even on U.S-only websites.

Worse, I'm in Canada so that means it's going to be as such for over 3 weeks.

I bought mine from NCIX. It was listed as backordered when I ordered it, and it eventually shipped after about 3 weeks. If you wait until they have it in stock, you are probably going to be waiting for a while, since they will have to clear their current backlog before they can list it as in stock.

 

[Insomniator]

So would you guys say even TN has improved over the years? I have a 6 year old TN Samsung (25.5 inch 19x12) and will upgrade soon, but I've heard so much about how much better IPS screens are for color. Wondering if it doesn't matter when coming from something so old.

 

[OlyAR15]

So would you guys say even TN has improved over the years? I have a 6 year old TN Samsung (25.5 inch 19x12) and will upgrade soon, but I've heard so much about how much better IPS screens are for color. Wondering if it doesn't matter when coming from something so old.

It depends on how good your current TN screen is. There are crappy ones and there are decent ones. For example, I didn't realize my Macbook Air had a TN screen until I read it in a review. Never really noticed a colour shift but I think that was because the size of the screen meant I wasn't really looking at the screen off-axis. But the Swift still is a TN screen and still has the disadvantages. If you have never used an IPS screen (a good one) and play a lot of games, then the ROG Swift will be a great monitor for you, provided you have the graphics hardware to support it. On the other hand, a good IPS screen is going to give you better colour reproduction, no colour shift when you move off axis, but generally limited to 60Hz refresh rate unless you want to try your luck with the overclocked screens.

 

[Raskolnikov]

I bought mine from NCIX. It was listed as backordered when I ordered it, and it eventually shipped after about 3 weeks. If you wait until they have it in stock, you are probably going to be waiting for a while, since they will have to clear their current backlog before they can list it as in stock.

It's ridiculous. Even in the U.S it's back-ordered everywhere. GG Obama.

I thought my only gripe with ASUS was their broken software, or their 56k modem servers to download said software/drivers.

 

[ocre]

Perhaps Nvidia is artificially limiting the supply so that people think it is more popular than it really is

that was a joke but i am really surprised i havent seen it posted anywhere on the internets yet.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Are there any competitors to this monitor?

It's back-ordered everywhere, even on U.S-only websites.

Worse, I'm in Canada so that means it's going to be as such for over 3 weeks.

Acer is coming out with one.

 

[kasakka]

I'm curious about two things...

What refresh rate do you guys use? My previous monitor was a VG278H, which is a 120Hz monitor. So, after I finally replaced my DisplayPort cable for the ROG Swift, I was able to use 144Hz. However, I noticed that my power usage was considerably higher. After some Googling, I found out that the NVIDIA drivers will not clock down the GPU if you're running at 144Hz, and I saw just that in HWiNFO as the GPU was running at about 800Mhz vs. the usual 300-ish when at 120Hz. So, I just dialed it back down to 120Hz.

I just use 144 Hz with G-Sync and desktop and for some games 120 Hz w/ ULMB. I don't really care about the higher clock as the fans are still quiet.

What do you do to counteract the annoying DisplayPort disappearing monitor problem? When I first upgraded to my older Dell monitors, I decided to try out DisplayPort, but I noticed it had the same "problem" as HDMI where if you turn off the monitor, it will disappear to Windows, which shifts around your programs and icons. Now, this happens maybe once every 10-20 times that I turn on my ROG Swift, but it's still a bit irritating to have to move everything around. To note, my second monitor is hooked up via DVI.

This is really annoying. Essentially what happens when the display is turned off is that Windows thinks it no longer exists so it tries to shuffle windows somewhere else which resizes them to 1024x768 in the upper left corner. I solved it by using an AutoHotkey script which can save window positions and restore them. So whenever I wake my computer from sleep I hit Win+0 to restore my usually used windows to their correct size and position.

You may need to edit the .txt file the script creates because it saves complete window titles but you might want to resize just by application name. In that case simply edit for example "Anandtech Forums - Google Chrome" to just "Google Chrome" and it's able to resize Chrome no matter what page it's on.

Alternatively you could try http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...or-power/1653aafb-848b-464a-8c69-1a68fbd106aa but that didn't seem to work properly for me at least.

 

[Raskolnikov]

Acer is coming out with one.

Has Acer improved its quality? I always considered them sub-par, a Maxtor-ish level.

As for the PG278Q, I found one for $999 flat (Canadian dollars: includes taxes and S&H) from France, but it's going to take forever.

 

[Mondozei]

There has been a lot of reports over issues with this monitor at the ASUS forums. In Sweden, where I live, the Sweclockers forums are also filled with angry people. Granted, when people are pleased, they don't tend to post and just get on with what they do, but still.

The issues have been primarily focused on pixel inversion, which there is also a lengty thread at the ASUS forums on. What about you buyers? It seems like the early adopters got a great deal, the later production models has seen a quality decline, at least that's what I infer from the reviews at various Swedish forums, where the early part is sunshine while it has gotten worse for the later buyers.

My guess is that as Asus saw demand skyrocket, they started to cut corners.

An unrelated question: can you do G-Sync and 144 Hz at the same time? The Hexus review implied that you couldn't. Just want a confirmation on yes/no.

 

[kasakka]

There has been a lot of reports over issues with this monitor at the ASUS forums. In Sweden, where I live, the Sweclockers forums are also filled with angry people. Granted, when people are pleased, they don't tend to post and just get on with what they do, but still.

The issues have been primarily focused on pixel inversion, which there is also a lengty thread at the ASUS forums on. What about you buyers? It seems like the early adopters got a great deal, the later production models has seen a quality decline, at least that's what I infer from the reviews at various Swedish forums, where the early part is sunshine while it has gotten worse for the later buyers.

My guess is that as Asus saw demand skyrocket, they started to cut corners.

An unrelated question: can you do G-Sync and 144 Hz at the same time? The Hexus review implied that you couldn't. Just want a confirmation on yes/no.

It's probably more like how Hardforum at one point seemed really anal about antiglare coating. Tons of complaining over something that isn't a big deal for the majority of people. I really haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary regarding image quality on my ROG Swift.

G-Sync definitely works at 144 Hz. It's ULMB that only works at 85-120 Hz.

 

[OlyAR15]

Agreed. I had to look up what pixel inversion was. Either my monitor is fine,or I am not sensitive to whatever it is supposed to show.

 

[WaitingForNehalem]

Has Acer improved its quality? I always considered them sub-par, a Maxtor-ish level.

As for the PG278Q, I found one for $999 flat (Canadian dollars: includes taxes and S&H) from France, but it's going to take forever.

Their picture quality is fine IMO but the build quality is substandard sometimes.

 

[Nebor]

Agreed. I had to look up what pixel inversion was. Either my monitor is fine,or I am not sensitive to whatever it is supposed to show.

Yeah, no IQ problems here, but I'm really not very picky.