at that frame rate. Even the lowly CS:GO required us to drop
most settings to Medium with no AA to regularly get above
300fps on a GeForce GTX 1080 Ti at 1080p, for example.
Meanwhile, the Nvidia Reflex Latency Analyzer technology
is genuinely useful for optimising your games’ latency. We
were able to measure a noticeable difference in average
total system latency between 360Hz and 240Hz (18.4ms vs
38.0ms), and between running a game with all the graphics
settings turned down (18.4ms) and all of them turned
up (26.3ms).Conclusion
The Asus ROG Swift PG259QNR can quite legitimately claim
to be the ultimate performance gaming monitor, as it’s the
only one on the market to offer a 360Hz
refresh rate – the next closest is 280Hz.
It also offers excellent image quality,
even if it is at a low resolution.
However, the lack of ELMB-Sync is
a major detractor and the price is hard
to swallow. At the very least, opting for
the version without the latency analyser
(PG259QN) will save you £100. If you
want the very fastest gaming monitor
at whatever cost, though, this is it.
EDWARD CHESTERT
he ROG Swift PG259QNR is Asus’ new flagship
high-refresh gaming monitor, sporting a maximum
refresh rate of a whopping 360Hz. What’s more, it
includes a new system latency tracking tool, where you plug
your mouse into the screen and it will tell you the delay
between clicking the mouse and the muzzle flash (or other
trigger) appearing on screen. It’s impressive stuff, but does it
add up to being the ultimate performance gaming monitor?
The biggest elephant in the room is the size and resolution.
When you’re paying £750 and still just getting a 1080p screen
with a 25in diagonal, it doesn’t make for the most dazzling
first impression. Thankfully, the image quality is decent.
The use of an IPS panel means viewing angles are very
wide, and you get a stable image with none of the colour
shimmer that can affect TN panels. Contrast is high too, for
a standard IPS panel, measuring 1,148:1 in our tests. As such,
there’s a good depth and punchiness to the image.
Colour accuracy is good out of the box as well, if not quite
perfect. The menu offers a host of image quality tweaking
options, including seven colour temperature presets and five
gamma options. By default, it’s set to a 6,500K temperature
and 2.2 gamma, which is what we’d expect, but
in our tests its colour temperature was just a
smidge off, registering 6,962K. Nonetheless,
for gaming and the vast majority of other tasks,
this display is good to go right out the box.
Meanwhile, the menus are packed with
features and are easy to navigate thanks to the
excellent mini joystick controls on the back. One
setting you won’t find, though, is Asus’ ELMB
sync mode, which allows for backlight-strobing
blur reduction with G-Sync.
Instead, you just get Nvidia’s ULMB mode,
which doesn’t work with G-Sync, and only
works at up to 240Hz. Comparatively, the likes
of the Asus VG279QM offer ELMB-sync at
240Hz, and 240Hz with backlight strobing is
actually better for image clarity in fast motion
than 360Hz without it.
Speaking of which, that 360Hz refresh rate
is impressive in action. It’s not a night and day
difference compared with a 240Hz panel in
real-world gaming, but there is an extra level
of smoothness. However, you’ll need some
serious GPU power to get many games to runREVIEWS / MONITORS
VERDICT
An astonishing gaming display, but
plenty of competitors offer nearly as
good performance for much less money.OVERALL SCORE
80 %
FULL CIRCLE
Exceptional gaming
performance
Fantastic image
quality
Genuinely
useful latency
analysing tool
ROUND THE
TWIST
- Very expensive
- Lacks ELMB-Sync
- 360Hz is overkill
for most
SUPPLIER overclockers.co.uk
ASUS ROG SWIFT
PG259QNR /£750 inc VAT
25 IN GAMING MONITOR
IMAGE QUALITY
23 / 30
GAMING
30 / 30
FEATURES
17 / 20VALUE
10 / 20c
u
stom P
C
ccuu
ssstommPP
CCE
X
T
R
EM
E^ ULT
R
A
SPEC
Screen size
25in
Resolution
1,920 x 1,
Panel technology
IPS
Maximum refresh rate
360Hz
Response time
1ms
Contrast ratio
1,000:
Active sync
G-Sync
Display inputs
1 x DisplayPort 1.4, 1 x HDMI 2
Audio
Headphone jack
Stand adjustment
Height, pivot, rotation, tilt
Extras
100 x 100mm VESA mount, Aura
Sync RGB lighting, 2 x USB 3 ports
HDR standard
DisplayHDR 400