ASUS ROG Swift 500Hz Announced!

[effjaysea]

missing crucial competitive gaming features I guess only BenQ cares enough to offer. at least the refresh rate was impressive.

you mean extra contrast, black equalizer and color settings? Please elaborate if u have time.

That and no setting on the monitor to tweak sharpness. These are things that need to be present on a monitor if you're going to advertise it for esport. Some of the worlds best players use max sharpness in CS for a reason.

As for bugs, I've had the whole monitor interface turn blue when tweaking my settings, with all the text becoming near unreadable. Think it happened either when turning on OC or ULMB. Had it randomly change back at some point. The whole experience reminded me of when I was using their 240hz OLED monitor and my screen would just have random fits requiring me to remove the power plug and putting it back in to fix it. Feels like I'm beta testing these things.

[Chief Blur Buster]

Thanks for the explanation! Will start the break-in today

Yes, always break in quickly -- inside your return window!

So disable your screensaver and pay a couple dollars more on your power bill.
Maybe use a 20-watt laptop instead of a 500-watt gaming PC, tho, although properly optimized into Power Saver Mode, I've seen RTX 4000 series rigs fall to well under 100 watts when idling.

[NDUS]

missing crucial competitive gaming features I guess only BenQ cares enough to offer. at least the refresh rate was impressive.

you mean extra contrast, black equalizer and color settings? Please elaborate if u have time.

That and no setting on the monitor to tweak sharpness. These are things that need to be present on a monitor if you're going to advertise it for esport. Some of the worlds best players use max sharpness in CS for a reason.

As for bugs, I've had the whole monitor interface turn blue when tweaking my settings, with all the text becoming near unreadable. Think it happened either when turning on OC or ULMB. Had it randomly change back at some point. The whole experience reminded me of when I was using their 240hz OLED monitor and my screen would just have random fits requiring me to remove the power plug and putting it back in to fix it. Feels like I'm beta testing these things.

A bit of weirdness I've found is that sometimes after the monitor goes to sleep, it will never wake back up unless you remove and reinsert one of the cables

Definitely the least polished-feeling monitor I've ever bought, everything except for the fast panel feels bad

[dhal]

Hello.

Found a decent user review on amazon for those interested. Mine is coming on later this week.

I've owned this monitor for about a week now and I can say that it is better than any other monitor I've used for competitive gaming. Faceit Rank 10 CS, GM Overwatch for reference.

I have tested it with the Benq XL2566K side-by-side and here are my honest thoughts.

I believe the greatest advantage this monitor gives you is in four scenarios:

1. Spray control in CS2
2. Far distance tracking.
3. 180 flicks with Genji/Tracer
4. Viewing angles are ever so slightly better than Benq's TN panels, and every bit helps

The XL2566K is about as good as this monitor in every other scenario while being a very tiny bit less smoother in motion clarity. It won't give you any less of an experience other than the four scenarios I mentioned. The PG248QP gives a surreal experience when spraying with an AK in CS2, or tracking a far enemy with someone like Soldier in OW. 180 flicks are way easier to react to if you don't have the muscle memory dialed in so you can have an idea of what you'll be looking at next. You can feel every bounce in the bullet in CS and you can quicky micro adjust to small targets from far away. Close to medium range fights with Widow is about the same for both monitors. My point is the XL2566K is a damn fine monitor and you're paying $300 extra for a slightly smoother motion clarity experience and it's up to you to see if it's worth it.

Optimum is a highly popular monitor reviewer but he claims this experience is nothing like anything else and truly magnificent. I have to say he is exaggerating just a bit because it doesn't translate to performance as much as he claims. It's not like looking through a window like he states, it's just a slightly smoother experience than the XL2566K and therefore slightly more pleasant.

I will address all the comments I've seen on this monitor with this disclaimer:

***If you're playing casually or not in the top 10-5% ranks of your game, you will most likely not notice the difference between the cheapest 240hz monitor and this. These premium monitors are for those seeking to get every ounce of performance out of their ability, and there are several ways to do that without a premium monitor, explaining why skill will always outweigh your setup/PC parts (example would be muscle memory flicking, pure tracking ability, micro adjustment ability, aim prediction, mastering these will make you far better than a monitor like this will)***

-Yes, there is a difference between 240hz and 360hz, but only when comparing non Benq 240hz/360hz models to Benq 240hz.

-Yes, there is a difference between panels from different brands/models. I've used the 240hz XL2546K next to the Alienware 500hz monitor when it first came out and the XL2546K was MILES clearer and such a better monitor despite being half the refresh rate. There is a reason so many CS pros still use the XL2546K. I used the VG259QM 280hz monitor and it doesn't hold a candle to the XL2546k at 240hz. All of this with DYAC+ off.

-Yes, there is a difference between 144hz and higher refresh rates. It will absolutely translate directly to your ability to perform better in competitive games.

-No, OLED monitors and their faster response times are not better than the XL2546K let alone the PG248QP/XL2566K and do not provide nearly the same level of motion clarity.

I will say that this monitor is so clear and fluid that it will have you realizing just how off you are on your misses. It takes quite a bit of time to adjust to since it is unlike any other experience, and in that way I can even say I like the XL2566K more because that feels like just a drop in replacement and is so easy to adapt to. This monitor will take some getting used to, but that is not a knock on it at all.

Aside from the refresh rate and panel quality, the features of this monitor are pretty helpful. The ESS Audio Codec is an excellent feature that they didn't need to include, and once set up you do hear the higher audio quality and 3d surround. The color saturation is too much for me personally, but from my experience, most competitive gamers like the saturation (think digital vibrace @ 100%) to make targets more easily detectable, but it's a simple fix for me when I just lower the digital vibrance to about 35%, making the colors much more "standard." ULMB 2 works great compared to DYAC but I personally don't like the eye strain.

[Boop]

A bit of weirdness I've found is that sometimes after the monitor goes to sleep, it will never wake back up unless you remove and reinsert one of the cables

Definitely the least polished-feeling monitor I've ever bought, everything except for the fast panel feels bad

I'm surprised yours even goes to sleep/standby. Mine never does unless I put it in Power Saving mode first.

[daviddave1]

The monitor just arrived!

On first sight the brightness seems good with ULMB2 activated. Thats a good thing!

Bad thing is that the monitor needs DSC enabled for all resolutions above 360hz. That means no custom res of 1728x1080 on 500 or 540hz.. At least for me. If someone else has a solution?

I don't understand why Asus has not put HDMI 2.1 on this monitor so DSC is not needed. Maybe HDMI 2.1. has his own difficulties?

There is a Aspect Control option in the menu where u can choose Esports pro Mode. There a 4 resolution to choose from:


RES 1024X768
RES 1152 X 864
RES 1280X960
RES 1280X1024

These work on 540hz

For the people that like to play on 1440 x 1080. This res is available in the standard list of resolutions in the NVIDIA control panel. So the greyed out Customize button is not needed. Only downside its 500hz max. Mine preferred 1728x1080 is not in the list .

More info to follow!

[daviddave1]

I cannot get the testufo.com to run. Get a Sync Failure on Chrome and Firefox on 540hz. Anyone else has this problem?

[dhal]

I cannot get the testufo.com to run. Get a Sync Failure on Chrome and Firefox on 540hz. Anyone else has this problem?

same.

[daviddave1]

First impression; Monitor feels great in PUBG. Quake Live feels good too. I don't think its placebo. If someone has questions let me know!

[Depo]

First impression; Monitor feels great in PUBG. Quake Live feels good too. I don't think its placebo. If someone has questions let me know!

I'm assuming your not reaching anywhere near 540fps in PUBG, how does it fair at the lower refresh rates? Are you using G sync and how is ULMB2 say in comparison to Dyac+?

I've not long sold my XL2566K, so wondering if this is a viable upgrade or whether I should just replace it with another Benq.

Thanks