ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM Monitor Review

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has a very gamer-oriented design. The stand is very different from the original ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q, but it's solid and supports the monitor well. It has very thin bezels on three sides, with a ROG logo on the bottom bezel. The gamer aesthetic continues on the back, with lines etched in the back panel and a large ROG logo that doubles as RGB bias-lighting.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has great build quality. The stand is very sturdy, with metal feet that support the monitor well and don't allow for much wobble. The main body is mainly plastic, and there's a bit of flex in the back panel near the RGB logo, but there are no other noticeable issues with the overall build quality.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has very good ergonomics. It has a great tilt range, and it can swivel from side to side, so you can turn it to share the screen with someone else. Sadly, the height adjustment is a bit short, which is a bit disappointing, but it's still okay.

The back of the monitor has a gamer design to it, with a futuristic pattern etched across half of the back panel. There's a large ROG logo that doubles as an RGB light. There's a cutout in the stand (closeup) for cable management , and there's an included cover that hides the inputs.

The stand has a large footprint, but it supports the ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM well, allowing for very minimal wobble, even at the maximum height extension. The legs are slim, leaving plenty of space in front of the monitor for small objects.

• Power supply and cable
• DisplayPort cable
• HDMI cable
• USB-B upstream cable
• Calibration report
• User manuals
• Stickers

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has mediocre contrast, so blacks look gray if you're in a dark room. Unfortunately, because the local dimming feature can only illuminate entire columns of light at once, it's ineffective at boosting contrast with the checkerboard test pattern. It's most effective at boosting contrast in scenes with larger dark areas.

The contrast photo shows a reddish tint. This is from an interaction between the backlight and the camera sensor; it's not noticeable in person.

However, if you prefer a 1440p, 240Hz monitor with a near-infinite contrast ratio, then look into the LG 27GR95QE-B, which uses an OLED panel.

Unfortunately, the local dimming feature on the ASUS PG279QM is bad and ineffective at improving dark scene performance. It can only illuminate entire columns of light at once. Any point of light in a column causes the entire column to light up, resulting in terrible blooming with most content. It's especially noticeable in dark scenes with subtitles. In scenes that are dark enough for zones to turn off, it's very effective at reducing black levels, but there's such a huge difference between dark zones and bright zones that it can be very distracting.

There are 32 local dimming zones, which is a bit unexpected, as reviewers with pre-production units reported only 16 zones. As fast-moving objects transition between zones, it can react quickly, but this can be very distracting in dark scenes as zones flicker on and off. The 'Level 3' Variable Backlight setting offers the best performance overall. Zone transitions are a bit slower with the 'Level 2' setting, and there's less flicker overall, but it also raises the black levels in zones that are off.

The ASUS PG279QM has very good peak brightness in SDR. It's extremely close to the advertised peak brightness of 350 cd/m², which is bright enough to overcome glare in bright rooms. There's also very little variation in brightness with different scenes, which is great.

These measurements were taken after calibration, in the 'Racing Mode' Picture Mode, with the backlight at max and Variable Backlight (local dimming) set to 'Level 3'.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has just decent peak brightness in HDR. It's bright enough that most games stand out a bit, but it's not bright enough to deliver an impactful cinematic experience. Most scenes are displayed at the correct luminance level, which is great, but like most monitors, there's a very sharp cut-off at the monitor's peak luminance. This causes fine details in bright scenes to blend together.

These measurements were taken before calibration, with HDR enabled, Brightness at '100', and Variable Backlight set to 'Level 3'.

The ASUS PG279QM has an impressive horizontal viewing angle. Colors wash out at a moderate angle, but most people won't have any issues viewing this monitor from the side. It's a great choice for co-op gaming or if you have to share your screen with someone sitting beside you.

The ASUS PG279QM has an okay vertical viewing angle. The image appears washed out at moderate angles above or below the display, so it's not ideal for sharing the screen with someone standing next to you, for example.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has great gray uniformity. The sides of the screen are a bit darker than the center, and there's a bit of dirty screen effect in the center, but it's not very noticeable.

Note: The gray uniformity photos show a reddish tint. This is caused by an interaction between the backlight and the camera sensor; it's not noticeable in person.

Unfortunately, the ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has disappointing black uniformity. The screen appears cloudy because of the low contrast ratio. Due to the limited number of dimming zones, local dimming results in worse black uniformity, with significant blooming around the test cross.

The ASUS PG279QM has excellent accuracy out of the box. Gamma follows the sRGB curve very closely, but most scenes are slightly darker than they should be. Color accuracy is amazing, with no noticeable issues, and the white balance is very good, but brighter shades of gray are a bit off. Finally, the color temperature is a bit cool, resulting in a slightly bluish tint out of the box.

The ASUS PG279QM has two separate options that allow you to limit the color gamut to the 'sRGB' color space, which is useful if you don't enjoy an over-saturated image. Setting GameVisual to sRGB locks the gamut, but like most monitors, it also severely limits the picture options that you can change, and almost everything is locked. Setting the Display SDR Input setting to 'sRGB' also locks the color gamut to the sRGB color space but leaves all picture settings unlocked. This allows you to fine-tune the picture settings for an accurate hardware calibration, which is wonderful and extremely uncommon. Both sRGB modes achieve roughly the same accuracy out of the box, but 'Racing Mode' with the separate sRGB clamp delivers the best results overall without the usual sRGB mode limitations.

After calibration, the ASUS PG279QM has nearly perfect accuracy. Any remaining issues with the white balance and color accuracy aren't noticeable, and gamma follows the sRGB target curve nearly perfectly. The color temperature is extremely close to the calibration target.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has an incredible SDR color gamut, with complete coverage of both the sRGB and the Adobe RGB color spaces. It actually exceeds the Adobe RGB color space when sent an Adobe RGB signal, causing reds to appear oversaturated.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has superb color volume. Thanks to its complete coverage of both the sRGB and Adobe RGB color spaces, it fills out the color volume well at most brightness levels. Due to the low contrast ratio, it can't display dark saturated colors well, but this isn't very noticeable.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has an amazing HDR color gamut, one of the widest we've ever measured on any display. It has nearly complete coverage of the DCI P3 color space used by most current HDR content. It also has great coverage of the wider Rec. 2020 color space, which is rarely used at the moment, but it's important if you want to future-proof your monitor.

Thanks to the wide HDR color gamut, the ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has excellent color volume in HDR. It's limited mainly by its incomplete HDR color gamut, as colors are displayed well at most brightness levels. Due to the low contrast ratio, it can't display dark saturated colors very well.

The ASUS PG279QM has good reflection handling. The matte anti-reflective coating helps reduce the intensity of direct reflections but also adds a slightly hazy look.

Note: The reflection photos show a reddish tint. This isn't a calibration artifact, as the monitor has a near-perfect white balance and color temperature after calibration. It's not noticeable in person; it's likely an interaction between the backlight and the camera sensor.

The ASUS PG279QM has good text clarity. Running the Windows ClearType wizard helps improve text clarity (top photo), especially on diagonal or curved lines, which aren't as clear or easy to read without ClearType.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has remarkable gradient handling, with almost no noticeable banding in areas of similar color. It's great for content creators or for watching HDR content.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has an extremely fast refresh rate. Like most monitors, the max refresh rate is only available over DisplayPort, as the HDMI ports are limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth. If you want a 1440p monitor with an even higher 360Hz refresh rate, check out the ASUS ROG Swift 360Hz PG27AQN.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM natively supports NVIDIA's G-SYNC variable refresh rate technology, but it's also compatible with FreeSync, ensuring a nearly tear-free gaming experience from almost any source.

The ASUS PG279QM has an excellent response time at the max refresh rate of 240Hz. The 'Esports' and 'Normal' OD modes deliver the best overall results, with an extremely fast rise/fall time that delivers extremely clear motion, with almost no noticeable blur behind fast-moving objects. The 'Esports' mode is recommended, as it has slightly less overshoot than the 'Normal' mode. These modes show significant overshoot in all transitions, but it's a very short burst, and the monitor falls back quickly, so it's not noticeable as inverse ghosting. The 'Off' setting has no overshoot, but the average transition time is almost twice as long, resulting in more noticeable blur. Like most monitors, the 'Extreme' setting has much more noticeable overshoot, and unlike the lower settings, this is noticeable as a white trail behind fast-moving objects, so it's not recommended.

Note: Due to the overshoot in the 'Esports' and 'Normal' modes, the PG279QM isn't scoring as well as it should, and the 'Off' mode actually scores higher than what we've included here. Visually, 'Esports' and 'Normal' deliver the best response time experience, and either of those modes are recommended as the best for most people, even though they're scoring a bit worse.

The response time at 120Hz is excellent, with very little blur behind fast-moving objects, and no noticeable overshoot with the recommended 'Off' OD setting. This monitor strangely doubles frames at low refresh rates, but not at 120Hz. Because of this strange behavior, the total 120Hz response time is actually a bit slower than at lower refresh rates. The 'Off' mode delivers better performance at 120Hz than the 'Esports' or 'Normal' modes, both of which have noticeable overshoot. It's not too bad, though, so if you're looking for a "set and forget" mode, either 'Esports' or 'Normal' are still the best choice. As always, the highest 'Extreme' setting has way too much overshoot to be usable.

The ASUS PG279QM has an exceptional response time when gaming at 60Hz. There's less overshoot at 60Hz than at the max refresh rate; otherwise, the different OD modes behave similarly at any refresh rate, ensuring a visually consistent gaming experience across the entire refresh rate range without having to change the setting.

The response time results at 60Hz are unusually good for a 60Hz display. The monitor is doubling frames when sent a 60Hz signal and is actually refreshing at 120Hz. This frame doubling is invisible to the user and simply results in better response times at 60Hz.

Somewhat surprisingly, the ASUS PG279QM doesn't have an optional backlight strobing feature, commonly known as black frame insertion.

The ASUS PG279QM has a completely flicker-free backlight at all brightness levels, which is great as it can help reduce eye strain. It's also certified TÜV Flicker-free and TÜV Low Blue Light, so it's a great choice for extended play sessions.

The ASUS PG279QM has fantastic low input lag, ensuring a responsive gaming and desktop experience, with almost no delay between your inputs and the action on-screen. It also supports NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer feature, which can help you measure the latency of your gaming setup. The 60Hz input lag is a bit higher than usual due to the frame doubling issue mentioned in the Response Time @ 60Hz section.

The 1440p resolution provides a detailed gaming experience, but if you prefer sacrificing resolution on something with a higher refresh rate, check out the Dell Alienware AW2524H.

This monitor has decent compatibility with the PS5. Unfortunately, unlike most 1440p monitors, it can't display a downscaled 4k image, likely due to the G-SYNC hardware. There are a few other oddities, though, as HDR doesn't work when gaming at 1080p @ 120Hz on the PS5.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has good compatibility with the Xbox Series S|X. It supports most common formats, but unlike most 1440p monitors, it can't display a downscaled 4k image. This also means that it doesn't support HDR from the Xbox Series X, as the Xbox only supports HDR with a 4k resolution. Like with the PS5, there are a few oddities. Since 1440p @ 60Hz isn't natively supported from the Xbox Series X, you have to manually enable it from the Xbox.

Very surprisingly, the ASUS PG279QM has three HDMI inputs, but sadly, they're all limited to HDMI 2.0 bandwidth.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has a built-in USB hub, but no USB-C connectivity.

There are no serious issues using the ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM with recent Macs. VRR and HDR work properly in game and on the desktop. There's a slight issue with sleep, as window positions are shifted around when waking up from sleep.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QM has a few additional features available. Some of them include:

• Crosshair: There are six virtual crosshairs to choose from. Unlike software virtual crosshairs, these can't be detected by your games.
• FPS Counter: Displays the frame rate received from the source in real time. It can also display a graph of the frame rate over time.
• Dark Boost: Adjusts gamma to make it easier to spot other players/enemies in shadows.
• NVIDIA Reflex Latency Analyzer: By connecting your mouse to the red USB port at the back of the monitor, this system allows you to analyze the total input latency of your computer. This feature is usually only available on monitors with a 360Hz refresh rate, like the Dell Alienware AW2521H.