ASUS ROG Swift PG279QZ Monitor Review

The stand of the ASUS PG279QZ supports the monitor well, but it will wobble a little if you knock it gently. It is identical to the stand of the PG279Q and its base can also light up with red LEDs, as shown here. However, the metal contact that allows the light to turn on only works when the monitor is in a fully landscape or a fully portrait mode.

Great ergonomics. Just like the PG279Q, you can position it to your liking with ease. It allows you to tilt, swivel, rotate and adjust its height.

The back of the monitor is plain and made out of plastic. The two large groves, found on each side, serve as vents to dissipate the heat, and the opening found on the stand helps with cable management as seen here.

The borders of the monitor are relatively thin with a textured finish and a very thin bezel. Just like in the PQ279Q, there is a small gap between the monitor's edge and where the screen starts.

The monitor without the stand is of average thickness and will not protrude much if VESA mounted. However, when attached to its stand the entire setup looks relatively thick.

The build quality of the monitor is good without any gaps or loose ends, and the monitor feels very sturdy. It is the same build quality as the ASUS PG279Q. You should have no issues with this monitor.

The contrast ratio of the ASUS PG279QZ is mediocre, as expected for an IPS monitor. In a dark room, blacks will look more like gray.

The ASUS ROG Swift PG279QZ does not have a local dimming feature. The video is for reference only.

The overall SDR peak brightness is decent. The real scene measurement is slightly lower than the measurements on our preset size windows but this is normal due to the uniformity of the screen. Unfortunately, the monitor cannot get as bright as the PG279Q and its brightness is closer to the levels of the Dell U3818D. The tests were done using the 'FPS' (calibrated) Picture Mode.

HDR is not supported.

Decent horizontal viewing angles. Black level remains fairly consistent throughout the entire angle testing range, whereas brightness remains decent up to almost 50°, but colors lose accuracy at smaller angles off-center.

Great vertical viewing angles. The black level stays relatively constant, but colors shift and brightness drops at angles close to 30° and 35° respectively. This is very similar to the LG 27UD68P-B.

Excellent gray uniformity for the ASUS PG279QZ. In the 50% gray test picture, the two sides are slightly darker, but no other major issue or much Dirty Screen Effect (DSE) can be noticed. The uniformity is even better in the 5% gray test picture, and almost no DSE was depicted by our test. Again this result is very similar to LG 27UD68P-B.

The PG279QZ has disappointing black uniformity. There is clouding all around the screen and some backlight bleed is very noticeable especially at the corners. This resembles the black uniformity of the Dell U3219Q. This does vary between units due to manufacturing tolerances.

Out of the box, the color accuracy of the ASUS PG279QZ is good. The most accurate Picture Mode is the 'FPS'.

The color temperature is a little warmer than our desired 6500K. The white balance dE is below 3 so most people will not notice the gray inaccuracies, but the color dE is above 3 and thus most enthusiasts will notice some color errors. As for gamma, the average value is below the target of 2.2 and it does not follow the target curve closely. Most of the scenes will look slightly brighter than they should be.

The Asus PG279QZ has an excellent accuracy after calibration, which was also done on the 'FPS' Picture Mode. The while balance dE was brought down to levels where it is almost impossible to spot any inaccuracies whereas the color dE was lowered below the threshold of 3 so only a few people might notice any color inaccuracies. The color temperature was brought closer to the 6500K target and gamma follows the target curve more closely with an average value of 2.18.

You can download our ICC profile calibration here. This is provided for reference only and should not be used, as the calibration values vary per individual unit even for the same model due to manufacturing tolerances.

s.RGB Picture Mode: FPS (calibrated)
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: FPS

Excellent SDR color gamut. The ASUS PG279QZ covers most of the s.RGB (rec. 709) color space. Unfortunately, the coverage of the wider Adobe RGB color space is not enough for professionals in the print and media industries.

s.RGB Picture Mode: FPS
Adobe RGB Picture Mode: FPS

Excellent SDR color volume. The monitor is capable of producing bright and saturated colors in most color shades. Unfortunately, the low contrast ratio is not allowing it to produce deep dark shades of colors.

HDR is not supported.

HDR is not supported.

Perfect score on our image retention as no retention could be noticed at all while running our test.

Great performance for the ASUS PG279QZ on our gradient test. Besides the 8-bit banding, there is a little banding at the dark gray shades, but most of the other gradients look good.

The ASUS PG279QZ produces a very small amount of color bleed when it displays large vertical bands of uniform colors. It is unlikely that you will notice this during normal usage. This very similar to sister monitor ASUS ROG PG279Q.

The ASUS PG279QZ is good at handling reflections. The light matte coating reduces the intensity of direct reflections and diffuses them across the screen. So unless you are in a very bright room you should not have any issues.

OD Off
OD Normal
OD Extreme

Just like the sister monitor PG279Q, the response time of the PG279QZ is excellent. Only a very small blur trails the fast moving objects, and this is great for fast-paced video games. The overdrive setting that produces the fastest response time with minimal overshooting is the Normal. The Extreme option is faster, but it introduces a lot of overshoot.

The ASUS PG279QZ does not use flicker to dim the backlight. It does have an option to introduce flicker to make the image crisper. As this monitor supports G-SYNC, this Black Frame Insertion feature is called ULMB. Note here that the ULMB option only works with NVIDIA powered video cards. Also sometimes it is hard to notice the option on the OSD as it is grayed out on a black background which makes it hard to spot.

The monitor has a high native refresh rate of 144Hz, which can be overclocked up to 165Hz. It supports NVIDIA's G-SYNC implementation of the variable refresh rate technology and can adjust the screen's refresh rate to match the frame rate of a compatible graphics card. This is great for playing graphically-intensive games with significant framerate drops without tearing or stuttering. The PG279QZ, just like its sister monitor the PG279Q, is among the best 144 Hz monitors and best 1440p 144hz monitors we've tested so far.

BFI frequency tested: 120 Hz

Excellent low input lag for the ASUS PG279QZ at the native resolution. The input lag remains low even when G-SYNC is enabled and this is great news for gamers. When ULMB (BFI) is enabled the input lag is slightly higher but it remains at acceptable levels for most. Note that the input lag @60Hz is slightly higher than average, but it should not be noticeable to most. This monitor cannot properly display the non-native resolutions but this should not be a problem as most of the times the graphics card does the upscaling. Note that HDMI only supports a maximum resolution of 2560x1440p@60Hz.

The ASUS PG279QZ has a high QHD resolution and a large 27" diagonal. This allows for more detail on the screen and is very helpful if you wish to multitask. For those that like the extra screen space, this is an improvement over similar 1080p monitors like the ASUS VG279Q.

There is a USB 3.0 upstream.

The Asus PG279QZ has the same features found on the ASUS PG279Q monitor. It has two internal speakers and the GamePlus menu, that offers the following features:

• Crosshair
• Timer
• FPS counter
• Low Blue Light
• Overclock
• ULMB(Black Frame Insertion)

Just like the PG279Q if you wish to disable the OSD features, just press the X button on the monitor to access the menu, and then press it a second time to disable these OSD features.

The controls are intuitive and very easy to use.

• Manual
• DisplayPort cable
• USB-b to USB cable
• Power cable and adapter