The ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM is an excellent IPS monitor that delivers a smooth and responsive gaming experience. It shares many similarities with its bigger brother, the ASUS VG279QM, as it also has a 1080p resolution and a 280Hz refresh rate. It has great visibility in bright environments thanks to its great peak brightness, but on the contrary, it isn't as well-suited for dark rooms due to its low contrast ratio. It has an excellent response time, a backlight strobing feature, as well as native FreeSync support, and G-SYNC compatibility. It supports HDR10; however, HDR content doesn't look significantly better than in SDR because it lacks a wide color gamut and local dimming. On the upside, it has a great build quality, wide viewing angles, and outstanding ergonomics.
Our Verdict
Overall, the ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM is a good monitor. It provides a responsive and smooth gaming experience with its low input lag and high refresh rate. Its wide viewing angles and outstanding ergonomics make it easier to share work or content, and its great peak brightness makes it suitable for brightly-lit settings. Sadly, while it does support HDR, it can't display a wide color gamut and lacks local dimming.
- Wide viewing angles.
- Good reflection handling.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Low contrast ratio.
The ASUS TUF VG259QM is a good monitor for office use. The screen may be too small for some, especially for multitasking; however, it keeps the pixel density high, so text and images look sharper. It gets bright enough to overcome glare, and it handles reflections well. It has outstanding ergonomics and wide viewing angles, making it easy to share your work with coworkers.
- Wide viewing angles.
- Good reflection handling.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Screen size a bit small for multitasking.
The ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM is a great gaming monitor. It has low input lag, and its motion handling is superb thanks to its fast response time, high refresh rate, and backlight strobing feature. It supports FreeSync natively and is compatible with NVIDIA's G-SYNC. Unfortunately, it has a low contrast ratio that makes it less ideal for gaming in the dark, and its compact size may be too small for some.
- High refresh rate.
- VRR support.
- Exceptionally fast response time.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Low contrast ratio.
The ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM is a decent monitor for media consumption. It has a decent screen size with wide viewing angles so you can share content with others, and its outstanding ergonomics allow you to adjust the screen to your optimal viewing position with ease. It has great peak brightness and good reflection handling to combat glare in bright rooms, but its dark room performance isn't that great due to its low contrast ratio.
- Wide viewing angles.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Excellent gray uniformity.
- Low contrast ratio.
The ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM is a good monitor for media creation. Its 24.5 inch screen provides a decent amount of space to work with, and its outstanding ergonomics allow you to position it however you like. It has near full coverage of the sRGB color space, but its coverage of Adobe RGB is much more limited. Unfortunately, it has a low contrast ratio, and it can't display a wide color gamut.
- Wide viewing angles.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Excellent gray uniformity.
- Low contrast ratio.
Unfortunately, the ASUS TUF VG259QM delivers a mediocre experience in HDR. It has a low contrast ratio and low peak brightness in HDR, so blacks look gray and washed out, and bright highlights don't stand out very well. It doesn't have a local dimming feature to improve contrast, and it can't display a wide color gamut. Overall, although it technically supports HDR, this adds almost nothing.
- Outstanding ergonomics.
- Fantastic gradient handling.
- Low HDR peak brightness.
- Low contrast ratio.
- Can't display a wide color gamut.
- No local dimming.
Changelog
- Updated Apr 14, 2023: Tested the monitor's compatibility with 1440p on the PS5, but it doesn't work.
- Updated May 02, 2022: We tested the monitor with the PS5's new variable refresh rate feature and confirmed that it's not compatible, since the PS5 only supports HDMI Forum VRR.
- Updated Apr 08, 2022: Updated to Test Bench 1.2, resulting in changes to the results and scores with the Response Time and Input Lag. Added tests for Console Compatibility and macOS compatibility and made minor changes to other tests, which you can see in our Changelog.
- Updated Aug 23, 2021: We redid the gradient test with a 10-bit signal.
Check Price
Differences Between Sizes And Variants
We tested the ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM, which is also available in a 27 inch size. There are many monitors in the TUF Gaming lineup, some of which you can see in the table below.
| Model | Size | Panel Type | Resolution | Max Refresh Rate | Variable Refresh Rate |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TUF Gaming VG259QM | 24.5" | IPS | 1920 x 1080 | 280Hz | FreeSync |
| TUF Gaming VG279QM | 27" | IPS | 1920 x 1080 | 280Hz | FreeSync |
| TUF Gaming VG27VQ | 27" | VA | 1920 x 1080 | 165Hz | FreeSync |
| TUF Gaming VG27AQ | 27" | IPS | 2560 x 1440 | 165Hz | FreeSync |
If someone comes across a different type of panel or if their ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM doesn't correspond to our review, let us know, and we'll update the review. Note that some tests, such as gray uniformity, may vary between individual units.
Our unit of the ASUS VG259QM was manufactured in May 2020, and you can see the label here.
Popular Monitor Comparisons
The ASUS VG259QM is an excellent gaming monitor with fast response time and a high refresh rate; however, its smaller size isn't ideal for multitasking, and its HDR performance is limited due to the lack of a wide color gamut.
For more options, check out our other recommendations for the best gaming monitors, the best 1080p monitors, and the best budget gaming monitors.
The ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM and the ViewSonic XG2431 are both great gaming monitors. They both have similar motion handling, but the ViewSonic has a more versatile backlight strobing feature since you can adjust the pulse width and phase to your liking. The ViewSonic is also better for console gaming because it downscales a 4k image, which the ASUS can't do. Although both have 240Hz refresh rates, you can overclock the ASUS to 280Hz with a DisplayPort connection.
The ASUS TUF Gaming VG259Qm is much better than the ASUS TUF Gaming VG249Q1A for gaming. It has a significantly higher refresh rate of 280Hz, resulting in smoother motion and better responsiveness. However, the VG259QM has slower response times and a higher input lag at 60Hz, so it's not as ideal for 60fps console gaming. That said, it's better suited for productivity than the VG249Q1A because it has a bigger screen, much better ergonomics, and provides better visibility in well-lit settings. It supports HDR, whereas the VG249Q1A doesn't, but it doesn't add much because it can't display a wide color gamut.
The ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM is much better than the BenQ ZOWIE XL2546K. The ASUS has a better contrast ratio, higher peak brightness, and wider viewing angles. It has a stand with a much wider swivel range, and it supports HDR. The BenQ has better reflection handling, and its input lag is much lower when playing at 60Hz.
The AOC 24G2 and the ASUS TUF Gaming VG259QM are both 1080p IPS gaming monitors. For the most part, the ASUS performs better because it has a much higher refresh rate of 280Hz and faster response times at max refresh rate. However, it has slower response times and higher input lag at 60Hz than the AOC, making it less ideal for playing 60fps console games. The ASUS supports HDR, but it doesn't add much because it can't display a wide color gamut and doesn't get bright enough for true HDR.
We buy and test more than 30 monitors each year, all of which we purchase ourselves, without cherry-picked units or samples. We put a lot into each unbiased, straight-to-the-point review, and there's a whole process from purchasing to publishing, involving multiple teams and people. We do more than just use the monitor for a week; we use specialized, custom tools to measure various aspects and deliver objective, data-driven results. We also consider multiple factors before making any recommendations, including the monitor's cost, its performance compared to the competition, and whether it's easy to find.
Test Results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for videos & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
for pictures & test results
