Conclusion

Final Words & Verdict

For competitive gaming at very high frame rates, 360 Hz monitors can be attractive choices for many, provided that you can push that high framerate with your processor and graphics card in the first place. The A 24.5” AU Optronics monitor does exactly what it's advertised for, and that is impressive. There can be benefits for the pro gamers out there, but this is harder to evangelize monitor as to relevance.

As always, we'll be the first to admit that our monitor reviews are a notch more subjective rather than objective. There will be media outlets available with far more in-depth measurements. I mean, it's great to get all the data from the colorimeter hardware, including precise brightness levels and color gamuts; in the end, though, often once you've calibrated a monitor, you'll still alter settings to match your personal preference. Also, there will be media outlets available with far more in-depth measurements. So please do look at my review more as a personal experience with my view on this product. That said, for me, a monitor works out the best if it offers a combo of features. I am an IPS / AHVA man myself, TN for me is a gnarly word; for you, however, that might be exactly the opposite as you care less about dark blacks, viewing angles but are all for incredibly fast refresh rate screens, much like shown today with the pg259qn. All these variables make choosing the right monitor very difficult and, yes, subjective based on your needs and desires. Let me state this; the picture quality is excellent, the refresh rate insane. It, however, is the Full HD resolution that I feel is a no-go. Here again, if you need 360 FPS, you'll need to be at this resolution as you have other hardware required to push that framerate. I would have been extremely comfortable at 2560x 1440. But that doesn't mean jack, as this monitor really is good!

The PG259QN does well; brightness for white has a nice wide adjustment range that runs to a peak of 475 cd/m², the contrast of roughly 1250:1 is expected for a screen with this panel type. The screen's color gamut corresponds to sRGB (this is an sRGB monitor), measuring about 97 percent coverage. Screen color gamut is fine but can be a notch better when calibrated, but it is within the advertised delta. Screen uniformity-wise could be a notch better, but we do say it's at levels you really cannot see a difference. 

Refresh rate at 360 Hz

Stunning, absolutely stunning. But would I see a difference with that 240hz mode? No. You know, they say the human eye cannot see more than ~24 frames per second. But moving from 30 Hz to 60 Hz was all the difference in the world. From 60 to ~144 Hz, again, is a step you can notice (however, not everybody. So where does that leave us with 240 or 360 Hz, then? Well, it's impressive as an experiment. But would anyone ever need it? Remember, your games need to match that number in FPS to fill each frame. And could you ever see a difference between 240 or 360 Hz? We doubt that, honestly.

Now we cannot measure all the screen goodness or do a pursuit grab; however, I did throw my Huawei P30 Pro at the UFO test based on a still camera. Recorded at 960 FPS, and you can hardly any blur or overlaps in the top 360 FPS row. That's pretty darn nice. Have a peek, preferably go full-screen in the YT video. Please do keep in mind that when configured at 360 Hz. ULMB can only be used on the RoG Swift PG259QN at 144Hz and 240Hz, not 360Hz.

The Verdict

The discussion of the validity of a 360 Hz monitor is a broad and difficult one. However, as a monitor with its advertised specs, this one is pretty darn good—proper image quality, super-fast, period. Sometimes when you test a monitor and look back at the results, the values do not tell you how good a monitor is. Now I called this monitor out as fake HDR, which it is. However, the screen's brightness level is pretty impressive, so while it really is not HDR, it does manage to get close to it. Overall the screen definitely does deliver as promised and perhaps even was a bit of an experiment from ASUS. We have to weigh in the excellent look of the monitor with the stylish ROG design. Most people would never see a difference above 144 Hz, so in terms of necessity and needs, well we'll leave that open to discussion. For a monitor with a G-sync scaler, there are not that many monitor ports available on the RoG Swift PG259QN. Just one HDMI 2.0 and one DisplayPort 1.4 input (and USB 3.0 hub with two ports). Via HDMI you can control the screen at a maximum of 240Hz with 8-bit color, so you have to use the DisplayPort input for the highest possible refresh rate. It is nice that Nvidia has now given its scaler DisplayPort 1.4 support, where in the past we encountered DisplayPort 1.2 on many previous G-sync gaming monitors. Over DP you won't be bandwidth limited, you can argue though that the only limitation is that you can use up to 8-bit color with the 360Hz refresh rate. For SDR that however is sufficient, for a HDR display you will probably sooner run into the other limitations of the monitor in this area. On the topic of Gsync, it would be a total waste of your money, but of course, you can use a Radeon card and adaptive sync. In fact, we tried that, and 360 Hz was not an issue. My allergic reaction, however, has got to be the price, as it is very severe at roughly the 700 USD/EUR marker remember we're talking only Full HD here. If you would purchase the model with embedded Reflex Latency Analyser from NVIDIA, you'd close into 1K even, ridiculous.

I think this monitor is about innovation mostly. But I'll still hand out a recommended award just for the intended audience, once you fire up a high FPS game, you will have forgotten everything and anything, as it is that good. Go watch/test it in a store, it a proper monitor for a very select amount of people and market in the eSport segment. 

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