25.2.2016

The ASUS ROG SWIFT PG348Q, I think a panel if your looking at buying one is something that like myself something you are looking forward to. I was lucky enough to snap one up in Mid February when released so thought I would give my two pence.First of all I have used the 3440 x 1440 format in the form of LG’s Curved ultrawide, the LG 34UC97-S to be specific which I had since last February. Coincidentally the panel used in that screen is actually the same one used in this screen and alternative ACER Predator X34. As a result I have managed to get used to the quirks of the resolution which I will mention later, but more important what sets this monitor apart making it worth selling an identical panel and paying a premium,simply put G-Sync and the higher 100 Hz refresh rate.Packaging************In the fairly large box we get the monitor itself, the stand which comprises of few parts easily put together, instruction manuals, sticker, CD, power brick, USB 3.0 extension cable, HDMI cable and a Displayport cable. The power adaptor came with both a UK and European plug while the main transformer unit is roughly medium in size.The stand itself comes in 2 pieces. The pieces connect together easily and are thumb screws so no tools required. After that its a simple matter of clicking the stand into the monitor's rear, job done. Will take you all but of 5 mins, with the instructions printed on one of the Box's opening flaps.Construction**************The monitor itself is amazing is finished in a lovely gunmetal colour with copper accents. It does have somewhat of a more gamer aesthetic to it, in particular the rear, but looking at it from the front on, it's not overly in your face. On the contrary the silver bezel and stand look fairly smart while only the "Plasma Copper" accents as ASUS calls them hint at its true nature.The stand itself leans toward the large side and as a result I found the monitor sits quite far forward. With the rear leg up against the wall, the panel’s front face sits about 30 cm’s from the wall, so I would ensure you have sufficient room or more ideally a corner desk. The stand however is put to good use as it has height adjust, tilt and rotate functionality which means you can pretty much get it set up perfectly. At the lowest height, the bottom of the bezel will be 8 cm’s off the desk while at the highest 18 cms from bottom of bezel to desk. Around each side of said stand is small cable management holes for things like keyboard or mice cables to filter into for a clean desktop.On the underside of said stand is the ROG illumination feature, which displays the renowned ROG eye which can be set to 3 different levels of brightness or off.One caveat or weakness to the panel is the built in speakers. I only tested them briefly and they are passable and okay for Youtube video's or basic browsing, but are very much on the weak side. Normally I would knock a star for this, but for myself and I imagine most people they will have a dedicated Audio solutions for such tasks.Use*****So how does the panel feel to use. As noted before I used to monitor is as immersive then some!The monitor is managed via the buttons and joystick (textured thankfully) located around the right hand side of the screen. It takes abit of getting used to, but after a day or so muscle memory kicks in and you find the buttons and joystick perfect every time. The joystick can also be pushed in which is effectively the equivalent of clicking okay or select.The on screen display these buttons manage is fast and intuitive. I can thankfully report its very fluid and works a breeze. I have not yet opened the manual as everything, in my opinion is laid out very nicely. A vast improvement over LG's OSD.So in regards to the two star features. Getting G-Sync going is very painless. Upon connecting a card with G-Sync via displayport (Not HDMI), Nvidia Control panel automatically comes up with a notification saying G-Sync connectivity is available. Going into said Nvidia control panel showed G-sync is already active and running. You do at this stage get 3 options: Off, G-Sync only on full screen or G-Sync on both full-screen and windowed screen, set as required. One thing to note however, if you are into benching this will act as a form of V-Sync. So effectively you will be limited to the refresh rate of the panel in tests such as fire strike so your overall score will be limited. For the purpose / duration of the tests, just disable G-Sync.Enabling 100Hz is another simple process. You simply navigate to the overclocking section on the OSD, click overclock and select the new refresh rate, a small message will come up and you click okay and the monitor will do a quick restart. Now this message alludes to something important and says that if the desired refresh rate does not work, try a lower refresh rate. At this stage its hard to say if this monitor will not reach 100hz, mine reaches it fine and all other threads and forums on the matter also show owners reaching it fine, but the current sample is small. However is shares a common core with the X34 which in some cases did fail to reach 100hz so I expect the message is written with that in mind, and more importantly we are technically overclocking the panel which as you may be aware is never decisive in the results.Back on track, you also need to ensure you to go to Nvidia control panel, desktop resolution and select 100Hz (In most cases this will autoset also). Otherwise you will get an out of range error warning when trying to launch something like a game. For reference it gives the options to overclocks in 5 Mhz increments from 70hz - 100hz.Now of course the all important question, how does it game. Mind blown is the simple answer. I loved how immersive 3440 x 1440 was in general and with the addition of G-Sync and 100hz, games feel a lot more fluid and quicker, at times when action gets heavy you can rely on G-sync to smooth things out. In turn you can notch on a bit more eye candy as lower FPS is more bearable. Without a FPS counter you would be hard pressed to notice too much rapid fluctuation which happens. I will also say it becomes more apparent when you go back to a non G-Sync and 60 hz panel. I was in a position to have my LG before it was sold with this I found you got quickly attuned to the benefits of the ASUS quick, but once going back to the LG, the lack of G-Sync and 100hz hit you hard. Do note however, G-Sync is a solution to lower the problems with variable refresh rates, not low fps which brings me on to the next section.So for those curious what sort of GPU do you need to power this monitor. Well the panel itself has about 5 megapixels at 100 Hz means you do need some serious grunt to make the most of it in newer titles with eye candy. ASUS recommend a GTX 980Ti an assessment I agree with. To get the extra eye candy and use highly demanding settings such as Witcher 3 hair works,as painful as it sounds, a pair of GTX 980Ti's would really be the sweet spot.So how is 3440 x 1440 as a resolution. Amazing is all I can say. when it works, titles look amazing and the curve of the panel really envelops your eyes in lovely pixels. the wider FOV is a great aspect and really opens up how titles play and feel. Now I did use the word "when it works" specifically. There are some quirks in various titles and it does require abit of hands on work to get things going. Thankfully there are great forums such as "WSGF" which is a godsend to ultrawide enthusiasts as they have tips how to get titles with issues going. Thankfully as the resolution is picking up, it's becoming less of an issue, and in cases where it is a problem, the community using this resolution is large enough that for popular titles there are workarounds and fixes. Every now and then you get the odd quirk such as witcher 3 cut scenes rendering at 2560 x 1440 the gameplay in 3440 x 1440, but on the whole these quirks are worth it.Separate from gameplay and I note these panels and the ACER are being pushed fairly hard. As a result we have seen comments of issues and problems and while at time of writing it's hard to see a pattern in this ASUS, I can confirm there are no major problems with my panel outside the expected. By this I mean do not be alarmed if there is some backlight bleed in the corners. I have went through 3 of the LG panels and a X34 and all have some minor form of it.Summery***********In summary the panel is great, the benefit of G-sync and 100hz for gamers is a nice value add. Of course being the cutting edge of panels out at the moment, prices are expensive, but it seems 21:9 has carried a premium for some time and I expect it will do for a bit still sadly and while i would knock a star normally for a price considering equivalent tech, the simple fact is it's priced at a level the market is willing to pay and only one of the two options available with such specs.One thing that is missing however is the ability to manage the Gamma settings manually, an option present on the X34. On that note how does it compare to the X34. Truthfully its too early and the simple fact is they shame the same panel with what I expect some minor tweaks in the electrical. While the sample size is too small, from reports I have seen it does seem to suggest most people are faily happy with their ASUS panel. In my opinion getting a good working panel with either will result in a glorious experience and it will simply be a matter of which one you prefer aesthetically.In all a lovely monster and great buy for those with hardware to back it up and wanting the smoothest possible experience at an immersive resolution.

10.4.2016

Been a fan of ASUS's stuff for a few years now starting with the older 1080p, 1440p, 4K monitors and now owning the PG27AQ and the PG348Q with the latest features .The PG348Q came in a beautiful, strong, colored box at over 3ft long, displaying all of it's features. First thing to set up was the stand (weight around 3.5kg) a combination of matte aluminum with rubber feet and plastic shroud. Includes all the cables you will need: HDMI, DP (DP must be used to achieve 100FPS), power cables, instructions and the latest driver to run G-Sync. This model comes with a brick type power supply, matte top and bottom but gloss all round. I would have preferred all matte but no big deal here.I weight the monitor at around 7.5kg, over all around 11kg. Once the stand was assembled, it simply clipped into the monitor, now the whole monitor could be lifted out of the polystyrene. It does have 100mm Vesa mount holes but 7.5kg is a little heavy for my Duronic Gas Mount...(which is a great brand by the way, I recommendDuronic DM Gas Powered Mounts if you are looking for a clean desk). Once the screen protector is off you can see a really thin bezel with a matte curved screen, the screen itself is around 32'' long and 14.5'' tall, without the stand. The bottom bezel has a nice chamber on it, casting a light shadow. Finish is a stylish brushed effect, the silver matching the stand's feet. The G-Sync logo can be seen in the bottom left corner. The stand offers a lot of adjustment so you can set it up just right for you. The back of the monitor looks amazing, fresh and as mentioned has a ''Death Star'' look. There is practically no gloss finish on the monitor (accept in two locations on the stand and logo at the back of the monitor), I still don't understand why some manufactures add gloss front or back...Predator X34. All it does is leave finger prints and scratch to easily. For cable management the look is completed with a matching pate if you choose to install it. On the table the monitor is very sturdy on it's rubber feet and doesn't shake excessively when bumped. The stand's feet are slightly behind the monitor, which means your keyboard won't hit them like the previous models, if you like your monitor closer. But watch out and don't tilt the the monitor towards you too much as it could slip due to the weight and the further placement of the feet as mentioned above. Once powered on you are greeted with the newest ASUS splash screen. Once booted first thing I did was check for dead pixels. I hope this is the case for everyone but I could not see any defects at all so next was to enter the ROG OSD to check out those features. One thing I noticed straight away was how easy it was to use the joystick to navigate. The OSD menu is clear and easy to use. I didn't have to mess with the display settings too much, it's pretty well setup from factory. There is a cross hair, timer and an fps counter you can access with the additional buttons. The power button can turn the screen off as quickly as it can turn it back on, no more watching the splash screen for what seems like an eternity. Another cool thing is the Light In Motion which you can see below the stand. There are three brightness levels and the ROG logo will move as the screen is turned. It is a little hidden by the stand but still a cool addition. Before trying out GTA V and Witcher 3, I set up the 100Hz refresh rate thru the OSD. Just confirm it, then thru Nvidia Control Panel change the refresh rate to 100Hz and you should be good to go, you may need to restart. I read complaints about the Predator X34 not being able to reach 100FPS (both have the same panel) but I had no issues. Lastly, to take full advantage of the monitor, G-Sync must be enabled in the Nvidia Control Panel. A red light in the bottom right indicates G-Sync is active. Now I come from 4K gaming so going down to 1440p is a little off putting at first but having an extra 3'' or so ether side is amazing. Suddenly playing games doesn't feel so claustrophobic and for the first time I am getting 60+ FPS running around in GTA V in first person mode and boy is that smooth! G-Sync works flawlessly and the colors are rich and vibrant. Having a curved screen that size feels right and I feel it reduces the washout effect IPS can have. 2W speakers are OK but it depends on your PC's fans and other things, best thing is to get a set of desktop speakers and a sub for best experience. As for productivity I feel a 4K is best but the scaling on it is a problem. I got the PG348Q solely for 21:9 gaming at first but to be honest it does both really well. The amount of 21:9 games is limited and most older games will have black bars but hopefully in the future developers will make 21:9 as common as 16:9 has become. I have 980Ti's in SLI which I recommend for 4K and 3440x1440 as these are every demeaning resolutions.Until the new GPUs come out later this year!

20.9.2016

So, besides the fact that DPD messed up the delivery, again, the monitor itself is quite nice.TL;DR: If this was a 700 pounds monitor I would've given it 5 stars, but given the price, I would expect perfection so read below my notes on it.I know it's a long post but if you're buying this it might be worth reading every bit of information you can get before doing so.The problems:First, the cable management holes are so tight that I could barely fit the three cables through there (DP, Power, USB up-link). On the plus side, it comes with all the cables you could possibly wish for except a DIV-D one, which, come on, get a decent GPU before getting this screen.Second, as with all IPS panels,BLB (back-light bleed) is an issue. It's not eye watering bad, at least on mine but not as good as it could be either. I think it looks worse in the picture than it actually is.Third, dead/locked pixel. Yup, even on a 1000 pounds screen they can't be bothered to individually check for dead or locked pixels in the panel. Fortunately enough mine is turquoise locked (rather than black dead) which makes it very hard to spot even now that I know it's there and it's also as far left as it could be, 2 or 3 rows away from the edge and about 2/3 from the top. So, yes, just one, not bothering me very much (except for the occasional OCD crisis) but still.Fourth, the red light at the bottom, which looks amazing and has a great "WOW!" factor, doesn't turn off when the monitor goes into sleep, just when the monitor is turned off altogether.Fifth, this thing is huge and will take up all the space on your desk. Yes, it seems rather obvious. What isn't as obvious is the fact that this monster will eat up 33 cm (about 13") of your desk's depth. The base looks nice and it is very solid, with no wobble what so ever even when I occasionally smash the keyboard due to some "hacker" in BF4 but it is also very big. I would've very much preferred a solid base so it could be pushed a bit off the desk.The good and amazing:The pixel density on this panel is great and a perfect balance between 1080p and 4k. It's high enough that the image looks a lot crispier than on a 1080p display and yet not even close to as hard to run as 4k would be, making it great for gaming.The 100Hz wouldn't be worth anything if not for G-Sync. I run an OC'd GTX1080 and in most games I play I can barely get them looking good and over 100FPS which without G-Sync would result in a 50 (or less) FPS actually displayed but since G-Sync is hard at work games look amazing on this thing.The 34", 21:9 panel, together with Windows 10's multiple desktops and the MaxTo tool make me feel like I'm in a control room. Keeping 20 or so apps opened and being able to easily to get to each of them makes my life so much better.The only thing that it's not so great at is consuming web media since most of it is either 16:9 or 4:3 would result in huge lateral black bars. 21:9 content, most movies and some web content, looks amazing perfectly filling your screen.The design on the back is beautiful. The pattern is visible, extremely so under light and since I have my desk facing the door to my room it makes a great impression when people visit.The last thing is the curve. I'm not sure how I feel about it. It makes it harder to keep straight lines straight in design work and I don't really feel more immersed than with a flat panel so other that it looks cool I'm not sure what it's supposed to do.

11.9.2017

I have tried more or less the best gaming monitors this year and there are some stand outs for pure gaming bliss. What I have realized is that there is not a monitor without some kind of flaw or drawback at least not that I can find.The best ones in my experience have been....Samsung 24CFG70Dell S2417DGLG 34UC79GBenq 2730ZAsus PG278QREveryone of them has a drawback but it will come down to what you are prepared to live with. Backlight bleed and severe ips glow are the things I dislike the most hence why I went for this monitor instead of the ips version. Sure the ips has better color but I am not willing to play the panel lottery considering how many end up on the amazon marketplace.

3.3.2017

I have had this for a month now. It came pixel-perfect, without any dead or stuck pixels, and it's been about 35 days, so any factory defects have had the opportunity to show up. Overall, I couldn't be happier with the purchase.There is only one remark I could make about the out-of-the-box calibration... it's bad and you will need to calibrate it yourself. That wasn't a surprise for me as it's a TN panel, but take it as a disclaimer and adjust your expectations accordingly.It took me some time, but eventually I found that I only needed to set the Gamma in the NVIDIA Control Panel to 75%. You could also boost the vibrance from 50% to 55%, but I decided that while it makes colours look more vibrant,

16.5.2017

I wanted to upgrade to a G-sync monitor, and following recommendations from friends I chose ths Asus PG278QR. I had read plenty of reviews that mentioned a problem with dead pixels, but figured I would chance it. The first monitor I received had one dead and one dimly lit pixel, so I returned it (hats off to Amazon for the returns procedure - hassle-free as usual). The replacement has a permanently lit green subpixel in the top left corner - you really have to look closely to see it. I do not notice it during general usage, so I will keep this one for now.In terms of the rest of the monitor, it is incredible, compared to the old 1080p 60Hz model I was using before.

6.2.2019

After conducting some intense research I opted for this screen over the Predator and AOC equivalents and must say I am extremely pleased with my decision. Being an IPS panel the colours are so much more consistent than VA & TN panels. Okay there is a little bit of back-light bleed from these types of monitors mainly confined to the four corners, but the other panels also have their weaknesses. My experience with VA panels for instance are that they emit more glare and the texts are not pronounced and clear. As a programmer and keen gamer I needed something that would satisfy both these requirements and this monitor certainly delivers on both counts. When programming, this screen really does make a world of difference.

22.7.2017

On the plus points for an ips panel the image is amazingly good. Gamma is also really consistent over a wide viewing panel. I used to have an iiyama 144 hz gaming screen but this is much superior. I also bought it because it is nvidia vision compatible monitor. As 3d tv's have been killed off it is becoming very difficult to watch 3D. Is the 3d worth it, you bet it is! 3d blurays are stunning and 3d gameplay is equally good. Why not a 5 star? well I have an issue with refresh rate. With my old monitor it ran at 144hz with no problems, however, with this monitor the highest refresh rate achievable at any resolution is 120 hz. This is fine for 3d viewing as that is the max you would be able to use anyway,

20.2.2017

A stunning monitor that is truly immersive.To address the concerns on the 100hz refresh rate:Just make sure that you set the monitor to "Turbo" first. If you don't do this, your computer will report that the monitor is only capable of reaching 60hz. Once I turned turbo on, the Nvidia Experience informed me that G-Sync was detected and the 100hz option became available.That smoothness, though!On the topic of aspect ratio:I had a 21:9 monitor prior to this (smaller at 29"), so I was already familiar with the nuances that come with that aspect ratio. A large amount of games coming out now support 21:9 natively (Mass Efferct Andromeda, For Honor, Gears of War 4 to name a few). For those that don't,

22.11.2016

I have now had this item just under 2 weeks as of the 22/11/2016 and so far the screen has giving me no issues.As a previous owner of the older version which I had to send back I was a little cautious buying this model but for £550 I though I would give it a try.So far the screens is amazing , colour is spot on after adjustment and with the G-sync games work real well see my specs below.i7 6700k16Gb ddr4256gb samsung 960 ProGTX 1080 EVGA SCSo far there is no dead pixels :) Although colours are not as perfect as the IPS ;/ you dont have the IPS glow which seems to hinder a lot of IPS screens.I played witcher 3, rise of the tomb raider, Skyrim special edition (remastered), Division etc ....

28.11.2017

From being a 60hz user for years and then jumping to 240hz monitor I noticed an enormous improvement in every aspect of this monitor. There's a common fallacy where people say the difference in 144hz to 240hz is very minimal. To me as I said the 60hz to 240hz jump was extremely noticeable but my when my brother came in to check out my new monitor (He's a 144hz user) he said the difference to him is too subtle. I do think a purchase like this is less worth it in you're already on 144hz but for someone like me who was on the low end for so many years then its definitely a worthwhile investment. Absolutely amazing for gaming and I would recommend.

8.4.2017

I have to say there is a lot of inverted hype with these panels. Everyone and their brother and cousin has jumped on the band wagon that they are great if you get a good one but most are rubbish. The back light bleed on the bad ones is terrible they say and post pictures. Having looked into it for a long time and bought one I'm not sure that the variation in builds is as great as the internet populace claims.Yes my blacks are not black in the corners but the picture when not black (i.e. most of the time ) is breath taking. I really considered the latest samsung for the lack of bleed but went for the ROG. Best monitor I have ever owned. Maybe some want perfection for the price ?

1.3.2017

A beautiful screen. Very smooth looking Overwatch at 165 real frames per second. G-Sync just works very well and is easy to enable from the nvidia control panel. Colours look mostly correct out of the box. The design looks great and you can switch off the red glow on the base if distracting.The OSD is good even if the UI takes a bit of getting used to (press the cross button twice to disable a feature like timer or FPS).I would give 5 stars BUT I had to have 2 replacements as the first one had a pixel stuck on pink and the second one had a dead pixel and a bright spot. Amazon customer service were fantastic though so that was rather pain free. Double check on the day you receive (search dead pixel online test)

13.7.2020

I have had this monitor for 7 months now and I have absolutely no issues with it. Gaming is simply awesome on it and at 200hz the games are super smooth but you do need a beefy graphics card to run games at a respectable frame rate. Both SDR and HDR is amazing but there is a lack of HDR titles at the moment.I have not experienced any flickering and the fans are only barely audible and most of them time you don’t even know they are on. I read that if you set the deep sleep options on this eradicates the noise which seems to work for me. I also keep the plate that hides the ports off as this may keep it cooler and quieter. The build quality is phenomenal.Overall, it’s an amazing monitor for gaming,

11.4.2019

I already have the Asus Rog PG279Q which is a 165hz monitor at 1440p. I use a GTX 1080Ti so i wanted to push my frame rate. After reading all the reviews on this monitor i made the jump and purchased it. I can hand on heart say this monitor is an absolute BEAST! Anyone that says that the jump from 144hz to 240hz is hardly noticeable must be blind. The smoothness and snappy response is unreal. The only downside i can think is that i was used to 1440p and i downgraded to 1080p so sharpness isnt as good but i will take performance over visuals everytime. My PG278Q is now being used as a secondry monitor as this is just TOO GOOD!Buy this monitor, you wont regret it

Asus ROG Swift PG349Q - Reviews

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