Asus gaming monitor breaks all records with 540 Hz refresh, completely useless
One of the biggest annual tech shows, CES has seen a lot of unusual devices showcased over the years. We’ve seen finger-eating robots, ovens that can live stream your food, and even an RGB face mask.
But today, we’re bringing your attention to an unusual device from CES 2023 that you might not have realized is underwhelming: the Asus ROG Swift Pro PG248QP, a 24.1 Full HD gaming monitor with a maximum refresh rate of 540Hz. .
At first glance, Asus’ new monitor doesn’t look ridiculous. A high refresh rate is a fantastic feature – if a brand wants their monitor to make it onto our list of best gaming monitors, it’s one of the main factors we’ll evaluate their technology against.
Indeed, increasing the refresh rate of your game setup can give you an advantage, especially in multiplayer matches. With smooth gameplay and reduced input lag, you can follow your opponents’ moves more easily and react to on-screen information better than if you were using a less capable system.
But you don’t just need a fast screen, you also need a gaming setup that can take advantage of your screen’s high refresh rate by running games at a high level. Unless you want your graphics to look like ugly blobs of unrecognizable pixels, you’re certainly not going to get a setup that can hit 540 frames per second (fps) on your favorite games.
Who needs such a powerful monitor?
If you’re only a console gamer, you shouldn’t even look in the direction of this monitor, let alone consider buying one. The PS5 and Xbox Series X top out at 120Hz, which is a far cry from the maximum 540Hz offered by the Asus ROG Swift Pro PG248QP.
This display is more aimed at PC gamers, but for many of you, Asus’ latest display is still not a good choice.
Let’s take a look at number one in our guide to the best gaming laptops, the Asus ROG Zephyrus G15. It is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS processor, an Nvidia RTX 3070 GPU and 16 GB of RAM, which is an above average configuration (according to Steam user data). (opens in new tab)). In our tests for Total War: Three Kingdoms and Metro: Exodus—both running at HD resolution and low-quality graphics—the laptop managed just 164 fps and 125 fps, respectively.
As for our pick, the Maingear Turbo, the best gaming PC we’ve tested, the situation is better, but still not good enough. The model we were sent used an AMD Ryzen 7 5800X3D, an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti, and 32GB of DDR4 RAM to hit 320 frames per second in Total War: Warhammer III and 221 frames per second in Cyberpunk 2077 (both HD at low graphics settings ). Only 60% of what the Swift Pro PG248QP monitor can achieve.
What if we put Nvidia RTX 4090? In our tests, we found that Nvidia’s best (and most expensive) graphics card offered about 55% better refresh rates than the RTX 3080Ti. Calculating this against the Maingear Turbo’s performance will give you just 498 fps for Total War: Warhammer III and 344 fps in Cyberpunk 2077 – still below the 540 target.
With the right experience (and the right game selection), you can probably push this configuration and other equally powerful PCs beyond the limit. But most of us don’t have an RTX 4090 – in fact, most of us don’t even have a 3090 (or 3080 for that matter).
Asus’ latest monitor is certainly impressive, but based on the PC universe, it’s an absurd product that hardly anyone will use. If you want to buy it when it’s on sale, it’s your choice if you can say you have the world’s fastest gaming monitor, but we’re telling you now: it’s probably a waste.
Those of you looking for a more reasonable starting point can check out our best gaming monitor buying guide and focus on monitors that best match the performance your PC can realistically achieve.
