ASUS TUF Gaming VG279 Gaming Monitor Review

Performance

When you turn on the monitor, it gives you the ASUS logo. Plus, I got G-Sync flag up on the corner too.

Windows 10 still has absolutely miserable support for HDR content. You have to turn it on all the time or off, rather than it detect content. However, when it’s on, and you have HDR content, this monitor really pops. The picture is staggering and easily one of the best 1080p panels I’ve seen for colour and contrast.

Amazingly, I turned HDR OFF and the same still holds true. Sure, the peak brightness was lower, but not by much. A gaming monitor this may be, but I’d happily use this to watch some movies, Netflix etc, all day long.

The really surprising thing to me is the image quality. Side by side two windows at 1080p with scaling set to 90% in edge, and the clarity is remarkable. You could be fooled to thinking it’s 1440p, but that would likely not hold up in a side by side comparison with true 1440p, still I’m impressed.

Colour reproduction is killer here, the whole thing just inviting and uniform. There’s no torching in the corners, black levels are great and at 240Hz the scrolling smoothness is magical. I sat and scrolled through reddit for hours just to test it… like I wouldn’t have done that anyway.

It’s great for editing too, but that’s not a big surprise to anyone who’s used an IPS monitor before.

I did take a bunch of pictures of gameplay of Elder Scrolls Online and they vanished into the ether sometime between me playing it and the monitor being boxed up ready to ship out. Obviously. I often forget just how demanding 240Hz+ can be to hit though. Even on medium settings with a 2080 Ti you’ll be hitting about 100 FPS in ESO. That’s assuming you’re not in PVP at least, where you get the FPS you’re given by the server.

For gaming though, this really is a stunning monitor, and with the G-Sync option, it has an incredible range of 40-240Hz, meaning you should never really skip a beat or see any screen tearing. For CS:GO, PUBG, Fortnite and a bunch of other games I also hate and don’t play, it’ll be perfect! That being said, my usual rotation of Forza Horizon, ESO, and Shenmue 3, I’m reluctant to give this monitor up. I love my 4K monitor, but the refresh rate fills in a lot of visual information to make up for the lower resolution, the end result is incredible clarity.

The OSD works well enough, no big surprises really. There’s a bunch of cheaty overlays like crosshairs, and you can even show FPS on screen. There’s some colour presets, all the usual calibration stuff, but honestly, out of the box settings were great, so don’t tinker too much.