- Everyone knows that at
high levels of competition, the slightest advantage can
be the difference between chicken dinner and a sloppy
second place sandwich. So competitive gamers
should be really excited by the Asus PG259Q. This is the first 360
Hertz gaming monitor. But can this fast IPS panel even take advantage of that kind of high refresh rate without becoming a blurry mess? Can any PC games even run
at 360 frames per second? And, if they can, will you, a common gamer, be able to properly appreciate the difference between this and an already insanely
fast 240 Hertz monitor? I doubt it. But our sponsor believes in you. This is the new VENGEANCE
a4100 Streamer PC from Corsair. It's powerful, it's beautiful, and you can pick it up today at the link in the video description. (upbeat music) You've probably heard, or even experienced, that upgrading from a gaming monitor that refreshes at 60 Hertz up to one that refreshes at 100+ Hertz is a much more noticeable jump than say going from 120 or 144 up to 240. That's because 60 Hertz displays are showing you a new frame about every 16 and a half milliseconds, whereas 120 to 144 Hertz, that's a new frame about
every seven milliseconds. That means that whatever you're looking
at in that comparison, is gonna be twice as up to date. Then, when we jump from 144 to 240, that only shaves three
more milliseconds off. And finally, going from 240 to 360, that's an extra 120 refreshes per second above the existing
fastest monitors around, for a whopping savings of just
1.4 milliseconds, each frame. To find out if that's an improvement that can even be perceived
by the average gamer, we set up a blind test with the PG259Q next to not one, but three competing 240 Hertz monitors to see if anyone, including me, could tell the difference. (screaming) - I'm excited. I really don't like this monitor. - This is good, this one feels good. - Yeah, I'm guessing just purely off of how many of like this
block I can see at once when I go like this. I
think I can see more of it. - 70% sure that this would be
the highest refresh rate one. - Really having a hard time
even picking out the difference 'cause these games are running at about, yeah about 700 frames per second, or above. So I will say this is the 360 and everything else is the 240. - I have no clue if I can do
this. Like, you can see here like I'm basically just creating circles with this thing on all of them. So it doesn't really matter
if you have more frames, if it's all just of a
schmeary mess anyway. I think I might guess this one just because I feel like
there's a bit more like, trails behind the objects when I move it. - I wanna say that the second
one might be 360 Hertz, but that's kind of just a
guess at this point, honestly. It's number three? Damn. It really, it really doesn't feel
any different to me. - You think you're going
to bamboozle me, eh? Not a chance, I'm a pro gamer. I need more wood. I'm gonna say it's that one, but I, I'm probably wrong. So. - [Guy] You're wrong.
- Cool. - I'm going with my gut feeling. I don't even, I can't, like I can't tell, but not only did I kinda
feel like it was this one, I scored the best on this one, I'm saying it's this one. - [Guy] That is right. - Wow, it's subtle. Like yes, I gave an answer. Yes, it was correct. Don't read too much into it. There were quite a few learnable here, starting with that none of our gamers, even the ones who guessed correctly, were confidently able to
identify the 360 Hertz monitor from gameplay. But, is it just because the refresh
rate jump is too small? Another factor could be
the pixel response times. Remember guys, if the pixels
can't change color fast enough, smeary motion blur could
hurt the experience, no matter how many times you
refresh the picture per second. By the way, you should try
refreshing LTT store.com, where the pictures are always clear wow, we really shoehorned that one in. Anyway, early 240 Hertz monitors, like the Asus PG258Q, used TN panels, the LCD technology with the
fastest pixel response times. By contrast, the PG259Q uses an IPS type panel, which is traditionally known more for color accuracy
and wide viewing angles, rather than for speed. So to see how the pixel response
times of this new monitor compared to its 240 Hertz TN predecessor, we put together a Blur
Busters Pursuit Camera setup, which helps us capture the motion blur produced by the monitor without the blur introduced
by persistence of vision. You can see here, the
old TN has less ghosting, but is actually a bit less
clear with thicker lines and a bit of image doubling. Compared to itself running it 240 Hertz, the PG259Q at 360 looks
only slightly more clear, but with a similarly slight
increase in inverse ghosting caused by pixel overdrive and a lot more smearing on
the dark background, which suggests that the panels struggles with light to dark transitions. And for bonus points, by the way, here it is compared to
the Samsung Odyssey G7, which uses a VA panel. Interestingly, the clearest
image we got from the PG259Q, was when it had ULMB turned on, which is only available at
144 Hertz and 240 Hertz. Nothing more, nothing less. You know, I'd actually love
to see a pursuit camera setup of a high refresh rate OLED, since they supposedly have instantaneous pixel response times. Which actually we can do when LG's CX 120 Hertz OLED TV arrives. Make sure you guys sub
so you don't miss that. Anyway, with all that in mind, is there any point in paying, that's more expensive, two to $300 more for the PG259Q compared to a last gen 240 Hertz monitor? Well, probably. In our video investigating how refresh rate affects the
performance of pro gamers, we discovered that it depends
on the in-game scenario. So, even if this monitor doesn't offer much more motion clarity
than existing offerings, the higher refresh rate could still give you an
advantage in situations, like our CS: GO double-door hallway test, where having the most
up-to-date information can make a huge difference. And, there are actually
other ways that this monitor is just plain better
than its predecessors. Take a look at this color accuracy. Yeah, that's for real. You could legitimately use
this thing for gaming by night, and creative color critical work by day. As long as you're working
in the sRGB color space. That's because as an eight-bit panel, it's gamut coverage isn't the greatest. And, unfortunately that doesn't change, even if you use a graphics card that supports display stream compression. Rats! That also plays into its HDR performance. I mean hey, it's HDR 10 compatible. But, it's low peak brightness
keeps it from really shining in this respect. And like most HD-aren't
monitors as we call them, it can look sometimes worse
in HDR mode than in SDR. It also has G-SYNC though, and that is standard real G-SYNC, not compatible or ultimate, which means that it's
variable refresh rate range is completely unlimited, and it means it has variable overdrive, meaning less noticeable
coronas at lower frame rates than you would get if it was over-volting the pixels the
same across all frame rates. It does have limitations. As mentioned earlier, it's got ULMB, but, notice the use of
NVIDIA's acronym here. Asus usually calls their
low-motion blur ELMB and, mightn't you expect
it to have ELMB Sync, that is backlight-strobing
wild G-SYNC is on? Well, sorry, it doesn't. You'll have to turn
variable refresh rate off if you want that motion blur reduction that gave it that amazing clarity. Back to the bottom line though. Should you buy this monitor? I, for one, think it's
absolutely fantastic. But only for a very specific gamer. So if you're a competitive player and you play games that your PC can actually run at frame
rates above 300 FPS, and you don't need more than 1080p, then this is one of, if not the best 240 Hertz
monitor on the market. And, Oh, it can also run it 360 Hertz, if you're a sensitive
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another video to watch, an obvious one is checking
out the big collab we did with Shroud, Mr. Grimmmz,
Corey, and Paul's Hardware, where we determined once and for all, if higher FPS makes you a better gamer. Spoiler alert, it does, but with some caveats. You definitely have to watch the video.
I'm shocked how poor this performed. You can't use ULMB at 360hz, and 360hz UFO test vs 240hz was a tie at best. Plus you have to have a PC powerful enough to consistently push 360 fps when there's a lot of action on your screen to warrant a 360hz monitor to begin with. Yet why upgrade your PC for no perceivable difference?
I understand he has to say this is worth buying, but the MSI 240hz can enable 10bit colours from what I've seen, and the performance is identical for under half the price. Why would anyone not sponsored by Asus even consider getting this?
EDIT: Chief from BlurBusters pointed out there are some issues with the UFO test in this thread: https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7432&start=10#top
So probably better to wait for a more thorough review that also covers response times & input lag.
I really wish they'd do the blind test with someone who was gaming on them for a while playing Quake or something. Instead of just pulling people from the office in to wiggle the mouse around for a few seconds.
Please remember, this is native gsync - adds about $200 to the price tag. Other manufacturers will be releasing similar monitors with the same exact panel that are freesync for ~$500
Wait for the 1440P@270Hz, around $700-800
The chief blur buster has some comments on ltt measuring quality, stating that it is flawed in some aspects. Scroll down for his reply: https://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=7432&hilit=360hz&start=10
I consider this guy the ultimate authority. We have to wait for final reviews to really judge this monitor.
Worst of the worst comparison. ASUS can't beat Zowie DyAc+ so Linus didn't dare to use Zowie DyAc+.
this monitor does every job half. it can go up to 360hz but can't eliminate blur trails vs 240hz odyssey g7. it has good color accuracy but low res and small size makes it unusable for artists. just don't buy this. buy 240hz monitor if you are in need. or buy 2k 144hz if you want to do everything in decent level.
the fact that it doesn't have a 360hz anti-motion-blur feature makes the half-priced 280hz ELMB one a better choice
360hz is better. Like 480hz will be better etc. It's just that this monitor is worse than some 240hz. It was the same thing with the first gen 240hz, where if you can achieve only 150 fps for competitive gaming, the monitor will be too blurry because the overdrive wasn't tuned properly.
If you have exactly the two same monitor, one at 240Hz and one at 360Hz, with variable overdrive and they perform how they're supposed to do, there is no reason to take the 240hz, except for the price obviously. I'm actually surprised that they choose an IPS panel for the first 360hz. I mean, the new IPS pannel caught up TN panel in pixel responsiveness (almost), but if you want to increase the HZ, I feel like there is still more room for TN, yes we know about the negative points of TN panel, but they're still the fastest. (Not by much, but maybe for 360Hz IPS can't keep up, and speed is all it's about in this case).
You have to remember that it's the first 360Hz panel, so it will sell. And from the look of it it is probably not worth it since the "slow" pixel response time.
Just wait for more models, they will be better, especially if they choose TN I think.
Higher refresh rate is always better. That doesn't mean that a monitor with a higher refresh rate is better. I don't know if you understand me, english isn't my native.
It is a good thing to push refresh rate, but everything need to follow, there is a lot of good discussion about it in blurbuster, and having 1000Hz will still benefits the human eye, but at this refresh rate we will probably need OLED.