Yay Amazon, boo ASUS, ROG Swift PG279QZ

[Mysticunicycle]

Wall of text inc

 

I bought the title monitor 2 days ago. For an hour it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever laid eyes on. 1440p, 165hz gaming with my new 2080ti. Then stuff got weird. A single vertical line artifacting through the exact middle of the panel. Then it started spreading to the right. I found that if I turned the refresh rate down to 100hz it went away. Concerned I got a busted panel, I scoured the internet to learn about DP cables (my first experience here), and about any possible issues related to what I was experiencing. Finding not much, I called ASUS support. The guy on the phone, while nice, didn't offer much help. He advised getting a new DP cable, even though the only one I have is the one the monitor shipped with (shouldn't it work if it came with the thing..?). We finally hooked up via HDMI (1440p 60hz) and the artifacting went away, making his theory of "bad DP cable" seem plausible. Today, however, the artifacting is present on HDMI / DP 1080p/1440p 24hz-165hz. Without a shadow of a doubt there is something wrong with my panel. In a youtube comments section I found a link to a 30 month of forum post on the ASUS forums where this problem was happening on the previous version of this panel (PG279Q no Z) and that it required RMA and a firmware update that could only be done in house to fix. I've also found comments on an Acer monitor that uses the exact same panel that describes the exact same problem. 

 

This must be a rarity, as I have only found like four cases of it happening online, and have found thousands of glowing reviews of how well the monitor performs at 1440p144/165hz. 

 

On the second call to ASUS, they wanted me to RMA the thing on my own dime. I paid 700 bucks for it, have had it for less than 2 days, and they want me to pay to ship it off so that they may or may not fix it, and I'll get it back in 6 weeks? For a known defect that has been around for 2.5 years? That's akin to Fallout 76 still having bugs present in Fallout 4. Absolutely not.

 

This is not a "bash ASUS" post, as I have spent thousands of dollars on various ASUS products over the past ten years. I would even say that they are one of my preferred brands. It is unfortunate, however, that a 700 dollar monitor leaves the line in this state. The build quality is outstanding, the color is astounding, and the IBS backlight bleeding is minimal. Once I get one that doesn't have some goofy stuff going on, I'm sure I'll recommend it to anybody wanting 1440p IBS at 144+hz. 

 

In just 10 minutes of talking to an Amazon rep, they are shipping me another via 1day business and sent me a return label to send the current one in.

 

The picture of the half blue screen is right now, HDMI'd at 1440p 60hz. The second picture is yesterday when I was trying to troubleshoot before I came to my conclusion. You can see the progression of the artifacting lines. 

[ThePD]

My current ASUS ROG monitor is a 1440p 144hz model from about 4 years ago. About a year ago it started to randomly flicker completely black and back to what it should be displaying. I have replaced everything outside of the monitor. My friend had his asus rog monitor (same as mine) completely fail but they replaced it for free. I do think ASUS has questionable reliability especially for expensive monitors, and the customer service seems to be hit or miss.

I probably will stray away from ASUS with future purchases to be honest because the constant dropping frames of the monitor flickering on and off drives me absolutely crazy. But when the monitor worked, it was phenomenal.

[Mysticunicycle]

This one was manufactured in October 2018. If the firmware issue from 2.5 years and one model number ago are STILL being shipped, that raises serious concerns. I'm going to try a second one because Amazon is awesome and is sending me one no charge. If it has any issues at all, I'll probably look at another manufacturer. It's a shame, though. This monitor is gorgeous and the aesthetics are clean.

[ThePD]

Have you considered the new AORUS monitor? I have heard good things about that monitor.

[Mysticunicycle]

Got a link to it? I really am behind the times on display tech.

 

I think I found it. Freesync vs gsync? I know nvidia was letting gsync run on some "gysnc certified" freesync monitors, but I really don't know much about that technology.

 

I was using a 120hz 1080 BenQ from like 2009 until now. With my new 2080ti I wanted to jump into 1440p. The difference is astounding.

[boey]

19 minutes ago, Mysticunicycle said:

Got a link to it? I really am behind the times on display tech.

 

I think I found it. Freesync vs gsync? I know nvidia was letting gsync run on some "gysnc certified" freesync monitors, but I really don't know much about that technology.

 

I was using a 120hz 1080 BenQ from like 2009 until now. With my new 2080ti I wanted to jump into 1440p. The difference is astounding.

https://www.gigabyte.com/Monitors/AD27QD#kf

 

For me at high refresh rates like 144hz Gsync/Freesync doesn't really do much so I wouldn't bother with it. I'd expect that using Gsync on Gigabyte's monitor shouldn't have any issues

[JB780]

3 hours ago, Mysticunicycle said:

This one was manufactured in October 2018. If the firmware issue from 2.5 years and one model number ago are STILL being shipped, that raises serious concerns. I'm going to try a second one because Amazon is awesome and is sending me one no charge. If it has any issues at all, I'll probably look at another manufacturer. It's a shame, though. This monitor is gorgeous and the aesthetics are clean.

I just ordered this monitor from Amazon about a minute ago and this is the first post i see, FML.