Acer Predator X27P/Asus ROG Swift PG27UQ -- are they kill the "king" of monitors even after 2 years?

[Mystic Mistro]

After sometime..like 2 years of the announcement/release of these are they still kinda the king? 

 

4k

HDR10 (384 zone dimming (FAD)

DCI-P3 colour 97%

120hz (144hz is OC). 

8bit panel (auss), 10 bit panel(acer) 

G-Sync 

https://www.acer.com/ac/en/GB/content/predator-model/UM.HX0EE.P01

https://rog.asus.com/monitors/27-to-31-5-inches/rog-swift-pg27uq-model/spec/ 

 

Basically I'm looking to actually update my monitor from the bog standard 1080p one i have. 

Thoughts? 

 

Thanks!

 

[jasonvp]

6 hours ago, Mystic Mistro said:

After sometime..like 2 years of the announcement/release of these are they still kinda the king? 

Like an old person's underwear, "It Depends".

 

Full discloser: I have a PG27UQ and bought it the moment they went on sale in June of 2018.  It was a gut check to spend $2K on it, but I had it, so, whatever.

 

Now that that's out of the way: if you want all of the boxes ticked:

• GSync hardware
• 120Hz overclocked to 144Hz
• 4K
• HDR10

You're going to have a hard time finding anything to top them for the time being.  Until about January of next year when the 32" replacements of them come out for ~$3600 or so.  Part of their epic price will be the 1400 NIT HDR included.  There are some others available that don't have all of the boxes ticked but are pretty close.  So it'll depend entirely on your requirements.

 

The Asus panel is hard to find; I don't know about the Acer version.  I can say after owning one for 2.5 years, it's.... annoying.  Specifically the fan.  At this point in its life, the fan in it makes MORE noise than the 27(!) fans in my PC do.  And it's right next to me.  I have no control over the fan speed, either.  It's handled by the monitor's internals.

 

Also, I'm getting older and the PPI of 4K at 27" is getting a bit rough for my 47+ year old eyes.  A younger person likely wouldn't have the same challenges.  But I do.  And I'm definitely looking forward to kicking the display up to 32" when those vapor-ware panels finally go on sale.

 

Do they work as advertised?  Yep.  You get the 4K, you get the 144Hz, and you do get 4:2:0 color with it.  All the "pros" are going to appear and say that the chroma sub-sampling is annoying.  Truth be told none of them have the panels in question and are just parroting lines they've read elsewhere.  When you're playing games, which is where these panels shine: you won't ever notice it.

 

[Mystic Mistro]

this is a cracking answer. thanks!

 

I havnt found any of the asus panels for sale but have found a few of the acer onnes (2nd hand, can't justify new), I am kinda looking for all the boxes ticked, 27" is the same as i currently have size wise so should fit me in my set up nicely. The thing was worries me is the fan noise, Literally built my PC (2ft aware from me) to be so quiet it hard to tell if it turned on so a loud monitor is a massive turn off. 

Im happy to missing out the 32" models particularly at that price ouch. I kinda panel to run the monitor at 4k, 120hz anz 4.2.2, my current monitor is 1080p 60(overclocked to 80hz) so 120hz would be a dream on its own. 

 

wonder if you can replace the fan with like a noctua fan/silent wings? 

 

[jasonvp]

20 hours ago, Mystic Mistro said:

wonder if you can replace the fan with like a noctua fan/silent wings? 

Not likely, no.  I don't know what size fan they put inside the panel but I'm pretty sure based on the sound pitch that it's teeny.  I'm not all that keen on trying to pull/pry a $2000 panel apart just to see if I can, first.  My luck says: I'll destroy it in the attempt.  The basic problem is dust, as it is with any fan in any system.  When the panel spends its life on all the time (and mine does), it starts to build up crud around the fan vents and the fan starts working harder to keep the GSync controller cool.

 

Folks have had various levels of success sending their Asus panels back for a cleaning and fan replacement.  No idea if folks have sent the Acers back.

 

The higher performance displays coming out all have (or will all have) fans.  This is an unfortunate reality given the heat the components produce and this stupid craze of making thinner and/or "pretty" panels.  There's no room for a nice, fat heat sink to allow the devices to cool on their own because we'd rather have displays that are paper thin.