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The ASUS VG278HE 27” has been designed primarily for 3D gaming, and in this regard it can be considered a success. If you have a new high powered graphics card and want to play the majority of your games in full 3D at 1080p then the VG278HE is certainly worth serious consideration.
It is an expensive monitor however and we need to look at the complete package before making a recommendation.
The 144hz refresh delivers a great gaming experience, although if I was being perfectly honest I was unable to tell the difference between this and a 120hz setting. Regardless, the end result is noteworthy, the high refresh rate ensures super smooth motion performance with a wide range of material and in the right situation it is extremely impressive.
I lost track of time when playing some of my favourite first person shooters for instance.
Unfortunately when we move outside the confines of 3D gaming, I find the ASUS VG278HE less impressive.
There are some inconsistencies that I find difficult to ignore, particularly the rather dirty appearance of a pure white image. Screen uniformity is also less than stellar and I could think of better options if I wanted to use a screen for more than just 3D gaming.
This ‘Dirty Screen Effect' (DSE) is rather prominent on the VG278HE and caused issues when editing images in Adobe Photoshop. I could also notice some blotching on paler images and when moving some Windows 7 panels horizontally I could actually notice the panel shift.
ASUS could argue that the VG278HE is just designed for 3D gaming, but I would imagine it would be a very small audience who only want to purchase a new monitor just to play games in 3D. For similar money you could purchase a screen with a cleaner overall image, improved colour accuracy, more consistent backlighting and wider viewing angles.
Right now in the United Kingdom, the ASUS VG278HE 27” 144Hz Gaming Monitor sells for around the £440 inc vat mark, although we found it cheaper on ARIA for £399.95 inc vat.
If this was my own money I would rather save the extra £100-£130 and buy the Dell U2711 Ultrasharp 27 inch screen which is recently available for just over £500 inc vat. Not only is the DELL IPS panel vastly superior in every area to the ASUS VG278HE, but it offers a higher 2560×1440 resolution with the same physical footprint. Obviously you can't play 3D games on the Dell panel so the decision is very much in the hands of the end user.
Pros:
- 144hz refresh rate.
- fantastic for 3D gaming.
- Good stand design.
- need to spend extra for the 3D kit.
Cons:
- expensive.
- White purity is poor.
- keep a cloth handy, glossy finish attracts fingerprints.
- uniformity could be much better.
- 120hz and 144hz difference is negligible in the real world.
Kitguru says: A great looking screen which excels with 3D gaming, but little else.
Ive never been impressed with a 3D gaming monitor outside of 3D gaming. they always seem to have poor backlighting consistenty
3d monitors suck, I have yet to see one I would use for everything, not just gaming.
Yeah im not a big fan of 3D monitors either, waste of cash.
I wouldnt say they were a waste of cash, they just have to make a lot of compromises at times to get the 3D working well. Even the high end 3D televisions have many weaknesses, unless you opt for a full backlit version, rather than edge lit, but they cost twice as much. OLED will transform this industry when the price comes down.
OLED is still some time away in the mainstream – still expensive. I agree it would make the whole industry wake up to better quality screens.
A bit of confusion here. The “extra” processing is in the video card. 72 fps is easy to do and requires 144 Hz input to do 3D. GPUs can easily do over 60 fps in 2D and dropping down to 60 fps to sync with a limited refresh rate of 120 Hz is a bit of a trade off. The additional frames are not the extra 24 Hz of refresh bandwidth but the 16 frames that match the magic number for motion fusion. Hope this helps.
I’ve yet to see a reviewer (or gamer) apart from me and my friends that actually notice why else you would be a 120hz or 144hz monitor….. SMOOTHNESS.
I don’t use and I actually hate 3D but 120+ hz is smooth as silk, you notice the jerkyness of a 60hz monitor after using a 120hz monitor in 2d mode wow…. I would never go back. EVERYONE seems to miss that point?
First off, the monitor is not intended for Photo Editing. This is made obvious by all reviewers except for this one. 2nd, the audience for gaming is much bigger than you think. And most people buying this monitor are not going to use the 3d function. We are more interested in the FPS and lack of tracers when firing your weapon etc which is why it is a gaming Monitor. If you are doing photo editing then this is not the monitor for you. I love mine and it was worth the upgrade. I was using a 60hz 24″ Dell ultrasharp so i definitely saw an improvement since my Dell Monitor is about 8 years old.
for heavy gamers like myself and many others, this is a essential peace in improving your gameplay, because with a powerfull pc, and this monitor, you can turn V-sync on and be locked at 120FPS or 144FPS and for ppl that don’t know what that brings, its an incredible smooth/fluid movement tracking, and that means you can aim ALOT better, and all small movements will be more noticeable simply because, there will be no lost frames and no screen tear. if thats not apealing to you, then well, don’t buy this monitor, but I can leave without it.