ASUS TUF Gaming 24” 1080P Monitor (VG248Q1B) - Full HD, 165Hz, Extreme Low Motion Blur, 0.5ms, FreeSync Premium, Eye Care, DisplayPort, HDMI, Shadow Boost, VESA Wall Mountable, Tilt Adjustable

My first review ever. Unfortunately, its for somewhat of a selfish reason as I have a complaint but hear me out first. I would like to point out that this monitor is great. AMAZING refresh rate...has to be seen to be believed. If you are upgrading from a 60Hz monitor you will forever be changed after using this thing. I cannot emphasize this enough. Be aware that you will need a quality rig to take full advantage of this monitor. At 144Hz, you need a graphics card which can push at least 144FPS. Many gamers will find this difficult to achieve at High or Ultra settings (especially with some of todays AAA games). It is truly intended for gamers or more specifically, FPS games such as CSGO (which is exactly why I bought it for my son). If you are looking to do graphics or light gaming, I would consider an IPS panel as they tend to have more accurate color reproduction. This is not your average monitor and will require a quick Google search to get it to look just right but it can be done as others have stated (look up calibration and ICC profile). Now for my complaint. The problem came just yesterday when my son received an NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 kit for Christmas. This monitor has built-in support for 3D which means it can display both games and Blu-Rays in 3D. When playing anything in 3D there is a blue vertical bar about 5 or maybe 8 pixels wide going right down the middle of the screen. This occurs in both games and movies in 3D. It can be hard to tell at times depending on the color of what is on-screen but it is there. For whatever reason, it ONLY occurs during 3D. When going back to 2D, the blue bar goes away. This cannot be by design and in my estimation is a problem with the monitor itself. I feel I should give the monitor a 1-star rating to bring attention to this issue but it is just too good of a monitor in 2D and I think we may have just gotten a bad one. My main issue here is that this problem was not discovered until AFTER Amazons return policy had expired because we never tested 3D until yesterday. Not sure what to do. For those interested, my sons computer specs are as follows: Intel i5 4670 CPU, MSI GTX 970 Twin Frozr, MSI Z87-G45 Gaming Mainboard, 8GB GSkill RAM, 240GB Seagate SSD, 1TB WD Black, Corsair 750W PSU, Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO, LG Blu-Ray 3D drive, Razer DeathAdder Mouse, Razer BlackWidow Ultimate 2014 Stealth Mechanical Keyboard, Logitech Wireless G930, Windows 8.1, CyberLink PowerDVD 14 Ultra, NVIDIA 3D Vision 2 Kit Btw, my son pwns all at CSGO.

This monitor is a HUGE step up from my previous monitor, which was a generic Samsung 1440x900 60Hz 19 monitor, so I might not be able to give a great review. Basically, this monitor is pretty awesome. Asus is a great monitor maker (along with almost anything else tech related it seems) and they knew what they were doing. 24 inches is a perfect size (Im a college student living in a dorm and the monitor barely fits underneath the shelf above the desk), 1080p (which in my opinion is all you need right now since you would need to buy a much more expensive graphics card to power a higher resolution monitor) and 144Hz is just plain overkill. The stand is great with pivot, tilt, etc and all the ports are there. Why only four stars? Two things: the speakers on this monitor are horrendous. Yes, I know, they are monitor speakers, but for a gaming grade monitor a part of me wishes that they could have at least put some better front facing speakers somehow. The second thing is now that there is G-Sync and FreeSync, its hard to recommend such a high refresh rate monitor without either of these technologies. G-Sync was even developed with this specific monitor! Now G-Sync I can understand why they dont include, since the module itself is expensive (thanks Nvidia), but FreeSync is suppose to cost almost next to nothing for panel manufacturers, so I would personally recommend you wait until those monitors come out or pick a G-Sync monitor (ex ASUS Swift line) if you plan on sticking with Nvidia for a long time.

Very happy with the purchased and the quick shipping.

The Asus VG248QE is THE best gaming monitor for the price due to its affordability, features, and build quality. This monitor is, in my opinion, the perfect size to meet the needs of someone who plays multiple genres of games. I play a MOBA, an MMORPG, and various other titles of different genres off and on and the monitor is the perfect size for all of the gaming that I do. The screen itself is incredibly sharp and offers great viewing from most angles. As is the case with TN panels, you really need to be sitting in front of the monitor for the best experience. If your situation differs, you need to consider paying up for an IPS panel - the cost is significantly higher but viewing angle problems will no longer be present. As a side note... to confirm my theory that this monitor is the perfect gaming monitor at the right size, I have seen it all over professional gaming events on Twitch. The 144hz difference, in my opinion, was incredible and well worth the cost over a traditional PC monitor. You will notice from the moment you set the refresh rate in Windows that your mouse moves more smoothly like butter and you gain so many more frames of vision that you were losing before! One thing that is not explained well out of the box is that you must use the included dual-link DVI cable to achieve the maximum refresh rate of 144hz and a setting in Windows needs to be set as it will default to 30hz or 60hz. I cant recommend this monitor enough to all PC gamers requiring quick reaction times (any game online). Note: I performed independent research and asked gamer friends for their advice before purchasing and was not provided a review copy. I have no involvement with Asus though I am very impressed with them now.

I scored this monitor on sale for $219.99 and WOW, what a great deal! If youre in the market for an affordable entry into the gaming monitor market, this is your ticket. Out of the box, the monitor leaves a little something to be desired, but with a little bit of my time, I was able to realize the full potential of this display by loading the monitors driver (from the included CD), an ICC color profile, and adjusting a few of the OSD settings. Just Google VG248QE Calibration for full details on how to do this. (NOTE: Its absolutely CRUCIAL that you check the Use Windows Display Calibration box in advanced settings when adding the ICC profile. This is what made the night-and-day difference for me): PROS: -144hz Refresh Rate (must use the provided Dual Link DVI cable and enable in Windows/your OS of choice) - Say goodbye to screen tearing in your games. Youll be able to see the difference immediately, right from your desktop. Window animations and transitions and scrolling through web pages is a silky smooth experience. Games look fantastic with zero screen tearing. -1ms Response Time - Its hard to find monitors with 1ms or the 144hz in this price range. I did not see any noticeable ghosting while playing games. -Highly adjustable base/stand - The stand on this thing is sturdy and allows you to adjust the height, tilt, and even rotate the display to portrait mode if thats your thing. The base also has a wheel type mechanism allowing you to easily swivel the monitor without scratching your desk. Theres a cable management tab on the back to help keep the ugly cables out of the way, and putting it together was simple with the thoughtful toolless screw on the base. -No dead pixels or noticeable light bleed - My unit did not have any dead pixels or noticeable light bleed. I always get some anxiety when buying a new monitor from this point alone, so it was nice to not have these issues. -3 Year ASUS Warranty - Havent had to take advantage of this yet, but its reassuring to know that ASUS stands behind their products Nice Bonus Features: -Nvidia 3D support - If you buy the glasses youll be able to use this feature in 3D supported games (3D movies do NOT work from what I understand). Havent been able to try it out myself, but may give it a go at some point. -Nvidia LightBoost - With a little time and extra software ([...]) you can trick this monitor into using the strobe effect used by Nvidia LightBoost (otherwise only used with the 3D feature out of the box) to give your monitor a CRT-like quality and completely eliminate any motion blur. Havent tried this myself yet, but sounds like an interesting feature to have for anyone into competitive multiplayer gaming or even just firing up some old emulated games. CONS: -TN Panel - This is pretty standard for gaming monitors to achieve the 144hz response, 1ms refresh, so its understandable. You can definitely notice with the viewing angles, but its really not as bad as some make it out to be. After calibrating the monitor, this pretty much became a non issue. -Glossy black finish/3D logo - Minor nit picking, but the monitor is almost definitely going to show dust and scratches. The giant 3D logo is printed on the base, so cant remove it, and overall kind of detracts from the otherwise good looking design.

-Quality Control- I bought three of this exact monitor. I got three monitors with three very different looking colors, particularly with three very different depths of black. I expected the colors to be inaccurate- just about every review brings that up, but I (incorrectly) assumed three of the same monitor would be inaccurate in exactly the same way. I think the problem is each has a slightly different backlight intensity, and this cannot be fixed by any brightness/contrast/gamma settings. They dont look the same and they will never be identical. This makes me sad. Im taking one star off for this- yeah 3 monitors is a small sample size, but, well, they sure arent cherry-picking the production line. Update: Of the three of these monitors I purchased, two of them had dead pixels. I have gone through the lengthy process of exchanging both (amazons service was lovely, newegg on the other hand was quite slow in comparison, and newegg makes you send the product back before they ship you the replacement, whereas amazon just shipped me a new monitor instantly and told me to send the old one back by the end of the month) and have finally gotten three functioning monitors. However... Im just not very satisfied with the quality of these monitors. I never knew what bad colors before buying these monitors, and I thought that it was only important to people who work in photography, or the snobby has to be perfect crowd. I figured, bad colors!? I dont care about that. I was wrong. Everything just looks so washed out and pale, and there really is an obscene amount of lightbleed around the edges. Sometimes I see image retention artifacts on these monitors! If I werent so lazy I would return these monitors and try out the BenQ model that supports 2D lightboost. My previous monitors lasted me 6 years, and I only upgraded because I wanted higher framerates and lightboost... but I dont see myself keeping these monitors for 6 years. Full disclosure, the room where I keep these monitors is rather cold (its 12C right now) and the display is definitely adversely affected by the cold, things get a bit better when they warm up. Maybe all my complaints will be resolved in the summer when the weather is hot. My previous monitors had no issues unless the temperature fell below 0C. -Connectivity- My computer only has two DVI inputs, one displayport, and one hdmi port. This monitor comes with a rather short DVI cable. In my attempts to hook up the third monitor with stuff I had laying around the house, I discovered the following: The HDMI port will not carry signals higher than 60Hz. I tried using a DVI to HDMI adapter, but since my GPU doesnt accept higher than 60Hz over HDMI, I used HDMI to displayport. This did not allow me to go higher than 60Hz. The fault could have either been the HDMI cable itself, or one of the adapters I used. I ended up having to buy a displayport cable and it carries up to 144Hz perfectly fine. tl;dr: You should not buy this monitor unless you have DVI or displayport on your PC. The DVI cable it comes with is on the shorter side. -Screen- I cannot, and therefore will not, talk about screen quality because I am not knowledgeable enough. I will say that there is a little bit of motion-ghosting, but I have never seen a monitor that doesnt have a little ghosting. http://www.testufo.com/#test=ghosting -High refresh rate 120Hz/144Hz- I love it. Its gorgeous, its significantly better than 60Hz, and very much worth buying into. Use this to watch videos in 144FPS- it fixes video stuttering (how on earth the general population still thinks 24fps is acceptable for video is beyond my comprehension) but will introduce some other artifacts. Its a trade off... personally I prefer perfect visual fluidity with an artifact here and there vs every single second looking like garbage because 24FPS. http://www.svp-team.com/wiki/Main_Page Update: SVP works better at 60Hz than at 120Hz or higher. Consistent framerates are much more important than high framerates- if you cant get a stable 120FPS, the frequent changing of the framerate will be a lot more annoying than a consistent 60FPS. SVP works by generating new frames by averaging two existing frames. The generated frame is then inserted between the two existing frames. SVPs engine does this very well for 60Hz/FPS displays where the source video is 24FPS, however its success is limited at 120FPS. Some scenes look amazing. Others dont. While the entire video is technically 120FPS, the extra generated frames required to get to 120FPS may not be different enough (or accurate enough) to translate into worthwhile data, and the result is a perceived inconsistent framerate. If your source video was captured in 60FPS, however, I suspect SVP will succeed in rendering it at 120FPS. -LightBoost- This is a godsend. It only supports 100Hz-120Hz, but 120Hz with lightboost is vastly superior to 144Hz without. Use google chrome to view this page, once without lightboost, once with http://www.testufo.com/#test=eyetracking (firefox cant maintain 120fps and IE doesnt seem to support 120fps). Its a bit hard to explain, but Ill try: This monitor has a pixel response time of 2ms (the advertised 1ms is false- never trust manufacturer specs, look for monitor benchmarks). Pixel response is how long it takes for a pixel to receive a command and change colors. 2ms is incredibly fast, but it still is not an instantaneous change. When an object is moving on your screen very fast, the pixels can only update no faster than once every 2ms and what ends up happening is motion blur; an object appears blurry because the pixels it was just on havent fully changed to reflect it is no longer there, and the pixels it is on havent fully changed to reflect that it IS there. Enter LightBoost: LightBoost turns off the backlight in between screen refreshes, and the end result is that the backlight is only on AFTER the pixels have fully changed. Without the backlight on, there is no light to carry information to your eyes. So in effect, LightBoost works by not transmitting incomplete data. The only light that ever enters your eyes contains complete images, you dont see the 2ms of pixel transitioning from one color to another. The end result is mind blowing*, and I am SO HAPPY that I accidentally bought a monitor that happens to support this LightBoost feature- if youre thinking of buying a 120Hz-144Hz monitor, either get this one or another one that you can verify supports LightBoost! LightBoost is not a feature that you can just turn on, it has to be enabled by third party tools and might only work for nvidia cards, Im not sure... I just know that its used to help nvidia 3Dvision look better in some way, so using it for regular 2D isnt strictly a supported feature- but the 3D restriction is completely arbitrary. Read more about it, and download the tool for unlocking 2D LightBoost here**: http://www.blurbusters.com/zero-motion-blur/lightboost/ *I havent used a CRT in years, OK!? **I suppose I should put up a warning here: if you have epilepsy, know that this feature is blinking the monitor backlight, REALLY, REALLY FAST. This also reportedly causes eyestrain and other discomforts for certain people. I get eyestrain looking at a normal monitor, and I find that gunnar optiks glasses really help- maybe theyll work for you if you find LightBoost causing discomfort. -Stand- Its good I guess, though I dont really know why they have the base swivel limited when it could have easily been designed to pivot 360 degrees- perhaps so the cables arent being tugged on, but Id rather have that than have to worry about centering a disc I cant see, but I never move my monitors or change orientation so it doesnt really bother me. The adjustable height is nice. -Speakers- This is a monitor. There is no monitor in the history of the universe that is paired with good speakers. I cant imagine why anyone would choose to use them, but theyre there should you need them. If you dont own speakers, theyre better than no sound at all. I saw some reviews complaining that the speakers on this are poor. No, the only thing poor here is your IQ. Thats like complaining about the poor performance of an integrated GPU or audio card.

This monitor is marked as a Gaming Monitor in the market. The gaming features which attract my attention are 144hz and short response time. I put this VG248QE sit next to my 2-yrs old Dell U3011. As you know, Dell U3011 is a great monitor, but it may not be a typical gaming monitor. As a part-time gamer, I want to have a monitor for my PC games. The 144hz and short response time did play their roles in game BF3 during the test. In fact, comparing to the performance in U3011 (2560x1600 ultra), I did like the FPS performance (action part) in VG248QE (1920x1080 ultra) better. However, I felt like I missed something. Even though the action of BF3 performed better in VG248QE than in U3011, I didnt like it. I didnt like this gaming monitor. Why? Because the color didnt look right at all! Yes, the factory color setting in VG248QE is horrible. I dont know whether ASUS make this way on purpose, maybe they think gamers are free to adjust it by themselves. I personally think as such a big company, ASUS should be easy to do the color calibration for their monitors. But apparently, ASUS dont. Then I did some search online. As a result, I came out four color profiles. Two came from pcmonitor.info, one from user in Newegg, and last one from the other forum (sorry, forget the name). One of the profiles that came from pcmonitor.info suggested the ICC profile file (.icm), I downloaded it too. There was one more .icm color profile file recommended by the user in Newegg, I also downloaded it. For U3011, its color profile has been done once it is plugged in to PC. I dont which one does it, Win7 or Nvidia Driver. Then I started my testing. Since two monitor sit next to each other, I could easily do the comparison. ... ... Let me skip the testing process and jump to the result. As a result, I was disappointed with this gaming monitor, seriously, I couldnt make myself like it due to the color. One of these four color profiles is described to have the most accurate colors, but my eyes dont feel it. One of the .icm file comes from ICC standard, but my eyes dont like it neither. Maybe my eyes are wrong or maybe I dont feel the colors correctly. What I can tell is the color performance in U3011 is way way better than VG248QE. I think the monitor size doesnt matter with the display of colors. Thus these two high-end monitors should have similar color performance. However, whichever color profile was applied, my eyes always liked the display in U3011 better, much better. The display in VG248QE was either too cold, too warm, too dark, or too bright. The mointor just couldnt make it balanced in WOW, BF3, and Skyrim, or even in browsers and PDFss. Now for PS3. Both of two monitors have HDMI, so I connected them with my PS3. I played Dark Soul and blu-ray 007. Only the profile (Google the pcmointor.info, the profile they use for testing) was acceptable for my eyes. But this profile displayed too warm and dark when I played Dark Soul and Uncharted 2. The most serious thing is ... ... A week later, On the screen, the area is about 1 inch above the monitor bottom edge, two dead pixels appeared. As a gamer, high HZ and short response time are important. But I personally will choose color over them. I mean color must be comfortable first, then I care about rate and response time. I definitely will NOT choose a monitor whose color display I am not comfortable with, even it has higher rate and shorter response time. In conclusion, if you were the person like me, this monitor might NOT fit for you. Otherwise, you can think about this unit, but I dont recommend. ========== Other thoughts ============ The resolution! I am not sure about other gamers. I like playing PC games, so I always pickup some good video cards, like GTX 590 (I am using now). I mean it may be common to have own a high-end video card among the gamers. Then the resolution with current gaming monitors is too low. All the gaming monitors have high rate and short response time, but low resolution (1920x1080). I personally think high-end video card should apply for high resolution monitor (2560x1440 27, 2560x1600 30). Even though you may not get the features which those gaming monitors declare, high-resolution monitor will definitely give you a more visually-comfortable game world. ========== Few Last words ============ The color calibration or management is the basic for a monitor. The gaming monitor should be a type of high-end monitor. But if the monitor cannot make the color look right, it is even NOT a good monitor.

This is my 3rd ASUS monitor. The first two were purchased years ago for a dual screen setup. This was my first experience with a 144hz monitor (the previous monitors were only 60hz) and all I can say is What a difference! Games were fantastic with my GPU set to 144hz refresh rate. Fast scrolling through webpages looks like Im literally moving a long piece of paper. The page isnt choppy at all. I wish I would have had the funds to go 1 step further and get the 4k monitor from ASUS. The stand is great. Easy height adjustment with just slight pressure up or down. Plenty of tilt and rotation as well as being able to rotate the monitor vertically 90 degress which would be great for coding. It seems quite stable as monitors go as well.If you get any wobble from typing/gaming its probably due to the quality of the desk it sits on and not the stand. Mine doesnt move even a little on my desk. If it matters, the buttons are on the bottom (my previous ASUS monitors were this way as well). The big difference with these buttons is that the power button is more protruded than the others (both the buttons on this monitor and the buttons previously used by ASUS) and it lights up which combined makes it easy to locate by both feel and sight. Switching between view settings is easy. It comes with pre-set views optimized for different uses. Or you can customize it to whatever you would like. If you dont have your heart set on 4k or the AMD/Nvidia plugins, you will not go wrong with this monitor. Its a great buy and I highly recommend ASUS monitors for their price/performance.

The monitor Ive wanted for such a long time. 24, so larger than anything I had before (18), 3D capable, fantastic price, and just in time for my GPU upgrade for FO4 and DOOM. Its worked perfectly since I got it a few months ago, not one hiccup once I got the matching DVI cable to go with it (there are certain ones required, I used the BlueRigger DVD Make to DVI Male Digital Dual-Link Cable, I would suggest the same if you need one. The only reason I left it at 4 stars instead of 5 is, and I know this a refurbished unit, but the bezel and base are scratched up. Pretty bad, its very easily seen. I take good care of my equipment so seeing scratches on my stuff is rare so it stands out like a sore thumb. Nothing on the screen, just the bezel and stand. Screen is 100% flawless, I havent noticed any odd pixels or lighting, its been 100% perfect in operation for me. If youre on the fence about a refurbished product, I know a lot of people are, its a pretty good bet you wont have any operational issues with this, even if it is a little scuffed up. It was packed extremely well, fairly confident that unless they used it for a volleyball that shipping damaged are not likely. Came with monitor, base and mounting screws. Oddly the base allows for portrait and landscape, you can stand it up vertical if you wish, nice touch, but Im not sure why.

I have had this monitor for just about 2 weeks now, I gotta say, when you go 144hz, you will not wanna go back to anything else. I was on the fence with the purchase of this monitor, as I have read both good and bad things about. I did not get it with any dead pixels, nor do I have any to date, nor have I seen any sign of bleeding. I spent a good few months looking for a good gaming monitor, and I looked at well over a 100, I kept coming back to this one. I will be buying another one. I have been playing FO4 in ultra mode (All settings in ultra), Witcher 3 in ultra, doom in ultra, and Deus Ex: Mankind Divided in ultra, and have had no blurring or screen tears of any kinds. I would suggest this monitor to anyone, not quit sure, and tired of that endless searching for a good gaming monitor. The monitor has ports for 1x HDMI, 1x Dual-link DVI-D and, 1x DisplayPort. My Asus monitor came with 1x Dual-link DVI-D cable, power cord, and driver disk. I would 100% recommend this Gaming Monitor to family, friend, worst enemy, and anyone looking for a good gaming monitor at a great price. P.S. 144hz only runs on Dual-link DVI-D and DisplayPort. Again, my monitor came with 1x Dual-link DVI-D cable, and you can pick up a gold plated DisplayPort cable on Amazon, for less than $12 USD. P.S.S. To get the Nvidia Vision 2 Kit to work proper with all 3D movies, make sure you are running the Dual-link DVI-D cable. I have had problems running this with 3D movies with the Displayport cable, with my CyberLink DvD software and Nvidia Vision kit.