New Asus Rog Swift 500Hz is the world’s fastest gaming monitor

Asus feels the need…the need for speed

The monitor doesn’t yet have a price or release date (The Independent)

Asus has announced the world’s first 500Hz gaming PC monitor, called the Rog Swift 500Hz.

What that all-important number refers to is how often the screen refreshes every second. Most displays refresh at 60Hz, with the image produced by the screen updating 60 times per second. This is too quick for our eyes to register, so we see a smooth, continuous image and not a flickering mess.

However, competitive gamers can benefit from a screen that refreshes at a faster pace, as it makes for a smoother image and helps them respond more quickly to what’s going on in the game – especially handy when competing in a professional esports tournament.

This demand has seen refresh rates jump in recent years to 144Hz and even 240Hz, before reaching heights of 360Hz. And now Asus has upped the ante even further with its new 500Hz display, and the world’s first at that. It’s so quick, it refreshes up to eight times quicker than a conventional 60Hz display.

Announced at the Computex 2022 technology show this week, the display doesn’t yet have a price or release date. But what we can say on the former is that it’ll likely be very expensive, and only appeal to a tiny subset of professional gamers who demand the quickest display possible, and who use a computer capable of driving it to its technical limit.

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Asus Rog Swift 500Hz: Price TBC, Rog.asus.com

(Asus)

Asus describes the Rog Swift 500Hz as a “groundbreaking new gaming monitor that refreshes 500 times per second, for the most fluid, fast-paced motion you’ll find in modern esports. In competitive, intense firefights, every single millisecond counts.”

As for the rest of the monitor’s specifications, this is a 24.1in screen with a Full HD 1920 x 1080 resolution. It also features Nvidia’s reflex analyser and G-Sync technologies, which gamers can use to tune the screen’s settings for the lowest-possible input lag – again, in a bid to speed up gameplay and out-maneuver their opponents.

Available soon

Other super-fast gaming monitors with high refresh rates

While we wait for Asus to announce a release date and price for the record-breaking display, here are a couple of other options that are still mighty quick and, crucially, you can buy right now.

Asus Rog Swift 360 Hz gaming monitor: £589.99, Amazon.co.uk

(Asus)

If 500Hz feels like overkill for you, then Asus also offers a version of its Rog Swift monitor with a 360Hz refresh rate. Still quicker than most other monitors, this screen has a 24.5in panel and a resolution of 1920 x 1080.

It also boasts Nvidia reflex latency analyser technology, has a one millisecond response time, comes with a desk mounting kit, and has inputs for USB 3.0, DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0 connections, plus a headphone jack.

The display panel features HDR (high dynamic range) technology for an improved colour range, greater brightness and deeper blacks.

Buy now

Asus Rog Strix 240 Hz gaming monitor: £371.44, Amazon.co.uk

(Asus)

Taking another step down the Asus hierarchy of gaming monitors and we arrive at the Rog Strix XG258Q, which has a refresh rate of 240Hz. This is still four times quicker than most conventional displays, so is well-suited to gamers who take their competition seriously but don’t have the budget or the hardware to go for an even higher refresh rate.

This particular Asus monitor has a 24.5in display panel with a full HD resolution of 1920 x 1080 and the same one-millisecond response time as the other Asus screen mentioned above.

There’s also HDMI and DisplayPanel connectivity, the option for connecting a 100mm x 100mm Vesa wall mount and adaptive sync technology for reducing motion blur and tearing for smoother gameplay.

Buy now

Asus Rog Strix 170 Hz curved gaming monitor: £419, Amazon.co.uk

(Asus)

How about a curved gaming monitor instead? That’s what the Asus Rog Strix XG32VC brings to the table, along with a speedy refresh rate of 170Hz. This is still plenty more than regular displays, and above the 144Hz threshold which is generally considered the entry level for a gaming monitor. This curved LED screen measures 32 inches from corner to corner, has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 and boasts HDR technology for improved visuals.

It has the same one millisecond response time as its Asus stablemates, and the same Nvidia adaptive sync technology too, to eliminate ghosting and tearing. Connections include USB-C and HDMI.

Buy now

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