ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS review – a budget gaming IPS monitor with a frequency of 180 Hz

Today’s “guest” is ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS, a monitor in the very popular 27-inch, 1440p gaming screen category. This is perhaps the most versatile option that is equally well suited for both work and entertainment – it is not too demanding on PC performance in “heavy” games, and the prices for such models are still quite reasonable.

ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS specifications

Design

Just like another model from the Republic of Gamers series that we reviewed a few months ago, ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS doesn’t have any RGB backlighting, not even the logo on the back.

In general, the monitor has a rather restrained look, but thanks to the branded pattern on the back and the prominent ROG logo on the stand, it is easy to recognize a gaming model.

The body is made of matte gray plastic, with minimal glossy inserts on the back and a thin red ring with a measuring ruler around the leg – a design element that ASUS usually uses in models for working with graphics.

Around the screen there is a thin “invisible” frame that hides under the protective glass – along with the thin line of the side edge of the body, the image is surrounded by a frame 8 mm wide on the sides and top and ~22 mm wide on the bottom.

The stand has a somewhat unusual compact shape for a gaming monitor. It has a recess under the screen for a smartphone, which can be convenient if it supports the horizontal Always-On Display mode.

The leg has all the necessary degrees of freedom: screen height adjustment (120 mm travel), left-right rotation (+45° ~ -45°), forward-backward tilt (+20° ~ -5°), and portrait mode. At the top of the camera, you can see a tripod socket, which is a solution that streamers will appreciate.

All the connectors are located in a small niche under the stand mount: DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.0, and USB Type-C – the latter can also transmit video signals, and the connector supports charging the connected device (unfortunately, only 7.5W).

You can also find a jack for wired headphones here, but there is no USB hub in ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS. The power supply of this model is built-in.

Menu

ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS is controlled by three hardware buttons and a 5-way controller located in the lower right corner of the rear panel. Two buttons can be assigned to custom functions in the system menu (by default, this calls up the GamePlus game menu and the GameVisual video mode menu), pressing or deflecting the joystick opens the main menu – this model does not have a “quick” menu with the main functions.

The first item here is the game section, where you can adjust the degree of overdrive, activate the variable refresh rate, select the video mode in the GameVisual menu, access game settings in GamePlus (for example, enable the display of frame rate and even a graph of its change over time), and configure ELMB (Extreme Low Motion Blur).

The Image menu contains traditional image settings such as brightness, contrast, backlight blue filter, dynamic contrast, and more. In the next menu, Color, you can change the color temperature, gamma, color saturation, and, somewhat unexpectedly, choose one of three color space options – sRGB, DCI-P3, or full color coverage of the panel.

The Input Select menu allows you to manually switch to a different video input, MyFavorite allows you to change the functions of “hot keys”, and System Setup contains system settings – the language and behavior of the OSD menu, the volume level of the headphones (the monitor does not have its own speakers), and so on. It’s also worth noting that the OSD menu is localized in Ukrainian, which is still not very common, unfortunately.

Functionality

ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS uses a 27-inch panel made using Fast IPS technology. This is a development of conventional IPS, which is characterized by a much shorter response time, and in this parameter is already approaching gaming TN panels – for example, for this model, the manufacturer indicates a response time of 1ms (GtG). It’s worth noting that the name Fast IPS has more of a marketing coloration, and at least according to the official description, it does not differ from similar panels from other manufacturers called Rapid IPS.

The screen resolution is 2560 x 1440 pixels, the dot density is almost 109 PPI, and the dot size is 0.2335 mm. This can be considered an optimal figure for an affordable gaming monitor: the pixels are small enough to make the image look dense, while the resolution (and thus the system power requirements) are not yet too high. It should be noted that only users with very sharp eyesight will be able to see individual pixels from a typical distance from the screen – everyone else will have to get close to the image.

The maximum refresh rate is 180 Hz (via DisplayPort and USB-C; when connected via HDMI, the maximum is 144 Hz). In addition, ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS supports AMD FreeSync adaptive frequency technology and is compatible with NVIDIA G-Sync.

The brightness of this monitor is adjusted by changing the current, PWM is not used throughout the entire brightness range, so there is no screen flicker in normal mode.

As with some other gaming models, ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS has the ability to increase clarity in dynamic scenes by turning off the “through the frame” backlight (ELMB item in the game settings, has five intensity levels). This significantly reduces the maximum brightness and causes the screen to flicker, but completely eliminates image blurring in dynamic scenes and plumes behind fast-moving objects.

ELMB is not compatible with adaptive frequency technologies and can only be used at fixed refresh rates – but this monitor, like the XG249CM, also features another ASUS proprietary technology, ELMB SYNC, which can be activated in conjunction with AMD FreeSync or NVIDIA G-Sync.

In addition to the on-screen menu, you can also control the monitor using the official DisplayWidget Center utility. It requires a USB-C connection via any method – not only in video (DP) mode, but also with a simple USB data cable – and offers a more convenient way to configure all the basic settings.

Image quality of ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS

The screen coating is a traditional matte finish that retains its properties regardless of the angle of view, unlike the “semi-gloss” finish, which becomes almost glossy when viewed from the side. The so-called crystalline effect is present, but it is moderate – it is best seen in a macro shot of the screen.

The manufacturer specifies the panel response time at 1 ms (GtG). This is a very good indicator and the main advantage of Fast IPS technology, which turns out to be much faster than traditional IPS panels (whose official response time is usually not lower than 4 ms).

In the settings, you can overclock the panel via OSD – the Variable OD item in the game menu. This option has 20 intensity levels and the ability to turn it off completely. It is worth noting that even without overdrive, the image clarity in dynamics is very high – there is very little blurring of fast-moving objects.

Already at the second overclocking stage, the clarity becomes noticeably higher, and gradually improves until the 10th stage, where subtle overdrive artifacts begin to appear in the form of dark plumes behind objects. However, they can be noticed only if you look at them specifically.

Further increasing the overdrive level hardly affects the already good clarity in dynamic scenes, but artifacts are amplified and are already clearly visible at the maximum. Therefore, we would recommend leaving the overclocking level at the level 10 set by the manufacturer.

Overdrive is off/2/5/10/15/20:

The black uniformity is mediocre: in a dark room against a black background with a high screen brightness, you can see a slightly lighter area on the right side. However, this does not interfere with playing games or working.

The glow effect is quite strong: if you look at the screen from the side and from above, the black background has a noticeable glow of a warm shade (on the right) or a cold shade (on the left), and it is noticeably stronger on the right side than on the left.

As for the viewing angles, they are typical for an IPS panel and very decent: brightness, contrast and saturation decrease very moderately, there is almost no change in color temperature.

When you turn it on for the first time, the system switches to eco-mode; if you refuse to use it, the system switches to GameVisual – Racing mode (its Ukrainian name has turned into the incomprehensible “Race Mode” due to the shortening of words in the localization). Let’s start with it.

The initial color gamut setting sets the corresponding parameter to “Wide Gamut” – in this case, it completely covers the sRGB space and is 92% DCI-P3 (86% Adobe RGB) – almost as stated in the official specifications. In the DCI-P3 emulation mode, the coverage is slightly reduced (to 91% of this space), in the sRGB emulation mode – up to 98% sRGB (74% DCI-P3, 73% Adobe RGB).

It’s a bit unusual to see the ability to adjust this parameter regardless of the video mode selection, especially in a gaming monitor (usually color space emulation modes are performed as their own video modes), but it’s nice – it allows you to choose different coverage, and, accordingly, color saturation, for any GameVisual video mode.

The lowest brightness is 36 cd/m², which is very good for a desktop monitor; with this brightness, you can work or play quite comfortably even in complete darkness. The maximum brightness in SDR mode is slightly higher than the declared one – 390 cd/m², which is almost the “passport” peak brightness for HDR content. But the static contrast is lower than the official one – the maximum value we managed to get was 850:1, which is not much even for IPS panels.

The color temperature in ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS is regulated as in a professional model – not by the traditional three templates “warm/normal/cold”, but by selecting one of seven modes, the names of which show the value of this parameter. However, in each of them, the actual temperature value is slightly higher than the declared one – for example, in the “6500K” mode, the color temperature is at the level of 6900K.

We also note that this option allows you to adjust the temperature in a very wide range – from 4200K to 11200K, so the user can make the image both very warm, almost yellow, and frankly cold, when white appears to be actually blue. With such adjustments, by the way, there is no need for a separate “Blue Light Filter” item that reduces the proportion of blue in the backlight (although this monitor also has one).

The monitor has a gamma setting, and, as with the temperature, there are many more options available than usual in gaming models (or rather, in those where such a parameter is available at all, because it is not always found in this category of monitors).

Thus, the user has access to as many as 5 gamma templates, from 1.8 to 2.6, and in each of them, the real value of this parameter perfectly matches the declared one. Note that for use on Windows and in most games, the best option is 2.2 – with balanced saturation and well-developed details in both shadows and highlights.

The color temperature uniformity is frankly mediocre: the maximum deviation of ΔE in different areas of the screen is almost 8%. But the white field uniformity is better: the brightest area is the center of the screen, the darkest is the upper part; the difference in brightness between them is 11%, which is quite good for a gaming monitor; at the same time, the difference with other parts of the screen is noticeably smaller – mostly 6-9%.

ASUS ROG Strix XG27ACS is factory-calibrated for the main video modes, so its color accuracy is very high: in full color gamut mode, the maximum ΔE value is only 1.56, and the average is 0.38. This is an excellent indicator that you usually expect from monitors for professional color work, but not from a gaming model.

In sRGB mode, the average ΔE value is almost the same – 0.51, in DCI-P3, the average accuracy is the lowest, but it is still very high – 0.84. As a reminder, it is believed that the average user is not able to notice the difference between the reference color and the one displayed by the monitor if ΔE does not exceed two.

Other GameVisual video modes differ in basic settings for brightness, contrast, color saturation, gamma, etc. The MOBA mode, in which only green remains of the entire color gamut, and the Night Vision mode, which simulates the image in a night vision device, stand out a bit.

You can visually compare the GameVisual modes in the following gallery: