ASUS ROG Strix XG32WCMS review: “fast” VA monitor with a large diagonal and 280 Hz refresh rate

There is a demand for large gaming monitors (such as our guest today, ASUS ROG Strix XG32WCMS), and it is quite high: if you have free space on your desk, they allow you to create a stronger “immersion” effect than popular 27-inch models. Moreover, it is more comfortable to play on such monitors with a gamepad – with it, a player usually leans back and looks at the screen from a greater distance than when playing with a keyboard and mouse. Let’s take a look at what the new 32-inch model in the well-known ROG Strix line has to offer.

ASUS ROG Strix XG32WCMS specifications

Design

ASUS XG32WCMS has a very familiar design, which is inherent in the ROG Strix line of monitors from this manufacturer. Matte dark gray plastic, almost complete absence of bright finishing elements – only a glossy logo of the line under the screen and a subtle red ring around the leg.

ASUS XG32WCMS does not have RGB-backlighting, which is typical for products in this line, and considering that monitors usually have backlighting on the back of the case and it is not visible to the user, it should not be considered a significant drawback for a gaming model. Moreover, a fairly large number of users usually turn off the backlight very quickly.

The monitor is quite large, both because of its considerable 32-inch diagonal and the curved surface of the screen, so it will take up a lot of space on the table, and a potential buyer should keep this in mind.

The screen is made in the traditional “bezel-less” design, when it is framed only by a thin line of the side edge of the case. After switching on, an additional black frame around the screen appears, hiding under the protective glass; its width is approximately 6.5 mm.

As with the latest ROG Strix models we’ve seen, the ASUS XG32WCMS has a fairly compact stand with a recess for a smartphone, which can be convenient if it supports the horizontal Always-On Display mode.

The leg has a tripod socket on the top, which will be convenient for streamers. It allows you to adjust the height of the screen (0~110 mm), rotate it left-right (+25° ~ -25°), and tilt it back and forth (+20° ~ -5°). There is no portrait mode. If desired, the monitor can be mounted on another stand or wall: it has a 100×100 VESA-compatible mount.

All the connectors are located in a niche under the stand mount on the left and are oriented downward: DisplayPort 1.4, HDMI 2.1, and USB Type-C. The monitor also has a mini-jack for wired headphones, but this model does not have a USB hub. The ASUS XG32WCMS has a built-in power supply.

Menu

Like the ASUS XG27AQDMG OLED monitor that we reviewed recently, this model is also controlled by a 5-way controller located on the back in the center, behind the ROG logo, and two buttons on either side of it: power and exit.

They are practically imperceptible to the touch and can be found using the icons on the screen when the OSD is open, located directly opposite them.

The first item in the menu is Gaming: here you can adjust various gaming parameters (overdrive level, adaptive refresh rate, shadow lighting, ELMB activation, etc.) and choose one of the GameVisual video modes.

In the next section, Image, you can find basic image settings: brightness, contrast, reducing the proportion of blue in the backlight, changing the proportions of the picture, etc. Advanced settings are collected in the next item, Color: color temperature, color saturation, gamma and, as in other recent ASUS models, the ability to select a color space.

Input Select allows you to manually switch to another signal source or enable its automatic detection, PIP/PBP enables the frame-in-frame mode to display images from two sources simultaneously, and MyFavorite allows you to assign your own functions to joystick deflection.

And finally, the last item, System Setup, contains the rest of the system settings: interface language (Ukrainian localization is available), sound control in the connected headphones, activity indicator behavior, OSD menu options, resetting all settings to factory settings, etc.

Functionality

The ASUS ROG Strix XG32WCMS uses a 31.5-inch panel that the manufacturer calls Fast VA: it is an evolution of VA technology that features faster response and lower input latency. Thus, for this monitor, the response time is specified at 1 ms (GtG) – that is, at the level of the fastest gaming IPS and even TN models.

The resolution is 2560×1440 dots, or QHD. For such a diagonal, this is not very much – the pixel density is just over 93 PPI (dot size 0.2724 mm), so users with sharp eyesight will see, if not individual dots in the image, then at least a lack of smoothness in the fonts.

But for people with somewhat poorer eyesight, this combination of diagonal and resolution may be more acceptable: 1440p allows you to fit a lot of information on the screen, and its size makes it more comfortable to perceive than the more usual 27-inch diagonal for this resolution.

The screen in ASUS XG32WCMS is curved, the radius of curvature is 1500R (1.5 m). This is a very moderate curvature, but on such a relatively small diagonal, as for similar models, the bend makes itself felt. However, you quickly get used to it and it does not interfere with your work in Windows – and in games, on the contrary, it contributes to additional immersion in the game.

The maximum refresh rate is 280 Hz (via DisplayPort and USB-C; when connected via HDMI, the maximum is 144 Hz). In addition, ASUS ROG Strix XG32WCMS supports AMD FreeSync Premium adaptive frequency technology and is compatible with NVIDIA G-Sync.

Like other ASUS gaming monitors, the XG32WCMS supports ASUS’ proprietary Extreme Low Motion Blur (ELMB) technology: It improves clarity in dynamic scenes by turning off the backlight “through the frame”. It significantly reduces the maximum brightness, but the other disadvantage of this solution – screen flickering – is not very noticeable at high refresh rates.

In addition to the on-screen menu, you can also control the monitor using the official DisplayWidget Center utility. It requires a USB connection – in the absence of a USB hub, this means it can only be used when connected to a signal source via USB-C – and offers a more convenient way to configure all the basic settings.

Image quality of ASUS ROG Strix XG32WCMS

The screen is matte, so there are practically no parasitic reflections on a dark background when used in a lighted room. However, in this case, the black color does not look as deep as on glossy screens, so it is better to play with it in low background light.

The crystalline effect inherent in matte screens is almost invisible here, and you can see the subtle pattern of the reflection-diffusing layer only in a macro shot.

As noted above, the response time of the ASUS XG32WCMS is claimed to be 1 ms (GtG). To be honest, at first we were skeptical about this value for a VA panel, but the monitor really demonstrates a very fast response and minimal blurring of moving objects on the screen – both in games and in Windows (for example, when smoothly scrolling pages in a browser or dragging windows on the desktop). In terms of this parameter, the monitor really looks at the level of fast IPS monitors, if not TN models.

In the settings there is a dynamic overdrive function (Variable OD in the Gaming item), which can be set to a value from 0 (overdrive is disabled) to 20 (maximum overdrive) in increments of 1. With overdrive disabled at a refresh rate of 280 Hz, the dynamic image is slightly blurred, but not too much – approximately at the level of disabled overdrive in gaming IPS models. With each new step, this blurring decreases, and at the maximum it is almost imperceptible – at the same time, there are no overclocking artifacts inherent in IPS panels (dark or, conversely, bright plumes behind fast-moving objects) even at Variable OD = 20.

Variable OD = 00, 05, 10, 15, 20 (update frequency 280 Hz):

The black uniformity is mediocre and typical of curved screens: in a dark room against a black background at high brightness, lighter spots at the top and bottom of the screen become quite noticeable.

The glow effect, typical for a VA panel, is minimal: in this regard, ASUS XG32WCMS looks much better than IPS models. If you look at the screen from above and from the side, a faint glow of a dark purple hue appears on a black background.

As for the viewing angles, they’re pretty good for a VA monitor: when you move to the side, the image loses contrast – mainly because blacks lighten and become dark gray (which makes shadows lighter and the image flatter) – and color saturation. This is typical behavior of VA technology, but it’s worth noting that this monitor looks much better than other models with such panels.

As in several recent gaming monitors from this manufacturer, ASUS XG32WCMS has the ability to select one of three color spaces regardless of the current GameVisual video mode: the corresponding parameter is called Display Color Space, which can be found in the Color item. It can take on three values: Wide Gamut (maximum color coverage), DCI-P3, or sRGB.

In the first case, the coverage is 92% DCI-P3 (89% Adobe RGB) and completely covers the sRGB space. In the second case, the coverage actually remains virtually unchanged and becomes less by only 1% DCI-P3. And finally, in the third mode, it narrows down to 99% sRGB (80% DCI-P3, 78% Adobe RGB) – in this mode, colors become “calmer” and look more natural.

When the monitor is turned on for the first time, it starts in eco mode and asks the user if they want to switch to standard mode – if you agree, the Racing mode is set in the GameVisual menu. Let’s start with it.

The gamma value is significantly overestimated in all the options offered by the manufacturer (in the menu you can choose from 1.8 to 2.6 in increments of 0.2): so, the real value of 2.2 actually corresponds to the “2.0” setting – and this is the one we would recommend for Windows. However, if you want to see a more saturated image with emphasized dark shadows in games, you can leave the initial value of “2.2” (where the real gamma is 2.5).

The lowest brightness is 33 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 higher than the declared one – 370 cd/m² with the color temperature set to 6500K, and slightly higher than 400 cd/m² in the custom temperature mode.

But the static contrast, although significantly higher than that of IPS monitors, falls significantly short of the best results of VA models: the highest value we managed to get in Racing mode was slightly less than 2100:1 in User color temperature mode. This is mainly due to a slightly higher level of backlight luminescence than usual with VA.

The color temperature can be adjusted in a wide range: from 4000 to 10,000 K; its real value in all variants turns out to be overestimated, including the standard 6500K: here it is 7300K, which gives the image a slightly cooler tint. In our opinion, it’s better to switch this parameter to User mode in the monitor settings and not change anything in it: in this case, the real color temperature is much closer to the standard value, plus, as already mentioned, it is in this mode that the monitor has the highest maximum brightness and contrast.

Quite expected for a curved screen, the color temperature uniformity of the ASUS XG32WCMS is frankly mediocre: the maximum deviation ΔE is as much as 6.8 (the most accurate correspondence was observed on the left side of the screen, the worst situation was on the right side).

But the uniformity of the white field surprisingly turned out to be very good for this type of screen: the brightest area was the center, the darkest areas were on either side of it; the difference between them at 100% brightness was 13-14%, which is considered quite acceptable even for small flat screens in gaming monitors.

The highest color accuracy was unexpectedly found in the Wide gamut mode: here, the maximum ΔE value was slightly higher than 3, and the average was below 2.

In the sRGB emulation mode, the average value of this indicator was almost 3, and for some colors it even exceeded 6. As a reminder, it is believed that the average user cannot see the difference between the reference color and the one displayed by the monitor if this parameter does not exceed 3.

In the User video mode, most of the parameters have the same values, except for the higher contrast: it can exceed 2400:1. The color accuracy with full panel coverage is about the same as in Racing mode (average ΔE = 1.7, maximum – 3.5), so we would recommend switching from Racing, which is set by the manufacturer from the start, to User.

In sRGB mode, almost all image settings are locked, except for brightness: it is set to 20% (115 cd/m²), but can be adjusted in the range from 32 to 360 cd/m². The color gamut is quite expectedly limited to the size of the sRGB space, the gamma value is 2.3, which is not too far from the standard 2.2. The contrast is not very high, at 1800:1, and the color temperature is significantly overestimated, up to 7600K. And, as we found out earlier, under sRGB space emulation, the color accuracy is not very high, although it is quite acceptable for a gaming monitor: the average value of ΔE = 2.6, the maximum is 5.8).

The other GameVisual video modes are characterized by basic settings for brightness, contrast, color saturation, gamma, etc. The MOBA mode, where only green and red colors remain from 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.

GameVisual = Scenery, Racing, Cinema, RTS/RPG, FPS, sRGB, MOBA, Night Vision, User: