In this article, we reviewing Asus’s 1440p 300Hz gaming monitor, the Rog Strix XG27AQMR. Did you think the PG27AQN was too expensive, offering 1440p at 360 Hz for a whopping 1050 US? Well, the xg27aqmr might be what you’re after instead, as this 300 Hz variant will save you 400 US versus the AQN, that’s a pretty substantial saving, but there are still question marks over whether it’s worth it versus the current crop of 240-hertz options, which we’ll explore throughout this review.
Read Also: Comparing Best Gaming Monitor LG 27GR95QE vs Asus PG27AQDM vs Corsair 27QHD240 vs Acer X27U
Specs and Price
The basics of the XJ27aqmr, aside from its mouthful of a name, are that it is a 27-inch 2560×1440 IPS panel with a maximum refresh rate of 300 Hz. Conveniently, on the Asus website, they tell you this is above 144 Hz, in case you weren’t aware that 300 is bigger and better than 144. Asus is also providing g-sync compatible and freesync premium Pro branding, as well as a vaser display with HDR 600. Certification of more interest to me is the listing of variable overdrive and elmb sync. Despite this display not featuring a native g-sync module, we are still getting a variable overdrive, which will hopefully improve response time performance. All of this is available for $599 at amazon, which is in the mid-range of 1440p high-refresh-rate gaming monitors. but also on the more expensive end of the spectrum for monitors.
Design and Build Quality
As for the Asus Rog product, we are getting a variation of their classic gamer monitor design. It’s not identical to other products, but it’s pretty similar, with angular patterns and vents on the rear PCB trace-style Design Elements and the thick stand pillar with three pronged legs. The main difference compared to Rog Swift products is the elimination of RGB LED lighting, there are no RGB LEDs here on the strix, but that’s a good thing as far as I’m concerned. I also like that Asus, in their more recent Rog designs, has removed the red slash and copper highlights in the stand. This gives the display a more neutral overall look, which I think will fit in better with most people’s setups given how many people like to choose their own accent colors these days.
The overall build quality is quite good, despite my general lukewarm feelings about the design itself. The outer surfaces are mostly plain plastic, the seams are all neat and tidy, and the overall stand assembly is sturdy with little wobble, it achieves this while also including a good range of ergonomic adjustments, including height, tilt, swivel, and pivot. With that said, I would have appreciated a bit more height than the maximum on offer here.
Asus ROG Strix XG27AQMR Gaming Monitor Ports
We get one display port, 1.4 with DSC, which is perfectly fine for PC use at 1440p at 300 Hz, but the HDMI ports are just version 2.0, not 2.1, so they are limited to 144 Hz. This is not a huge deal for console use, which would likely run at only 120 Hz anyway, but it means that only one of the three inputs supports the highest refresh rate and resolution simultaneously. What if you want to hook up two PCs to this monitor?
Unfortunately, they can’t both be run at 300 Hz because the HDMI ports aren’t 2.1 when they really should be. HTML 2.1 has been around for long enough now, on a more positive note. Asus continues to have a feature-rich OSD with gamer-specific features like crosshairs and sniper mode. FPS cameras, which are particularly useful for display testing, Shadow-boosting modes, and a good array of colo controls are all accessible through a fast interface and directional toggle. There are also some good quality-of-life settings here, such as the ability to disable DSC, which I know some people want to see on more monitors. The only more modern feature that’s missing here is probably a KVM switch, which we are seeing more often in products like this.
Asus ROG Strix XG27AQMR Motion Performance
Motion Performance is obviously a key reason why you’d purchase a 300 Hz monitor. Asus offers a good range of control here with five variable overdrive settings plus an off mode, but thankfully it’s also straightforward to recommend which setting is the best. Off mode is probably not that mode, offering zero overshoot, but with an average response time of 9.3 milliseconds, that isn’t going to excite anyone playing at the maximum refresh rate. As we move through level one, level two, and level three overdrive, we get varying levels of performance between seven and five milliseconds for response times and minimal overshoot. Each successive increase in mode delivers better cumulative deviation and a few weird results where some transitions are fast but neighbouring transitions aren’t as fast. I thought this was quite weird, but I’ve triple checked the results, and it indeed performs like this. not a huge deal for visuals anyway; it’s actually the level 4 mode that has the best overall performance, which is around one millisecond better than the level 3 mode, moving to 4.3 milliseconds on average at the maximum refresh rate.
However, due to the high number of transitions that are more in the two-millisecond range, we get refresh compliance above 50, which is what we look for. An average cumulative deviation of 320 is also very good for an LCD, and this is achieved with minimal overshoot. Pushing higher than this setting to level five just introduces a lot of overshoot to get the average response time up to 3.2 milliseconds, which for most Gamers won’t be worth it. What’s good to see is that the AQMR indeed supports a variable overdrive, and it does a great job at managing response time performance to minimise visual issues across the refresh rate range. For example, the monitor starts off with around a 4.3 millisecond average response with an average error of four percent. By the time we hit 200 Hertz, the variable overdrive has already gotten to work massaging performance, so the response is five milliseconds and the average error rate has actually been reduced. This level of performance continues to around 120 hertz, and then there are further tweaks to most of the lower refresh rates to keep everything in check.
At no point does the inverse ghosting rate exceed 15; response times are at most in the five millisecond range, and cumulative deviation does not blow out massively down near 60 hertz, which is common for monitors without variable overdrive. This means this monitor does have a single overdrive mode experience; you should set it to level 4 and forget about it. Performance is excellent at both the maximum 300 Hz refresh rate and all the way down to 60 Hz. This is exactly what we like to see from premium gaming launchers, and it’s great that we are getting full variable overdrive without the use of a g-sync module. It’s always been possible; it’s just that most display vendors don’t bother with it.
Response Time Performance Comparisons
| LG 27GR95QE (27″ 1440p 240Hz OLED) | 3.6% 0.20 |
| Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM (27″ 1440p 240Hz OLED) | 0.0% 0.27 |
| Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (34″ 1440p 21:9 175Hz OLED) | 0.0% 0.34 |
| Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN (27″ 1440p 360Hz IPS) | 24.5% 1.96 |
| BenQ Zowie XL2566K (24″ 1080p 360Hz TN) | 17.3% 2.82 |
| Samsung Odyssey G7 (27″ 1440p 240Hz VA) | 21.8% 3.35 |
| Asus ROG Swift PG279QM (27″ 1440p 240Hz IPS) | 6.4% 4.09 |
| Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 (32″ 2160p 165Hz VA) | 4.5% 4.12 |
| HP HyperX Armada 25 (27″ 1080p 240Hz IPS) | 8.2% 4.14 |
| Cooler Master Tempest GP27Q (27″ 1440p 165Hz IPS) | 8.2% 4.25 |
| Asus ROG Strix XG27AQMR (27″ 1440p 300Hz IPS) | 10.9% 4.28 |
| Gigabyte M27Q P (27″ 1440p 170Hz IPS) | 22.7% 4.52 |
| Gigabyte M27Q X(27″ 1440p 240Hz IPS) | 30.0% 4.60 |
| LG 27GP850 (27″ 1440p 180Hz IPS) | 7.3% 4.65 |
| Gigabyte Aarus F127Q-X (27″ 1440p 240Hz IPS) | 3.6% 5.07 |
When compared to other monitors at their maximum refresh rates and best overdrive settings, the XG27aqmr performs well but doesn’t take a lead over other fast IPS monitors of today. Performance is very similar to that of the Asus PG279QM, for example, but it is superior to that of the Gigabyte m27QX thanks to less overshoot. Ultimately, it isn’t as fast as the flagship 360Hz pg27aqn, either, suggesting the panel used is closer to other 240Hz displays than the best of the best right now. Strong levels of performance continue when looking at the average across the refresh range. The xg27aqmr hits five milliseconds, which is a good result. There isn’t a particular standout compared to, say, the Mag-274qrx from MSI, though this Asus does have a higher refresh rate. It’s similar to the pg279qm in overall performance, which is a decent result given that the display is a premium 240Hz offering, and once again, it’s Superior to monitors like the gigabyte m27qx, which are a step behind, while the aqmr might be more of a mid-table monitor in our response time charts.
| LG 27GR95QE (27″ 1440p 240Hz OLED) | 101 |
| Asus ROG Swift OLED PG27AQDM (27″ 1440p 240Hz OLED) | 35 |
| Samsung Odyssey OLED G8 (34″ 1440p 21:9 175Hz OLED) | 42 |
| Asus ROG Swift PG27AQN (27″ 1440p 360Hz IPS) | 409 |
| BenQ Zowie XL2566K (24″ 1080p 360Hz TN) | 334 |
| Samsung Odyssey G7 (27″ 1440p 240Hz VA) | 404 |
| Asus ROG Swift PG279QM (27″ 1440p 240Hz IPS) | 462 |
| Samsung Odyssey Neo G7 (32″ 2160p 165Hz VA) | 485 |
| HP HyperX Armada 25 (27″ 1080p 240Hz IPS) | 497 |
| Cooler Master Tempest GP27Q (27″ 1440p 165Hz IPS) | 502 |
| Asus ROG Strix XG27AQMR (27″ 1440p 300Hz IPS) | 414 |
| Gigabyte M27Q P (27″ 1440p 170Hz IPS) | 620 |
| Gigabyte M27Q X(27″ 1440p 240Hz IPS) | 550 |
| LG 27GP850 (27″ 1440p 180Hz IPS) | 521 |
| Gigabyte Aarus F127Q-X (27″ 1440p 240Hz IPS) | 545 |
This display has an excellent bounce between speed and overshoot, which leads to a very good cumulative deviation and a corresponding High position in this chart among LCDs. The overall experience is actually quite similar to that of the PG27AQN, which had faster response times but more overshoot. Though we have yet to test the latest firmware update for that monitor, the AQMR is also a step better than the previous monitors, such as the PG279qm and other premium 240Hz products, while being 32 percent better than the m27qx. The AQMR also offers a good gaming experience at 120 hertz, although this probably isn’t why you’d buy a 300 hertz monitor. At 60 hertz, this is one of the better-performing displays thanks to variable overdrive working its magic, but if you’re after a monitor for 60 hertz gaming, you should probably consider something a bit cheaper with a lower refresh rate. Headroom input latency is strong thanks to its high refresh rate and minimal processing delay.
There is a small advantage in responsiveness going for 300 Hz versus 240 Hz, and there’s a small Advantage again bumping up to 360 Hz. In my opinion, you have to be a serious Pro to notice these differences, but nevertheless, it’s good to confirm there are no latency issues with this product. Power consumption is very good. This display uses just 23 watts to display a 200 nit full white image, which is among the best results for a 27-inch 1440p monitor that I’ve tested. However, Strix XG27AQMR not massively better than other monitors we’re talking about just a few watts, which isn’t going to make a significant difference.
Backlight Strobing
The xg27aqmr supports backlight strobing technology in the form of elmb sync, which has a strong set of capabilities. The feature works from 300 Hz down to 90 Hz, so unfortunately there is no 60 Hz strobing but still a good range. There, the sync part also means it works alongside adaptive sync simultaneously, although you can also use it at fixed refresh rates. In the sync mode, you can only change the position of optimal clarity, so strobe timing, while in the non-sync mode, you get the additional ability to tweak strobe length for better clarity. Actual performance is a bit of a mixed bag when using Elm Baysync, specifically with adaptive sync-enabled motion. Clarity isn’t really improved at all; it does work, but there’s noticeable strobe crosstalk and just some blur as the strobe length is too long. This is especially visible at lower refresh rates, so for example, setting the monitor to 300 Hertz but actually using it at 144 Hertz with elmb sync doesn’t provide much improvement at all.
Despite attempting to sync the refresh and strobe, the elmb mode without adaptive sync works better, especially at Clarity level 5. This configuration does provide a Clarity Improvement at 300 hz with only minimal crosstalk and a bit of red fringing due to the backlight being used. It ends up working quite well at all fixed refresh rates, but particularly so at 144 to 120 hertz. Although with increased red fringing, this is probably the way to use it for Esports gaming if you can manage a consistent High frame rate in your game. However, even in the elmb mode, I wouldn’t say this is the best strawberry configuration. The BenQ XL2566k is clearer and does so at a higher refreshrate with no fringing, albeit at just 1080p. The AQMR also isn’t that bright using the best Clarity mode at just 167 nits, though this can be increased to 420 nits using level 1 clarity, which doesn’t look nearly as good.
Asus ROG Strix XG27AQMR Color Performance
Moving on now to colour performance, the AQMR is a wide gaming monitor sporting 95 DCI P3 coverage, which is pretty good though slightly below the 97 that Asus quotes. There’s no real meaningful extension of greens to support Adobe RGB, and overall Rick 2020 coverage is 71. on the lower side of a modern wide gamut gaming monitor, though still acceptable in colour accuracy, was surprisingly decent with a great range of control. The default mode shipped with good grayscale accuracy at a Delta e average of 5.6, which is slightly above average, and although a gamut clamp is not enabled by default, we’re only seeing modest oversaturation and reasonable Delta ease. It isn’t as well calibrated as the Elite PG27aqn, but it ends up sitting in the upper echelon of our Factory calibration charts.
The AQMR ships with a very good RGB mode, though, so if you want a more accurate experience for RGB applications and games, that’s the mode to choose. Grayscale Delta is improved to a 3.14 average, which is very good, while saturation and a colour Checker are also excellent. I’ve tested, and right up there with some of the best srgb modes, what’s great to see is that Asus also gives you full freedom to adjust performance in the OSD while keeping the gamut clip enabled.
You can easily flick between srgb, DCI P3, and wide gamut modes without any restrictions to colour temperature controls or other settings, so further tweaks are possible to improve performance with these capabilities. I was able to improve Delta E’s by one unit on average thanks to this capability, dropping the colour Checker average from 4.05 to 3.06 for an srgb configuration, and this is why all manufacturers should allow this. Further software calibration through Calaman was able to tidy up all the loose ends and deliver excellent calibration for both SRGB and P3 uses. For P3, it doesn’t quite have full gamut coverage, so the very edges of the gamut aren’t going to be accurate, but overall, getting a calibrated experience from this monitor is a breeze, and with most of the effort taking place in hardware, it applies to many applications.
Brightness, Contrast and Uniformity
Maximum brightness in the SGR mode sits at 380 nits, which is mid-range for gaming monitors. Some of the best approaches near 500 nits, which this monitor is actually capable of in HDR mode, are just limited for SDR. The minimum brightness is good at 48 nits. As for contrast ratio, the AQMR is pretty good in this area for an IPS LCD, reporting in at 1328 to 1, which is quite a bit higher than ASUS’s other premium High refresh rate 1440p monitors, the pg27aqn and pg279qm, have an earth shadowing difference, but I’ll take a roughly 30 Improvement every time.
Unfortunately, though IPS LCD contrast is still poor overall among monitor tech, via LCDs are much better, and then of course we have OLEDs these days as well, which provide a night and day improvement. Uniformity was average from my unit. The centre section of the display was okay, but there were a few issues with the outer edges. I also noticed a bit of IPS glow from my unit, which tends to be a unit-by-unit issu, and so you could end up with a different experience to me, but this panel does not use any of the newer IPS glow minimization techniques we’re seeing from the latest LG panels.
HDR Performance
The XG27AQMR does support HDR and is a display HDR 600 certified monitor, but the actual HDR capabilities are poor and really not worth considering when buying this display. We’re only getting edge with local dimming here with very few zones. I think there are only eight zones, but it’s hard to tell as the zones are almost always fully active, more so than similar Edge Limit monitors. This level of dimming leads to raised blacks and a terrible contrast ratio for HDR, completely insufficient for True HDR visuals. Any sort of dark content or Shadow detail looks rubbish here, which makes it hard to call this even semi-HDR as the edges just aren’t used enough.
On a positive note, Brightness is reasonable, though not amazing; we get a maximum of 670 nits in pretty much all situations, whether that’s large or small window sizes sustained or peaking in real scenes. This leads to brightness of a touch over 600 nits. Whether we are gaming or watching videos, some people will like this experience as the level of brightness is enhanced versus the SDR mode, but without decent local dimming, what it really means is the entire panel is raised in brightness, just drawing blacks and Shadow detail and preventing a true high contrast HDR experience. I did appreciate that Asus went to the effort of calibrating the HDR mode so eotf tracking and saturation sweeps are reasonably accurate. All Things considered, you won’t see crazy brightness issues or incorrect saturation like you do with a lot of other sorts of semi-HDR or fake HDR monitors, but the overall HDR experience is poor simply because the hardware capabilities for proper HDR are not found here.
HUB Essentials
The final section is the Hub Essentials checklist across the design and colour sections. Asus does well, only receiving a penalty due to using HDMI 2.0 instead of HDMI 2.1 for motion performance. Advertising a one millisecond response time does exaggerate the display’s typical performance, but the best transitions I tested were in the one millisecond range. I also don’t think the backlight strobing quality is sufficient. I also don’t think the backlight strobing quality is sufficient. I was impressed with the single overdrive mode experience and low input lag. The other penalty is the Zeus receiver in the HDR section. While edge lit dimming normally receives a semi-hdr ranking, the actual experience here, even with edgelit, is awful, so that’s worthy of a penalty. The contrast ratio is also far too low thanks to a pathetic Zone count, but I didn’t spot any issues or defects here; we’re getting a normal subpixel array, and flickering is not a problem while gaming.
Final Thought on Asus ROG Strix XG27AQMR Gaming Monitor
The Asus Rog Strix XG27AQMR ends up being quite a decent gaming monitor with a lot going for it, but like with many mid-range product reviews, I find it pretty difficult to say whether you should or shouldn’t buy it. Often, it comes down to whether the incremental improvements are worth it versus a lower or higher-priced monitor, and that’s what you’ll have to weigh up with the Rog Strix XG27AQMR monitor delivers a strong premium feature set in its class. The major feature that I really like seeing is functional variable overdrive. I feel that is a bigger inclusion than the 300 Hz refresh rate, It allows for a great single-overdrive mode experience. It’s well tuned across the refresh rate range. The bounce is good enough to put it among the best LCDs in terms of speed and clarity. Thanks to this feature and its refresh rate, the AQMR is a step above most other 240 Hz monitors in motion performance.
Asus has enhanced this through backlight strobing, although less so than elmb sync and more like the regular elmb feature. I like that this feature is included here because some 1440p high-resolution monitors just don’t include it at all, and while it’s nothing special from a performance standpoint, at least esports gamers have the option, and it does enhance clarity, especially at lower refresh rates. It’s not class-leading, though, so I suspect those that must have Elite strobing will still prefer something like the XL2566k despite its lower resolution. I also impressed with the range of colour controls and the colour accuracy on offer, which means the AQMR is good for both multiplayer and single-player gaming, It has good versatility.
The HDR experience is terrible, though right now there are no competitors in this price range offering HDR that are worth buying, at least that I’ve tested so far. The big question comes down to the price and whether the AQMR is worth it at 650 U.S. in the current market. That’s not a crazy price. There are lots of 1440p 240Hz monitors being sold for around 600 to 700 U.S., but it’s also not a bang for your buck type of product, which we’ve seen more in the 400 to 500 range. What makes this difficult is that some of our favorite picks here, like the m27qx and mag274qrx, have been out of stock for months, so it’s harder to compare the AQMR to a 500-type monitor that you can’t buy right now. However it’s important to be aware of these monitors because they tell us what has been possible at a variety of price points. Ultimately, I feel 650 is a fair price for what you’re getting. The difference between 300 and 240 Hz isn’t massive; a 25 percent increase isn’t worth paying top dollar.
