Asus unveils ‘world’s first’ 360Hz gaming monitor – but will anyone need it?
Asus has unveiled the “world’s first” 360Hz refresh rate gaming monitor for e-sports professionals and ultra-competitive gamers.
The company unveiled the ROG Swift 360Hz in Las Vegas last night in partnership with Nvidia. As a piece of kit the 32-inch monitor is technically pretty swish, featuring Nvidia’s anti-screen tearing G-Sync tech and a 1400-nits, HDR ready, 1080p resolution mini-LED panel.
This plus its advanced 360Hz refresh rate mean it on paper should be one of the most immersive gaming experiences available for online, competitive gamers, where frames per second counts are key.
The refresh rate is significantly higher than the standard 144Hz and 240Hz rates you’ll see on most gaming monitors and means, in theory, you’ll be able to play games at up to 360 frames per second.
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This would give some players an on paper advantage when competitive gaming. Refresh rate refers to how many images per second a display renders. A higher rate reduces the delay between you enacting a command and it happening and also makes it easier to spot enemy movements early.
The only questions is if gamers will actually need a 360Hz refresh rate. Most current gen GPUs won’t run modern triple-A games at 360 fps, even in 1080p. Unless you’re playing a MOBA or willing to radically lower games’ graphical settings you’re unlikely to break 240fps, let alone 360fps.
Even if you do, we’re not convinced a 360fps count will actually offer a true competitive advantage for most players. 240fps is already pretty darned fast and it’ll more likely be human error than a sub 360fps count that’s causing problems when playing online.
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Asus also hasn’t released two key details about the ROG Swift 360: when it will be released and how much it will cost.
Asus ROG line isn’t cheap to begin with and as a “world’s first” it’s likely the Swift 360Hz will be a fairly expensive bit of kit that’s overkill for most gamers.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.