Asus announces world's fastest gaming monitor: the ROG PG259QN

Asus has announced the ROG PG259QN monitor, an ambitious 24.5" monitor that promises a 360Hz refresh rate on an IPS panel, along with a 1ms response time. 

To compensate for those lofty aims which would make it the fastest consumer gaming monitor out there, the ROG PG259QN monitor is only a 1080p resolution display. However, being able to combine such a refresh rate with an IPS panel seems rather ambitious to us. Asus intends for the audience to be gamers, citing an Nvidia-led study that found gamers with a 360Hz monitor improved their K/D ratio by 4 percent compared to a 240Hz monitor. This isn't going to be a cheap solution by any means but we're guessing if you're that passionate about your gaming performance, price isn't a big issue. In particular, it should make quite the difference for professional players or those aspiring to be one. 

The ROG PG259QN monitor offers a G-Sync module which, according to Asus, will allow the display to have the best smoothness of all gaming monitors, but obviously we'll have to wait and see what reviews say. It also supports Nvidia's 3D Vision which means players with a relevant graphics card and 3D glasses can watch a 3D presentation of compatible games and other content. It's not exactly a massive selling point given 3D Vision has never really taken off but it's certainly a curiosity. 

In terms of more conventional features, the ROG PG259QN monitor also supports Asus Aura Sync, has slim bezels, plenty of viewing adjustments, one DisplayPort 1.4 cable, one HDMI 2.0 port, along with one 3.5mm headset jack and a USB 3.0 pass-through port. There'll also be room for three USB 3.0 ports. Full specs are available on Asus's site.

The launch of the ROG PG259QN monitor will be quite the coup for Asus with companies like Alienware working on 360Hz monitors but not yet releasing them. Being first is something every business wants to be after all. 

Set for launch in September, a price hasn't been confirmed yet for the ROG PG259QN monitor but like we said, it's not going to be cheap by any means. Targeted at a fairly niche audience, we'd expect that 4 percent improved performance to cost you many hundreds of pounds.