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It's finally arrived! The ASUS MG279Q with Adaptive Sync is now for sale over at the Egg for 600$.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824236466&cm_re=freesync-_-24-236-466-_-Product
Really hope this gets reviewed here as it's more than likely my next monitor upgrade!

6....urk.

I guess when I go Freesync I'm sticking with 1080p. :/

This thread should include a link to this TR news post that the MG279Q only does 35-90Hz in FreeSync mode.

All else aside, the price isn't THAT high for what you're getting (better than $800+ for the 27" IPS Acer G-sync). Keep in mind this is 27" QHD, IPS panel, and >60Hz refresh. Free-sync is "free" but it doesn't mean manufacturers won't charge for "premium product" status. IMO, at $550 or less we've got a deal!

DPete27 wrote:

This thread should include a link to this TR news post that the MG279Q only does 35-90Hz in FreeSync mode.

All else aside, the price isn't THAT high for what you're getting.

It doesn't have to be that high to be unaffordable.

Savyg wrote:

It doesn't have to be that high to be unaffordable.

Unaffordable to you maybe (me too ) but the cost doesn't stop with the monitor. If you're going to game on a 1440p monitor near 60fps, you're going to need a $350+ GPU to go with it. And while monitors last many many years, GPUs need to be upgraded much more frequently.

DPete27 wrote:

the cost doesn't stop with the monitor. If you're going to game on a 1440p monitor near 60fps, you're going to need a $350+ GPU to go with it. And while monitors last many many years, GPUs need to be upgraded much more frequently.

That's definitely true. Freesync as a package is still a premium thing right now.

$600 is pretty high when you consider Newegg just had a $20 coupon off this 1440p 120Hz FreeSync monitor the other day: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 24-009-769
I know it's TN vs IPS, but a $150 difference? I'll wait for the MG279Q to drop a bit.

Duct Tape Dude wrote:

That's definitely true. Freesync as a package is still a premium thing right now.

Doesn't seem to be that much of a premium over 144hz monitors, of which there were few at 1440p iirc.

I haven't looked recently admittedly.

Nixeus did say their 1080p ones shouldn't have much of a premium over the 144hz mons, anyway. I'd love the Viewsonic 27" instead but they have said literally nothing about that monitor since they announced it...not sure if I should wait or not.

'bout time!

The status of mine is "Packaging" at the moment

Duct Tape Dude wrote:

I know it's TN vs IPS, but a $150 difference?

Keep in mind there are now a grand total of two high refresh rate IPS monitors on the market (not counting overclocks).

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/asus_mg279q.htm has a great review and confirms that overdrive is working with freesync. Waiting on the TR review :fingerscrossed:

Mine has been shipped; can't wait. I'm going to replace my 660Ti (with a 290X?) as well.

The price is quite affordable for a 1440P 144Hz AHVA panel. You're paying for the refresh rate, and this unit delivers!

The only other game in town is the Acer XB240HU, and that's $200 more for blur reduction and G-Sync. The Acer TN unit has terrible calibration out of the box and weak build quality.

Thanks for the heads up. This seems like a perfect match to be paired with the up and coming AMD Fiji cards coming out this month.

In fact, it'd be very smart if AMD somehow made a package deal to pair this screen and a fiji in a combo deal. Or Asus could leverage their Fiji cards and pair it with their screen as well.

I wasn't looking for another monitor but it might be too tasty to pass up.

Out of stock at NewEgg!

Sort of off-topic but I found out why this monitor was delayed from its original timeframe of early 2015:

144Hz Frame Skipping Bug = Fixed

When the MG279Q was first released, a few early samples started to make their way out into distribution, mostly on mainland Europe. At the time, http://www.sweclockers.com tested the screen and found a bug when running the screen at 144Hz refresh rate. It seemed to drop frames for some reason at this maximum refresh rate. Stock was recalled from distribution and a firmware update was carried out by Asus. This is one of the reasons why our test sample was delayed and why the screen has been a little late making its way out to customers.

We are pleased to confirm that an updated firmware has been applied to the screen and the issue has been fixed. We confirmed this from an AMD and NVIDIA graphics card at 144Hz. All stock available to buy now/soon should be the updated version. Only a small hand full of very early units were affected, and we would suggest contacting Asus support if you have one from the very early batches and are experiencing problems.

Also, they note why the refresh rate was capped to 90Hz:

Asus tell us this capped upper limit of FreeSync was down to performance issues on a panel of this type, and so they took a decision to provide a lower bottom end limit and have 90Hz as the maximum. All in all we don't consider the FreeSync range to be a massive problem. If you really are bothered by it then look elsewhere, but for most people we suspect this FreeSync range will be more than adequate.

via http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/asu ... pg278q.htm

Really interesting. It's intentionally limited by Asus based on the panel.

Also, it seems the XB270HU has the same panel and runs for $900. That suddenly makes $600 seem quite sane.

EDIT: Now available at Amazon, same opening price. http://www.amazon.com/ASUS-MG279Q-Scree ... B00ZOO348C

Mine arrived today. It's quite nice. Looking forward to getting a Freesync-compatible GPU in a few days.

Kretschmer wrote:

Mine arrived today. It's quite nice. Looking forward to getting a Freesync-compatible GPU in a few days.

Hope you're holding out for a R9 Fury X and that you're able to actually buy it on the date they announced.

I was very tempted by the Acer 1440p Freesync (500 is almost tolerable but not quite.) But I still need a new receiver and speakers and tablet and...the monitor is first priority, but definitely not the only priority.

It should be noted that the 90Hz range for Freesync is just fine.

Varsync technologies are for 60 or lower frame rates, give or take a few. If we could all reliably run 144Hz all the time, it'd be a non-issue.

I'd prefer FreeSync to be able to scale higher, but I agree, most of the benefit should take place below 90 Hz. The lower the framerate goes, the more you need it.

However, I'm a bit worried about what happens when the framerate goes outside those bounds. It seems like G-Sync has it figured out: nobody complains about their frame management above the monitor's capability, and if I recall, they have a nifty estimation technique to figure out approximately when it is safe to give a dummy-refresh while waiting for the real refresh. Does G-Sync have issues in these areas I missed? How bad is FreeSync? Are we expecting FreeSync to improve in these areas?

Milo Burke wrote:

I'd prefer FreeSync to be able to scale higher, but I agree, most of the benefit should take place below 90 Hz. The lower the framerate goes, the more you need it.

However, I'm a bit worried about what happens when the framerate goes outside those bounds. It seems like G-Sync has it figured out: nobody complains about their frame management above the monitor's capability, and if I recall, they have a nifty estimation technique to figure out approximately when it is safe to give a dummy-refresh while waiting for the real refresh. Does G-Sync have issues in these areas I missed? How bad is FreeSync? Are we expecting FreeSync to improve in these areas?

From what I've been reading, it's user-configurable. Have a look here: http://techreport.com/review/28073/benq ... reviewed/3

Basically, the Vsync configuration kicks in when the framerate goes out of bounds. So you either get locked to a harmonic of the vertical refresh rate (Vsync ON) or accept tearing (Vsync OFF).

Here are other good reads
...on this monitor: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/con ... m#freesync
...and GSync vs Freesync: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/va ... efresh.htm

Well, this is what I said I was waiting for before I upgrade. Need the price to come down a bit but that's got just about everything I want in a monitor.

Kickass. Just bought.

Milo Burke wrote:

I'd prefer FreeSync to be able to scale higher, but I agree, most of the benefit should take place below 90 Hz. The lower the framerate goes, the more you need it.

However, I'm a bit worried about what happens when the framerate goes outside those bounds. It seems like G-Sync has it figured out: nobody complains about their frame management above the monitor's capability, and if I recall, they have a nifty estimation technique to figure out approximately when it is safe to give a dummy-refresh while waiting for the real refresh. Does G-Sync have issues in these areas I missed? How bad is FreeSync? Are we expecting FreeSync to improve in these areas?

Gsync lets the user choose weather they want to enable VSync or not if it goes over the FPS limit of the monitor. Personally I chose VSync on.
And while you might not realize it initially, Gsync at least does make a noticeable difference even at higher framerates. I can now play CS in borderless windowed mode without issues at 200+FPS. Before in windowed mode I constantly had stuttery FPS. Sad thing is I never even realized that I had that until I used GSync for a while and went back to windowed mode. Once you get used to adaptive refresh rate its annoying to go back, even if you never really saw any difference from using adaptive sync. I couldn't even tell when Gsync was on or off initially. But now I can instantly tell when its not on.

derFunkenstein wrote:

Kretschmer wrote:

Mine arrived today. It's quite nice. Looking forward to getting a Freesync-compatible GPU in a few days.

Hope you're holding out for a R9 Fury X and that you're able to actually buy it on the date they announced.

Too expensive. I like to pay $250-$300 for a GPU every 2-3 years. I went with an excellent deal on a 290X.

Finally got a chance to sit down for a significant amount of time and game on it, since I was out sick from work

Only played Rome II, so spent a lot of time in the 40's FPS watching Italians stab each other

Variable refresh rate tech is definitely, as others have suggested, a "notice when absent" tech, when it's on, I only have hitches in the animation, collision detection and such to complain about. When it's off, I think something is broken.

I spent a good minute just sweeping the camera back and forth watching the unit banners. Sure, they blurred at speed, but they didn't tear at all.

I need to try out one of the "shooter" games that are so popular with the kids these days. Maybe next sick day.

Now, if I actually spent any significant time playing games these days, I'd think this was easily worth the money. As it is, I'm not sure I'm sane.

EDIT:
Found a gray stuck pixel near the middle about 3/4 from the top, probably not the end of the world but disappointing given the price tag.
Warranty limit is 3 bright/dead 5 stuck.