Jagged pixels on ROG Swift PG278Q

[shahz]

Dear ROG team,

This is my first time posting in the ROG forums (Hello World! ^_^)

I have 2 units of the ROG Swift monitors running on two separate computers. One of them is being used as a part of triple monitor setup with 2 units of Asus VX239H IPS displays.

Recently, one of the Swifts being used on the triple setup has been rendering jagged pixels. At first I thought it was an OS problem. However, the fonts render totally fine on the other two IPS displays.

This only happens on flat text (non clearType ones) for example desktop right click pop-up menu.

Things I've tried with no success:
1. Changing the frequency anything between 60Hz and 144Hz
2. Turn off G-Sync
3. Disable SLi (I'm using 2 units of GTX780)
4. Recalibrate ClearType just in case
5. Reset from the OSD

Is my ROG Swift busted? My other Swift renders totally fine so it's definitely something with this one. Refer to the screenshots below:
Here's how it looks like on the ROG Swift (you might have to zoom, I tried to take the best picture possible)


Here's how it looks like on the VX239H (you might have to zoom, I tried to take the best picture possible)


These monitors were attached to the same machine.

Really hope to have some light shed..

[Korth]

Not sure why the same fonts look better on one monitor and awful on the other. It's obviously an aliasing artifact from low-resolution bitmapped fonts being upscaled to higher resolution. But the two monitors are being used on entirely different machines so perhaps one has subtly different GPU driver versions or configurations? How do your fonts compare after swapping the two Swifts between machines?

Incidentally, the Swift in the triple-monitor setup is only going to get WQHD at 60Hz refresh, a limitation based on DisplayPort 1.2 bandwidth.

[shahz]

Hi Korth,

Thanks a lot for the reply. So I brought the other Swift to my office and try it out on the machine and it worked totally fine. That means the first ROG Swift is indeed busted! 😞 Reaching out to Asus for fixes now.

[Ikes]

shahz wrote:
Hi Korth,

Thanks a lot for the reply. So I brought the other Swift to my office and try it out on the machine and it worked totally fine. That means the first ROG Swift is indeed busted! 😞 Reaching out to Asus for fixes now.

Its a known problem with the PG278Q and documented in many forums that its display goes wonky (blurred text/icons and flickering screen) after a few months. Happened to me and I exchanged it. I suspect its something to do with the Gsync module and seemed to have affected mainly the first batch of PG278Qs.

Pity as this counts as a black mark against ASUS quality and reliability.

[shahz]

Ikes wrote:
Its a known problem with the PG278Q and documented in many forums that its display goes wonky (blurred text/icons and flickering screen) after a few months. Happened to me and I exchanged it. I suspect its something to do with the Gsync module and seemed to have affected mainly the first batch of PG278Qs.

Pity as this counts as a black mark against ASUS quality and reliability.

That is the funny part. Out of both of these ROG Swifts, the one that I purchased first has never gave me any problems. It's almost going to be 2 years and it works flawlessly. That one was from the first batch of ROG Swift (manufactured July 2014 under the screen near the ports). The one that gets spoiled a lot was actually from the next batch (November 2014). Previously, it totally stopped working for which I did the first RMA. Then, the power adapter got spoilt which they replaced. And now this pixel jagging.

It's scary because I got to experience the best and the worst of this model. For those who have only one unit and their unit fall under the latter category, they would be going nuts and hating the brand without further research.

Perhaps Asus should take note on this.

[samboy87]

I got the november 2014 batch and no problems so far! i heard the November batch was the best.September/december and begin 2015 had bad panels.

[Korth]

My PG278Q was dated Oct/2014, flawless unit, still flawless after over a year of somewhat heavy use (deliberately upper-capped at 120Hz, though).

[shahz]

So we can say that it is pure luck?

[Korth]

It might be luck. Two of my friends received identical Swifts with nearly-adjacent serial numbers while we did a small group buy last year (~$70 per unit cheaper on 5+ units), they were extremely positive about their monitors last year, I've never heard any complaints about them since. As it turns out, the packaging on my unit was slightly damaged (smashed in one corner) but the packaged contents were fully intact.

I realize three units is not a very representative sample, but it seems whatever you've heard about Nov/2014 and Sep/2014 batches may not have been entirely accurate. I do know that Swifts made from Jan/2015 onwards are covered under a new Asus Zero Bright Dot policy which is vastly inferior to the old Asus Zero Bright Pixel policy in place on units made up to the end of Dec/2014 (until purchase-time warranty expires) - this suggests to me that more flawed panels and pixels are allowed to pass Asus QC (and be rejected by Asus RMA) now than were allowed before.

To be honest, I seriously expect the primary component failure which will emerge over time in most PG278Q monitors will be the Asus-overclocked NVidia-manufactured G-Sync module, not the panel itself.

[samboy87]

true that! i think the overclocked G-sync module is the problem indeed. but then all the problems would disapear if you turn the G-sync off?