A feast for your eyes

How much further can we push the limits of visual delivery? What kind of insane refresh rates can our eyes even handle? Well, Asus and Nvidia have burnt the envelope onto the ground with their new world’s first 360Hz gaming monitor.

Cannot Unsee (MOBHouse Productions)
Your eyes after staring at the 360Hz monitor! (Image source: https://tenor.com/view/anime-cannot-unsee-exploding-eyes-eyes-soap-gif-11920136)

The specs

Announced at CES 2020, the Asus ROG Swift 360Hz is the first of its kind. The monitor is decently sized at 24.5 inches and the display is 1080p. This new monitor is a major step up from the 300Hz laptop screens from Asus and Acer.

ROG Swift 360hz (MOBHouse Productions)
The sickest monitor in town! (Image source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/1/5/21050309/asus-nvidia-360hz-gaming-monitor-rog-swift-360-ces-2020)

What does this fresh madness entail?

First of all, let us dive into the extreme world of refresh rates, which is different from frames per second (FPS). FPS is the number of frames your GPU is pumping out whereas the refresh rate is how many of those frames your monitor can refresh per second.

Basically, your screen will update 360 times per second at 360Hz! The average monitor clocks in at 60Hz. Meanwhile, some of the highest-end monitors may even hit a refresh rate of 240Hz. Most monitors with refresh rates higher than 60Hz are specifically tailored for esports players with the 144Hz variant being the most common.

Esport implications

In the esports world, the difference between crushing defeat and glorious victory boils down to the milliseconds. Pros with monstrous APMs (actions per minute) rely on extreme frame rates and low latency.

Asus has gone on to say ROG Swift 360Hz will offer “a huge upgrade in motion clarity, smoothness, and responsiveness.”

Do you even need 360Hz?

If you are a professional gamer or have designs on such a career path, the answer is a resounding yes.

A study published by Nvidia demonstrated that jumping from 60Hz to 240Hz improved reaction times in Overwatch by up to 33% and 37% at 360Hz.

Overwatch (MOBHouse Productions)
Overwatch pros looking cute while causing wanton destruction! (Image source: https://www.techspot.com/news/82955-overwatch-free-play-until-december-4-part-blizzard.html)

However, if you are just a casual gamer or an all-work-and-no-play sort, this monitor is pure overkill.

Price-wise, nothing has been said yet but we are expecting a range between RM2,500 and RM4,000. As the 240Hz monitor already starts at RM2,500, such a monumental increase would certainly reflect heavily on the thickness of your wallet.

For the TL;DR, do check out our Monday Logins with Michelle where we report on the latest tech news every Monday.

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