I went eyes-on with the world’s first 4K OLED gaming monitor, and I’ll never go back — here’s why

1 day ago 8
Asus Swift OLED PG27UCDM
(Image credit: Future)

Our favorite gaming monitors give you a nice balance of resolution and refresh rate combination for making the most of your games. But Asus’ newest 27-inch 4K OLED screen is unlike anything I’ve used before.

Announced at CES 2025, the Swift OLED PG27UCDM is the first of its kind. Up until this time, you either picked a high resolution and lower refresh rate, or a buttery smooth framerate with a lower resolution. Now, we don’t have to make that choice anymore, and after witnessing this for myself, I’m so glad that this decision is no more.

Meet the Asus Swift OLED PG27UCDM

Yes, the name is confusing, but behind this mix of letters and numbers is arguably the best-looking panel I’ve ever laid eyes on.

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Screen size27 inches
Resolution4K (166 pixels per inch)
Refresh rate240Hz
Response time0.03 milliseconds
PortsHDMI 2.1, DisplayPort 2.1a (80Gbps Bandwidth), USB-C with 90W power delivery
Other featuresDolby Vision, HDR10, Nvidia G-Sync

To test this, I played through a section of Horizon Forbidden West — a visually expressive game with a flash flood of color and a demanding test of contrast ratio. And in doing so, I’m not sure I can go back to my normal monitor and TV ever again.

Asus Swift OLED PG27UCDM

(Image credit: Future)

The crispy picture quality shows the incredible detail in the level and the robot dinosaurs, the lights emitting from your foes shine bright amongst the natural landscape, and the incredible smoothness of this image is unlike anything I’ve seen before. In all honesty, I’m getting the same feeling using this that I did when I went from PS1 to PS2. It’s a night and day upgrade that you have to see to believe.

Of course, to make the most of this, you need to be connected via DisplayPort 2.1a for the full 80Gbps bandwidth. Other key features include Asus’ new ROG OLED Care Pro technology that includes a proximity sensor to switch to a black screen when you walk away — drastically reducing the risk of burn-in.

On top of that, Asus hasn’t forgotten about the usability, thanks to USB-C with 90W of power delivery to connect your laptop easily, alongside a USB hub for all your peripherals.

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Outlook

As you’ve probably seen, this isn’t the only “world’s first 4K OLED gaming monitor.” It seems to have been a trend across every gaming hardware company.

But questioning that claim aside, whether you go for the Asus Swift OLED or any other 4K OLED screen with 240Hz refresh rate, the end result is a mindblowing transformation of your gaming experience.

Now we just need the next generation of GPU to fully support the maximum framerate here…looking at you Nvidia!

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Jason brings a decade of tech and gaming journalism experience to his role as a Managing Editor of Computing at Tom's Guide. He has previously written for Laptop Mag, Tom's Hardware, Kotaku, Stuff and BBC Science Focus. In his spare time, you'll find Jason looking for good dogs to pet or thinking about eating pizza if he isn't already.

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