Physical Design, OSD, Overdrive Capability
ASUS appears to have come to a standard on most of its monitor designs, going with a very minimalist appearance in many instances with slim bezels and a matte finish – all things I can appreciate. Though the PB328Q won't be confused for something like the ROG Swift PG279Q, it's not bad looking either.
The bezel around the edge of the 32-in screen is uniform in thickness and uses a black matte finish to reduce any kind of glare or shine from the plastic. The screen itself has an anti-glare finish as well which will reduce color vividness but again, makes for a better user experience for those of you working around windows.
The base is squared and bigger than other recent ASUS monitor reviews, likely due to the monitors size and weight and this incessant need to not tip over. It's square, doesn't have any glowing red lights or cup holders, but gets the job done, supporting rotation at the base of the post.
As we have seen on recent ASUS displays, the OSD controls are on the rear of the screen with only small screen printed indicators on the front of the bezel. It's clear from this shot though how thin the bezel actually is and how close the pixels come the edge of that bezel. The monitor presents an impressive image upon startup.
With strong viewing angles, definitely a step above anything from the TN ecosystem, the PB328Q and its VA panel can be rotated into a portrait mode for use in non-traditional work environments.
The rear side of the PB328Q isn't anything special – it shows a very open back with plenty of holes for air ventilation on the internal components. The stand can be removed from the standard VESA mount should you want to install the monitor on some other hardware.
OSD control on the back of the monitor is operated through five buttons (the 6th is a power button) and a directional joystick at the top. I have said it over and over, but the ASUS joystick input method for an OSD is the best thing I have ever used when it comes to modern displays. It makes the often archaic and cumbersome button controls from most other vendors seem preposterous.
Connectivity for the monitor includes a dual-link DVI connection, a DisplayPort connection, HDMI and VGA (!!), giving you a lot of flexibility for attaching the monitor to a PC or other device. You also get a USB 3.0 input (cable included) for a USB hub and 3.5mm audio pass through for headphones.
If you are looking for additional USB 3.0 connectivity, the ASUS PB328Q has you covered with four ports on the left hand side of the display for thumb drives, accessories or anything else.
On-Screen Display Settings
The OSD on the ASUS PB328Q is very similar to other ASUS options we have reviewed recently at PC Perspective.
Under the "Splendid" settings that allow you to set or adjust presets for colors and brightness, ASUS has a few different options including sRGB, which is a good starting point for calibration. The User Mode menus are good for buyers that want to have specific color calibration configs for varying scenarios.
Blue light filtering to avoid eye fatigue is all the rage in displays these days and the PB328Q supports it.
TraceFree is the ASUS term for overdrive, with size settings available from 0-100. I'll show you our impressions of how well overdrive works on this panel below.
With all of those input options, it's nice that the PB328Q supports picture-in-picture and picture-by-picture modes.
Overdrive Testing
Testing overdrive on monitors is some of the most important work we do in display reviews. While the subject is a lot more complicated for variable refresh rate monitors (G-Sync and FreeSync), having good overdrive on static refresh rate displays is still crucial to a solid gaming experience and even for movies and productivity.
I have to cut to the chase here, the overdrive performance on the ASUS PB328Q leaves a lot to be desired. A TraceFree setting of 0 (overdrive off) shows at least 4 blades of the windmill demo we use for our OD testing. A setting of 60 (3 out of 5) improves things a bit with only three blades visible, though that third one is still pretty apparent to the eye while in motion. Finally, with a maximum OD setting of 100 we have our best result, with two blades visible, though the red portion is much cleaner than the white.
In most of our other ASUS displays, a setting of 100 on TraceFree results in negative ghosting, where the overdrive over shoots and shows us darker than expected results on the screen. That's not ideal in terms of image quality either but it allows us to scale backwards in the settings to dial in the perfect (or close to) overdrive option. In this case, the PB328Q struggles to reach a point we would call "acceptable" overdrive for a gamer – it's right on the edge. Considering this is with a static refresh rate, I have to assume that the issue lies in the panel's ability to manage the voltage spikes properly as we have seen numerous times that the ASUS display engineers know how to dial in a firmware.
Thanks for the timely review.
Thanks for the timely review. I was actually considering this monitor to replace an Asus VK246H.
I currently have PC and XBox One connected to this older 24″ panel, and would be the same that I would connect to the new monitor.
Do you have more information on the OverDrive Testing? What were the refresh rates you were running at? Which input were you using while connecting the test? Did you test all the inputs? Did you try other sources like PS4 or XBox One?
Thanks!
Steve
The panels overdrive
The panels overdrive characteristics are independent of the input and source. The refresh rate and monitor settings are the only things that change ghosting properties of a given panel. Testing of overdrive is very figured out at this point, so the results PC Perspective or TFT Central get are robust, even if it’s not what you want to hear.
Heyyo, well this is a
Heyyo, well this is a 2560×1440 monitor so using an Xbox One or PlayStation 4 would not be ideal since they output 1920×1080… The resolution difference is 1.333333~ times the resolution scale, so it would not look as sharp as it should eh? Same issue on a 4K UHD screen with 3840×2160 resolution and trying QHD 2560×1440, it’s not a proper resolution scale so it wouldn’t be as sharp as it should be. I’ve always wondered why they picked that resolution instead of one to scale with previous standards… Something like 2400×1350 (1.25 the scale of FHD) or 2880×1800 (1.5 times the scale of FHD).
With all that said? Id stick with either a FHD 1920×1080 monitor or get a 4K UHD monitor which will render 1920×1080 to a proper scale and still look sharp.
Ah…good points. I figured
Ah…good points. I figured it would give black bars like some movies do.
I still think for a 1440
I still think for a 1440 panel the Shimian is the way to go. an IPS panel with not a lot of options but you cant beat that price. I got mine for 250 about 3 years ago and its still that price.
Monoprice has a 27″ 1440p
Monoprice has a 27″ 1440p monitor for $249. Seems a better choice for warranties and shipping versus ordering overseas.
It seems that VA panels will
It seems that VA panels will be unsuitable for high refresh rate gaming for the foreseeable future. Both this monitor and the Acer Z35 both performed significantly worse than the top 2560×1440 IPS panels. This makes monitors like the PG279Q a safer buy than they were at release as the better contrast of VA panels was the only upgrade likely to occur before OLED monitors are widely available.
Not sure, Lenovo has just
Not sure, Lenovo has just announced an upcoming VA panel monitor (Lenovo Y27G) aimed at gaming. It is 1080p, has a 144Hz refresh, and features G-Sync. The 144Hz and G-Sync will make it the first VA panel to have these features.
I had the BenQ 32″ for a few
I had the BenQ 32″ for a few weeks before returning it. Nice monitor, but the QHD resolution never felt right to me on a panel that large.
I like my 32″ BenQ, but sit a
I like my 32″ BenQ, but sit a bit further away from my monitor than most people sit from theirs. If I would sit closer, like at a distance 4 feet or less, I would also prefer a monitor with denser resolution.
If adaptive sync doesn’t
If adaptive sync doesn’t increase the cost of a monitor at all, then what reason would Asus have for not including that here?
The lack of award seems a bit harsh here, considering that even the ludicrously expensive Predator X34 got a silver, and that offers a considerably worse balance between cost and various performance metrics than this Asus.
Is it VA that sucks in
Is it VA that sucks in general for overdrive or is it asus’ overdrive implementation for this monitor that sucks?
Found an HP Envy 32 that is
Found an HP Envy 32 that is the same size, resolution, VA panel, has Freesync support, and is on Amazon right now for $458. Wish I knew if it had any overdrive capabilites.
I just bought this panel
I just bought this panel (Asus PB3228Q) based on this review, and I want to drive it at 75hz to play strategy/role play games and videos.
My current graphics adapter is the MSI GeForce 720 with 2GB of video ram. It has HDMI but not a Displayport.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127805
The specs for the card say that dual-link DVI is available, and this monitor comes with a cable and presumably a port to do that.
Is dual-DVI the best option?
Can I get 75Hz with HDMI and have 10bit color? I want both 75Hz and 10bit color.
Do I need to upgrade my video card, or will this card suffice to drive this display?
If so, what card would you suggest to drive this monitor?
This monitor can run at75h
This monitor can run at75h only through the display port and if you want to use a 10 bit color on any monitor you need a professional grade graphics card like quadro or firepro.
@Kylo_Renifer
i would upgrade
@Kylo_Renifer
i would upgrade to a 1060 or 480, will give better perf with the increased vram (6/8gb) and also support more connections.
@ last post:
pascal series (10xx) can do 10bit encode/decode incl HDR, and that is on gtx, so NO, you dont need a quadro…
I just bought this monitor
I just bought this monitor out of frustration. I wanted a transitional monitor, until Acer and Asus got their IPS act together.
It’s an ok monitor, but nothing exceptional. It’s 8bit and NOT 10 BIT.
It’s like a good TN 8 bit panel. The colors are pretty dull.
The resolution of 1440p is better on a 27″ than a 32″.
I am not blown away.
Does anyone know what the
Does anyone know what the Red>Green>Blue settings apply to? There is both a Gain and Offset option in the menu. Applying it to Gain only and then using the icc profile results in weird blacks. I have to apply it to both Gain and Offset for it to look normal. So I am guessing that is it?
for gamers. just read the
for gamers. just read the test on tmshardware.
Wanted to know how does this
Wanted to know how does this monitor compare to the HP Omen 32 inch monitor for Adobe work? I’m not a pro but do a lot of website building and adobe designing for my family business. Been seeing a lot of good reviews about Omen and like the price tag as well, does it stand up to the Asus or no? Thanks.