GREAT PICTURE / BUILD QUALITY / FAST / FUN REVIEW: ASUS - TUF Gaming 23.8" IPS LED FHD FreeSync Monitor - Model:VG249Q SUMMARY Short Version, Great monitor for 1080P /144hz gaming. The versatility of the stand is great with Tilt, Swivel, Height adjustments, or you can remove the stand for VESA mounts. Colors were true and bright (see pic). The graphics were smooth and jitter free with FreeSync enabled on both the computer and monitor. Having speakers on the monitor was a nice touch as well as VGA, HDMI, and Display ports. If you are after 1080P, I can highly recommend this monitor as either a primary or secondary monitor. UNBOXING: (see picture) Well packed, and I really liked the “grab handle” strap to help get it out the box without having to dump it upside down on the floor like other monitors. MY SETUP FOR THIS TEST / REVIEW Because results can vary significantly based on CPU and GPU options, I wanted to clearly state what I tested and how I tested this monitor. PC 1 – (Display Port 1.4) - Lenovo P500 CAD Workstarion W/Xeon 2690-V3 (12 Core / 24 Threads), 32GB RAM, EVGA GTX 1070TI FTW2, Slightly Overclocked (+175), WIN 10 PRO, SSD Boot Drive. PC 2 – (Display Port 1.2 W/ HDMI Adaptor) – Lenovo T470P, I7-7700HQ (4 Core / 8 Threads), 16GB RAM (2017), W/ GeForce 940MX, Connected Via the docking station, WIN 10 PRO, SSD Boot Drive TEST SOFTWARE • DOOM 2016 • STAR WARS BATTLEFRONT II (2016) • Grand Master Chess • UNIGINE 2 – Superposition Benchmark TIPS: 1) You must find and manually download the driver for the monitor or else you cant run it at 144hz. Search for ASUS VG249Q Driver Download 2) You should have the latest video card driver for your specific video card. 3) The monitor must be connected with a Display Port 1.2 or greater cable (if you want to use FreeSync) 4) The VG249Q must be your primary monitor (if you want to use FreeSync) 5) You must set both your monitor and video drivers manually to enable FreeSync / GSync, and maybe reboot afterwards to make sure everything takes effect as excepted. Even though this monitor is not the highest level of compatibility with official G-Sync, it is compatible with the “basic” version of G-Sync. (see pics for Nvidia) IMPRESSIONS My primary monitor is 4K 60hz, so I was not sure what to expect. On one hand I was apprehensive about a “step down” to 1080P, but also excited about a step up to 144hz. I think the Asus VG2496 will find a good home for fast action first person shooters like Doom. Generally, I prefer the more immersive experience of 4K for slower paced games, even if the refresh rate is slower. I won’t go into the details, but don’t expect your games Frames Per Second to increase just because of the monitor alone. My basic understanding is that FPS is mostly a function of how fast your computer and GPU can work together to pump out screen images (a frame) think of this as processing power, whereas the refresh rate is how fast your monitor can draw the frames. (I know this is not perfectly correct but close enough). A new monitor alone won’t increase the output of your slow gaming system, but if you have enough power, it may make gameplay smoother. GAMING For Doom there was a definite improvement in the smoothness of play. Running at about 150FPS in 1080P Ultra/Nightmare mode, quality was a treat. I ran the Nvidia game optimization program beforehand to get the best settings. Dropping the settings manually in subsequent tests did not make much of a difference in FPS or gameplay. For Battlefront, I could tell the difference in heavy battle scenes, but I still prefer my 4K monitor for the immersive experience and “pretty” pictures. BENCHMARKS I was able to achieve a respectable 150 fps in 1080p medium testing with the UNIGINE 2 – Superposition Benchmark software, and a scope of 15,700 (see pic). My GPU is only slightly overclocked, nothing crazy or water cooled. MINOR ISSUES As I mentioned make sure you have the latest drivers for both monitor and GPU. The monitor software does not self install, you have to unzip it, then go into manage devices, drill down to you “generic monitor” and then “Update the Driver” and then point to where you unzipped the file. This is not user friendly ASUS come on. You should have a monitor setup program that optimizes the installation, and monitor settings. There is a bump out on the back of the monitor below where the ports are located, I used the best 8K cables I could find for HDMI and Display Port, so they are thick. I had to bend them a great deal just to get them inserted (see pic). There is a lot of strain on the cables. I hate on screen menus and soft buttons that are required to use advanced features. Just to change the volume you have to select something like 4 menus. If you are going to add speakers at lest make dedicated speaker buttons (see pic). My other primary 4K monitor has a similar soft menu, but also software that you can load so that you can use the mouse and make presets and profiles, no fumbling around trying to guess which button to press. You can only have One “OSD Game Trick” active at a time. Don’t expect to have Cross Hairs and FPS active at the same time for example. OK, these are all minor things, and just something to deal with occasionally. I only mention them in case they might bother you. SUMMARY / FINAL RECOMMENDATION I would recommend this as a great 1080P / 144hz monitor. It is affordable and packed with features. Yes, it works with G-Sync and is very well built. Any issues I have are minor at best. I expect it to last forever like my previous ASUS monitors and devices.