The ROG Strix Series Gets New Monitor Capable of 4K 120Hz

RJ Pierce, Tech Times 22 April 2021, 03:04 am

ASUS has been rumored to release a new ROG Strix series gaming monitor for some time now, and today those rumors are confirmed.

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PARIS, FRANCE - NOVEMBER 01: Republic of Gamers logo is displayed during the 'Paris Games Week' on November 01, 2017 in Paris, France. The Republic of Gamers is the most innovative hardcore PC performance hardware. 'Paris Games Week' is an international trade fair for video games to be held from October 31 to November 5, 2017. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)

TweakTown reports that the newest addition to the very popular ROG Strix series of products, the XG43UQ, will feature HDMI 2.1 and allow gamers to play at 4K resolution at a refresh rate of 120Hz. It also has DisplayPort 1.4, which can pump out 4K at 144Hz. The monitor is due to release in May.

When it comes to the market a few weeks from now, the XG43UQ will be the ROG Strix series' pride as it's the first-ever, actual gaming monitor in the world that has HDMI 2.1; or at least that's what ASUS claims on the official ROG Strix series website.

Sweet, Sweet Frames

For those who own the current-generation PlayStation 5 and the Xbox Series X, expect buttery-smooth framerates never before seen on consoles, since those systems now support HDMI 2.1 as well. PC enthusiasts, however, still get the better end of the deal with that 144Hz refresh rate, thanks to DP 1.4 and DSC (Display Stream Compression) technology, writes WCCFTech.

(Photo : ASUS ROG Site )
A closeup of the brand new XG43UQ gaming monitor, which is the first of its kind in the ROG Strix series to feature HDMI 2.1.

At 43 inches, the shiny new ROG Strix series monitor isn't small. But it does pack a whole lot of amazing gaming tech to power that display. Players looking for the absolute smoothest experience at a native 4k resolution will be getting just that with a wide variety of features. This includes AMD's FreeSync Premium Pro, as well as ASUS' Extreme Low Motion Blur (ELMB) Sync which eliminates issues like tearing and ghosting, so you get to truly enjoy high-FPS, according to the Republic of Gamers site.

To drive this insane display with its 1ms motion picture response time (MPRT) and experience virtually no input lag, you'll need at least an RTX 3060 on the NVIDIA side, or an RX 6700 XT if you're going AMD. It's all because those two cards both feature HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4 ports. But of course, you'll be able to push those framerates even more with the top-of-the-line GPUs like the RTX 3090 or RX 6900 XT.

What's So Special About HDMI 2.1, Anyway?

With the newest ROG Strix series' gaming monitor focusing its marketing on its HDMI 2.1 port, perhaps it's time you understood what makes that port so special.

First released in August 2018, HDMI 2.1 mainly focused on outputting video at super-high native resolutions. It supported native 4K resolution, and even went as high as 8K and 10K. But with a lot of people still preferring 1080p or 1440p instead of 4K, the release of 2.1 seemed like a future-proofing feature more than a standard.

But if you got the hardware to drive a display like the XG43UQ, why not? Current-gen GPUs and consoles are more than capable of pumping out hundreds of frames, and you'll need a high-refresh rate, high-resolution monitor to take full advantage of that power.