ASUS unveils slew of goodies for PC gamers

By Dan Thorp-Lancaster
published

ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q
ASUS ROG Swift PG279Q (Image credit: ASUS)

Coinciding with its ROG gaming event in San Francisco today, ASUS has unveiled quite a few items of interest for gamers. There are some new monitors making their debut, along with a motherboard, a graphics card, and some gaming laptops that the company previously showed off at IFA earlier this year.

ROG Swift PG279Q and PG27AQ

Starting off with the new, the ROG Swift PG279Q and PG27AQ are a set of two new gaming monitors from the folks at ASUS. Both monitors take advantage of NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology to cut down on screen tearing, stuttering, and reduce input lag. The monitors both feature 27-inch IPS displays. The big difference between the two is that the PG279Q runs at a resolution of 2560 x 1440, while the PG27AQ sports full 4K. One last interesting feature of these two monitors is that they default to a 144 Hz refresh rate, but that can be pumped up to 165 Hz when combined with a GeForce GTX 960 graphics card. ASUS says the Swift PG279Q will be available in November for $799, while the PG27AQ will be available sometime later this quarter.

ROG Maximus VIII Impact

Maximus VIII Impact

Also making its debut is a brand new motherboard, the ROG Maximus VIII Impact, which carries support for Intel's 6th generation Skylake processors. The motherboard comes in a mini-ITX form factor, which normally means you're in for compromises due to space limitations. ASUS says, however, that the Maximus VIII Impact packs enthusiast-level overclocking support, along with a U.2 PCI Express 3.0 x4 connector for fast SSD support, and an onboard 2 x 2 802.11AC MU-MIMO Wi-Fi for high-speed wireless. Also on board is ROG SupremeFX Impact III audio for clear sound. ASUS says the motherboard will be available mid-October for a price of $249.

ROG Matrix GTX 980 Ti

Matrix 980 Ti

ASUS has also unveiled a new graphics card in the Matrix GTX 980 Ti. The card packs the guts of a GeForce GTC 980 Ti, but ASUS has built a custom circuit board, power deliver, and cooling mechanism inside. The card also packs a defroster (yes, a defroster), LED lights that change color based on workload, and a safe-mode button in case your overclock goes awry. The Matrix GTX 980 Ti will be available this quarter, but ASUS was mum on pricing.

ASUS RT-AC88U

RT AC88U

Lastly is the new ASUS RT-AC88U router. Packed inside is support for speeds of up to 2.1 Gbps on the 5 GHz band, while the 2.4 GHz band can support speeds of up to 1 Gbps. The router also includes a USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 port, letting you connect an external hard drive for easy network storage. Finally, ASUS says that it has optimized the RT-AC88U for smooth online gaming by optimizing the WAN network for consistently low pings. The RT-AC88U will be available later this quarter, but pricing information isn't yet available.

Everything else

ASUS is also talking up the liquid-cooled ROG GX700, along with ROG G752 laptops. Both of these gaming laptops were announced back at IFA 2015, but ASUS is now saying the G752 is available for pre-order starting at $1,499. The ROG GX700, however, will land sometime later this quarter for an unannounced price.

We have people on the ground at ASUS' ROG event in San Francisco, so be sure to keep an eye out for lots of hands-on content soon.

Pre-order the ASUS ROG G752 / $1,499{.cta .shop}

Source: ASUS (opens in new tab)

Dan Thorp-Lancaster
Dan Thorp-Lancaster

Dan Thorp-Lancaster is the former Editor-in-Chief of Windows Central. He began working with Windows Central, Android Central, and iMore as a news writer in 2014 and is obsessed with tech of all sorts. You can follow Dan on Twitter @DthorpL and Instagram @heyitsdtl. 

18 Comments
  • You forgot the new monitor does not support 3d. So sad for me.
    Edit, also what's the ms response time for these two monitors? Hz isn't everything, at least thats what I've been told.
  • Hope the router will be affordable
  • Expect $250-300.
  • He's a good router to consider at half that price. Read the reviews first, but I found it easy to set up if you have a tech background. https://www.amazon.com/gp/your-account/order-history/item/ref=oh_aui_i_d...
  • This is the correct link: amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00BGIXOHQ/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1
  • I also like the router, but why does gaming hardware need to look this stupid? I could never put this in the living room, my wife would kill me.
  • If you have a TV Stand, stick it on the back of the TV Stand, use a switch or bridge two routers together or something :P.
  • My dad just picked up the RT-87 router and has been pleased with it. Very pricey ($225 or so), but awesome speed and range after putting up with a wretched wireless signal from the stock Comcast hardware.
  • I would be happy if there are some windows 10 mobile devices from Asus in pipeline..
  • I already have the Maximus VIII..!! Got it two weeks back..!!
    So why the launch again..??
  • It is Maximus Impact 8.
  • G752 looks nice, it would be nice if it had touch, yeah it's a gamer laptop but you know, sometimes it's nice to touch the screen, it should be standard by now, just becuase it's useful for many things. or maybe pen wacom support or something like that, just because it's a gamer laptop, and classified like that, it doesn't mean it wouldn't be nice to test game engines on it and create, since not everything is about gaming, I find it more fun to create stuff more than playing games. so wacom technology would have been nice, but I guess if I have room for a 17.3" screen laptop, I can have room for pluging the wacom tablet, but it's cool to sculpt on the screen. But anyway, it looks nice and the specs seem cool for a laptop, if you compare the prices of some competition, where they charge alot more for less specs, these kind of laptops seem really nice for the price. so maybe I wil get something like G752, I have no need but who knows if I would have to buy a laptop soon.
  • Was this the event that microsoft said there will be new devices was waiting to see a few upgrades to a few great machines from last year but it was only there gaming series they already announced Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • These routers with many antennas are just gimmick, bad range and bad signal. Get the enterprise router brand like Unifi or cisco for enterprise. They are a lot better and theres 0 antenna on it.
  • You can get a 3 pack of uap-lr for £195. Much better option, if you need range.
  • No ROG FreeSync monitors? I'm disappointed.
  • There's already the dominator Posted via the Windows Central App for Android
  • That's some marketing BS on the router, it can't optimize something it has absolutely no control of. It optimizes WAN network? Once the traffic leaves the local router it's up to the external routers to find the best path by least cost metric. The only optimization it can do is on the packets coming in and out of itself.