Last week, we got early word ofnew ASRock Phantom Gaming monitorsthat would be displayed atCES, and the news was scintillating. The headliner was undoubtedly the Phantom Gaming PG27FFX2A, which boasted a 520Hz refresh rate. We’ve finally had a chance to see the 27-inch PG27FFX2A in person, along with a few additional entries in the family, including some OLED goodness.
The PG27FFX2A is likely the most technically impressive for competitive gamers, boasting a fast IPS panel with a Full HD (1920 x 1080) resolution. ASRock promises a maximum refresh rate of 520Hz with AMD FreeSync Premium support. However, it wasn’t specified whether this is the native spec or if you’ll have to enable an overclock function in the OSD. Regardless, we’re looking at a 1ms response time, 1,000:1 contrast ratio (average for an IPS panel), maximum brightness of 400 nits, and 99 percent coverage of sRGB (90 percent DCI-P3).
You’ll likely need aRadeonRX 7000 Series graphics card for a data pipe sufficient to handle a 1080p stream at 520Hz. AMD’s latest Radeon graphics cards have the necessary HDMI 2.1 compliance to handle those data rates. The PG27FFX2A includes two HDMI 2.1 ports and one DisplayPort 1.4 port. You’ll also find two USB 3.0 Type-A ports, one USB 2.0 Type-A port, and a 3.5mm headphone jack. One curious addition is an integrated Wi-Fi antenna, which we imagine could be used for native media streaming services and cloud gaming.
If you’re adamant about the 27-inch screen size but want a little more resolution, there’s the Phantom Gaming PG27QFW2A. This IPS monitor bumps the resolution to QHD (2560 x 1440) but drops the maximum refresh rate to a still impressive 400Hz with FreeSync Premium support. You’ll find the same 1,000:1 contrast ratio, but maximum brightness takes a slight step backward to 350 nits. Available ports are more comprehensive with the PG27QFW2A, as you’ll get two each of HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 1.4, while a USB 3.0 hub offers up Type-C and Type-A ports for your peripherals. And like the PG27FFX2A, integrated Wi-Fi is included in the mix.
Rounding out the 27-inch trifecta is the Phantom Gaming PG0270W2A, which also has a QHD resolution. The big news with the PG0270W2A is that it swaps out the IPS panel in favor of OLED technology. Opting for an OLED panel means the native refresh rate is 360Hz (FreeSync Premium Pro supported), which is still impressive (if you leave out the overachieving480Hz ROG Swift OLED PG32UCDP).
As is typical with OLED panels, response time is impressive at just 0.03ms, and maximum brightness is not a strong suit, with a maximum of 250 nits. However, the 1,500,000:1 contrast ratio is no doubt a critical advantage of this panel type. Wi-Fi also appears on the PG0270W2A along with two HDMI 2.1 ports, one DisplayPort 1.4 connection and a single USB-C 3.0 port.
ASRock has not yet announced pricing or availability for its new 27-inch Phantom Gaming monitors family.
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Brandon Hill is a senior editor at Tom’s Hardware. He has written about PC and Mac tech since the late 1990s with bylines at AnandTech, DailyTech, and Hot Hardware. When he is not consuming copious amounts of tech news, he can be found enjoying the NC mountains or the beach with his wife and two sons.
