Going by the specs, the Asus TUF Gaming VG259QM has a lot in common with Dell’s Alienware 25 AW2521HF, one of the best monitors for gaming, but boasts an even higher refresh rate when overclocked, and costs a bit less to boot at the moment—it’s on sale at Amazon for $244.21 right now.
That’s nearly $85 below its list price ($84.79 to be precise). It doesn’t always sell for the full MSRP, but it sometimes does. Looking at its price tracking history, it averages around $319 (the cheapest it has been before now as $289, a price point it hit twice in the past).
Asus TUF Gaming VG259QM 24.5″ Monitor | IPS | G-Sync | 280Hz | $329 $244.21 at Amazon
The VG259QM is an excellent gaming monitor with an extremely high refresh rate and support for both FreeSync and G-Sync to keep the action smooth. If it sells out on Amazon, you can find it for the same price at Walmart.
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The VG259QM is built around a 24.5-inch IPS panel with a 1920×1080 resolution (not to be confused with the VG258QM, which uses a TN screen and actually costs more at the moment).
This is made for fast and smooth gaming. To that end, it boasts a native 240Hz refresh rate that can be overclocked to 280Hz, a 1ms gray-to-gray (GtG) response time, and plays nice with both FreeSync and G-Sync.
It also features DisplayHDR 400 certification, so it can handle HDR gaming and content (HDR10), though it doesn’t get eye-searingly bright enough to really do HDR justice. Still, it’s another checked box on the specs sheet.
Inputs consist of DisplayPort 1.2 (x1), HDMI 2.0 (x2), and a 3.5mm headphone jack. It also has a pair of built-in 2W speakers, in case your headphones or discrete speakers give up the ghost.
We haven’t reviewed this one, but our friends at Tom’s Hardware have, and found it delivers “phenomenal gaming” performance anchored by a “rock solid” stand, among other high praise.