ASRock PG27FFX2A Review: We Tested A 520Hz Gaming Monitor

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Arsalan Shakil

As a Hardware Expert at Tech4Gamers, I bring my decade-long expertise in electronics design, embedded solutions, and prototyping. My knack for exposing misconceptions in the tech world finds a perfect outlet here.

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I have had the chance to review a few rock-solid PSUs from ASRock, and today, I am quite excited to also get my hands on their premium Gaming Monitor.

ASRock, with its vast line of products, both premium and enthusiast series, has recently been trying to excel in an already well-saturated PC market space, catering to the needs of every gamer from different price segments and their requirements.

Having recently reviewed their PSUs, I am certain I will get to see the same ASRock’s formula – impressive performance numbers with a pinch of unique features that no one seems to offer (maybe because no one has any appetite for them?)

In this article, I will be doing an in-depth review of ASRock’s PG27FFX2A, a 27″ 16:9 1080P Gaming Monitor from their Phantom Gaming lineup that has a whopping 520Hz refresh rate.

Key Takeaways

• The ASRock PG27FFX2A is a 27-inch, 520Hz IPS gaming monitor that delivers smooth performance with good color accuracy for fast-paced gaming.
• You should go for the ASRock PG27FFX2A if your graphics card can make the most out of its 520Hz refresh rate, and you don’t want to spend too much on an OLED.
• You should skip the ASRock PG27FFX2A if its pixel density, considering the 1080p resolution and 27″ size, is too low for you.

Here are the main specs of the monitor:

What Makes The ASRock PG27FFX2A Different?

There was a time when even 240Hz Monitors were considered the highest benchmark for fast-paced gaming, but thanks to the pace at which the competitive Esports industry is evolving, and now with the availability of extremely fast X3D processors from AMD, insanely fast refresh rate monitors have started to make sense these days.

Now to be honest, such high refresh rate numbers have been around for quite a while already using TN Panels, but the most impressive thing ASRock has done with PG27FFX2A is that they have achieved this using an IPS Panel, which is quite a remarkable achievement, if they have done this correctly, which we will see in our tests later.

Packaging & Unboxing

The monitor comes in a cardboard box. 

Unboxing & Contents

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As expected, the monitor is packed securely in styrofoam, along with an additional wrap, so there are minimal chances of shipping damage.

Design

The ASRock PG27FFX2A has a practical, understated look that should fit in with most setups. From the front, you get a mostly borderless display on three sides, with thin edges along the top and sides that don’t really get in the way of the screen. The bottom bezel is thicker and features the Phantom Gaming logo in the center. Overall, it gives the monitor a clean appearance without looking plain.

The stand and base follow the same matte black finish as the rest of the monitor. The base is fairly wide, which helps keep the monitor stable on your desk. There’s an ASRock logo on the stand’s foot, but no RGB lighting or anything flashy, which some users might actually prefer.

Looking at the back, the design stays simple. The matte black plastic continues all the way around, and there’s a carry handle at the top that makes moving the monitor easier. The stand attaches with a quick-release mechanism, and you can switch it out for a VESA mount if you want to use your own arm or wall mount. There’s a cable management hole built into the stand’s arm, plus ASRock includes a Phantom Gaming-branded cable sleeve in the box, which helps keep cables organized.

Stand Design

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The stand on the PG27FFX2A is sturdy and wide, so the monitor stays stable even if your desk takes a few knocks. The splayed legs do take up a fair amount of space, so you’ll need to make sure you have enough room for it, but on the flip side, this design keeps the monitor from wobbling around.

One standout feature is the built-in Wi-Fi antenna ports on the back of the stand. If your motherboard supports external antennas, you can actually run the connection through the monitor’s stand and use it as your antenna. This can be handy if your PC is hidden away under the desk or in a spot with weaker Wi-Fi, since the monitor is usually out in the open and might get a stronger signal. Of course, this depends on your setup; not everyone will use this feature, but it’s a smart extra that might help if you struggle with spotty wireless.

Adjustment-wise, the stand gives you the basics you’d expect. You can tilt the screen up or down, raise or lower the height, and swivel it side to side. It doesn’t support rotating the screen to portrait, but you can always use a VESA mount if you need that. Moving the monitor around feels smooth, and there’s just a bit of shake if you use the OSD controls, not enough to be annoying.

ASRock also paid attention to cable management. There’s a hole in the arm for your wires and even a branded cable sleeve in the box, which helps keep things tidy. The included Wi-Fi cables are long enough to reach your motherboard with no problem and can be neatly tucked away.

When it comes to connectivity, the ASRock PG27FFX2A gives you all the essentials for a modern gaming setup. You get a single DisplayPort 1.4 and two HDMI 2.1 ports for hooking up your devices, both of which are more than capable of handling high refresh rates, even up to 520Hz with DSC if you have a system that can keep up. ASRock includes both a DisplayPort and an HDMI cable in the box, so you’re set whichever way you prefer to connect. While there’s no DisplayPort 2.1 or USB-C here, the basics are covered well, and for most users, that’s all you really need.

There are also two USB 3.1 Gen 1 Type-A ports, which you can use for high-bandwidth peripherals like webcams or external drives. These are linked via a single USB Type-B upstream connection to your PC. While it’s not a true KVM switch, it’s handy if you want to keep your setup tidy and connect a couple of devices through the monitor. Lastly, you also get a 3.5mm headphone jack.

The built-in speakers are a nice extra for basic use, but don’t expect anything impressive. They’re rear-facing and only 2W each, so sound quality is about what you’d get from a laptop, fine for system sounds or a quick YouTube video, but not much more. If you care about audio quality, you’ll definitely want to use external speakers or headphones.

For controlling the monitor, the OSD (on-screen display) buttons are found on the bottom right edge. Quick access options for brightness and volume are a nice touch, so you don’t have to dig through menus for basic adjustments. The OSD itself is clean and simple, with most of the important settings easy to find.

OSD Walkthrough

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Response Time

Response Time (RT) is the most important factor in a gaming monitor as this defines how smooth & crisp a moving image feels. Unlike OLED panels, pixels in IPS, VA, and TN Panels tend to take time in transitioning from one pixel to another (when an image changes/refreshes). This transitioning period is what’s referred to as Pixel Response Time, and it is measured in milliseconds (ms). The slower the RT, the more trails an image leaves behind, and this image trail is called Ghosting.

A better way to measure RT is to take into account the time it takes for a pixel to transition from one state to another. An industry standard practice is to make a monitor transition to different shades of grey (GtG), in our test specifically, from 0% to 20%, 0%-40%, to 60%, 80% and to 100%.

The numbers we usually see being advertised on the box for GtG are highly manipulated by brands themselves and differ vastly from the actual real-life observations.

ASRock PG27FFX2A shows impressive overall RT performance for a high refresh rate IPS monitor, reaching a staggering average RT of 2.5ms.

Response Time Results

UFO Test Results

It is to note that for a 520Hz refresh rate, one frame should take around 1.9ms (1000/520=1.9230ms) to complete, this is the territory where only the OLED Panels excel, as they can instantaneously transition from one pixel to another, resulting in a crisp and trail/ghosting free image. For an IPS panel, it is technically impossible to be extremely fast without any Ghosting artifacts; it then comes down to some very clever techniques that a manufacturer has to implement to make such inevitable flaws nearly imperceptible.

One of such techniques that ASRock is mainly relying on for their PG27FFX2A monitor to achieve an insanely fast 520Hz refresh rate with 2.5ms of RT is Over-Shoot, also called Over-Drive (OD). ASRock has a well-controlled Over-Shoot throughout different transitions as the pixels very rapidly change themselves back to the intended color.

Over-Shoot is a phenomenon where, to make a transition from one color to another extremely fast, e.g, a pixel goes from black to showing the color RGB 102 (40% grey), it will first overshoot to RGB 127 (50% grey) and then come back down to RGB 102. This causes a slight halo effect on the edges of the fast-moving image.

Doing this Over-Shoot trick with fast precision doesn’t cause a significant issue, as can be seen in the ASRock PG27FFX2A.

Over-Drive (OD) Setting

From the OSD, the ASRock PG27FFX2A has an option to make the RT even faster. Users can choose from Normal and Enhanced mode. Although Normal mode doesn’t do much, Enhance mode is where the Inverse Ghosting artifacts become largely visible.

OD Normal vs Enhance

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Looks like ASRock is already running the IPS panel in PG27FFX2A to its max limits, and tweaking beyond the default settings doesn’t bring any impactful results; instead, it causes Inverse Ghosting artifacts due to excessive overshoot.

Pixel RT Over-Shoot Graph

Brightness & Contrast

ASRock advertises brightness and contrast numbers to be 400cd/m² and 1000:1, respectively. In our test, the measured brightness came out to be 471cd/m² which is super bright and more than capable of being fully compatible for HDR400 certification. When it comes to the contrast, it is considered IPS’ Achilles heel and rightly so, as only a VA panel can produce closer to the true blacks than IPS, and an OLED is the only viable and widely available technology as of yet that can produce true blacks with an infinite contrast ratio. Still, ASRock PG27FFX2A impressed me with its surprisingly high 1341:1 contrast.

Color Accuracy

As per the AsRock PG27FFX2A specifications, this monitor seems to have very good and accurate color rendition. AsRock claims 123% sRGB and 94% DCI-P3 color space.

During our Color Accuracy testing using Calibrite Display Plus HL color calibration tool, PG27FFX2A produced good enough results for both sRGB (99.4%) and DCI-P3 (87.3%) Gamut Coverage. The majority of users will be using applications (gaming, surfing) that only take sRGB into account, for such applications, AsRock PG27FFX2A is going to perform with very accurate color information.

Color Accuracy

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On its factory default settings, PG27FFX2A had too much Green dialed in. Though this is pretty normal to make the display and its colors look slightly brighter but when doing extremely accurate and professional color work, you may face a little issue matching the colors to the actual source. But I don’t think anyone who’s buying this monitor will be using it other than for gaming.

I am still attaching the color profile below, which will make the colors and white balance a lot more accurate than the factory default.

• Download ASRock PG27FFX2A Color Profile (.ICM)

Should You Buy It?

Buy It If

✅You are a serious competitive‑FPS player: All things are secondary, the incredibly fast 520Hz refresh rate makes the ASRock PG27FFX2A the right choice for anyone who wants the fastest gaming experience.

✅You want reliability without dropping top money: The PG27FFX2A costs way less than its OLED counterparts, and thanks to its IPS panel, you won’t ever have to worry about screen burn-in, which OLEDs are quite famous for.

✅You want good color accuracy: The ASRock PG27FFX2A has good sRGB gamut coverage, which is going to show accurate colors when consuming content from the internet as well as gaming.

Don’t Buy It If:

❌You play too close to the monitor: ASRock should have released a 24.5″/25″ variant of the same monitor if it really wants to compete with the likes of BenQ, LG, and Alienware in eSports tournaments. The pixel density, due to its 27″ size and 1080p resolution, makes it a hard pill to swallow if you sit too close to the monitor. 

❌Your graphics card is not pushing north of 400-500 FPS: The highlight of this monitor is its high, 520Hz, refresh rate, so make sure your GPU can play competitive games at ~500 FPS to utilize such a refresh rate.

Final Thoughts

Manufacturers seemed to have reached their limits with high refresh rate IPS monitors, leaving only expensive OLED options fast enough for true competitive play. However, with the PG27FFX2A, ASRock has managed to deliver an IPS panel that stands out for its exceptional performance and quality. Featuring a 2.5ms pixel response time, well-controlled overdrive, minimal ghosting, and solid overall build quality, the ASRock PG27FFX2A is an easy recommendation for serious esports gaming enthusiasts.

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Arsalan Shakil

[Errors Troubleshooting Expert]

Arsalan Shakil (aka GuyThatDoesEverything on YouTube) is a PC Tech Enthusiast and Electronic Geek. With over 10+ years of experience in Electronics, he then decided to explore Software Engineering to design embedded products and automate existing hardware solutions. 

When he started tearing down old cameras to understand how they worked, he was shocked (literally, when he got zapped by a flash discharge capacitor), giving him the power (debatable) to fall in love with videography/photography. He also started making some fun videos that later became YouTube tech reviews.

Skills:

• 10+ years of experience in Electronics design, embedded solutions, and prototyping
• Majored in Software Engineering
• Research paper publication in IEEE for Embedded Military Uniform & LoRa WAN wireless technology
• Specialized in IoT Solutions
• PC Enthusiast & PC Modder

In his local region, he’s known to expose cheap PSU brands, often claiming fake certification or false claims on the box. He’s a true nerd and needed some friends in his life. Then he met some guys who work at Tech4Gamers, and they also came out to be equal nerds who suggested he join Tech4Gamers as a Hardware Expert.