ASUS TUF Gaming VG32AQAY1A 31.5″ QHD 170Hz 1ms FreeSync Premium Gaming Monitor

This ASUS 32.5 inch WQHD gaming monitor is an excellent choice for anyone that wants a large, colorful display for gaming, but does not want to spend a lot of money. The overall image quality is excellent, and the high refresh rate of up to 170 Hz, makes it ideal for PC gaming. So not only is this monitor great for gaming, but it’s specs also make it a great choice for general computing functions.

For me the most important aspect of a monitor is the image quality. If the image quality is lacking then nothing else really matters. Thankfully I found the overall image quality of this monitor to be superb. I tested it with a variety of content and found the colors to be accurate, rich, and vibrant. Contrast is likewise excellent. I have used many monitors over the years, and think this monitor hits the sweet spot for cost vs picture quality.

Arguably, the most important feature of a gaming monitor after image quality is refresh rate. The refresh rate of this monitor is up to 170 Hz. As with resolution, the refresh rate depends on the video card capability. I tested this monitor with Starfield at the maximum resolution of 144 Hz that my NVIDIA game card is capable of and found the gameplay to be smooth, fast, and flicker free.

The monitor resolution is 1440p or WQHD, which stands for wide quad high definition. The display resolution of WQHD measures 2560 x 1440 pixels. WQHD is sometimes referred to as 2K. The ability to game at this 1440p resolution is of course controlled by your video card capability. I myself only game at the 1080P resolution because I think that the hit on processing power is not worth the increase in resolution. This monitor is HDR certified and capable. I did not test this function as I find the HDR standard for PC’s to usually look unnatural and actually worse than SDR. This may be because most games are not properly optimized for HDR. image

One limitation of this monitor is that I found it to be incompatible with the video output of some of the Hubs that I tested it with. This is because this monitor has a minimum refresh rate of 59.95 Hz, and many Hubs output video at a maximum of 30 Hz. So while it can receive a 30 Hz signal, the image flickers in and out frequently. Of course this problem is completely solved by feeding the video directly from your PC to the monitor. Likewise it worked perfectly with a Thunderbolt 4 Hub that I recently acquired. The Thunderbolt 4 standard is compatible with refresh rates of 30-240Hz, dependent on the resolution output.

This monitor is equipped with 1 HDMI and 1 DisplayPort input. This should be adequate for most users. There are 2 internal speakers that are rated at 2W’s each. The sound they produce is best described as weak and thin, so a pair of quality headphones or an external speaker is highly recommended. There is a standard audio jack that can be used for headphones or speakers. The monitor tilt can be adjusted but height adjustment is not possible. I may look into getting a monitor stand but it would need to be wide enough to accommodate the width of the monitor legs.

This monitor is now my primary gaming monitor. It pairs perfectly with my ASUS ROG Zephyrus G 14. I like it so much that it will also be my primary PC video watching monitor because I enjoy the 31.5 screen size over the dual 27 inch monitors that I have in my primary workstation.

I only bought this monitor because it is similar to the one I currently have and the description states very clearly that it is VESA wall mountable. There is even what looks to be a plastic cover that you can remove to mount the thing. Imagine my surprise when it comes in the plastic plate doesn’t remove and is only there to make it look like it’s mountable but in reality you have to buy a $30 kit to mount it to your wall. This is bogus

TLDR: If you are in the market for a 1440p gaming monitor, or a large screen monitor for content creation, you would be hard pressed to find anything better.

KEY FEATURES
WQHD Resolution 2560 x 1440
AMD Free Sync Premium & nVidia Adaptive Sync Compatible
170Hz Refresh Rate / 1ms Response Time
HDR Capable (Approx 400 nits max)

This Asus monitor is the most comprehensive and feature-rich monitor I’ve used to date. There are so many options and settings that it is hard to find a spot where to begin.

GAMING FEATURES
Refresh Rates – Asus has apparently been looking hard at the monitor scene and decided to throw out almost every trick at its playbook. Anything that was needed to make a monitor a good gaming monitor, they took it and ran with it. This monitor has some terrific features for gamers. Starting off with a 170Hz maximum refresh rate and a 1ms response time. Fast moving images are clear and blur free. I occasionally get some blurring on fast action sequences on my lesser monitors but did not experience any perceivable blurring using the Asus.

Adaptive Sync – Asus equipped this monitor with AMD FreeSync Premium which, in a nutshell, allows the monitor to match the refresh rate of the graphics card, eliminating tearing and banding. It worked beautifully on my AMD based laptop with a Radeon 6600M card. There are so many things this monitor has to offer, I’m not sure why Asus didn’t go all in and have the monitor certified with nVidia’s G-Sync technology. Seems like an unfortunate oversight.

HDR – This monitor can support HDR (High Dynamic Range) content. HDR material, unlike SDR material can achieve brighter brights and darker darks without items and artifacts being washed out or lost in the background. My testing showed the monitor was capable of approximately 400 nits (at best) peak brightness, which isn’t revolutionary, but appears amazing if you have been on a monitor that doesn’t support HDR. The Asus is only compatible HDR10 encoded material, it does not support HLG or Dolby Vision playback and reproduction. Though, this really shouldn’t be considered a deal-breaker as a vast majority of videos are encoded with the HDR10 algorithm as this is the universal standard vs proprietary encoding of the other formats.

PICTURE MODES – The monitor has multiple, easy to choose picture and performance modes available at the push of a button. A shoutout should be given to Asus for their button design on the back of the monitor. There are 4 triangle shaped buttons and a joystick to make adjustments. The buttons are big and easy to differentiate from one another. I wish all manufacturers made their stuff like this. OK, back on topic. There are several modes to automatically adjust picture contrast, color temperature, input lag, cinema viewing, playing sports, racing, etc. The list is extensive, thorough, and exhausting. I found my go-to settings were race (lowest latency), normal color temperature, and all the Asus tweaks turned off like VividPixel, Shadow Boost, ASCR, etc.

FINAL THOUGHTS
There are so many more features that I can go on and one about, but it all comes down to this: This is one of the best monitors I’ve ever tested and played on. Not only does the monitor strut its stuff with an almost perfect D65 color reproduction, but its color uniformity is almost perfectly linear throughout its range of color reproduction. I was shocked at the results from my colorimeter.

Asus has gifted this monitor with MANY features an avid gamer could need or want, maybe even some they didn’t know they needed. I get that Asus bills the monitor towards gamers, but I think they are selling themselves short on their target audience. The color accuracy is so good, I feel this would be equally at home on a content creator’s desk as a gamer’s. I know I’ve gushed over this monitor and its many attributes, but it really is that good. Yes, it isn’t 4k. Yes, it isn’t an OLED. Even so, there isn’t anything not to like about it. Well done Asus!!

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

While this monitor is not a 4K resolution monitor, it is still visually stunning at 2K (2160x1440p at 16:9 aspect ratio) with its HDR capability and the excellent VA panel present here. The size is excellent and is going to become part of a dual monitor setup, paired with my older 24” 1440p panel, for increased productivity for work and school while enjoying gaming and occasional Twitch streaming. This 31.5” monitor is overclockable up from 165hz to 170hz refresh and has a quick response time of 1ms. In my use case, this monitor is perfect for 1440p gaming on my 3060 GPU-equipped desktop PC and provides an excellent first-person shooter experience. I have used this monitor with BattleBit Remastered, Hunt Showdown, Rocket League, Doom Eternal, and Witcher 3 and have enjoyed stunning visual fidelity and performance in all these experiences!

One aspect of this monitor that should be noted is that it lacks HDMI 2.1 connectivity, but this is honestly fine for a 2K resolution monitor as you can still achieve 1440p@120Hz just fine. I specifically used this with the included Display Port cable in the setting of PC gaming on an ASUS ROG Gaming Desktop with an Intel Core i7-13700F, 16GB RAM, and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060, and this pairing is honestly a match made in heaven! Especially with current sales, you could have a full 1440p high refresh rate gaming setup with this 31.5-inch monitor, all from ASUS (if brand loyalty or preference is a factor for you), for less than $1600! That is incredible and was unheard of 5 years ago.

I have noted a couple of things about this monitor that I want to share. First, the included stand is tiltable and directionally pivots, but there is no height adjustment. On my 28-inch-tall desk, this monitor feels ever so slightly low for my postural comfort, and I am not a tall guy in my office chair. So, if you are concerned with ergonomics and comfort over a long day of use, you may want to go ahead and consider a Vesa mounting arm for this monitor. Just make sure it is compatible with a large 31” monitor as many of the common ones on Amazon are limited to 27” size monitors.

Another thing that I wanted to share is the 170hz overclockable refresh rate. That setting is found in the menu of the monitor itself if you want to select to turn it on. However, the monitor is 165hz at its baseline and for me, that is plenty fast for even my most frenetic FPS shooters like BattleBit Remastered and Doom Eternal. I found that when I chose to overclock the monitor, I noticed some flickering and tearing happening on the previously listed games, so I decided to turn off the panel refresh rate overclock and be content with 165hz. Since then, I have had no discernable flickering of the monitor. On the note of refresh rate etc. this monitor is AMD freesync compatible but is not yet supported for NVidia G-Sync. I look forward to the day when/if it finally is G-Sync supported because I have always been one who has noticed frame rate drops while gaming and G-sync on my other monitor has always smoothed things out.

I hope these couple of details are helpful for you! The TUF series of products from Asus have always stood out to me as some of the best in the gaming business for dollar-to-performance ratio if you are not overly concerned with certain creature comforts like a height adjustable stand coming right out of the box. Thanks for reading and good luck with your purchase decision!

Monitor works great so far! Just so everyone else is aware, the VESA mount holes have little rubber protectors in them that you can pop out with something pointy. Threw me for a loop at first because they sit so flush and snug it feels like pulling them out is the wrong answer. It’s not, pull those bad boys out and you’re good to mount.

Had this for a few months now, holds up really well considering the price point.
Really wide but wouldn’t guess it from the pics, makes it ideal for those who enjoy playing games with a little more distance between them and the screen.

Bought this to replace a smaller monitor I use at home for work. Best Buy had no other models with the aspect I was looking for so had to settle with a more expensive one. Works fine for spreadsheets, word documents, etc. but is meant more as a gaming monitor so I will never be able to check it for those features.

Got this to use with my gaming laptop. Really liked the size to this since my gaming laptop is only a 17″ screen on it. With this, almost, double the size of my laptop screen, makes for much easier and better gaming experience.

32″ monitor is right in that sweet spot, for me at least. It’s not too big and not too small. Still gives plenty of real estate to work with without being a strain on the eyes. I have a larger 49″ screen (which is great) however there can be times where it’s a strain to use since the super ultrawide format of the screen makes it a bit harder to focus in on what you need to focus on.

This is a flat screen so I know lots of folks swear by the curved screens these days. But I find this flat screen just as easy to use without sacrificing any performance or specs. This has decent specs so it’s not the greatest performing monitor but neither it is an entry level monitor. 2560 x 1440 screen with 1ms response time. Hadn’t had any issues with stutter or lag or ghosting when playing Destiny 2/RDR2. Has all the ports you need such as 2 HDMI and DisplayPort as well as 3.5mm jacks.

Overall, a great primary monitor for gaming or, if you have a larger monitor, then this will also make for a great secondary screen too. Only real complaint I had was with the stand. This monitor doesn’t go up/down or side to side so it’s quite limited in that respect. I would recommend you use a monitor arm like I did so you have a little more flexibility when using this monitor.

Let me start off by saying I need to buy a bigger desk. I love my current 2 – 24 inch monitor setup, but I love this ASUS 31.5″ TUF more. Size does matter. There were times where a screen this size would have been considered a large screen TV. But performance also matters. This gaming monitor stands out in both aspects. With the 170hz refresh rate and a 1 ms response rate this monitor is smooth and fast. The 2560 x 1440 (2k) resolution is also more than sufficient to provide you with an amazing gaming experience. On top of the eye opening performance specs, the versatility of this monitor also stands out. With a DisplayPort and 2 HDMI ports, this monitor can be used for more than gaming. I could see this monitor being a very valuable asset for a dorm is it could double as a television.

Some gaming monitors do not come with speakers. Other gaming monitors come with less than adequate speakers. This monitor, however, was a pleasant surprise. The audio produced from this monitor it no replacement for a dedicated audio system. However if you only had a big enough of a budget to spend on a monitor, you could definitely get by for a while with the speakers included.

Like most things, this monitor is not perfect. Out of the box the color was off. Not just “hmm…something looks a little off”. The color was really terrible. I had to spend a solid 20 minutes adjusting the hues and cues to get colors I was used to. Also, this monitor is equipped with physical buttons on the back right side of the monitor. This is great. I am all for physical buttons as it makes life easier. However, any time I attempt to adjust the angle of this monitor, the buttons are exactly where I place my fingers to move the monitor. Ultimately one I get this monitor in its forever home, I really wont need to adjust it so that should be a non-issue. And if I only need to invest 20 or so minutes into getting the settings to where I like, that is a small price to pay for a monitor of this caliber.

Overall, this is a great gaming monitor with the sized and specs. Although there is a bit of a hefty price tag attached, it is an investment that is well worth the money. If you want to up your game, up your monitor with this ASUS TUF LED monitor.

lousy warranty help they want you to send the monitor back but they will not send you one till they receive the broken one So I guess you have to purchase another monitor till you get yours!!!!!