If 4K gaming is just too easy for your RTX 5090, then try it on Asus' new 5K ROG Strix display and watch it weep
Monitors with resolutions higher than 4K certainly aren't anything new, but they've mostly been the preserve of the professional/creator market. So it's definitely newsworthy that Asus has just launched what appears to be its first-ever 5K gaming monitor. That's right, 77% more pixels for your GPU to cope with.
The display in question is the snappily-titled ROG Strix 5K XG27JCG, and as the name suggests, its key feature is the 5120 x 2880 IPS panel. Coming in at 27 inches in size, though, that's a lot of pixels being packed in there. Specifically, it's 218 pixels per inch, which is an absurdly high density.
Pro creators never really care that much about having a display with high refresh rates, but gamers do. Fortunately, despite its immense pixel density, the ROG Strix 5K still manages to top out at 180 Hz, with FreeSync Premium and G-Sync compatible VRR support, all with a grey-to-grey response time of 0.3 milliseconds.
Sounds fab, right? Well, a resolution of 5120 x 2880 is 77% more pixels than 4K, so you can well imagine how hard it would be for any GPU to run a game at this level. Even RTX 5090 cards find 4K gaming hard work. That's where the monitor's next key feature comes into play: Dual-mode.
The ROG Strix 5K can be switched to 1440p with the press of a button, which is not only much nicer for your graphics card, but it also allows the refresh rate to hit a ludicrously high 330 Hz. Normally, I'm a bit wary of dual-mode monitors because the blending of pixels (going from high res to low res) can induce some blurriness.
However, I suspect that this shouldn't be too much of an issue, due to the very high pixel density. It probably still won't be quite as good as a native 1440p display, but it should be fine for folks who work more and play less with their single screen.
You could use DLSS Performance to force a 1440p rendering resolution and leave it at 5K, but be warned: 5K, 180 Hz is actually beyond the reach of a lot of graphics cards. In fact, according to Asus, only Nvidia's RTX 50-series and AMD's Radeon 7000 and 9000-series cards are up to the task.
Even if it's all tip-top and peachy looking when in 1440p mode, I don't think it's the monitor for me. Having switched from a 27-inch 4K to a 32-inch 4K this year, I know I could never go back: the former is just too small for work and gaming. I'm also a complete OLED convert, too, as I use MSI's MPG 321URX, and it would have to be something very special to make me swap.
The new ROG Strix 5K XG27JCG isn't listed on Asus' own store yet, so I have no idea about the price tag, but I reckon it will fall some good way north of $1,000. For some gamers, this could be the most amazing monitor ever. For everyone else, it'll be just something to point at and go "How many pixels?".