Technologies

This Asus OLED Gaming Monitor Is Seriously Fast and It’s $137 Off Right Now

This Asus ROG Swift OLED monitor packs a 26.5-inch display and a wild 480Hz refresh rate, and it’s now on sale.

Right now, the Asus ROG Swift 26.5-inch gaming monitor is discounted on Amazon, dropping the price to just $662, down from its typical $799 list price. That’s roughly $137 off, which lands at about 17% off for one of the fastest OLED gaming monitors on the market.

This monitor is built for people who take their frame rates seriously. The Swift packs a 26.5-inch OLED panel with a 2560-by-1440 resolution and an absolutely wild 480Hz refresh rate, making it one of the first OLED monitors to push that level of speed. Combine that with a 0.03ms response time and you get ridiculously smooth gameplay that competitive gamers will appreciate immediately.

Color performance is also a big part of the appeal. The OLED panel covers 99% of the DCI-P3 color space, which means games, movies and everyday content look vibrant without that washed-out LCD vibe. Asus also includes its own cooling system and OLED protection features to help reduce burn-in risk during long gaming sessions.

This is classic ROG hardware. Angular design, aggressive stand and subtle RGB accents that look very at home in a modern gaming setup. It’s still sleek enough to sit nicely on a clean desk build, so it feels more like a premium piece of gear than a bulky gaming accessory.

The $662 price tag sits close to the lowest recorded price, which means this deal is the genuine article and not just a cosmetic markdown.

If this monitor feels a little too hardcore for your desk setup, it’s still worth checking out the best gaming monitors floating around right now.

CHEAP GAMING LAPTOP DEALS OF THE WEEK

Alienware 16 Aurora AC16250 Intel 7 RTX 5060 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 16-inch 120Hz Laptop:

$1,000 (save $350)
Lenovo LOQ Intel i5 13th Gen RTX 5050 1TB SSD 16GB RAM 15.6-inch Laptop:

$750 (save $295)
HP Omen Slim Intel Ultra 5 RTX 5050 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 16-inch Laptop:

$800 (save $650)
Alienware 16 Aurora AC16250 Intel 7 RTX 5050 512GB SSD 16GB RAM 16-inch 120Hz Laptop:

$850 (save $350)
Acer Nitro V Intel i5 13th Gen RTX 4050 512GB SSD 8GB RAM 15.6-inch Laptop:

$709 (save $41)

Deals are selected by the CNET Group commerce team, and may be unrelated to this article.

Why this deal matters

High-end OLED gaming monitors rarely see big cuts, especially newer flagship models like this one. So if you’ve been planning to upgrade your setup with a seriously fast display, this might be a good moment to grab it before the price jumps back up.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Connections Hints, Answers and Help for March 20, #1013

Here are some hints and the answers for the NYT Connections puzzle for March 20 #1013.

Looking for the most recent Connections answers? Click here for today’s Connections hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands puzzles.

Board-game players, today’s NYT Connections puzzle is calling your name — at least the green category. Read on for clues and today’s Connections answers.

The Times has a Connections Bot, like the one for Wordle. Go there after you play to receive a numeric score and to have the program analyze your answers. Players who are registered with the Times Games section can now nerd out by following their progress, including the number of puzzles completed, win rate, number of times they nabbed a perfect score and their win streak.

Read more: Hints, Tips and Strategies to Help You Win at NYT Connections Every Time

Hints for today’s Connections groups

Here are four hints for the groupings in today’s Connections puzzle, ranked from the easiest yellow group to the tough (and sometimes bizarre) purple group.

Yellow group hint: Cause anxiety.

Green group hint: Do not pass Go.

Blue group hint: Gods and monsters.

Purple group hint: Chickens lay them.

Answers for today’s Connections groups

Yellow group: Disturb.

Green group: Words on a Monopoly board.

Blue group: Figure in Greek myth.

Purple group: Egg ____.

Read more: Wordle Cheat Sheet: Here Are the Most Popular Letters Used in English Words

What are today’s Connections answers?

The yellow words in today’s Connections

The theme is disturb. The four answers are alarm, concern, rattle and shake.

The green words in today’s Connections

The theme is words on a Monopoly board. The four answers are boardwalk, chance, luxury and parking.

The blue words in today’s Connections

The theme is figure in Greek myth. The four answers are fate, fury, muse and siren.

The purple words in today’s Connections

The theme is egg ____. The four answers are carton, noodle, roll and timer.

Toughest Connections puzzles

We’ve made a note of some of the toughest Connections puzzles so far. Maybe they’ll help you see patterns in future puzzles.

#5: Included «things you can set,» such as mood, record, table and volleyball.

#4: Included «one in a dozen,» such as egg, juror, month and rose.

#3: Included «streets on screen,» such as Elm, Fear, Jump and Sesame.

#2: Included «power ___» such as nap, plant, Ranger and trip.

#1: Included «things that can run,» such as candidate, faucet, mascara and nose.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Strands Hints, Answers and Help for March 20 #747

Here are hints and answers for the NYT Strands puzzle for March 20, No. 747.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle could be tricky for some. First off, it’s an unusual topic. And some of the answers are difficult to unscramble, so if you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Spring fever.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: A resilient, metal device.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

CORN, DELT, WEND, REND, GORE, GORY, LARD, CAPS, PAIL, PAILS, DRIP, DRIPS

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers: