If you are a PC gamer and also you’re proud of your present monitor, cease studying this put up now. I’m going to clarify one thing right here that may endlessly alter the way in which you take a look at gaming screens, and you possibly can find yourself in the identical scenario because the creator: disillusioned in virtually each show available on the market.
By distinction, strobing shows like CRTs have a lot clearer movement as a result of the strobing impact tips your mind into seeing the images as particular person pictures. Even at a lot decrease refresh charges, the movement is clearer on a CRT than it’s on a typical LCD or OLED display screen due to the strobing impact. This phenomenon is well-understood by individuals who have studied it today, but it surely is not well-recognized by the bigger gaming neighborhood.
All of that info is important to grasp the subject of this put up: Ultra Low Motion Blur, model 2, a.ok.a. ULMB 2. ULMB is a mode that exists in all true G-SYNC shows; that’s, these screens with FPGA G-SYNC modules. It’s basically only a backlight strobing mode like many different screens have (see: ASUS ELMB), but it surely makes use of the G-SYNC module to accurately part the backlight strobe with the display screen refresh, and offers drastically improved movement readability over non-strobed modes.
Well, NVIDIA has simply introduced the primary replace to ULMB because the know-how debuted ten years in the past in 2013. Unfortunately, ULMB 2 (maybe because the title implies) is extra of an iteration on the unique know-how slightly than an enormous improve. Much like AMD’s FreeSync Premium, it primarily takes the unique know-how and units some baselines for efficiency that the machine has to fulfill with the intention to proclaim “ULMB 2” help. In that sense, it is type of like a certification program for ULMB shows, though it isn’t simply that—extra on this in a bit.
Monitors with ULMB 2 should have the ability to strobe at their most refresh fee, should have minimal strobe crosstalk, and should have at the least 250 cd/m² brightness in strobe mode, which is a fairly large improve. It’s additionally a giant ask contemplating that ULMB 2 screens should even have “efficient movement readability” of at the least 1,000 Hz.
120Hz ULMB gives comparable or higher movement readability to a 480-Hz monitor.
If you are left questioning what which means, it implies that a show with ULMB 2 should have the ability to obtain the identical movement readability as a show with a 1-OkHz refresh fee. How do you do this? By attaining movement persistence of simply 1ms. A whole lot of shows already declare a “Motion Persistence Response Time” or MPRT of 1ms, however the actuality is that only a few truly obtain that as a result of gradual response time of their panels (which exceeds a whole body!) or excessively lengthy strobe durations.
To be clear, ULMB 2 is not only a certification program; NVIDIA has developed a know-how known as “Vertical Dependent Overdrive” that the corporate says can considerably scale back strobe crosstalk. Crosstalk is when the strobe flashes earlier than the vertical scanout has completed, so you find yourself with double pictures on a part of the display screen.
NVIDIA’s G-SYNC module is already used to handle pixel response time in G-SYNC mode by enabling variable overdrive that adjustments easily with the refresh fee. Well, by utilizing the identical know-how, NVIDIA can enable an extended backlight strobe by making certain that the strobe pulse occurs on the most optimum time in the course of the rolling scanout of the picture to the LCD panel.
As with any new know-how, the apparent query is “when can I get it?” Well, proper now, in the event you occur to have one of many two suitable screens. The Acer Predator XB273UF ($200 off on Amazon proper now) and the ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQN ($1,049 on Amazon) are each 360-Hz screens that help ULMB 2 with a easy firmware replace. NVIDIA additionally notes two extra screens on the way in which with help: the ASUS ROG Swift Pro PG248QP and the AOC AGON AG276QSG. No date on these, however Mean Green says they’re “Coming Soon.”
