Many gaming monitors include a strobed motion blur reduction feature to eliminate display motion blur. Also, many include variable refresh rate (VRR) feature such as FreeSync to eliminate stuttering and tearing.

The ASUS brand for motion blur reduction is ELMB, which stands for Extreme Low Motion Blur.

However, you could never combine ELMB and FreeSync… Until now.

Introducing ELMB-SYNC: Simultaneous FreeSync and ELMB

ASUS has a new TUF Gaming brand, and its new gaming monitor ASUS TUF VG32VQ combines variable refresh rate (VRR) with motion blur reduction. ASUS says:

TUF Gaming VG32VQ: World’s 1st display with concurrent motion blur reduction & Adaptive-Sync

TUF Gaming VG32VQ is a 32-inch, QHD (2560×1440), curved VA panel sporting HDR and an ultrafast 144Hz refresh rate for competitive gamers and those seeking immersive gameplay. Those are some serious specs, but not the most exciting thing TUF Gaming VG32VQ has in store.

VA panels are known for offering high contrast ratios and good color accuracy but deliver slower response times than TN based monitors. The VG32VQ gets around this problem by employing an advanced blur-reduction technology called Extreme Low Motion Blur Sync (ELMB-SYNC™). Previous solutions to combat motion blur relied on a fixed refresh rate and fast strobing backlight to achieve a 1ms (MPRT) response time. Motion blur reduction works by strobing the backlight between refreshes, while also turning up the display’s brightness to help compensate for the reduced luminance. However, conventional motion blur technologies result in image artifacts when the graphics card frame rate isn’t synchronized with the refresh rate of the monitor. ASUS has developed a technology that allows motion blur reduction to work in tandem with the variable refresh rate of Adaptive-Sync. The outcome is ELMB-Sync™ technology, an ASUS-exclusive feature that enables gamers to enjoy sharper moving scenes and butter-smooth gameplay.

Thus, the new brand for combining ELMB and FreeSync is now called ELMB-SYNC.

For years, combining strobing and variable refresh rate has long been a very difficult holy grail.

Fixing Jitters/Microstutters Amplified By Strobing

Often, display motion blur hides the visibility of microstutters. Turning on motion blur reduction makes tiny microstutters much more visible because of the lack of display motion blur. Workarounds are found in the forum thread “HOWTO: Using ULMB Beautifully or Competitively“.

However, the ability to combine variable refresh rate AND strobing, can be a major solution to fixing the amplified microstuttering effect of motion blur reduction — if problems of erratic flicker is solved.

The Old Unofficial Secret ULMB+GSYNC Hack

NVIDIA’s brands for blur reduction and variable refresh rate, is ULMB and G-SYNC respectively.

For years, there’s been an unofficial secret ULMB+GSYNC hack that is used only by advanced users, because it takes a lot of time to correctly optimize/tweak to reduce erratic flickering problems.

Engineering Advanced Flicker-Reduction Algorithms For VRR Strobing

Several years ago in 2013, I wrote about potential flicker-reduction algorithms for strobed VRR. In addition NVIDIA published a patent about an algorithm for strobed GSYNC. A few years ago, a swiss researcher, Marc Repnow, posted a potential algorithm on his website to reduce flicker of VRR strobing.

I’m looking forward to seeing if ELMB-SYNC has erratic-flicker reduction algorithms, such as:

• Improved VRR framepacing to reduce erratic strobing flicker;
• Flicker-reduction via active brightness-averaging algorithms;
• Wider strobed VRR range that is flickerfree;

It is very difficult to have a wide strobed VRR range because:

1. The minimum strobed Hz needs to be sufficiently above human flicker threshold;
2. The maximum strobed Hz needs to avoid too much strobe crosstalk;
3. Flicker at higher and lower Hz looks different.

This is a difficult engineering feat to produce comfortable VRR strobing that does not have annoying erratic flicker from erratic frame rates.

Reduced Strobed Input Lag Simultaneously With Reduced Stutters

Many users use VSYNC ON with blur reduction to fix strobed jitters / microstuttering. Combining VRR with FreeSync would thus reduce input lag of strobing without adding jittering or microstuttering.

We are really excited to see ASUS innovate in this arena!

In addition to media reporting on “Better Than 60Hz” displays, Blur Busters continues to invent new display testing methods for fellow display review websites who use our tests.

So it was natural that Blur Busters heads to Society for Information Display‘s annual Convention, DisplayWeek 2019!

Not Your Usual CES or E3 Convention

DisplayWeek is full of engineers and manufacturer suppliers. It is not a media-heavy convention.

However, Blur Busters business is not just media: we do many services for the display industry including overdrive tuning, strobe tuning, monitor certification, low persistence (MPRT), coding, consulting, and more…

The convention is only open to members of www.SID.org and is not widely covered by mainstream websites.

Local Dimming in Future LCD Mobile Phone Screens

Multiple vendors, including Tianma and CSOT, were showing off prototype smartphone LCDs with local dimming. The Tianma screen contained 4600 LEDs with up to 1000 nits peak HDR brightness. Here is Tinma:

And here is the local dimming smartphone LCD screen by CSOT, a Chinese manufacturer:

These screens showed OLED-quality black levels!

Specialized Colorimeter Cameras

Instead of using a common Spyder colorimeter, imagine a camera that measures the color of every pixel on the screen simultaneously.

High end colorimeter cameras are often used by professionals including display engineering.

Multiple 8K 120Hz Displays Actually Displaying 8K 120Hz

Japan Display and BOE were showing off true 8K displays running at a full 120 Hz refresh rate.

The sizes of displays ranged from as small as a few inches, all the way to giant 75 inches.

Many Nuts & Bolts Vendors

We are familiar with the big names (such as ASUS, Dell, NVIDIA, AMD, Razer, etc.). However, DisplayWeek is full of nuts and bolts suppliers such as display components, panels, circuits, etc.

Everything but the kitchen sink were there, including component suppliers, TCON/scalers, scientific equipment, test equipment suppliers, panel manufacturers, backlight manufacturers, quantum dots, chemicals, and other vendors.

Local Dimming for Virtual Reality LCDs

Japan Display, the maker of the prototype 120Hz+ OLED with Burning Core team, also showed off LCDs with local dimming for VR with a 200,000:1 contrast ratio!

Special Note: Current LCD-based VR now has slightly less motion blur than OLED-based VR, since the Talbot-Plateau law is less of a barrier with LCD (outsourced light) than OLED (tiny pixels) allowing brighter low-persistence modes. There has been difficulties reducing motion blur with OLEDs (see Why Does Some OLEDs Have Motion Blur?). The newly released LCD-based Valve Index VR headset to achieve as low as 0.3ms MPRT persistence, less than one-quarter the display motion blur of the OLED-based Oculus Rift VR headset.

Shockingly Colorful Desktop OLED Monitors

As usual, Japan Display was demonstrating multiple amazingly colorful OLED screens. They were easily the best-looking 4K desktop monitors I had ever seen.

Although the refresh rate was only 60 Hz, these were an absolute treat for my eyes.

Transparent Screens

Many displays at DisplayWeek were designed for specialty purposes, such as this transparent LCD designed for vending machines and advertising displays:

These displays are rather fun to play with.

Technical Seminars for Display Professionals and Engineers

At DisplayWeek were also many seminars. I personally attended some of these for Blur Busters work purposes. Here is a sampling of how technical the DisplayWeek seminars can become:

As you can see, these are mainly of interest for display engineering.

New Ultra High Contrast Ratio Stacked LCDs – 500000:1 Per Pixel

The brand new Hisense ULEDXD, with Nanosys quantum dot backlight, is a dual-stack LCD. It’s like a monochrome LCD providing per-pixel local dimming to every single color LCD pixel!

These photographs were taken in an extremely bright show room.

However, in Nanosys’ darkened home theater booth, these quantum dot dual-stack LCD displays showed absolutely stunning contrast ratios par excellencé bar none, bon appetit, numero uno — beating OLED image quality in most metrics.

See You At DisplayWeek 2020

Next year’s DisplayWeek is in San Francisco on June 7th to 12th, 2020.

If you work anywhere remotely near the display industry (e.g. engineering, software, parts supplier, manufacturer, etc) beyond simply media reporting, it is a great convention to attend!

One of the world’s biggest computer conventions, Computex Taipei, also known as Taipei International Information Technology Show — has long been an opportunity of monitor technology announcements.

Computex 2019 was no exception, as ASUS announced multiple gaming monitors with strobed FreeSync support — simultaneous motion blur reduction and variable refresh rate support!

ELMB-Sync Now Available With VA, IPS and TN Panels

That’s right — strobed variable refresh rate has now been announced for every single major LCD panel technology — your choice of TN, IPS or VA.

There are pros/cons of various panel technologies. TN screens are typically the fastest panels, VA screens are typically the best contrast, and IPS panels typically have the best viewing angles.

All monitors have HDR-10 support, two HDMI 2.0 inputs, one DisplayPort 1.2 input, and built-in speakers, and all support strobed ELMB-Sync.

ASUS TUF VG32VQ

• 31.5″ VA Panel
• 2560×1440 resolution
• VRR range of 48-144 Hz

ASUS TUF VG27AQ

• 27″ IPS Panel
• 2560×1440 resolution
• VRR range of 48-144 Hz

ASUS TUF VG27BQ

• 27″ TN Panel
• 2560×1440 resolution
• VRR range of 40-155 Hz

More information can be found at ASUS Edge-Up Blog.

ELMB-Sync Works Best With A Powerful GPU

Combining variable refresh rate, with strobing looks impressive when frame rates are almost always above 100 frames per second. Low frame rates will flicker erratically.

Therefore, for best ELMB-Sync experience, make sure your GPU is powerful enough to keep minimum frame rates above flicker thresholds (frame rates dips do not go below around 85 frames per second).

Don’t worry — these monitors also support regular FreeSync as well as VSYNC OFF, for situations where your frame rates may not be high enough for the best ELMB-Sync experience!

Gigabyte Technology, has launched the AORUS KD25F Tactical Monitor, which is a 24.5″ 240Hz TN 1080p gaming monitor.

8-Bit TN Panel With 0.5ms MPRT

It is a TN panel with 100% sRGB and 8-bit color, which make it stand out from other 6-bit TN panels that do not have full color gamut. Response time is 0.5ms MPRT. GtG response time is currently unknown, however, Blur Busters strongly encourages manufacturers to quote both of two pixel response benchmarks, GtG and MPRT.

Officially FreeSync Certified and G-SYNC Compatible Certified

Interestingly, it is officially certified by both AMD and NVIDIA with official AMD FreeSync Certification, and also NVIDIA GSYNC Compatible Certification. This is NVIDIA’s new certification approval process for FreeSync monitors that do not contain the G-SYNC module.

Almost 95% of FreeSync monitors fail NVIDIA’s new certification procedures, so getting certification before launching creates an interesting situation where Gigabyte ends up becoming permitted to use logos from both when marking their monitor!

Unofficially, you can use “G-SYNC Compatible” mode with virtually any FreeSync monitor, but that’s without blessing of NVIDIA, and quality is lower than an NVIDIA-certified monitor or FreeSync2-certified monitor.

Mouse-Controlled OSD Design

OSD have become fancy airplane cockpits, so AORUS had to get creative here to keep it easy.

To help more easily navigate the OSD, AORUS has added mouse/keyboard control to their OSD. You can still select monitor menus via the monitor’s standard 4-way controller, but now you can simply use your computer mouse too.

AORUS calls their strobe-backlight-based motion blur reduction mode, the Aim Stabilizer mode. This is a different naming nomenclature than other manufacturers (e.g. LightBoost, ULMB, ELMB, DyAc, etc).

Marketed as a Tactical Monitor

To help market their new 240Hz gaming monitor, Gigabyte has decided to market the AORUS KD25F 240 Hz display the “World’s 1st Tactical Monitor”. This is a package of many features that converge to an improved tactical advantage in FPS games, including Counterstrike:Global Offensive, Fortnite, and many others.

Many similar features are already in many new models of gaming monitors. However, what AORUS has done differently is to create essentially a massive control panel in place of their normal monitor OSD. Essentially, a much more detailed OSD — like the cockpit or dashboard of tactical vehicles — which is made practical and easier by mouse-enabling their OSD.

We’re looking forward to continued innovation by manufacturers in the 240Hz (and up) territory!

At E3 2019 gaming convention, Samsung announced their first-ever 240 Hz gaming monitor. This is a very different 240 Hz dispkay than usual.

A Curved VA Panel With Improved Contrast Ratios

An eye-catcher is that this is a curved VA panel with 3000:1 contrast ratio, a first achievement for a 240 Hz gaming monitor.

This brings bright colors and better contrast tratios to a 240 Hz monitor, the colors can be preferred over a TN panel for many players, including more casual players who would love less motion blur on a VA.

Historically, VA LCD panels have been long known with ghosting issues in dark colors. On the other hand, high refresh rates can compensate for this.

• 240 Hz VA Panel
• 1920×1080 Resolution
• 1500R Curvature
• 4ms GtG Pixel Response
• Almost No Bezels
• NVIDIA Validated as G-SYNC Compatible

This is the first time any manufacturer released a curved 240Hz, as well. Samsung has made relatively good VA-panel gaming monitors including the Samsung CHG70 series.

G-SYNC Compatible, And Works With FreeSync Too!

This monitor has added variable refresh rate support via the VESA Adaptive Sync standard. Samsung got this monitor certified by NVIDIA on time for E3. As a result, it is being marketed with  “G-SYNC Compatible” branding.

Fortunately, VESA Adaptive-Sync is compatible with AMD graphics for FreeSync; it appears that Samsung may not yet have certified this monitor with AMD to be allowed to use the “FreeSync” branding label (yet?).

However, this monitor works with both NVIDIA and AMD brands of variable refresh rate (G-SYNC Compatible and FreeSync respectively) because this is a generic VESA Adaptive-Sync implementation. This typically gains the “FreeSync” marketing label (if certified by AMD) and/or the “G-SYNC Compatible” marketing label (if certified by NVIDIA). An interesting variable refresh rate marketing situation!

Exact Model Name Is C27RG50

Several sites including Verge, C|Net, and Digital Trends mention this monitor as the CRG5. However, the CRG is a series designation. The official model number is actually C27RG50.

A Samsung CRG5 series already exists as a 144 Hz monitor. This new 240 Hz monitor is essentially the 27″ 240Hz equivalent of the existing 144 Hz C24RG5.

Historically, Samsung inserts the size in the model name of the series, for example, the Samsung CHG series includes the Samsung CHG70 and CHG90 sub-series, which then branches out to the C27HG70 and the C32HG70, plus the ultrawide C49HG90.

Improving 240Hz Color

Historically, TN is the king of pixel response time. However, we are glad that VA panels are speeding up with faster refresh rates. There are huge numbers of gamers who prefer to enjoy better colors during gaming,

This monitor arrives in July 2019.

At E3 2019, LG announced is the world’s first UL-tested 1ms Grey-to-Grey pixel response in an IPS panel! A neutral third party, Underwriters Laboratories, tested the pixel response of these screens.

Frequent readers of Busters have already seen our recent Pixel Response Explainer: GtG Versus MPRT, as there are two different pixel response benchmarks, both of which are important.

The two monitors have the following features:

LG UltraGear 27GL850 Gaming Monitor

• 27″ Nano IPS panel
• 144 Hz Refresh Rate
• 2560×1440 Resolution
• G-SYNC Compatible and FreeSync
• 350 Nits brightness
• LG Website – 27GL850

LG UltraGear 38GL950G Gaming Monitor

• 38″ Nano IPS panel
• 144 Hz Refresh Rate (175 Hz Overclocked)
• 3840×1600 Ultrawide Resolution
• Native G-SYNC
• 450 Nits brightness with VESA DisplayHDR 400 Certification
• LG Website – 38GL950G

Pixel Response Advertising Is Difficult

There can be many different pixel response numbers on the same LCD panel. That is because different colors have different GtG speeds on all LCDs ever made in humankind. In addition, pixel response use the standardized VESA cutoff points, measuring from the 10% to the 90% point.

Graph taken from https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00177263/document

As a result, having a unified average GtG number for a whole monitor, hides a lot of complicated information. Thousands of different pixel response numbers on the same LCD panel, because some pixel colors are slower.

However, we appreciate standardized third party 3rd party GtG measurements such as VESA and Underwriters Laboratories (UL), even if they are imperfect.

You may read more about why pixel response benchmarks are imperfectly-unified benchmarks that is very difficult to standardize into single numbers.

True 1ms GtG IPS Is Still A Breakthrough!

This is the first time that any retail IPS gaming LCD has achieved 1ms Grey-to-Grey pixel response measured via a fully neutral third party laboratory (UL).

While we’re currently not sure if this is a rounding-off to single digits (e.g. 0.9ms or 1.1ms GtG being rounded-off to 1ms), even anything rounded-off to 1ms is extremely impressive for an IPS LCD technology that traditionally was much slower than TN panels. Historically, IPS was often 5ms to 8ms GtG response.

High Quality Step In Refresh Rate Race To Future Retina Refresh Rates

In the coming decades, we still need even faster GtG in the future. We determined that 0.25ms and 0.5ms GtG still has human-visible benefits as explained in the article refresh rate race to future retina refresh rates.

However, seeing IPS LCD technology reach this 1ms GtG milestone is hugely exciting for Blur Busters especially since historically fast pixel response sometimes meant low-quality color.

IPS LCD is well-known to have generally better colors than most TN LCD panels, especially the improved Nano IPS panels which are an improvement over regular IPS.

Sources tell us that the new ASUS ROG PG35VQ ultra-wide gaming monitor is finally shipping in small quantities. Blur Busters saw the PG35VQ at CES 2018 — yes the 2018 one — more than a year ago!

There are now unboxing pictures for this monitor in a Chiphell forums (a popular forum in China), and several online stores have published shipment dates in near future (July).

ASUS ROG PG35VQ Monitor

• 3440×1440 Resolution
• 200 Hz Refresh Rate (overclocked)
• Quantum Dot backlight with 90% DCI-P3 Gamut
• Full-Array Local Dimming with 512 Zones
• G-SYNC Ultimate with HDR
• DisplayHDR 1000 certified by VESA
  

For early pictures, someone in China unboxed this monitor, with pictures on Chiphell Forums.

This monitor is priced very premium, similarly to other G-SYNC HDR displays.

Eye Opening Pricing For Dazzling Specs

As of June 16th, 2019, the online shop in China, JD.com, sells it at ¥ 20999.00. A shop in Norway, Komplett, lists it as 28990kr. Yet another shop in Finland, Proshop, lists it as € 2990.

A price in North America is not yet determined at this time of writing. However, we expect the ballpark to be between $2500 and $3000 given the premium nature of this monitor as an ultrawide with a higher refresh rate than the 4K 144Hz G-SYNC displays.

Once we know it’s shipping in North America, we’ll let our readers know. For now, we can only admire the monitor pictures on the ASUS website.

The Test UFO Motion Tests at TestUFO.com is the world’s most popular display motion test, created by Blur Busters founder Mark Rejhon. It is frequently used to test monitors and other screens.

It contains dozens of tests including explanatory science (eye tracking, persistence of vision, black frames, variable refresh) and tests designed for display analysis (pursuit camera test, scanout test), and many others selectable tests.

What’s very special about TestUFO? It uses a default motion speed of 960 pixels per second.

960 Pixels/Sec Is Closest Number To 1000 Divisible By 60, 120 and 240 Hz

There was a need for a motion speed divisible by futuristic refresh rates long before they came on the market. TestUFO launched in 2013, well before the first 240Hz monitors and the 480Hz experimental display! We wanted to use something that easily compares math to pictures, and pictures to math.
1ms translates to 1 pixel per 1000 pixels/second.

960 Pixels/Sec Is Faster Than Many Outdated TV Benchmarks

A very old, formerly common motion resolution benchmark for televisions, monitors and displays was a test pattern used by plasma television manufacturers, FPD Benchmark Software (Blu-Ray Chapter 31). As I used to work in the home theater industry, old television engineers and old home theater magazines were using outdated “lines of motion resolution” methods that often varied with motion speed. Flaws of FPD are explained here.

To avoid this outdated test, TestUFO needed to come up with universal motion benchmarking that stayed consistent regardless of motion speed in the retina resolution race (4K, 8K+) and retina refresh rate race (120Hz, 240Hz+).

960 Pixels/Sec Is More Representative Of Fast Video Game Motion Speeds

Old benchmarks for televisions used very slow scrolling test patterns. Sports & gaming use faster motion than these benchmarks. Motion in esports competitive games such as Fortnite, Counterstrike: GO, and other games can go thousands of pixels per second, creating a massive amount of display motion blur.

960 Pixels/Sec Is Not Too Fast To Eye-Track

The speed of 960 pixels per second means an object takes 2 seconds to cross a 1920×1080 display. We needed a fast motion speed that was still possible to eye-track. We are very familiar with eye-tracking motion blur which is an important component of the science of display motion blur,

First, look at the stationary UFO, then look at the moving UFO. On most LCD and OLED displays, you are witnessing eye-tracking-based motion blur with the moving UFO. This is blurring from persistence (MPRT).

960 Pixels/Sec Is Easy To Double And Quadruple

The tidy 960 number is also very easy to memorize for faster motion speeds.

• 960 times 2 equals 1920, the horizontal resolution of 1080p displays.
• 960 times 4 equals 3840, the horizontal resolution of 4K displays.

Our UFO Trademark Is A Deliberate Test Pattern Easter Egg!

Did you know that our Blur Busters UFO logo was intentionally designed as a test pattern?

• At 16 pixels of motion blur, UFO landing legs are very blurry.
• At 8 pixels of motion blur, UFO landing legs are seen but saucer details are very blurry.
• At 4 pixels of motion blur, UFO saucer details are seen but can’t count alien eyes.
• At 2 pixels of motion blur, UFO alien 3 eyes can be counted but are still blurry.
• At 1 pixel of motion blur, UFO alien 3 eyes have clear eye pupils & eye whites.

Here is a handy comparison chart of motion blur at 960 pixels per second, used in many of our articles such as 60Hz vs 120Hz vs ULMB, as well as Amazing Journey To Future 1000Hz Monitors.

Note: These images assumes insignificant GtG pixel response that is only a tiny percentage of a refresh cycle. See Pixel Response FAQ: GtG versus MPRT for more information how pixel response can degrade motion blur further.

960 Pixels/Sec Bridges Popular Science & Advanced Research

We understand display manufacturers have to use photodiode oscilloscopes and other complex measuring equipment, and to use VESA measurement standards that accommodates noise margins. However, many people need something easy to explain in images and video as a bridge between familiarity (looking at pictures) and what researchers and scientists do (using measuring equipment).

1ms of persistence = 1 pixel of motion blur per 1000 pixels/second.

Conclusion: 960 Pixels/Sec is a Universal Display Motion Test Speed

Test UFO Motion Tests paved the industry standard display motion speed. Many researchers, companies, reviewers now use variants of this motion speed, thanks to TestUFO being used by millions of visitors worldwide.

The industry has now utilized multiples of 960 pixels/second as the standardized motion speed, whether they use TestUFO or their internal test — including RTINGS, NVIDIA, and many dozens others!

Today, VESA just announced the new DisplayPort 2.0, a new video cable standard for displays.

The new DisplayPort standard can push over 77 gigabits per second over a Thunderbolt 3 cable.

SAN JOSE, Calif., June 26, 2019 /PRNewswire/ — The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA^®) today announced that it has released version 2.0 of the DisplayPort™ (DP) audio/video standard. DP 2.0 is the first major update to the DisplayPort standard since March 2016, and provides up to a 3X increase in data bandwidth performance compared to the previous version of DisplayPort (DP 1.4a), as well as new capabilities to address the future performance requirements of traditional displays. These include beyond 8K resolutions, higher refresh rates and high dynamic range (HDR) support at higher resolutions, improved support for multiple display configurations, as well as improved user experience with augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) displays, including support for 4K-and-beyond VR resolutions.
PR News Wire

As refresh rates and resolutions go up, faster video cable standards are required — especially gaming PCs and virtual reality demanding higher resolutions and refresh rates — far more bandwidth is required.

This is a giant leap of being 3x faster than the previous DisplayPort 1.4 standard, allowing 77.37 gigabits per second of data over a single cable, while being backwards compatible.

If Using SDR or Display Stream Compression (DSC), 1000 Hz Is Possible!

DisplayPort 2.0 has enough bandwidth to handle really high refresh rates while being able to keep HDR. As we have been monitoring the refresh rate race to future retina refresh rates, the bandwidth of 77 gigabits per second now makes it possible to achieve 1000 Hz at 1080p, as long as HDR is not used.

• 1080p 1000 Hz SDR
• 1080p 1000 Hz HDR with Display Stream Compression
• 1440p 1000 Hz SDR with Display Stream Compression

There is no technical refresh rate limitation on DisplayPort, and is simply limited by bandwidth. Refresh rate is handled by the display and signal sources such as the GPU.

Full 4:4:4 Uncompressed HDR At High Refresh Rates

In addition, DisplayPort 2.0 provides very high refresh rates with uncompressed HDR at full 4:4:4 precision.

• 8K 60 Hz HDR uncompressed
• 4K 144 Hz HDR uncompressed
• 1440p >240 Hz HDR uncompressed
• 1080p >512 Hz HDR uncompressed

DisplayPort 3 Piggybacks on USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 Signalling Standards

VESA avoided reinventing the wheel and utilized the signalling standard that is now being used with both USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 standard. AnandTech covers this aspect in further detail.

Video Cables And Refresh Rates Adopts Moore’s Law Characteristics

Over the last several years, the bandwidth of video cables have been increasing at a rapid pace, propelled by both the retina resolution race, and refresh rate race.

Also, ever since the discovery that 1000 Hz still has human visible benefits, the display refresh rate race continues as well. In this refresh rate race, retail-available refresh rates in gaming displays have been doubling Hz approximately every 5 to 10 years since the beginning of this millennium.

• First true retail 120 Hz arrived in 2009 with the ASUS VG236H and Samsung 2233rz and others.
• First true retail 240 Hz arrived in 2016 beginning with the AOC AF251FZ and others.
• Currently, 480 Hz is currently in the experimental stage.

The bandwidth of uncompressed 8K 60Hz and 1080p 1000Hz is virtually identical:

• 8K 60 Hz = about 2 billion pixels per second
• 1080p 1000 Hz = about 2 billion pixels per second

It may may take roughly a decade before retail 1000 Hz gaming monitors becomes available. Nonetheless, we are excited at seeing the video cable weak link being solved with DisplayPort 2.0!

Today, NVIDIA announced the new RTX SUPER series graphics cards. This is an incremental improvement to the existing NVIDIA RTX series GPUs with real-time ray tracing.

The main differences are an approximately 10% to 25% boost in some numbers:

• Extra CUDA cores
• Extra Texture units
• A few more MHz boost performance
• A few more GB/sec of memory bandwidth
• A smidgen more power consumption

Of the SUPER versions of the RTX 2060, 2070, and 2080, the RTX 2070 SUPER is getting the biggest spec boost with a leap from 144 CUDA cores to 184 CUDA cores.

Official third-party benchmarks are appearing elsewhere, however, NVIDIA provides this chart putting the RTX SUPER series squarely between the original RTX 2060 and the RTX 2080 Ti:

Starting at a price of $399, all of these cards can generates more rays of sunshine than the old GTX 1080 Ti.

This is NVIDIA’s probable answer to the AMD Radeon 5700 series that was also recently announced by AMD. More performance is being milked out of existing GPUs without a die shrink or improvement.

The RTX SUPER GPU series ships on July 23rd, 2019.

AOC announced two new monitors in the Agon gaming monitors range.

The new AOC Agon AG251FZ2 and the AG271FZ2 both feature a 0.5ms response times as well as a 240Hz refresh rate. Both of them also support AMD FreeSync, including the proprietary AOC enhancements included in the monitor such as Shadow Control and Lowblue Light Mode.

As you may have guessed from the model codes, these come in 24.5 and 27-inch panels, both of which, happen to be TN panels with 1920×1080 resolutions. While the new monitors are not 4K, both of them have DisplayPort 1.2, HDMI 1.4, DVI-D and D-Sub connectors. They also feature built-in USB 3.0, 3.5mm audio jacks and two 3W speakers.

The AG251FZ2 is the sequel to the older AG251FZ. At this time of writing, it is unknown if 0.5ms refers to GtG or MPRT.

Both the AG251FZ2 and the AG271FZ2 can both be height and tilt-adjusted, and red inlays, along with a QuickSwitch button to switch between modes on the fly, and finally, a headset holder too.

AOC AGON AG271FZ2 Monitor

• 27-inch TN display
• 1920×1080 Resolution
• 240Hz Refresh Rate
• 0.5ms Response Time
• FreeSync support

AOC AGON AG251FZ2 Monitor

• 24.5-inch TN display
• 1920×1080 Resolution
• 240Hz Refresh Rate
• 0.5ms Response Time
• FreeSync support

AOC has speedily made the monitors available on Amazon already, at AG271FZ2 and AG251FZ2.

AMD’s 3^rd generation Ryzen has been released and the new Ryzen 9 3700X and 3900X, are both serious competitors in the world of the CPU battle for supremacy.

AMD first announced the new Zen 2 chips at the end of 2018 and has pushed ahead in delivering. Not only what was promised, but also something of a challenge to Intel, putting the ball back into its court.

While the new Intel CPUs have always been an iterative performance increase over each generation, the pressure from the new Ryzen 9 processors should give Intel a push to drive harder for their next releases.

AMD has kept true to its word with the claims of over 30-35% better performance in some games and while the top of the range Intel chips for gaming may still hold an edge over older games running on single threaded processors, there are a lot of situations where the Ryzen rises above.

Despite the Ryzen still being a little behind for single threaded processes, the gap has narrowed substantially.

This is the first giant step forward for AMD and is not only a major upgrade for the CPU architecture, but also on the manufacturing front as it switches from the 12nm process to the 7nm node.

Its direct competitor, the Intel Skylake has been sitting on the 14nm process for some time already, looking more towards a 2020 release for the new architecture.

This release not only makes the choice to go Ryzen 9 the fastest solution if you’re planning to go for the 3900X or the 3950X (coming in the next few months), but it also makes it the cheapest in terms of price/performance.

As of July 2019, the 3900X is priced at $499 against the Intel i9-9900K’s $488 but includes four extra cores and also includes a cooler.

Perhaps one of the biggest and most exciting additions for the Ryzen on the AM4 socket motherboard is the introduction of the new PCIe 4.0 interface. This should make for a speedier system overall, with supported hardware, faster M.2 SSDs, as seen in AMD’s marketing:

This is the first consumer-based motherboard to feature it. PCIe 4.0 will no doubt play a big role for upcoming graphics cards and the future of storage devices running on NVMe.

Amazon Prime Day has launched and for people all over the world, being a member of Amazon Prime has never looked so good. With it comes a bunch of new and exciting deals in gaming monitors, ones that will be able to put you in a place where you’ll be able to enjoy Everything Better Than 60 Hz…

Under $80 — IPS 75Hz

Acer SB220Q — This ultra-thin IPS panel is a steal at Amazon right now. You can get a 1920×1080 IPS monitor with a 75Hz refresh rate including FreeSync too! The only possible downside for some could be the size as it’s only a 21.5” monitor at a mere 75 Hz.

Under $150 — True 144Hz

Dell D2719HGF — With a saving of over 40%, you’ll be able to grab this 27” FHD monitor at 1920×1080. This 144Hz monitor with a 2ms GtG response time also has AMD FreeSync too.

Under $200 — Popular 144Hz

ViewSonic XG2402 and XG2702 — A very popular 144Hz 1080p monitor with 1ms GtG and above-average TN colors among the lowest-latency ever tested by RTINGS, and is a model currently extremely popular by Blur Busters readers thanks to the combination of low lag and decent TN panel with FreeSync support!

Under $300 — Big 1440p 144Hz FreeSync

Acer ED323QUR — If you’re in the market for some 1440p gaming, then this 31.5” curved screen might be for you. Coming in at just over $250, you can get this VA panel monitor with FreeSync and 144Hz. The only downside to it is that you’ll have a 4ms GtG response time.

Under $300 — True 240Hz

ViewSonic XG2530 — Finding 240Hz on sale is never easy. You get big advantages in battle royal game advantages with a sufficiently powerful GPU, so finding a 25″ 240Hz FreeSync on a TN panel with 1080p 1ms GtG response time is incredible.

Under $500 — 165Hz 1440p IPS Native G-SYNC

Acer Predator XB271HU — The Acer Predator XB271HU is on sale too. You’ll need to look at spending a bit more, but this 27” monitor running at 2560×1440 will give you a 4ms response time on an IPS panel with a refresh rate of 144Hz (overclockable to 165Hz). It also has NVIDIA native G-Sync too, along with ULMB motion blur reduction.

Under $1600 — Luxury 4K 144Hz G-SYNC HDR With Local Dimming

ASUS ROG Swift PG27UQ — If money is no object, there is the 4K 144Hz G-SYNC HDR with a quantum dot backlight containing local dimming for inky blacks, HDR certified with DisplayHDR 1000. If you’re looking to enjoy gaming with the best HDR colors and contrast ratio in full 4K glory — with the best possible NVIDIA G-SYNC — you will want to also pair this monitor with a GeForce RTX Series (or two)!

Alternatively, browse our G-SYNC Monitor List, or the FreeSync Monitor List, to shop for other monitors on Amazon Prime Day!

Sony has had a handle on virtual reality (VR) for some time now and with the launch of the PlayStation VR (PSVR) back in 2016, gamers could see that it was a focus for the company. With the impending launch of the next Sony console coming up at some point, VR is still a large focus for them.

Sony has already confirmed that the next generation console will be compatible with the current PSVR but recent patent applications published by the Patent and Trademark Office show Sony has no plans to hit the brakes on VR. In the patent, it goes into specific detail about the device and reveals a little more information.

The new PSVR that will launch for the next PlayStation will reportedly feature a 2560×1440 resolution at 120 Hz, have a 220 degree field of view and be completely wireless. This will apparently get you five hours of gameplay before it needs a bit of a charge and will supposedly come in at $250. Sony is also working on a device that can track users’ head position and eye movements too.

Oculus Go

As far as support goes, Jason Rubin, Oculus VR content head entertained a crossover between the PSVR and their own Oculus by saying that they would love to make a trade with Sony on content. He said that both companies have great stuff that has been funded, but there may be crossover gaming for titles coming soon.

With a large number of Blur Busters readers and 240 Hz monitor users in the esports industry, it’s time to include esports news on Blur Busters!

Valve’s largest Dota 2 online esports tournament that happens once a year has reached a new milestone in the world of Dota, and the world of esports. The prize pool has grown to a staggering $30 million over this past weekend [Verge, ESPN] which makes it the largest prize pool total in esports history.

This has eclipsed Epic’s attempt at holding the largest prize pool with the Fortnite World Cup, valued at $30 million, and has topped the previous Dota 2 prize pools of $24 and $25 million in 2017 and 2018 respectively.

One thing that people perhaps forget is that the Dota 2 prize pool is largely community-funded! Valve starts off by giving a certain amount to the prize pool (usually $10 million), and subsequently release a Battle Pass in game for players, who can then upgrade it, buy levels and unlock cosmetic items. 25% of the sales for the Battle Pass and all the levels purchased go towards the final prize pool tally.

The well-known esports organization 100 Thieves will be returning to the world of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO). Matthew ‘Nadeshot’ Haag, CEO of 100 Thieves announced the news in a recently released video.

100 Thieves had an initial run in CS:GO where they signed ex-Immortal players in 2017 after a successful podium place at the PGL Krakow Major. The squad was then unable to attend the ELEAGUE Major in Boston in 2018 because of VISA issues and the team then fell apart over the following months. Rumors suggest that 100 Thieves is targeting OpTic Gaming’s CS lineup, and a post on HLTV shows one of the OpTic players dropping a Twitter hint that they had signed a new contract.

FarmCon is coming. That’s right, Farming Simulator’s very own convention, FarmCon, is set to kick off the Farming Simulator League (FSL) held in Germany later this month. The current prize pool, while not in the realms of Dota 2 just yet for this first tournament, is a respectable €11,000.

In addition to “Better Than 60 Hz” news, Blur Busters will now additionally include curated esports news, given the huge popularity and familiarity of Blur Busters in the esports industry.

Watch for upcoming esports content on Blur Busters, in addition to the usual famous Blur Busters content.

ASUS has announced the ASUS ROG Phone II, the new successor to it’s gaming-enthusiast phone. It is a major upgrade over the previous phone.

Not only does it feature a 1080p OLED screen (2340×1080) with an integrated fingerprint sensor but it also has a 120Hz refresh rate as well as support for 10-bit HDR. ASUS also claims that the touch latency of 49ms is the lowest of any phone.

It’s expected release date of September 2019 brings with it a 6.59 inch display running the Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon Plus, an Octa-core CPU and the Adreno 640. It has a 48MP camera, dual LED flash and all the other bells and whistles you would expect from a new smart phone.

The phone sports a 240Hz touch screen sampling rate too, so the frequency with which the phone tracks the movement of your finger is one of the fastest yet.

As expected, the battery is 50% bigger than the previous generation ROG phone and reaches a 6000 mAh capacity. That also means that it’s heavier, it’s bulkier and it’s larger too.

You’ll be able to get a number of different accessories with the phone to promote gaming on it such as the ROG Kunai Gamepad, a mobile desktop dock, an AeroActive Cooler and other armor cases too.

Quick Fire Stats:

• Chipset: Qualcomm SDM855 Snapdragon Plus
•  CPU: Octa-core (1x 2.96GHz Kryo 485, 3x 2.42GHz Kryo 485 and 4x 1.8GHz Kryo 485)
•  GPU: Adreno 640
•  Screen: 6.59” AMOLED
•  RAM: 12 GB
•  Internal Space: 256/512 GB
•  Camera: 48MP rear-facing, 13 MP front-facing

Written with assistance of Rob (gridl0ck).

LG Electronics Canada has today announced that the new LG UltraGear Nano IPS G-SYNC gaming monitor is available for pre-order.

The monitor is the world’s first native 1ms GtG IPS display panel and will be available for purchase through select Canadian retailers on 4 August 2019. There is also a promotion on offer in partnership with Ubisoft where the first 200 customers to pre-order the 27” monitor (27GL850) will receive a key for Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Siege Gold Edition.

The LG UltraGear GL series have ultra-fast response rates and refresh rates of 144Hz, overclockable to 175Hz to provide gamers with the best experience possible. Blur Busters has covered these monitors in more depth when they were first announced.

The full press release from LG can be found here.

The 27” LG UltraGear is available for pre-order and you can find it Amazon right now.

Through investigative discovery thanks to gouking201 on Twitter, Acer has revealed its new 240Hz IPS monitor known as the Acer XV273X in China.

The new monitor is a 27-inch IPS FHD monitor. It has a 1ms GtG response time, a 240Hz refresh rate with Display HDR400 8-bit.

There is an important difference between 1ms GtG and 1ms MPRT — both are completely different response time benchmarks. We have verified that it is advertised as 1ms GtG response rate according to a Chinese translation:

https://t.co/Pomwu1S6fx灰阶响应时间https://t.co/dHYPihsKks

"灰阶响应时间" google translate it will be
"Gray-scale response time", it mean GTG.

Depend product introduce pictures, it will be GTG not MPRT. pic.twitter.com/u7Gp9tfR41

— gouki201 (@gouki201) July 26, 2019

According to a report on UltraGamerz, Sony is planning the next-generation virtual reality headset with the Sony PlayStation 5.

This next-gen VR, currently known as the PSVR2 is supposedly completely wireless in order to compete with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive Pro. It is also said to feature 4K panels (3840×2160), the best resolution panels to date, which is higher resolution than earlier reported. There is still plenty of time for other manufacturers to catch up though, because the PSVR2 may only be released more than a year after the PS5 launch.

Amazon is reportedly testing the waters of the VR industry, something that hasn’t quite been done before by them, as it prepares to launch a VR version of Prime Video for popular devices such as the Oculus Go, Oculus Quest and Samsung’s Gear VR.

Prime Video VR will begin to move existing Amazon content into VR and will start with 10 handpicked 360-degree videos at launch, with more VR-specific content added as time goes on. It likely won’t end for there, as Amazon tends to invest into new technology, so don’t be surprised if they start to develop their own headset at some point.

OpenXR has reached version 1.0 and represents the first production-ready version of the augmented and virtual reality standard. The Khronos Group kicks of Siggraph with the open, royalty-free, cross-platform standard that already has support from major companies such as Epic, Microsoft, Oculus and Varjo.

This common framework for apps should grant a wider ability for apps and devices to operate across the board.

Long-time readers are familiar with the various display-testing inventions of Blur Busters that are also used by multiple display reviewers, YouTubers, and manufacturers.

On July 31st, LinusTechTips used a Blur Busters pursuit camera invention, developed by Mark Rejhon, to compare the display motion blur between the new LG 1ms Nano IPS display and other gaming monitors! See 1m:25s into the video.

How Does The Pursuit Camera Work For Displays?

The goal is to photograph what the human eye saw on a screen. Photographs are more accurate with camera tracking (moving camera) since they can capture what eye tracking (moving eye balls) saw.

The most common pursuit camera for displays is usually a camera that slides horizontally to accurately follow horizontal motion on a display. Pursuit cameras can be motorized or non-motorized.

Demo Of Stationary Eyes Versus Tracking Eyes

Displays can look very different with stationary stare versus eye tracking on a display:

First, look at the stationary UFO, then look at the moving UFO. On most displays, the background looks very different, with an optical illusion occuring for the 2nd UFO. This divergence is caused by a display having a finite refresh rate.

This causes problems when you try to photograph displays during testing of displays, since the photograph does not accurately represent what the human eye saw. See additional animations:

• TestUFO Optical Illusion: Varying Speed From Stationary To Moving
• TestUFO Optical Illusion: Persistence Of Vision

Stationary Camera Versus Tracking Camera

Some of the TestUFO motion tests include a “Camera Sync Track”, which is a temporal test pattern that Blur Busters invented to allow photographers to verify accurate camera tracking speed.

The temporal test pattern looks like a horizontal ladder only when tracking matches the same speed as the UFOs. This is true regardless of whether eye tracking or when camera tracking.

Try it now; record video of testufo.com/ghosting with a hand-waved iPhone or Android following the UFOs! Even a low-quality video is still an educational demo of a pursuit camera:

Compare Stationary Camera Versus Moving Camera:

Here is a stationary photograph:

Now, here is a tracking photograph:

Improved hand-waved footage can be achieved with a professional camera app, with manual adjustments (fixed focus, fixed exposure, etc).

With Practice, Very Accurate Photography Of Display Motion Blur Is Achieved

The above animated PNG compares multiple overdrive settings on a 240Hz Acer XB252Q. The three photographs were taken by Jorim on a Samsung Galaxy smartphone mounted to a camera slider rail!

Hand-Waved Smartphone as Free Pursuit Camera — Zero Cost Approach

Hobbyists, bloggers, and YouTuber on lower budgets currently use this rail-less approach, combined with video recording (using 1/30sec exposure per frame). With a good modern smartphone camera; video does the equivalent of 30 photos per second (freeze frames). This increase the odds of an accurately-tracked image.

Best results occur if you download a third party video app that lets you manually adjust settings & exposure per frame. Single-stepping through a video file can find the clearest freeze-frame. The sheer number of images made possible by video recording, can eliminate a camera rail for hobbyists.

Other clever zero-cost methods includes mounting the camera to the top of a sliding container, or wooden blocks.

Camera Slider Rail For More Accuracy — Low Cost Approach

Major display reviewers such as RTINGS.com use a common camera slider rail to improve the accuracy of a pursuit camera. Here is an excellent YouTube demo of RTINGS pursuit camera:

Camera rails can also be used with smartphones mounted in a smartphone holder designed for tripods. With camera-rails, it is recommend to choose a camera with live burst-shooting capability or high-definition video.

Motorized Pursuit Camera — High Cost Approach

Pursuit cameras can also be motorized. Electronics can also synchronize the speed of the camera to the speed of moving objects on a screen. Some cameras rotate on an axis, while others slide horizontally. Accurate motorized pursuit camera rigs can be extremely expensive (over $10,000).

However, the temporal test pattern is also useful too for motorized pursuit cameras! Our invention simply behave as a motor-accuracy verification check. A motor that is too fast or too slow, will automatically distort our temporal test pattern. This provides a method of calibrating motor tracking speed or double-checking tracking accuracy!

Well-Tested Peer Reviewed Invention

Multiple bloggers, reviewers, YouTubers, vendors, and manufacturers now use the invention.

In 2014, our pursuit camera invention was validated by researchers from NIST.gov, NOKIA, and Keltek. Check out the peer reviewed conference paper. It was confirmed that the Blur Busters invention allowed low-cost manual pursuit cameras to match the accuracy of motorized cameras!

Pursuit Camera Invention Is Free

We only request credit when using our invention created by Blur Busters founder Mark Rejhon.

Additionally, the www.testufo.com website is free for anyone to use with credit. TestUFO is used by many reviewers, bloggers, YouTubers, and display manufacturers. See TestUFO Crediting Guidlines.

More Reading

• Instructions on Pursuit Camera
• Reviewers Using Pursuit Camera
• Making Of: Why Are TestUFO Animations At 960 Pixels Per Second?
• Forum Thread in Area 51: Display Science, Research & Engineering
• Blur Busters Law: The Amazing Journey To Future 1000 Hz Displays

Note: Blur Busters now offers paid services including services for display manufacturers.