NVIDIA downgrades their G-Sync requirement so more Monitors can now use the feature


As this writer discovered when building a Gaming PC last year, there's many terms that you would quickly discover, and they would be a factor to what you would be buying as a component.

A part of this was 'screen-tearing' and 'refresh rate'.

This is where the display's refresh rate could be much higher, as high as 320Hz, and it would generate much smoother gameplay for the player. This is in-part what 'G-Sync Ultimate' offers for NVIDIA GPU devices, while AMD has their own version called 'FreeSync'.

However, NVIDIA recently lowered a certain requirement for displays, hereby allowing for more to be compatible with G-Sync.

What's G-Sync?

This is a feature by NVIDIA, first introduced back in 2015, where it eliminates screen-tearing by allowing a display's refresh rate to match the frame-rate of the GPU.

This allows for both devices to work in sync with one another, so the refresh rate where three or more frames are shown at once is eliminated.

It's supported from the 10 Series of NVIDIA's graphics cards such as the 1060 and upwards, alongside any display that explicitly says 'G-Sync compatible'.

When enabled through the 'NVIDIA Control Panel', you will see, depending on the settings for the game and the GPU installed, a much smoother playthrough of certain games due to the higher framerate.

READ MORE: NVIDIA's GeForce GT 1010 revealed; but is there any point?

What's Changed?

Earlier this month, it was noticed by some eagle-eyed readers on NVIDIA's site that they had changed 'Best HDR 1000 Nits' to 'Lifelike HDR', alongside Displays at CES 2021 showing G-Sync compatibility with 600 nits.

Following this, NVIDIA released a statement that made sense of the change in requirement:

"Late last year we updated G-SYNC ULTIMATE to include new display technologies such as OLED and edge-lit LCDs.

All G-SYNC Ultimate displays are powered by advanced NVIDIA G-SYNC processors to deliver a fantastic gaming experience including lifelike HDR, stunning contract, cinematic colour and ultra-low latency gameplay. While the original G-SYNC Ultimate displays were 1000 nits with FALD, the newest displays, like OLED, deliver infinite contrast with only 600-700 nits, and advanced multi-zone edge-lit displays offer remarkable contrast with 600-700 nits. G-SYNC Ultimate was never defined by nits alone nor did it require a VESA DisplayHDR1000 certification. Regular G-SYNC displays are also powered by NVIDIA G-SYNC processors as well."

From this, it does indeed seem that they have lowered the brightness requirements for displays, further allowing more of these to use the 'G-Sync' feature.

It's a slight concern, as the feature reflects a better output on games when its used to its fullest, and it could mean that cheaper displays will be able to have this feature, but at a lower-quality.

However, it does allow for more players to use it, for those who can't spend £1000 on a monitor, and if it possibly means more improvements to the feature without lowering quality, it could be a sign of good things to come. At least until the 30 Series graphics cards are back in stock.

READ MORE: Explained; What is NVIDIA’s ‘Resizable BAR’ feature?

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