I’ve seen Nvidia’s G-Sync Pulsar in motion and it is kinda ruined all different gaming screens for me

There are specific issues in life that, as soon as seen, cannot be unseen. The arrow within the FedEx brand, as an example. Or the truth that my beard is quickly going gray, proving as soon as and for all that I’m actually a mortal man.

Nicely, I’ve had an opportunity to take a look at Nvidia’s new G-Sync Pulsar tech in motion at CES 2026, and now I am afraid that each one different gaming screens look a bit… crap. It is Medusa-like tech. I’ve seen it, I am unable to unsee it, and now I am eternally modified.

Okay, that is a healthy dose of overstatement. However Pulsar’s refresh rate-matched backlight strobing tech makes such a distinction to the best way your eye perceives transferring objects on a display screen, a daily monitor in movement now appears like a lesser expertise.

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I used to be proven two demos, the primary of which concerned NPC characters with nametags transferring rapidly previous my discipline of view in Overwatch 2. On the left was a monitor with out G-Sync Pulsar, and it regarded positive. Somewhat laborious to learn at full velocity, however hey, movement blur is movement blur, and the fast-moving characters regarded fully regular to my eyes.

On the correct was a Pulsar-enabled monitor. In particular person, the textual content above the fast-moving NPC appeared fully clear, sharp-edged, and 100% legible, as did the character itself. Which may sound like a small distinction, however when it comes to the best way my eyes fell on the picture total, and the best way I naturally perceived the scene, the development in total image readability felt like evening and day.

Instantly, it felt like my eyes had been now not struggling to maintain up with the fast-moving picture. The image total, with each fast-moving and static objects, appeared to beam straight into my retinas with spectacular precision—leading to a transferring picture high quality that appears miles forward of something I’ve seen to this point.

I used to be additionally proven a demo of Anno 117: Pax Romana working on the monitor tech, which initially struck me as an odd selection. In spite of everything, metropolis builders aren’t precisely recognized for his or her fast-paced motion. Nonetheless, transferring the digital camera round immediately revealed why Nvidia picked it as an illustration piece. Tons of icons, overlaid on an in depth map, with a number of zooming out and in of the sport space.

Once more, the readability distinction underneath movement was plain. One was laborious to parse underneath quick motion, the opposite, fully legible, whether or not focussing on particulars or a transferring scene total.

Now, you are going to must take my phrase for this (and a few less-than-useful nonetheless pictures), as capturing the impact in particular person is a nigh-on inconceivable activity. Digital camera sensors, conflicting body charges, video compression, all of it take its toll. Capturing new monitor tech advances on a median lens is akin to describing your favorite film via the medium of interpretive dance.

However let me let you know, as somebody who’s stood in entrance of lots of (doubtless hundreds, at this level) of extraordinarily good gaming screens, the best way G-Sync Pulsar modifications the way you understand fast paced pictures is downright profound.

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Chatting to Lars Weinand, one in every of Nvidia’s senior technical venture managers, concerning the tech revealed a bit extra about the way it works:

“There’s an issue referred to as movement maintain,” Weinand defined. “When the backlight is on, and the pixels are all the time seen, the display screen is drawn from prime to backside for each body—which means that when there’s motion, the pixel is drawn, after which it stays in place for a complete body till it is overwritten by the subsequent one.

“In the best way our retina, our human system works, our mind interprets this as movement—after I transfer my finger like this (Weinand moved his finger rapidly in entrance of his eyes at this level), it is blurred, proper? That is how our imaginative and prescient system works.”

“So what we do to keep away from this, with an LCD, we flip off the backlight and solely present [the frame] as soon as it is settled in place. Within the earlier model, this all the time strobed the entire display screen directly. In order that was ULMB, but it surely by no means labored with VRR.

“What we’re doing now’s a rolling scan, so the scan out is going on from prime to backside, and we strobe proper earlier than the scan out reaches the subsequent part [of the display]. This manner, we will make it variable, as a result of at a special refresh price, if that modifications, the stroke must go sooner.

“So the show is dealing with all that, adjusting to [refresh rate] frequencies, adjusting the strobe, and the top result’s that you simply get 4 occasions increased movement readability.”

Combining the strobing know-how with the silky smoothness of VRR actually does seem to have made a large distinction to the general impact. I noticed a earlier iteration of the tech many moons in the past when it was nonetheless underneath wraps, and I used to be impressed then. Now? It appears like a real recreation changer.

There are downsides, in fact. Not all panels are G-Sync Pulsar succesful, because it requires fast-responding IPS backlights that must be authorized by Nvidia as able to delivering the impact. Plus, it requires an onboard MediaTek scaler chip, and the tactic would not work with OLED shows, which mild every pixel individually moderately than utilizing a backlight.

And whereas a wide range of G-Sync Pulsar shows will likely be accessible from January 6, the most affordable variant within the first batch is an AOC mannequin with what I am instructed will doubtless be a $600+ price ticket—which is quite a bit to pay for a 27-inch 1440p IPS panel.

Nonetheless, having seen G-Sync Pulsar in motion, I am completely satisfied by the uplift in perceived movement high quality. The thorny query now’s, which might I moderately have—the unbelievable distinction and vivid colors of a superb OLED gaming monitor, or a pin-sharp, extremely clear, fast-responding IPS for related money?

In all honesty, I’d nonetheless plump for the OLED. However now I’ve seen G-Sync Pulsar in particular person, it is extra of a close-run factor than you may suppose.