NVIDIA has unveiled its latest innovation, G-Sync Ultra Low Motion Blur (ULMB) 2, marking the second generation of technology specifically designed to minimize motion blur in competitive games. The new version, a significant improvement over its 2015 predecessor, boasts nearly double the brightness and effectively eliminates crosstalk, unwanted strobing, or the double-image effect that can occur when blur reduction features are activated.
The key factor determining motion clarity in a monitor is its pixel response time. To address this issue, NVIDIA incorporates “full refresh rate backlight strobing” into ULMB 2, building upon the backlight strobing technique of the original ULMB. While the previous version required the monitor’s backlight to be switched off 75 percent of the time to enhance motion clarity, this resulted in a decrease in screen brightness.
With ULMB 2, NVIDIA has managed to synchronize the display’s refresh rate with the backlight activation and deactivation, ensuring that the backlight is only turned on when pixels reach the accurate color value for each frame. This approach effectively eliminates crosstalk, as the transition of pixels to the correct color becomes seamless.
Such an advanced technique was previously unattainable due to the slower pixel refresh rates of older monitors. ULMB 2, however, operates at the full refresh rate of modern displays. On a 360Hz monitor, each backlight strobe occurs every 2.7 milliseconds, rendering it imperceptible to the human eye.
In practical terms, NVIDIA’s ULMB 2 offers increased brightness and achieves an impressive effective motion clarity of over 1000Hz. When paired with a 360Hz monitor, ULMB 2 delivers a remarkable effective motion clarity of 1440Hz. NVIDIA claims that without ULMB 2, users would require a monitor capable of 1440Hz to achieve an equivalent level of motion clarity. Given the current market availability of only up to 500Hz monitors, the arrival of mass-market 1440Hz displays appears to be a distant prospect.
NVIDIA has provided some brief demonstrations of ULMB 2 in action. In the accompanying video, viewers can observe a slow-motion motorcycle pursuit sequence captured at 360 frames per second, both with the feature turned off and on.
ULMB 2 is already accessible as a free update for compatible 1440p, 360Hz G-Sync monitors. Presently, only two monitors meet these specifications: the Acer Predator XB273U and the ASUS ROG Swift PG27AQN, both boasting 27-inch screens. The ASUS ROG Swift Pro PG248QP, a 25-inch 1080p, 540Hz display, and the 27-inch AOC AGON AG276QSG G-Sync Monitor are also compatible and will be available soon.
NVIDIA unveiled ULMB 2 alongside its AI advancements at Computex. The company is actively developing a supercomputer aimed at facilitating generative AI model creation for businesses. Additionally, NVIDIA showcased technology that enables gamers to engage in somewhat realistic conversations with in-game characters by utilizing their microphones.
