NVIDIA quietly changes ‘over 1000 nits brightness’ to ‘lifelike HDR’
G-Sync: The Ultimate Confusion
At its debut, NVIDIA G-Sync technology required proprietary hardware to be installed in the monitor itself. It allowed the display to control the refresh rate dynamically in synchronization with the GPU. The technology was announced before AMD FreeSync. Eventually, due to the increasing popularity of Vesa Adaptive Sync monitors, NVIDIA has split the technology into three branches: G-Sync Compatible (without NVIDIA hardware), G-Sync (with NVIDIA module), and G-Sync Ultimate (higher spec’ed G-Sync monitors with HDR).
At CES 2021, NVIDIA announced that three new gaming monitors have received G-Sync Ultimate certification. Two of those monitors were not DisplayHDR 1000 VESA certified, which was contrary to NVIDIA’s own guidelines for G-Sync Ultimate monitors from November. It was discovered that NVIDIA removed a mention of 1000 nits brightness and changed to ambiguous ‘lifelike HDR’ instead. As a result, two monitors which are ‘only’ VESA DisplayHDR 600 received the Ultimate badge.
At CES 2021 NVIDIA revealed that ASUS PG32UQX (peak brightness of 1400 nits), MSI MEG MEG381CQR (HDR 600), and LG 34GP950G (HDR 600) are now G-Sync Ultimate monitors:
Gaming monitors with G-Sync Ultimate announced at CES 2021, Source: NVIDIA
NVIDIA removed the mention of ‘over 1000-nits brightness’ from its G-Sync Ultimate website, Source: NVIDIA
At CES 2019, NVIDIA announced the following specifications for its G-Sync Ultimate program:
- + 1000 nits brightness
- highest resolution + highest Hz
- Ultra-low latency
- Multi-zone backlight
- Wide color gamut
- Advanced NVIDIA G-Sync processor
The confusion around G-Sync certification is certainly not helping customers choose the best monitor for themselves. NVIDIA has never revealed the full specifications that are required to meet the Ultimate standard. However, from what was clearly shown in this post, the marketing materials partially outlining those specifications might change for the worse.
The change was first noticed by PC Monitors:
Look at the difference between this page (https://t.co/xbQ0rQDuQn) now vs. all the way back in… November 2020. Subtle removal of reference to 'Best HDR 1000 nits' and changed to 'Lifelife HDR' – without telling anybody. pic.twitter.com/mayHvebhfQ
— PC Monitors (@pcmonitors) January 17, 2021
Source: @PCMonitors, NVIDIA G-Sync Page in November 2020, Current NVIDIA G-Sync page
