This blog is a bit special this time, because we are going to step into the "nerdy world" and take a look at the mind-blowing G-Sync technology from Nvidia. As a gamer (aka. nerd) myself, I am pretty excited to bring you guys the frontier of gaming experience.
Before jumping into G-Sync, let me explain an issue that was unsolved for a million years before the existence of G-Sync. When you play games, the action happening on the screen is made up of frames(images). The frames are measured at 'Hz', 1Hz can be seen as 1 frame per second(FPS). Your monitor is a device that has a built-in, fixed refresh rate. Today approximately 90% gamers are playing on a 1920 x 1080 (full HD) 60Hz display. The graphics card is always firing of frames as fast as it can possibly do, and FPS is dynamic and can bounce from say 30 to 80 FPS in an matter of split seconds. Obviously there must be a conflict between fixed and dynamic. So at the same time we have the graphics card rendering at a continuously changing frame rate while the monitor refreshes at 60 frames per second. Then there is a problem, as with a slower or faster FPS than 60, you'll get multiple images displayed on the screen per refresh of the monitor. As a result, you will get screen tearing, which is really annoying and ruins your gaming experience. Before G-Sync was invented, the old solution is called 'V-Sync', vertical synchronize. It forces the graphics card render at the same refresh rate as the monitor. The screen tearing problem might be gone, but lag occurs between the graphics card input and monitor output, which causes screen stuttering. |
| Nvidia G-Sync module |
Today thanks to Nvidia's G-Sync technology, this problem is solved for good. G-Sync is both a software and a hardware solution that will eliminate screen tearing and stuttering. A daughter hardware board is placed into a G-Sync enabled monitor. With G-Sync the monitor will become a 'slave' to your graphics card as the its refresh rate in Hz becomes dynamic. So each time your graphics card has rendered one frame that frame is aligned up with the monitor refresh rate. Therefore the refresh rate of the monitor will become dynamic. With both the graphics card and monitor dynamically in sync with each other, the tearing and stuttering are gone for good.
It gets even better, currently there are G-Sync monitors on the market that have 144Hz refresh rate -- yes, the screen is able to actually refresh 144 images per second. What this means it that with the higher refresh rate comparing with traditional 60Hz, it gives you a much more smooth gaming experience. Your eyes will feel extremely comfortable while playing in front of one of this panel. And you won't feel dizzy after hours of gaming.
Of course, there is no free lunch. G-Sync does come with relatively high cost. At the time of writing this blog, the cheapest G-Sync monitor you can get from the market is still over AUD$500. And owning one of this monitor is not enough to get the G-Sync ready for yourself, you will have to get a Nvidia graphics card -- yes, unfortunately that's the only option compatible with G-Sync. Last, in order to make the best of this awesome technology, you need to have a powerful PC that can render games at a high refresh rate. While having G-Sync may cost quite some fortune, the truth is that it is absolutely worth it. 'The way it is meant to be played' as said by Nvidia, and actually pretty much 100% reviewers on the Internet appreciates this gaming-changing technology. So gamers, brace your wallet and enter the future of computer gaming.
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