A 24-inch PC monitor with 500 refresh rates per second will soon be available for purchase, Asus and Nvidia announced today. The monitor should boost the performance of desktop monitors beyond the maximum native 360Hz refresh rate they see today, while bringing a mysterious new twist to old panel technology.
Aptly named the Asus ROG Swift 500Hz gaming monitor, it delivers high refresh rates at lower resolutions. The 1920×1080 screen uses a new take on TN (twisted nematic) panels called E-TN, where the “E”stands for esports. According to Asus, the E-TN panel offers “60% better response times than standard TN panels”, and in its own statement, Nvidia said the E-TN panel provides “maximum motion and clarity”. But no details on how the technology differs from conventional TN.
Standard TN panels are becoming less common among PC monitor releases as IPS (in-plane switching) and VA (vertical alignment) panels continue to catch up in speed, while being known for stronger viewing angles in the case of IPS and higher contrast ratios., in case VA. Those who choose TN are willing to sacrifice image quality in the name of speed or, often, a lower price. It’s not clear how many sacrifices the E-TN may require (beyond the maximum 1080p resolution) or how much premium it will have over today’s standard TN monitors.
You can buy 360Hz monitors these days, including ones that can go up to 390Hz, but 500Hz is the next level. The monitor panel maker was not specifically named, but Nvidia’s announcement noted its collaboration with partner AU Optronics, which we recently showcased in 480Hz monitors and laptops, with the former coming in a 24-inch TN variant. The BOE has also been linked to the 500Hz panel, which uses a TFT (Thin Film Transistor) oxide active layer rather than the more common silicon TFT active layer.
So, who else needs the fastest PC monitor? According to Nvidia, “This benefits every game and every player, not just competitive games and esports professionals.”Although, if you prefer sharper images to the fastest speeds, don’t have a powerful enough system to hit 500 fps, or play graphics-intensive games where 500 fps isn’t possible, you won’t fit this “all games”and games.”Gamer category.
Nvidia said that when combined with a system that can hit 500 frames per second, which is a lot, you’ll be able to track motion more easily. In a video that Nvidia shared claiming to show the benefits of 500Hz, it showed a virtual character moving across the screen on a display at 144Hz, 240Hz, and 500Hz, and the motion looked more jerky with a lower refresh rate and frame rate.
Similarly, Nvidia has stated that boosting 500Hz and 500fps will result in less ghosting, as you can see in the shot below:
In Nvidia’s virtual keynote at this week’s Computex conference, Jeff Fischer, Nvidia’s senior vice president of GeForce business, said the Asus 500Hz monitor has the “lowest latency”of any Nvidia G-Sync monitor. Nvidia also pointed out a system latency issue it recently had with Steam players of various skill sets, playing around with latency levels of 25, 55, and 85ms. The challenge led Nvidia to conclude that lower latency “improves your score regardless of aiming skill”and makes “difficult aiming tasks possible”.
In addition to Nvidia G-Sync, which helps fight screen tearing when your Nvidia graphics card’s frame rate and monitor’s refresh rate don’t match, the 500Hz Asus monitor will have an Nvidia Reflex latency analyzer. Nvidia has stated that playing on a monitor that also supports Reflex “can further reduce system latency”, which can then be measured using the Reflex monitor feature.
The upcoming display also supports Nvidia’s Vibrance Mode, which is built for gaming and “allows more light to pass through the LCD’s crystals, giving colors a new level of vibrancy and allowing you to bring out details and highlights that can give away an enemy’s position.”Asus claimed.
Neither Asus nor Nvidia have revealed a release date for the Asus ROG Swift 500 Hz gaming monitor. Asus personally demonstrated their first 360Hz monitor in January 2020 and they were made available later that year; though at the time of writing, there don’t seem to be any in-person demos of the ROG Swift 500 Hz yet.
You can watch Nvidia’s 500Hz demo below: