Reducing motion blur is one of those things that improves gaming in a real but subtle way — you often need a live demonstration to see just how much better it makes things. Take Nvidia’s ULMB (ultra low motion blur) system, which has been available for G-Sync displays since 2015. The company just took the wraps off of an advanced ULMB 2 implementation, and it’s impressive…if you’ve got a fast enough monitor to make use of it.
ULMB 2 works on G-Sync displays of 360Hz or higher, essentially limiting its implementation to high-end esports setups (at least for the moment). The improved system adds full refresh rate backlight strobing and has double the effective brightness, one of the weaknesses of high-refresh displays across the board. To demonstrate the improvement in a way that’s visible on any display, Nvidia used super-slow motion to compare the movement of a Fortnite motorcycle with ULMB 2 on and off:
It’s an improvement over existing high-refresh displays, too. Here’s a 120Hz panel without the backlight strobing feature compared to a 480Hz panel with the feature enabled:
The new ULMB 2 system relies on a technique Nvidia calls “Vertical Dependent Overdrive,” which syncs the LCD panel’s backlight strobing with the portion of the image where pixels are actively in motion. This makes the vertical scan (the part of G-Sync that ensures the whole screen refreshes at once) timed perfectly to provide the smoothest motion. It’s enough to make the effective motion clarity “over 1000Hz” while maintaining more brightness.
So far there are only two monitors on the market that are compatible with ULMB2, the Predator XB273U F from Acer (which PCWorld reviewed earlier this year!) and the ROG Swift PG27AQN from Asus. (Two more are coming soon, from Asus and AOC, and more should be hitting the market in the latter part of the year.) If you happen to have one of these displays, you can enable ULMB 2 with a new firmware update available today.
Author: Michael Crider, Staff Writer, PCWorld
Michael is a 10-year veteran of technology journalism, covering everything from Apple to ZTE. On PCWorld he's the resident keyboard nut, always using a new one for a review and building a new mechanical board or expanding his desktop "battlestation" in his off hours. Michael's previous bylines include Android Police, Digital Trends, Wired, Lifehacker, and How-To Geek, and he's covered events like CES and Mobile World Congress live. Michael lives in Pennsylvania where he's always looking forward to his next kayaking trip.