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4K, G-Sync and HDR technologies have revolutionized the way we play with our PCs, although we users have had a thorn stuck in for quite some time, since it was not possible to find a monitor that combined all these technologies in a single product. Something that has finally changed thanks to the G-Sync HDR and Nvidia technology, this is the latest technology for monitors from the graphics card giant, which puts the gaming experience at the level we have always dreamed of.

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All about Nvidia G-Sync HDR technology

Until the arrival of G-Sync HDR, users had to face a tough decision when purchasing a new monitor to play, since it was not possible to get hold of a unit that had a high-quality panel at 4K resolution and great fluidity. game provided by G-Sync. G-Sync HDR was born to end this problem, because for the first time we can acquire a monitor with a 4K panel of the best quality, support for HDR and with G-Sync technology.

Nvidia G-Sync was born with the purpose of solving one of the big problems of PC gaming, the inability of graphics cards to maintain a number of images per second, that matches the refresh rate of the monitor. This problem causes the graphics card and monitor to be out of sync, resulting in image defects known as Stutter (micro stutters) and thearing (cuts in image).

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G-Sync is a technology that is in charge of adjusting the refresh rate of the monitor to the number of images per second that the graphics card sends it, thus achieving perfect synchronization. This results in a very smooth gaming experience, with no stuttering or image cuts. The next step was to add HDR to get the ultimate experience.

The difficulties of implementing G-Sync HDR and its high cost

It was not easy to create this G-Sync HDR technology, because to make it possible it was necessary to resort to Intel and one of its FPGAs. Specifically, an Intel Altera Arria 10 GX 480 is used, a highly advanced and highly programmable processor that can be encoded for a wide range of applications. This Intel Altera Arria 10 GX 480 is accompanied by 3 GB of DDR4 2400MHz memory manufactured by Micron, a component that is currently very expensive. All this means that the implementation of G-Sync HDR is not cheap at all, since it is estimated that it adds approximately an extra cost of $ 500 to the same monitor, but without this technology.

Another difficulty in implementing G-Sync HDR is related to the bandwidth limitation of the DisplayPort 1.4 and HDMI 2.0b specifications. A 4K 144 Hz image with HDR and G-Sync generates a volume of information that exceeds the capacity of these standards, and they are the most advanced in existence. To solve this, it was necessary to reduce the Chroma subsampling from 4: 4: 4 to 4: 2: 2. This translates into a slight loss of color fidelity, although manufacturers assure that it is minimal and the benefits far outweigh this small drawback. If we do not want to suffer this loss of Chroma sub-sampling, we must settle for a refresh rate of 120 Hz.

Nvidia G-Sync HDR enhances the gaming experience

Nvidia has worked hard with the main monitor manufacturers to optimize this technology to the maximum, with this we will have the guarantee that the image quality that is offered to us is the maximum possible with current technology. This loss of Chroma sub-sampling will be eliminated when we have the new HDMI 2.1 and DisplayPort 5 specifications available.

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Another big drawback is the power that is needed to move the leading games to 4K and 144 Hz, there is simply no graphics card that can do it. This creates a situation where it is necessary to resort to SLI configurations, that is, putting several cards together on the same PC. SLI configurations are expensive, especially if we rely on the most powerful graphics cards like the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti, whose price is almost 800 euros. The other problem of putting two cards together is the large amount of heat that is generated, making it necessary to have a large cooling system in the PC. We already have an idea of ​​how expensive it will be to use G-Sync HDR.

The other major difficulty has been in the implementation of HDR on these monitors, generally 32 inches maximum. Here we are talking about a true HDR experience, which requires a brightness of at least 1000 nits, for which it has been necessary to install 384 lighting zones on the monitor, which provides an exceptionally high ANSI contrast. Implementing so many lighting zones on a 32-inch screen is not easy when you want to achieve the best possible result.

Here ends our post on G-Sync HDR: What it is and what it is for. If you have any questions you can leave us a comment below or you need to know the opinion and experience of a very good hardware community, you can register for free in our specialized hardware forum. We want to know your opinion!