Apparently NVIDIA has made some changes to the requirements for monitors offered with G-Sync Ultimate support. With defined requirements and certification, NVIDIA wants to ensure that certain standards are adhered to. One of these specifications is a brightness of 1. 000 cd / m².

But this one NVIDIA seems to have reduced the default, because monitors have appeared in the past few weeks and days that do not support these 1. 000 cd / m² comply more and still be offered as a G-Sync Ultimate Monitor. At the CES, NVIDIA presented the GeForce RTX 3060, which should come on the market at the end of February, but much focused on the mobile Ampere offshoot of the GeForce RTX – 30-Series. But NVIDIA also wanted to point out new monitors that were advertised together with the Reflex technology. Some of the new monitors offer “only” DisplayHDR 600, so by definition cannot be set to 1. 000 cd / m² come. In the meantime, NVIDIA apparently also offers monitors as G-Sync Ultimate models that only offer DisplayHDR 400 and therefore only 400 cd / m² come.

It looks like NVIDIA has changed the definition for HDR – at least internally. While so far there has always been talk of nits or cd / m² for the brightness or this was also a requirement for G-Sync Ultimate, NVIDIA now uses the description “Lifelike HDR”, which is now really far from any technical definition.

The colleagues at ComputerBase now have a Statement received from NVIDIA:

“Late last year we updated G-SYNC ULTIMATE to include new display technologies such as OLED and edge- lit LCDs.

All G-SYNC Ultimate displays are powered by advanced NVIDIA G-SYNC processors to deliver a fantastic gaming experience including lifelike HDR, stunning contract, cinematic color and ultra-low latency gameplay. While the original G-SYNC Ultimate displays were 1000 nits with FALD, the newest displays, like OLED, deliver infinite contrast with only 600 – 700 nits, and advanced multi-zone edge-lit displays offer remarkable contrast with 600 – 700 nits. G-SYNC Ultimate was never defined by nits alone nor did it require a VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification. Regular G-SYNC displays are also powered by NVIDIA G-SYNC processors as well.

The ACER X 34 S monitor was erroneously listed as G-SYNC ULTIMATE on the NVIDIA web site. It should be listed as “G-SYNC” and the web page is being corrected. “

NVIDIA justifies the reduction in this that they wanted to include monitors compatible with G-Sync Ultimate, which use panels with OLED and edge-lit LCD. In the case of OLEDs and edge-lit LCDs, these achieved 600 to 700 cd / m² in brightness, but G-Sync Ultimate would never have been defined by brightness alone wrongly listed a certain model as G-Sync Ultimate, although this should only have been categorized as a G-Sync display. This error has now been fixed.

Nevertheless, the impression is spreading that NVIDIA is softening the categorization as G-Sync Ultimate. OLEDs certainly have outstanding properties and this also applies to edge-lit LCDs, but in terms of brightness, “Lifelike HDR” can certainly mean a lot.