Thursday, January 16th 2014
NVIDIA Rolls Out G-Sync Upgrade Kit for ASUS VG248QE
NVIDIA rolled out an upgrade kit that lets you retrofit your ASUS VG248QE monitor with NVIDIA G-Sync technology, letting you take advantage of the display's up to 144 Hz refresh rate for some incredibly smooth visuals (we've seen G-Sync in action ourselves, and it works like it should). The kit is a PCB with a handful of headers. You can either retrofit it into the monitor's body yourself (a DIY video is posted). The G-Sync kit is priced at US $199.The DIY installation video follows.
64 Comments on NVIDIA Rolls Out G-Sync Upgrade Kit for ASUS VG248QE
Seriously? Is this how you keep a fair and open mind about technology on a site that is dedicated to tech and tech news for the novice all the way to the enthusiast?
Some of you should be ashamed of yourselves.
On topic: $200 is out of my price range, if it were possible to upgrade my monitor with G-Sync. But, I don't have the monitor so, clearly, this affects me in no way.
Also, considering this is new tech (as with all new tech), the price will be at a premium. When it becomes more common or as time past, I'm sure the price will go down.
I think it's nice that Asus/Nvidia are giving owners of this monitor an option to upgrade their premium monitors without having to shell out $500+ for essentially the same thing in a few months.
Edit: I have a question of my own: How much would a monitor like this cost WITH G-Sync enabled if and when it's released in the market? Keep it mind it would need to have these features including G-Sync.
$465 (Monitor w/ G-Sync Mod) DIY seems like it would still be cheaper then to wait for one of the manufacturers to come out with a comparable monitor.
I was under the impression you would remove a plastic flap/cover (like on a remote) on back of lcd insert the gync card and be done.
This is a full teardown.
SO curiously though, ASUS VG248QE should in fact support VBLANK.. since it supports G-sync... TBH i have a feeling ALL G-Sync Compatible monitors support VBLANK.. so Freesync should work on it.
As i understand how G-Sync works, the nVidia GPUs DO NOT Support variable refresh rates internally, thus proprierty modules have to be made in order for the monitor to function in this manner.
AMD's solutions on the other hand... have been doing this... for a while.. from the GPU chip itself. So my question is did nVidia shoot itself in the foot to market this tech so extensively as they did, though there has been a standard for a while.
As I understand the monitor has to be able to communicate directly with the AMD GPU in order for FreeSync to work for example and VBLANK needs to be supported. which i would say all 5 star energy rated LCDs should already have this, no matter if its desktop or laptop, as it can only be achieved with that rating.
The G-Sync Module is needed in order for the monitor to communicate directly with the nVidia GPU as its missing the instruction set completely from the GPU. In actual fact if nVidia wanted to level the field they'd "rework" maxwell to have this included on the PCB.
BUT raping wallets comes first so, this will only be available 3-4 generations later from kepler, without the need for a module as its built onto the PCB of the GPU in 2016-2018.
Book mark my Post, I'll give the first person to say I accurately predicted the market
1 Bitcoin in 4 Years. 17-01-2018
Nvidia won't.
Edit: Xzibit found it.
They also have a "Incase you sue us". You need to write to them saying you want to Opt Out with-in 30 days of purchase. Sneaky!
So I'm paying to lose privileges and support closed standards that do don't really do much to begin with? Cool, they should have just named it "PhySynX" and parade it as a testament of what enough money and PR bullshittery can do to people, aka "the gaming industry".
And ASUS is no better, really, just now release a 120Hz 1440 monitor? How convenient. You just know people will buy it just because of that, and not because of GSync, either because it doesn't attract them and/or are running a GPU of another make (Fermi and older, AMD, Intel, hybrid Virtu stuff and so on...).
$200? Thanks but no thanks.
UPDATE: Just saw the video. Even $99.99 sounds too much for this hassle. $79.99 to consider this NVIDIA, make it more expensive and you will be giving this away for free with SHIELDS soon.
I also agree that the price of this DIY kit is too expensive right now, but what do you expect with brand new tech? If you buy the monitor and a DIY kit you're out $470 US. However, if you wait a couple of week's, you'll be able to buy the new version of the VG248QE with g-sync already built-in for $399 which is a better deal.
And yes, while it's still a TN monitor, TN panels are still far superior to IPS panels in regards to gaming and will be until you see IPS panels that can match response times. It's also worth noting that the DIY kit DOES void your warranty with ASUS, which makes no sense to me. ASUS and Nvidia are partnered and offering this kit to upgrade existing monitors, but yet ASUS isn't allowing people to do it under warranty. Silly, but I guess understandable considering how much damage you can do if you don't know what you're doing.
So bottom-line, if you're not a gamer, then this new tech is completely worthless for you and you shouldn't even be commenting on it. For everyone else, I'm sure the price will drop once the "pre-installed" monitors go on the market and the tech becomes more widespread.