Tuesday, December 27th 2022
Alienware 500 Hz Gaming Monitor Leaks Ahead of CES Reveal
Based on a leak on Twitter, Alienware is planning on announcing a 500 Hz capable gaming monitor at CES. According to the leaker, the new monitor will carry the AW2524AH model name, suggesting it's a 25-inch monitor. The general tech specs aren't likely to impress most people, as the display panel is as one would expect, only a 1080p panel, although it's at least a fast IPS panel rather than a TN panel.
The AW2524H delivers 480 Hz natively over DP, but has an OC setting which makes it reach 500 Hz. Based on the leaked picture of the rear of the display, it'll have some RGB elements, as well as a height adjustable stand, which most likely also allows the display to be rotated. The leaker didn't provide any kind of pricing, but expect this one to be a very expensive 1080p display.
Source:
@g01d3nm4ng0 on Twitter
The AW2524H delivers 480 Hz natively over DP, but has an OC setting which makes it reach 500 Hz. Based on the leaked picture of the rear of the display, it'll have some RGB elements, as well as a height adjustable stand, which most likely also allows the display to be rotated. The leaker didn't provide any kind of pricing, but expect this one to be a very expensive 1080p display.
98 Comments on Alienware 500 Hz Gaming Monitor Leaks Ahead of CES Reveal
As I said the 1080p resolution is the only downside, but that's nothing unique to plasma, because the point there is it will look better than any lcd 1080p. And yes, in many instances like looking out at a beautiful sunset in skyrim, the plasma actually makes that scene more beautiful than on my 1440p tn. The ips gets close in terms of color, but the unevenness, and the lack of deep blacks, just simply makes the image lack in certain ways still. But this is why I have made a point to myself that I won't get any new monitor unless it's an Oled, or maybe mini-led and such like that, though I don't know how well those will do in stacking up to the image I'm looking for. The plasma tv I have isn't perfect but there is something to the picture that I just have not seen in any of the lcd's I have ever had or used.
Obviously the human eye can see beyond 2 fps... it's the exaggeration that makes it funny
Then at some point will bitch about pollution which lets be honest is to just to make a buck too, and make the price go up. Same kinda shit with the eco crap too.
I here you on the panel technology that is available today. It is to the point where I watch my TV service through my Smart TV app. I just can't do 720P after watching Disney Plus. EA Play allows you to play Madden on PC. It is locked at 30 FPS. You literally can make a pass on every play and the Game feels like molasses.
Going from 60 Hz to 144 Hz gave me a significant difference in fluidity and responsiveness. Switching back felt like a very noticeable downgrade.
For every other game in my library, going above 60 Hz has been like - the animation is a bit smoother... that's it?
Even with Doom (Eternal), I don't see it benefitting significantly from more than 120 Hz.
I'm not a competitive FPS gamer, but let's just pretend I am. Apex Legends has a fps cap of 300, and I have a GPU power to run the game at that fps in 1080p. I want a monitor that can translate each of those frames without any loss (skipped frames). I want things that may give an edge to my already top of the line performance. Is that makes me a fool, a gimmick sucker? SMH.
You should RMA your unit if uniformity / backlight bleed is bad. That is not normal nor acceptable.
You could also choose to get an IPS panel with a mini-LED backlight. This will vastly exceed the contrast ratio of a Plasma TV. Alternatively you can get a good OLED TV or monitor at a reasonable price nowadays.
You say plasma has many advantages but any LCD panel with a mini-led backlight is going to beat it in all respects.
Heck even comparing my 120 Hz OLED phone to my 240 Hz 1440p acer predator, the latest IPS panels have definitely stepped it up when it comes to contrast and color. The only time the OLED wins is in dark scenes, otherwise the color presentation is better on my IPS monitor. Mini-LED is still LCD based, it just allows local dimming. It'll get the picture you are after, which is higher contrast.
If they'd said "OLED" I'd have been fine with this - a stupid-expensive 500Hz panel for eSports gamers with deep pockets.
But 500Hz is far beyond the capabilities of IPS technology which is already really struggling to get 100% refresh compliance above 144Hz without severe overshoot making the image quality useless.
Yes, 240Hz IPS monitors do exist, but no reviewers that do detailed pixel response testing are recommending them over the good 165-180Hz IPS monitors because the extra refresh rate buys you only additional blur trails and/or insane overshoot ruining the image. Not even the best 180Hz IPS panels are overshoot free, but 180Hz is close enough to the true capability of IPS that it doesn't turn the image into a complete mess - overshoot is within 25% or so, and refresh compliance is above 75%.
If I had to guess, a 500Hz IPS panel will have overshoot exceeding 200% for many transitions and refresh compliance will be under 10%. If you don't understand what that means, it means the 500Hz claim is a total, easily-provable lie; It accepts frames from a GPU at 500Hz but the output results of each frame aren't even remotely close to what the GPU sent it.
Even an automated overlay that de-spoilers after 3-5 seconds with a big enouhg countdown indication and some fancy border effects would be fine, without leak hungry user needing to click anything, those that are aware would look away. I'd still keep visiting any talking about other stuff on TPU even if all the news is spoilers in a day.
Or perhaps just the title, or hybrid the title and preview text but except first 3 characters in the title or similar, or minus the first word in the title.
Alienware
I say wait for the reviews before passing judgement on it and I hope TPU review it. In particular, those pointing out the artefacts on current high refresh rate monitors and saying it's gonna look like crap on this one due to overshoot, you don't actually know that, since it's quite possible that they've successfully addressed these issues in such an extreme refresh rate monitor. Again, let's wait for reviews before making assumptions about its performance.
VA and IPS technology has reached a stage where 75Hz "normal" monitors typically finish most or all of their pixel transitions before the next frame arrives in 13.3ms. It is a 75Hz display not just because the signal is fed to it 75 times a second, but because it can draw the whole frame within 1/75 of a second. At even 'just' 144Hz, the next frame arrives after 6.9ms and the problem with both VA and IPS is that many transitions take more than 10ms, meaning that you never actually see all of the extra frame that your expensive GPU just spent your money making. They claim 144Hz but in reality, the pixels themselves are only capable of fully drawing a frame in 1/90th of a second. With aggressive overdrive, maybe some of these 'bad' 144Hz displays can draw 75% of the frame in 1/144th of a second, but the remaining 25% of the frame with either still be changing from the previous frame, or completely overshot the mark and is displaying something utterly unwanted and distracting.
There is a very tangible benefit from moving beyond 60-75Hz non-gaming monitors. I know sensitivity varies from person to person but for me, the point at which individual frames turn into motion is about 50Hz, depending on how fast the content is moving, so I consider 60Hz smooth (and do a lot of gaming at 4K60) but true fluidity - the point at which higher refresh rates stop mattering* to me is at about 105Hz.
[INDENT]*[/INDENT]
[INDENT]All of that last paragraph was based on CRT testing and more recently OLED+black-frame-insertion, which is the most CRT-like experience you can get these days, so for me (and I'm reasonably typical, I think) a good, strobing, 100% refresh compliant display at 105Hz is the point of diminishing returns. Yes, I can see some very minor gains from 120Hz to 144Hz, to 165Hz, but on a 240Hz monitor, I can barely perceive any difference at all between 240Hz and 144Hz unless trying to read fast-scrolling labels/text.[/INDENT]
The higher refresh rates serve one primary function beyond diminishing returns - and that's a reduction of sample-and-hold blur. My brain can barely process the extra information its given at 240Hz, but if my eye is tracking an object moving across the screen, the reduction of the sample-and-hold "wiggle" is very noticeable at higher refresh rates. The caveat to this is that the monitor HAS to have completed its pixel transitions before the next frame arrives, otherwise all of that extra Hz and FPS is wasted.
Personally, I wish manufacturers would work on implementing better backlight strobing and black frame insertion. I would pick a 100Hz monitor with excellent strobing over the 240Hz monitor I currently have, any day of the week, because 100fps gaming is great, it means I don't need an RTX 4090 to reach 240fps, and (provided the pulses are typical 25% duration) I can track moving objects with the clarity I'd have using a hypothetical 100% refresh-compliant 400Hz display. The BFI on my G75T is mediocre, but I still prefer it at fixed 120Hz to 240Hz VRR without it.
So, 120 or 144Hz gaming is a big upgrade over 60Hz, but beyond that people who want higher refresh rates probably think they want higher refresh rates, but in reality are trying to get smoother motion tracking which would be better achieved with a good strobing/BFI implementation.
Everything has its limits. Simple, even if the human psyche disagrees. Its wisdom to be able to see the difference. And we are led by marketing if we fail to do so.
As far as where the laws of diminishing returns kick in, it'll be somewhat different for everyone. In my case, I can tell the difference between 120Hz and 144Hz, but it's subtle. I can't speak for higher refresh rates because I haven't seen them, but I suspect that I'll be able to see that too.
Finally, there's a killer reason for really high refresh rates: much reduced motion blur. It's inherent in all sample and hold displays, including OLED, partly because of the way human vision works with averaging out the motion between frames.
There's two ways to reduce this: 1) strobing, 2) increasing the framerate. Doing so at 500Hz makes the difference between them very small and hence much reduced blur. There's an article by Microsoft published a few years ago that explains this all in great detail. However, you can see the effect just by switching between 60/100/120/144Hz and noticing how the motion blur drops each time.
@Vayra86 you posted while I was creating this post. Please see my last paragraph for the benefit. It's absolutely not a placebo or idiocy.
This is only a guess, but I would put money on it - This will be more of the same shit we've seen from 240, 300, 360Hz IPS. It doesn't work, multiple independent reviews have proved it. IPS itself is the limiting factor, so it's OLED or nothing beyond about 200Hz if you want anything approaching refresh-compliance.
Go and read some RTINGS articles or watch HUB videos on the fastest IPS displays of the last two years. We're at the point where the combination of best panel and best overdrive algorithms can get 80% compliance in about 4.6ms and 100% compliance in around 7ms average. That means that IPS technology is perfect for (1000/7) 144Hz and anything beyond that is a compromise of smear and overshoot.
Point is, the sacrifices no longer outweigh the benefits at a certain point. And no, thats not a moving goal either. 120-144 and maybe 165 are more than sufficient to exceed that point. It was in 1999, and it will be in 2030.
This article though isnt even about 240hz. Its about 500. Similar principles apply to pixel density; 4K at very small diagonals are similarly pointless and just a result of commerce, not sense. Their purpose is as Veseleil describes it accurately: something to buy when you already have top of the line performance.
Its money looking for a purpose, and there is a market for it, like there is for everything, no matter how silly.