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this is a very special technology preview and while I will be doing an

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unboxing the monitor inside this box is an ASUS VG 248 QE that has been modified

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to have its scaler replaced by an NVIDIA

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g-sync module it is not a finished product and

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therefore we won't be evaluating the merits of this monitor specifically but

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rather the technology in general so

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without getting too Technical and boring here let's talk about what gsync is and

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why we need it a graphics card renders

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each frame of your game as fast as it possibly can then makes it available to

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your monitor monitors typically by contrast operate on fixed refresh interv

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they will grab whatever is available to them at the exact time that they are

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ready to refresh in a perfect world the video card would render exactly one

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frame just before the monitor was ready for each refresh and we'd see beautiful

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smooth animation the problem is that different frames in games can be

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rendered in different amounts of time looking at the floor for example is much

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less demanding than looking at a suddenly exploding vehicle that means

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that in the real world the frame rate output by your graphics card doesn't

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match the refresh rate of your monitor vsync or vertical sync forces the

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graphics card to wait around for the monitor to be ready before it sends a

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rendered frame with frames being delivered at even intervals animation

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appears a much smoother even if the frame rate isn't that great see 24 frame

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per second movies as an example this is great until something demanding comes on

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screen and the frame rate drops below the refresh rate of the monitor in most

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cases this will be 60 HZ when that happens one image will stay on screen

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for two whole monitor refreshes this is

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perceived as a stutter in the animation on top of that vsync also introduces

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additional input lag meaning that the delay between when you move your mouse

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and when the image on screen reflects your movement is increased some game

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engines handle this better than others but for example I just playe couldn't

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play Left 4 Dead with vsync on it was just too laggy so why not just turn

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vsync off well then we end up with a visual anomaly called tearing the GPU

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outputs a frame as soon as it's done but if the monitor is in the middle of

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drawing an image on the screen already we'll end up with multiple different

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frames on the screen at the same time this manifests as vertical objects being

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out of alignment in extreme examples like this one you can actually see more

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than two frames on screen at the same time in practice this is extremely

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distracting to look at but I like many gamers out there have simply learned to

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suck it up because I'd rather get screen updates as soon as they're available and

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have it look stupid rather than be looking at something pretty on my screen

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that happened a frame ago now on

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to this guy gsync it allows your monitor

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to wait for your graphics card to be ready to deliver a new frame and update

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itself at that exact moment this eliminates the lag and stuttering

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associated with vsync on and low frame rates and it eliminates the tearing

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associated with vsync off and high frame rates because we never need to Output

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multiple frames to the screen during a single refresh all right so it sounds

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magical what do I need well you'll need a gsync compatible graphics card a

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gtx650 TI booster higher has to be Kepler based until Maxwell launches next

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year you'll need a g-sync monitor like this one with the g-sync module built in

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although there may be some upgrades available for this particular model later on you know depending what happens

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you'll also need a DisplayPort connection on your graphics card a

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DisplayPort cable and you'll need to use the DisplayPort input on your

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monitor all right lonus so you're asking for a pretty big investment here show me

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what it can do well that's a problem I

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can't really show you because in order to experience the smoothness of g-sync

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every part of the chain needs to support it if I were to use a capture card or

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take a high-speed video of gsync running my capture card or camera would operate

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at exactly 60 FPS then it would be played back on your 60 HZ Monitor and

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you'd be able to see that there's no tearing but you'd see frame doubling

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during performance tips as if we were just recording gameplay with regular

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vsync on I could just record footage of games running with no tearing but that's

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only part of the experience you have to try it to really understand it I'm

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hoping to work with NVIDIA to do a live Meetup where viewers can come and try

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gsync for themselves but I think that's still a little ways off speaking of

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understanding g-sync there are some misconceptions about the technology that

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I would like to clear up things you don't even have to be there in person to

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understand so number one is that other than this particular model which has

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like a g-sync module DIY upgrade coming

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aftermarket modding of monitors to add the functionality is extremely

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improbable it would require extensive modifications to the monitor's internals

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and just someone figures it out great but I wouldn't count on it number two

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ASUS does not have any kind of exclusivity on gsync in 2014 I'm not

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sure where this came from number three g-sync will work on any panel size TVs

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monitors you name it it's a matter of time before we even start to see it on

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VR devices and phones and whatnot like kind mobile devices and stuff like that

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number four g-sync will work with light boost compatible monitors or with non-l

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Boost compatible monitors at this time g-sync and the low persistence mode that

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folks have been running on light boost monitors don't work at the same time but

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that may change in the future number five gsync will work on 60 HZ 120 HZ or

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whatever Hertz panels the fixed refresh rate of the monitor simply becomes the

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maximum refresh rate number five or six

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not sure g-sync will work with any panel resolution the sample here is 1080p but

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there's no reason g-sync couldn't work at 1440p or even 4K I've also had quite

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a few folks ask about g-sync on AMD and there are many conflicting reports but

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all I really have to say right now is that there's no real evidence that

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NVIDIA is planning to provide a license to AMD in any way shape or form last one

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is what about SLI and Surround SLI will

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work just fine in gsync the master card that is plugged into your display will

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dictate what refresh rate the monitor should run at and as for surround at

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this time it should be just fine if you have three matching monitors although

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there may be some driver reconfigure mation that may enable you to have

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g-sync here and not g-sync there but that's kind of up in the air at the

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moment so you've got most of the information now let's take a look at why

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I believe this will be extremely hard for NVIDIA to sell one day we're going

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to look back at non- g-sync monitors and we're going to laugh going back to

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tearing stuttering and leg will feel like ancient technology but with that

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said g-sync is going to be a tough sell for NVIDIA because we're all used to

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living without it let's look at another recent Paradigm shifting change in PC

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Hardware solid state drives at least with an SSD you can benchmark versus a

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hard drive and show people the numbers but even then many insisted well I don't

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mind waiting another two seconds blah blah blah it's expensive who cares but

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ask yourself this if you've gone SSD in the last couple of years in fact leave a

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comment on the video and tell me about this how hard is it when you have to go

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back and use a hard drive based system now particularly when it's not on a

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fresh OS and you have to do some real work on it that is how we're all going

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to feel about g-sync in a while so i' actually like to take a moment here to

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let lukee give his thoughts on g-sync so you can hear more than just my opinion

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the fact that we had one in house and we were able to try it was awesome when I

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finally got my hands on g-sync the first thing I did was grab a copy of

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Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag and run around the abstergo hallways because in

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those hallways I found some of the worst tearing I've ever seen and I noticed

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with g-sync no tearing also no mouse input lag which is a big thing because

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with g-sync you're not compromising anything for the awesomeness of g-sync

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and I find that to be the biggest deal with g-sync I don't think a bunch of

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people are going to run out and get this but I think in the future it's going to be really nice because you can get all

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the awesomeness of these Technologies but you don't have to sacrifice lag

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which is a big reason why a lot of people don't run it so let's be clear

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guys this is just a tech preview it's not a full review but there are still

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some conclusions that we can draw so having tried it myself outside of

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NVIDIA's conference controlled environment and having talk to Luke

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about it off camera I think our feelings about it are fairly similar um I don't

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think everyone will or even necessarily should rush out and buy all the

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necessary components on the day they're available and completely replace

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perfectly good Hardware U some of the hardcore guys will and that's cool

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you're going to have a better gaming experience but I think that the more

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likely scenario is that the next time you're at a natural uh upgrade point for

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your monitor or your graphics card you're going to want to carefully

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consider gsync capability when you're making your purchasing decision uh at

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this point another very important conclusion is that I cannot recommend

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while I can't recommend a monitor to buy I can recommend what not to buy don't

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buy anything until quarter 1 next year when we have a clearer idea of what will

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or what won't be available with gsync because the most important thing here is

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to make sure that you're making an educated decision and right now we just

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don't quite know enough so stay tuned guys we're going to definitely have more

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content on this we're going to be covering at CES we're going to be

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covering it once there's retail availability of the proper finished

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hardware and as always guys like the video if you liked it dislike it if you

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disliked it leave a comment let me know how you felt about it and as always

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don't forget to

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subscribe a