WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:04.680 Even if you have the biggest, baddest graphics card on the planet, your games still might 00:00:04.680 --> 00:00:09.000 not look as crisp as you'd expect. But don't blame your GPU. 00:00:09.000 --> 00:00:14.160 Blame your monitor. I'm talking about motion blur, that effect you see when the visuals on your screen get 00:00:14.160 --> 00:00:17.520 smeared around so things look blurrier, ghosted. 00:00:17.520 --> 00:00:22.200 Do note that this is completely unrelated to the motion blur setting you might find 00:00:22.200 --> 00:00:27.680 in some of your favorite games, which adds an artificial cinematic blurring effect if 00:00:27.680 --> 00:00:34.720 you quickly change the camera angle. Real motion blur has been the bane of gamers for a very long time. 00:00:34.720 --> 00:00:39.200 Not only does it look unappealing, but in competitive gaming it can actually interfere 00:00:39.200 --> 00:00:46.800 with your performance. But why exactly is motion blur still a problem, and how is NVIDIA's new ULMB2 trying to fix 00:00:46.800 --> 00:00:51.040 it? Well, the main cause has to do with how most computer monitors are designed. 00:00:51.040 --> 00:00:55.720 You'll often see a specification when you're monitor shopping called response time. 00:00:55.760 --> 00:01:00.480 And simply put, this is how long it takes the pixels to change colors, usually measured 00:01:00.480 --> 00:01:04.400 as how long it takes to go from one shade of gray to another. 00:01:04.400 --> 00:01:09.120 On any display with a backlight, meaning just about anything that isn't an OLED, response 00:01:09.120 --> 00:01:15.960 times are not instantaneous. It actually takes a few milliseconds for your monitor's pixels to execute a change, 00:01:15.960 --> 00:01:19.320 which is long enough for gamers to perceive motion blur. 00:01:19.320 --> 00:01:26.840 Because they're higher beings, they're better than most people. On these displays, the main way that you can fight motion blur is by enabling backlight 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:31.600 strobing, a feature that turns the backlight off for short periods of time, meaning the 00:01:31.600 --> 00:01:37.440 screen is dark while the pixels are transitioning, reducing the amount of blur you can perceive. 00:01:37.440 --> 00:01:42.360 Back in 2015, NVIDIA came out with their specific flavor of backlight strobing they called 00:01:42.360 --> 00:01:48.600 ULMB. Unfortunately, because of the rather long pixel response times back then, the backlight 00:01:48.600 --> 00:01:52.120 would have to be off for 75% of the time. 00:01:52.120 --> 00:01:57.480 This meant the picture overall would often end up noticeably dim, reducing its appeal, 00:01:57.480 --> 00:02:04.280 especially for competitive gamers. Not to mention, ULMB would actually have to slow down the screen's refresh rate in order 00:02:04.280 --> 00:02:13.760 to give the pixels enough time to transition. However, NVIDIA has recently rolled out an improved version, uncreatively named, ULMB2. 00:02:13.760 --> 00:02:17.360 But how exactly did they solve the issues that plagued the original? 00:02:17.360 --> 00:02:21.840 Part of ULMB2's advantage is that it doesn't have to lower a panel's refresh rate like 00:02:21.840 --> 00:02:26.880 its predecessor did. This improvement actually doesn't even come from NVIDIA at all. 00:02:26.880 --> 00:02:31.640 Instead, it's simply due to the fact that generally, pixel response times are significantly 00:02:31.640 --> 00:02:34.680 shorter today than they were back in 2015. 00:02:34.680 --> 00:02:42.120 Wow. ULMB2 also improves upon basic backlight strobing by controlling pixels on a more granular level. 00:02:42.120 --> 00:02:46.680 You see, when pixels refresh to put a new image on your screen, they're typically refreshed 00:02:46.680 --> 00:02:52.960 from the top down. So when the backlight flashes, some of those pixels will be in a state of transition, leading 00:02:52.960 --> 00:03:00.120 to a phenomenon called crosstalk. Meaning, part of the image will likely still have some blurring or ghosting. 00:03:00.120 --> 00:03:06.880 But ULMB2 largely overcomes crosstalk by over-driving certain pixels with higher voltage, causing 00:03:06.880 --> 00:03:10.120 them to change state more quickly than others. 00:03:10.120 --> 00:03:15.720 Too much overdrive can lead to undesirable visual artifacts, but ULMB2 uses overdrive 00:03:15.800 --> 00:03:20.960 in a controlled way to create a sweet spot where the number of pixels mid-transition 00:03:20.960 --> 00:03:29.480 is at a minimum when the backlight turns on. This not only means less motion blur, but also a brighter image than the original ULMB 00:03:29.480 --> 00:03:32.840 since the backlight is turned on for a greater proportion of the time. 00:03:32.840 --> 00:03:39.240 Okay, but what's the catch? Well, you'll need a monitor that specifically supports ULMB2. 00:03:39.240 --> 00:03:43.480 At the time of writing, there are only two monitors on the market that do, and they're 00:03:43.560 --> 00:03:48.800 not exactly cheap, as their high refresh rates, G-sync displays aimed more at the competitive 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:55.280 and enthusiast crowd. The good news? Nothing's stopping you from just gaming on a $150 display if you don't mind a little 00:03:55.280 --> 00:03:59.440 bit of ghosting. It's not nearly as bad as the kind you get on the dating apps anyway. 00:03:59.440 --> 00:04:05.800 And thanks for not ghosting me and watching this whole video! Like it if you liked it, dislike it if you disliked it, check out our other videos, comment 00:04:05.800 --> 00:04:10.080 below with video suggestions, and hey, you want a little hot tip? 00:04:10.080 --> 00:04:15.040 Subscribe and follow TechWiki as it will immeasurably improve your life, probably.