NVIDIA G-Sync Pulsar monitor - Asus ROG Strix XG27AQNGV

[Chief Blur Buster]

A lot of GSYNC Pulsar benefits disappear with 400/800dpi mice settings, common in CS2 for handshake-filter, but hurts Pulsar blur busting.

Could you elaborate on this handshake filter thing? I tried google but not much showed up.
Is it some kind of overhead when starting and stopping usb data transmission?

(i made an account just to ask this question lol)

No. Human hand shakiness.

When DPI is high, micro shakiness from hands can become visible, and some paid esports athletes use 400-800dpi in CS2 to prevent that.

This is not easily googled stuff (unless you've got Level 10 Expert Google-Fu). This is "VIP ESports Talk" or fanatical stuff, the people who talk to people on prosettings.net and invitation-only Discord channel.

However, the problem is that if you're using low-MPRT, the low DPI can sabotage slow mouse movements. 400dpi is only 400 mouse positions per inch. So if you move at 0.25 inch per second, you have only 100 mouselook frames per second. Why throttle your brand new 720Hz or 1000Hz monitor to only 100fps, when you can use higher DPI and lower sensitivity. 1600dpi at one-quarter mouse sensitivity you used to use at 400dpi, to get the same edpi calculated at mouse-sensitivity website calculator.

Likewise, 400 dpi has more mouse coarseness at slow mouse movements, which means your mouselook frame rate can be below your Pulsar refresh rate = rough mousefeel during slow mouse looks / multiple image effects during slow mouselooks.

This does not affect fast flicks (Ideally no difference between [email protected] vs [email protected] or [email protected]), but high DPI can make your shaky/shivering/muscle-spasms/human-imperfections more visible.

However, 1600-3200dpi massively improve the pros of improved slow-mouselooks / slow-hunting / slow-tracking (e.g. like a sniper hunting through forest for camoflaged enemies, or 3rd-person POV adjustments like Rocket League, or trying to read RTS map while scrolling RTS map a bit slower). It keeps those slow-movements at a high frame rate without Hz-sabotage or Pulsar-sabotage.

Recommended Pulsar Mouse Settings to prevent Pulsar sabotage

(Difference between "I don't notice Pulsar" versus "Wow, Pulsar looks visually great for slow mouse movements")

- Mouse 1600dpi or more.
- Mouse 2000Hz (unless it overloads mouse loop, then go back to 1000Hz)
- *Higher poll rate is OK in RawInputBuffer-capable games like Valorant (4000-8000 becomes usable without overloading CPU loops)
- High quality mouse pad, clean mouse pad, high quality mouse sensor, wipe mouse feet often
- Game Proportionally Lower Sensitivity
- Window Control Panel Mouse Pointer "Enhance Precision" = OFF
- Window Control Panel Mouse Pointer "Sensitivity" = slightly lower to slow down mouse cursor
NOTE: The last bullet used to be not recommended (interferes with old games like Wold of Warcraft) but all new games ignore Windows Control Panel except for mouse pointer behaviors.

Make sure you use a calculator like mouse-sensitivity.com to figure out settings to use. Preserve your muscle memory, make sure aimtrainer behaves the same as before, so try to perfectly adjust DPI:sensitivity ratio by raising DPI while lowering sensitivity. Many games won't let you enter 3 digits, e.g. 1.0 -> 0.125 = problems. Sometimes you have to edit a text file (.ini .cfg) to edit the extra digits, e.g. old copies of Team Fortress 2.

[brownvim]

I had to use 3000dpi on High on Life 2 as anything lower didn't look smooth when I would slow pan and track.

[liquidshadowfox]

Been using 3200 dpi and can attest the panning did appear smoother, in other notes I was finally able to get wuthering waves to look smooth without frame gen by front edge cap in riva to 100 fps and it looks clearer than 120 fps, I think the dynamic overdrive algorithm needs tweaking for pulsar mode (it locks out OD options) and I think it's offset by a small amount because I don't see the small pulsar artifacts at 100 hz that I see at 120 hz for some reason, then there's a huge gap where I have to hit above 180 hz or higher before the artifacts start to disappear again.

[BlG_FRANK]

Been lurking the forums for a while so, first post.

I absolutely LOVE this monitor. Bought it used from Microcenter for $485. Honestly, I have no idea why this isn't being hyped as one of the biggest leaps in gaming tech right now.

The motion clarity is amazing {once you get it dialed in with the correct settings). The colors and brightness are more than enough when compared to my 32" 240HZ QD-OLED. For me, this is far superior in every way except for
1)what I perceive as a slightly higher input delay and
2)obviously the contrast/blacks are better on the OLED.
I think it was getting to the point of burning my eyes out after long periods of play with the oled anyway and this feels much better over longer gaming sessions.

The 32 QD-OLED is a great monitor, but I feel like I've upgraded my GPU to something that's punching way above it's weight class, and I'm using a 5080 FE.

Now if I can get to that same input lag I had with my OLED(any help would be appreciated), this will be my endgame monitor.

[shapaco]

Acer model here. (rtx 5070ti, Ryzen 7 9700X)

Saying that the motion clarity on this screen looks amazing doesn’t really capture the feeling you get when seeing it in person. Since the image is very stable and clean, an additional layer of immersion is created - what was before veiled under constant blur every time you would look around now is presented more fully. It reminds me a bit of the times I was gaming in stereoscopic 3D on my old LG 3D-TV - the game world seems a bit more real/immersive.

By now I have played different games with it and in some the pulsar effect is more noticeable than in others.

Right now I'm playing Returnal and here pulsar also looks amazing. Somebody said that the 1% lows have to be as close to the average FPS as possible. Returnal has a lot of drops in the 1% lows so the game stutters a lot, but to me it looks like the motion clarity is not much affected. (Is it because the 1% lows are close to the average FPS in general?)

In my experience the motion clarity in 1st person games is less pronounced than in 3th person games. I also tried Dirt Rally and while the image is clearer, the "wow factor" isn't quite as strong.

I also played Elden Ring: Nightreign, which is capped at 60 FPS. Even then, I could see an improvement in clarity, but since the firmware does not yet support those lower frame rates, some oddities are occurring. It’s hard to describe, but it looks as if two frames are being presented at the same time. If the firmware for 60 FPS support ever comes out, I won't be leaving my house again!

In my games I disable Nvidia Reflex and Frame Generation. Where I can, I also disable DLSS.

Seeing Pulsar in combination with Raytraycing just looks incredible. If you can, do yourself a favor try out Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.


Luckily the backlight strobing does not give me headaches as some people reported, but sometimes it makes me feel a bit sick - The same kind of sick as when wearing a VR Headset, it is not as pronounced though.


Questions:
When the frame rate is higher than the refresh rate, G-Sync stops working, but what happens with the backlight strobing? Does pulsar then function as ULMB2?

Have any of you tested how pulsar works with different DLSS settings? I imagine that the motion clarity can only be negatively affected by DLSS. Am I wrong?

I noticed that with frame generation the pulsar effect gets lost. I know that frame generation also enables Nvidia Reflex thereby lowering the 1% lows, but could it be that the fake frames are introducing additional motion blur?

Will the promised firmware update come out for all the initial pulsar models and when will it come out?

Is there any communication channel between customers and NVIDIA (or manufacturers like Acer, MSI, AOC, ASUS) for feedback?

[kyube]

Luckily the backlight strobing does not give me headaches as some people reported, but sometimes it makes me feel a bit sick - The same kind of sick as when wearing a VR Headset, it is not as pronounced though.

You've somewhat contradicted yourself in 1 sentence...
Pulsar is worse than a VR headset in terms of visual system discomfort (headaches aren't the only symptom of backlight strobing)

Questions:
When the frame rate is higher than the refresh rate, G-Sync stops working, but what happens with the backlight strobing? Does pulsar then function as ULMB2?

If you're running GSYNC only without VSYNC, yes.
This is how normal GSYNC runs and this is how Pulsar should run.
Though, testing is required for confirmation of this.

Have any of you tested how pulsar works with different DLSS settings? I imagine that the motion clarity can only be negatively affected by DLSS. Am I wrong?

Any temporal AA solution is bound to lead to visual artifacting of some sort, which Pulsar or any other form of variable or fixed refresh rate strobing should easily show.

I noticed that with frame generation the pulsar effect gets lost. I know that frame generation also enables Nvidia Reflex thereby lowering the 1% lows, but could it be that the fake frames are introducing additional motion blur?

Yes, fake frames do introduce additional temporal afterimages which are unavoidable.
Ideally, no form of TAA should be used in any modern game for the best possible static & dynamic image quality.

[mawi]

I also played Elden Ring: Nightreign, which is capped at 60 FPS. Even then, I could see an improvement in clarity, but since the firmware does not yet support those lower frame rates, some oddities are occurring. It’s hard to describe, but it looks as if two frames are being presented at the same time. If the firmware for 60 FPS support ever comes out, I won't be leaving my house again!

Yes that is the double strobing... I have the same thing playing portal rtx and other high demanding games with not just the average fps dropping below 75, sometimes the average is around 100 but the 1% lows are way too low which also makes the screen OSD showing 2x the Hz than the average FPS are. Then the image - as you described - seems to be doubled. Reminds me of the ghosting of ULMB1 on my old monitor.
Lets hope they can fix this with the new firmwares.

I noticed that with frame generation the pulsar effect gets lost. I know that frame generation also enables Nvidia Reflex thereby lowering the 1% lows, but could it be that the fake frames are introducing additional motion blur?

I use 2x frame generation on Resident Evil Requiem. Most settings including ray tracing on "high". DLSS and Reflex is on. Its not a competitive shooter so I do not bother much about latency. But this game feels really well and even with frame generation, there is absolute Pulsar clarity! Reflex does not ruin it here. I have clear textures while moving, I can read every piece of text on the walls while passing.
The Steam overlay displays the ingame fps (around 80) as well as the DLSS fps (then 160). And my display OSD shows 160 Hz in this case.
This might be interesting with new firmwares how the 80fps with a well working single strobing look compared to the 2x frame gen 160 fps on the pulsar display.

For this game I strongly recommend using RE Framework to change the 1st person FOV ... Otherwise this game creates motion sickness like hell. I am very used to VR gaming but this is insane.
Thanks to RE Framework, it looks wonderful. It just needs to be deactivated on cutscenes.

[Argus]

Any ETA on the firmware update?

Also does anyone who gets eye fatigue or any other symptoms from OLED screens also get it from Pulsar? I can't use OLEDs at all because of what I suspect is PWM flicker. If I do get a pulsar monitor, I hope it doesn't have the same effect on me as OLED in regards to causing eye fatigue/dizziness related symptoms

[kyube]

I can't use OLEDs at all because of what I suspect is PWM flicker.

Desktop OLED displays don't have PWM-related light flicker. See this topic
Pulsar (VRR+Strobing) is a form of PWM, multi-pulse PWM.

[hash]

No. Human hand shakiness.

When DPI is high, micro shakiness from hands can become visible, and some paid esports athletes use 400-800dpi in CS2 to prevent that.

thanks very much!