When do you expect OLED to match CRT motion clarity at 60 Hz?

[displayfreak123]

Hi all,

I still use a CRT and a plasma for 60 Hz content, and I'm trying to figure out how long I realistically have to wait for an OLED that matches CRT motion clarity at native 60 Hz, without a shader and without extra lag. Curious what you all expect, and what's going on behind the scenes.

My back-of-the-envelope math (corrections welcome):
- 1 ms MPRT at 60 Hz = ~6% duty cycle (1 ms / 16.67 ms).
- Subframe BFI: 540 Hz = 1.85 ms, 720 Hz = 1.39 ms, 960 Hz = 1.04 ms (16 subframes). So ~960 Hz+ is the threshold for CRT parity.
- Rolling scan in panel firmware/TCON would only need a narrow band (~6% of the lines, ~85 lines at 1440p) and wouldn't need a faster panel, but it needs a driver IC that can do sub-ms emission pulses per line.
- Talbot-Plateau: average brightness = peak x duty. At 6% duty a ~1500 nit band gives roughly 90 nits average.

What I found so far (please correct if wrong):
- LG Display showed panel-level BFI again at Computex 2026 on a prototype 27" 1440p 540 Hz WOLED (2000 nits peak at 1.5% APL, ~560 nits full screen). Reports say it's limited to half the native refresh rate, but nothing about the minimum duty cycle or whether it's adjustable.
- 540 Hz WOLED with a 720p/720 Hz dual mode exists (LG 27GX790B). Samsung reportedly has a 1080p/680 Hz mode and a 720 Hz ultrawide (2560x720) on its roadmap.
- 1000 Hz panels exist, but as IPS LCD at 1080p (e.g. LG 25G590B) or 720p (Samsung). I haven't seen a native 960-1000 Hz OLED announced.
- G-Sync Pulsar is backlight-based on LCD. I found no OLED version announced.
- External FPGA scalers (e.g. RetroTINK 4K with CRT-style rolling BFI) are capped by output refresh (120 Hz there), so persistence is still limited by 1 / output Hz.

Questions:
1. When do you expect an OLED to reach <=1 ms MPRT at 60 Hz? 2027? 2030+? Or never as a mainstream feature?
2. Which path is more likely: native ~1000 Hz OLED panels with subframe BFI / CRT beam simulator, or firmware rolling scan in the TCON?
3. For the new LG panel-level BFI: does anyone know the minimum duty cycle, whether it's continuously adjustable or only integer ratios (e.g. 1 frame + 8 black at 60 fps on 540 Hz), and whether it works with 60 fps content?
4. Any insight on why panel makers don't expose per-line emission control (NDA, driver limits, burn-in, brightness)?
5. Is a retro/CRT-style 60 Hz mode even on manufacturers' radar, or is it all driven by high-fps esports?

Thanks!

[MPRT|GTFO]

You are spreading a misconception. The better CRTs' persistence, for the purposes of comparing motion blur, is closer to 0.3 ms (some dim afterglow remains much longer to sometimes produce a ghosting artifact, but nothing like the full-brightness sample-and-hold-based blur), which is something you benefit from at very fast panning and eye-tracking. I strongly suggest you correct your post's title, removing this 1 ms MPRT equivalence misconception. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

I'll also add that not only are existing OLEDs so tremendously far away from reaching CRT levels for 60 FPS content, but even for any framerate content. Motion blur reduction at 60 Hz is harder to do for sample-and-hold-based displays, but a good CRT at any refresh rate still beats any OLED at any refresh rate.

As for our expectations: Technologies already mass produced in separate products prove that it is entirely possible to reach the goal, e.g. through rolling scan, as demonstrated on LG CX and C1 TVs, Sony Trimaster, or even Dell UP3017Q - a monitor from a decade ago, plus using the full brightness potential (e.g. LG G6 can supposedly do 2850 nits at a 5% window, which could have given you 142.5 nits at 0.83 ms of persistence at 60 Hz, assuming that this is what you would actually be satisfied with). This approach can even reach the needed 0.3 ms persistence at current monitor refresh rates, to actually match or beat CRTs at higher FPS content. This 0.3 ms goal currently seems much harder to reach through higher refresh rates alone (3334 Hz), which is the more dumb/inefficient way to achieve it, but it also has some known advantages if it works. 1000 Hz might come soon enough, but you will be disappointed again.

One might expect of manufacturers that they would try to put those technologies together in one new product targeted at fast-paced gaming or certain professionals, or, and I see that this is a foreign concept for them lately, a flagship product that tries to put all the best characteristics together in one new model, but in practice that seems to not be happening unless and until they sense that they are in actual competition for such a product (apparently old but still good displays, mostly from two Japanese companies, don't count as competition for them). Instead, all they do now is add cheaper models or just marginally improve on their previous models, primarily targeting, by every indication, shopping addicts.

As for when I predict that it will actually happen: not before one of two events happen:

1. A third entity (an actually competing panel manufacturer, or maybe a monitor maker) gets the balls to use those or other technologies to make such a product, one way or another; or
2. An invasion or hot war involving South Korea and the mass use of FPV (first-person view) drones, and/or some weakening of that government.

[displayfreak123]

Thanks, that's a fair correction. I've changed the title and dropped the 1 ms equivalence, which I had taken from older posts without questioning it. I also underestimated how much rolling scan already exists in products (Dell UP3017Q, Sony Trimaster).

What I'm hoping for now is that some OLED panel eventually offers a freely adjustable duty cycle, ideally set directly as the size of the lit band in percent of the screen height, so that it can reach ~0.3 ms. At 60 Hz that would be about 1.8% of the lines (roughly 19 lines at 1080p, 26 lines at 1440p and 39 lines at 4K), combined with the highest peak brightness the panel can sustain in such a narrow band.

Thanks for the detailed insight, much appreciated.

[RealNC]

I wouldn't get my hopes up unless Nvidia brings Pulsar to OLED.