Seeing is believing with something like Pulsar – though like other emerging screen technologies (ie HDR), there’s no way for us to fully reproduce its blur-reducing impact in a standard video, even with slow-motion capture. So we hope this in-depth look clarifies why we’re excited by Nvidia’s latest developments – and what we expect from Pulsar updates in the short- and long-term.<\/p>\n
Flat-panel monitors may offer incredible convenience – and in the case of OLED panels, quality upgrades like infinite contrast ratios – compared to bulky cathode ray tube (CRT) monitors of old. But the trade-off has typically come in the form of motion blur, an issue that Pulsar almost completely resolves.<\/p>\n
CRTs function by way of an electron gun in its titular tube firing out against a phosphor-coated screen glass. The way this system projects out and draws the screen’s image, from the top-left corner to the bottom-right, sweeps against the phosphors – and when they’re activated, they’re only visible for a short period of time. Pulse, decay and repeat. This lack of persistence aligns with how human eyes function, making any moving images appear to be free of motion blur.<\/p>\n
When liquid crystal displays (LCDs) began rolling out as a more lightweight and affordable option for larger, pixel-dense monitors and TVs, these early models had noticeably slow pixel response times, so that moving objects would leave prior pixels in their wake. Take a high-speed pixel-art game like Sonic the Hedgehog and play it on an older or unoptimised monitor, and you’ll see the blue blur truly leave traces of his blue fur behind as still-lit pixels for multiple frames as he dashes forward.<\/p>\n
It has taken decades for panel makers to come up with alternative technologies to reduce apparent blur, though even with shrunken pixel response times – especially on responsive OLED panels – you’re still left with the noticeable issue of “sample-and-hold” blur – where an image hits the screen, the pixel updates, and it remains constant through an entire refresh cycle. As a result, your eye naturally perceives a blur as objects move across a screen. Make Sonic run on an OLED panel, and his trail of pixels – albeit much smaller – will still ever-so-briefly persist as perceptible pixels. Light information that travels from a real hedgehog’s fur to your eye doesn’t work the same way.<\/p>\n One solution to this issue has been backlight strobing, which blacks the panel out between every refresh of pixel information to eliminate sample-and-hold blur – a technique developed alongside research on 3D glasses. But this only works when a monitor is fixed to a specific frame-rate, which isn’t a great match for the often fluctuating frame-rates in modern video games. Worse, this constant blacking-out of a monitor creates visible flicker and reduces overall light output, resulting in a dimmer image.<\/p>\n As we’ve confirmed on the new ASUS ROG Strix Pulsar XG27AQNGV monitor, Pulsar handles this issue differently. Its IPS panel’s backlight operates via a rolling scan that’s broken up into horizontal segments across the screen. Instead of blacking out the entire panel, a Pulsar monitor can turn each segment off individually. Using a high-frame-rate camera to slow down a Pulsar monitor’s images, you can somewhat see the effect in motion – a rolling-screen effect much like a CRT.<\/p>\n The frame pulses for 25 percent of the draw time on the image, and that proportionately works out to what has been advertised as – and we agree – a 4x multiplier in image clarity. Nvidia documentation suggests that an animated image on a Pulsar screen running at 250fps will look to the human eye like 1,000fps on other panels. This 1,000fps target is the threshold that the monitor-quality experts at BlurBusters believe overcomes the visual issue of persistence blur on screens<\/a>.<\/p>\n Yet even lower frame-rates benefit from Pulsar screens, with 120fps content looking like 360fps or higher. We fully believe that the perception of smoother motion on Pulsar-compatible monitors reduces the potential need for computers to run games at astoundingly high frame rates – the kinds of counts that we previously needed to reduce perceptible motion blur on standard LCD panels.<\/p>\n![\"2\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/2.970x.jpg\")
<\/a>Anno 117 Pax Romana – here, Nvidia has used a standard LCD captured in motion with a high speed camera, on the left. The process is repeated with Pulsar active on the right, with vast improvements to clarity – and even higher brightness.<\/p>\n
![\"ROGGGG\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/rogggg.970x.jpg\")
<\/a>A quartet of Pulsar monitors are available for purchase now. Our experiences for this piece are based around a month of testing on the Asus ROG Strix Pulsar XG27AQNGV.<\/p>\n