AOC is readying a multiplicity of gaming displays aimed at different price segments. All the gaming monitors belong to AOC’s AGON family and are largely similar aesthetically speaking, with dissimilarities chiefly in the panel types and feature sets. We’ll provide an overview below.

AOC is introducing two new curved displays to supplement their existing curved gaming monitors. The new displays both have 1800R curvature with a 16:9 aspect ratio, as well as VA panels capable of 144Hz refresh rates.

High-end monitors are really starting to get pumped-out now, it seems. This generation of ~$250+ GPUs supports resolutions of 1440p with relative ease, and UltraWide displays are proliferating on the market to popularize the 21:9 aspect ratio.

We're still on the road – but it's almost over. For now. Last “Ask GN” update, we were posting from the Orange County / LA area for some hardware vendor visits that we'd done. This episode, despite being filmed at the usual set, we're posting from the San Jose area. It worked out to be: LA > Home > LA (CitizenCon) > San Jose, all in a span of about 3 weeks.

But we're here for another day before returning to hardware reviews. For this episode, we discuss the question of using a FreeSync display with a higher-end nVidia card versus a lower performing AMD card, VRM blower fans and if they do anything, the 6700K vs. 6600K, and revisiting old GPUs. The last question is one that we've already begun working on.

For years, the de facto standard for PC gaming and consoles was 1920x1080 – even if consoles occasionally struggled to reach it. 1080p monitors have been the only practical choice for gaming for years now, but viability of 1440p-ready hardware for mid-range gaming PCs means that the market for 1440p monitors has become more competitive. Similarly, the 4K monitor market is also getting fairly competitive, but unfortunately mid-range (and even higher-end) GPUs still struggle to run at 4K in many modern games.

While 4K becomes more attainable for the average consumers, 2560x1440 monitors fit the needs of many gamers who want higher resolution than 1080p while still desiring to render – and show – 120+ FPS. With this in mind, we’ve created this buyer’s guide for the best 1440p gaming monitors presently on the market, particularly when accounting for price, high refresh rate, or panel type. Since the primary use case for the monitors in this guide is gaming, we have primarily included G-Sync (covered here) and FreeSync (covered here and here) compatible monitors for users with nVidia and AMD GPUs, respectively.

Despite AMD’s FreeSync arriving later than nVidia’s G-Sync, FreeSync has seen fairly widespread adoption, especially among gaming monitors. The latest monitor – and the 101st – to officially support FreeSync is Lenovo’s Y27f. This also marks the announcement of Lenovo’s first FreeSync monitor.

For those interested in learning about FreeSync and G-Sync check out our articles explaining G-Sync, FreeSync, and comparing them both technically and logically.

This episode of Ask GN 25 carries our content output while we travel, granting a brief reprieve from the unrelenting GPU reviews of late. As always, post questions on the YouTube video page for potential inclusion in the next Ask GN episode. If you've got a non-GPU question, those would be greatly appreciated to break-up the content!

For this episode, we're focusing on the question of Fast Sync vs. V-Sync, talking GPU binning, the impact of power supply selection on overclocking headroom, and more. The very last comment in the video will address our RX 480 Endurance test – mostly difficulties with crunching and presenting as much data as we've collected.

Video and time stamps below:

Stutter as a result of V-Sync (which was made to fix screen tearing -- another problem) has been a consistent nuisance in PC gaming since its inception. We’ve talked about how screen-tearing and stutter interact here.

Despite the fact that FPS in games can fluctuate dramatically, monitors have been stuck using a fixed refresh rate. Then nVidia’s G-Sync cropped-up. G-Sync was the first way to eliminate both stutter and screen-tearing on desktop PCs by controlling FPS-refresh fluctuations. Quickly after nVidia showed off G-Sync, AMD released their competing technology: FreeSync. G-Sync and FreeSync are the only adaptive refresh rate technologies currently available to consumers on large.

Last week primarily featured initial Vulkan benchmarks – a stepping stone toward full integration of the new API within games – and major silicon manufacturer news. Intel declared plans to ship 10nm chips by 2H17, nVidia boasted record revenue of $1.4B for its fiscal quarter, and AMD pushed improved Linux drivers to the public. The Intel push is the most interesting, with the company definitively indicating that it will not delay 10nm chip manufacturing past 2017. As the silicon manufacturers near the lower limit of current technology and processes, each of these iterative jaunts toward (what we'd expect to be) something like 1nm carbon nanotubes gets increasingly difficult. Seeing single-digit percentage point increases in overall performance (gaming, production) isn't quite as impressive as the reduction in power and significantly increased transistor count.

Learn about each of these items in more depth here:

Monitor manufacturer AOC has announced its new G2460PF and G2770PF monitors, two displays that come equipped with AMD's FreeSync at a native 1080p resolution. Most notably, the monitors are slated to ship at the still slightly unattainable 144Hz refresh rate.

Last seen at CES 2014, AMD's FreeSync demo went live shortly after nVidia's fanfare about G-Sync, a technology we overviewed here (read this content if you're unfamiliar with frame synchronization). FreeSync and G-Sync are both adaptive refresh rate technologies that effectively ensure the display slaves to the GPU, allowing for a smoother frame output by eliminating both tearing and stuttering (V-Sync on).