Nvidia improves ULMB motion blur technology on 360Hz-1440p screens

Nvidia has released ULMB 2, an improved version of the Ultra Low Motion Blur technology. This new version should display clearer images with ‘virtually no’ crosstalk compared to ULMB 1. ULMB can make moving images clearer and less blurry.

ULMB is a technique that makes the backlight of an LCD screen pulsate, so that the transition from frame to frame does not need to be illuminated. During these transitions, parts of the previous frame may still be visible, creating a blurry effect in moving images. By not exposing those transitions, the blurry effect should be reduced. The first ULMB version turned off the backlight 75 percent of the time, resulting in less bright images, reports Nvidia. Some gamers, especially competitive gamers, therefore decided to disable ULMB.

Another disadvantage of ULMB is that LCD screens do not refresh every pixel at the same time, but do so gradually. As a result, part of the screen can still display the old image, or crosstalk. ULMB 2 works together with G-Sync and can adjust the flashing of the backlight when all pixels are in the right place. This should prevent crosstalk and also ensure that the backlight can remain on more often, resulting in clear images.

The pulsation technology makes the backlight flicker every 2.7ms. According to Nvidia, this is not noticeable to users; a fluorescent light flickers three times slower than ULMB 2 ‘and that fluorescent flicker is not visible to most people’. Nvidia claims that the 360Hz ULMB 2 images are as clear as 1440Hz images without ULMB.

ULMB 2 currently only works on 360Hz-1440p displays, specifically the Acer Predator XB273U F and the ASUS Rog Swift 360Hz PG27AN. The ASUS ROG Swift Pro PG248QP and AOC AGO AG276QSG should receive ULMB 2 support upon release. The Swift Pro is a 25″ monitor; the other three are 27″ ones. ULMB 2 is immediately available via the latest version of the Nvidia Control Panel.