The First 5K G-Sync Pulsar Monitor Has My Full Attention

Having just finished testing a 5K ultrawide monitor, I was quite excited to read about the Agon Pro AGP327KG model announced by AOC at Gamescom. It's 5K too, but crucially it's also an Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar display - which should grant it significantly better motion clarity than its 144Hz refresh rate would suggest.

This 32-incher has the same horizontal resolution as the 39-inch Alienware behemoth, but with a taller 16:9 aspect ratio display that stretches to 2880 vertical pixels. That works out to 186 pixels per inch, or around 33 percent more than 32-inch 4K monitors. As a bona fide pixel density enthusiast, consider me intrigued.

If you missed our initial investigation into G-Sync Pulsar monitors, the reason I'm so excited about this is pretty straightforward. Basically, this is the best way yet devised to grant CRT-level motion clarity to LCD displays, using a rolling scan backlight that pulses to banish traditional sample-and-hold motion blur.

Pulsar looks great at 360Hz, which is where I last saw it in an Nvidia demo, but the effect works as an effective clarity multiplier even at lower refresh rates too - which should help content at 144fps look more like 600fps, without actually requiring the CPU and GPU horsepower to get you there. (You still need to stay above Pulsar's default 90fps frame-rate limit to see things at their best, though you can optionally engage it at lower thresholds at the risk of visible flicker.) Responsiveness doesn't improve in the same way, mind you, so it's not a panacea, but for fast-paced and particularly competitive games, you'd certainly want it if you have the option.

While the AOC announcement is fairly substantial, it doesn't include a price or release window. Both 5K and G-Sync Pulsar monitors tend to come at a steep premium, so I'm guessing this one won't be cheap - but it could still prove worth it for enthusiasts that don't want to sacrifice image quality or motion clarity when choosing their main display.

What do you make of the prospect? Have you tried Pulsar? Let me know in the comments below.