Gaming monitors just smashed through an important milestone

By Jacob Roach Published May 20, 2024

Forza Horizon 5 running on the HP Omen 27k. — Jacob Roach / Digital Trends

The key difference between a normal monitor and a gaming monitor is the refresh rate, and TCL just revealed the fastest gaming monitor we’ve ever seen. At Display Week, the company demoed a gaming monitor that’s capable of a 4K resolution at 1,000Hz, which vastly exceeds the options now available on the market.

Currently, Asus holds the crown for the fastest monitor on the market, with a 1080p resolution and a 540Hz refresh rate. Alienware isn’t far behind with its 500Hz gaming monitor, which is also locked to 1080p. The fact that TCL has a display capable of 1,000Hz is impressive enough, but the 4K resolution really stands out.

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4K 1000Hz being shown off at #DisplayWeek2024 by TCL CSOT pic.twitter.com/xc2qsYocxX

— Blur Busters (@BlurBusters) May 15, 2024

Blur Busters shared the news, saying: “We had expected 1,000 Hz to arrive, but we didn’t expect it to debut at the 4K resolution before 1080p and 1440p, so it is fantastic to go straight to 4K.” Resolution puts more strain on a panel at higher refresh rates, which is why we’ve seen displays like the Dual Mode OLED from LG that lowers its resolution to achieve a 480Hz refresh rate.

The 1,000Hz panel is LCD, and it’s a very early prototype. However, we could see monitors capable of this performance in the next few years. Blur Busters says it expects commercialized OLED displays capable of 1,000Hz by 2027, and LCDs should arrive before then.

There are a few other factors at play here, however. We currently don’t have a cable capable of running 4K resolution at 1,000Hz, so we’ll need new standards for HDMI and/or DisplayPort before a monitor like this is possible. In addition, running a game at native 4K is still taxing for the vast majority of graphics cards, and running them at a high enough frame rate to justify a 1,000Hz gaming monitor only compounds the issue.

A1,000Hz display has been an important milestone for gaming monitors for several years, and TCL just smashed through it with a 4K panel. TCL shared some other important news at Display Week, including the first slidable Tandem OLED display capable of a 120Hz refresh rate and 4K resolution. That will likely take a while to make it to market as well.

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Former Digital Trends Contributor

Jacob Roach is the lead reporter for PC hardware at Digital Trends. In addition to covering the latest PC components, from…

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