NEC today announced the launch of the MultiSync PA311D, a new 31-inch IPS wide color gamut display with a 4K (4096x2160) resolution. "The MultiSync PA311D will take its place as our flagship monitor in the PA Series of professional desktop displays," said Kevin Christopherson, Director of Product Marketing at NEC Display Solutions. "It provides higher resolution, along with better black levels and contrast. Further, the PA311D includes USB-C connectivity with 65 W charging and several new cutting-edge features to meet the color-critical needs of professional graphic designers, photographers and video producers."

AOC today announced two new entries to its monitor line-up, developed in partnership with Porsche's design studios. The U32U1 and Q27T1 are two wholly different beasts, so we'll take them one step at a time. The smaller monitor, the Q27T1, features a 27" IPS panel with a QuadHD (2560 x 1440) resolution, covering 90% of the NTSC color space and 107% of the RGB one. Brightness stands at 350 nits, just shy of an HDR certification, and connectivity is limited to 2x HDMI and 1x DisplayPort. Design-wise, it's a minimalist beauty, with its asymmetrical metal stand and a nice touch on the back of the panel. It won't absolutely break the bank if you're a design-conscious user: at £279, it depends on how much you value aesthetics.

The AOC U32U1, on the other hand, comes packing technology to the brim, and should be considerably more expensive. The 32" IPS panel features a 4K resolution, atop a 10-bit panel which offers 90% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space - a much more interesting proposition for professionals or just the most color-conscious users. There's VESA DisplayHDR 600 certification, and support for HDR10. The trident-like, three-pronged stand is one we haven't seen before, and props up the monitor and its number of display connectors: 1x HDMI 2.0, 1x HDMI 1.4, 1x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x USB-C 3.0 with 65 W output, and 4x USB 3.1 (downstream). Pricing on this piece of tech still hasn't been disclosed, and it will release closer to the end of 2019.

NVIDIA today raised the bar higher still for streaming media players — unveiling the next generation of SHIELD TV, which delivers unmatched levels of home entertainment, gaming and AI capabilities right into the living room, starting at $149.

The two new SHIELD models — SHIELD TV and SHIELD TV Pro — provide exceptional visual and sound experiences. Their new Tegra X1+ processor, delivering up to 25 percent more performance than its predecessor, helps bring to life Dolby Vision for ultra-vivid imagery and Dolby Atmos for extraordinary audio. Its computational prowess dramatically improves picture quality by using AI to upscale HD video streams into 4K resolution.

After introducing a 32" Brilliance monitor some time ago, Phillips is now bringing another lowcost 4K monitor that boasts a very impressive feature/price ratio. The new Brilliance 272P7VUBN monitor cuts the diagonal on the previous release to 27", but maintains most other specs, including the 4K resolution (with the expected increase in pixels per inch to 163) and the same IPS panel. The monitor remains just shy of a HDR 400 rating (350 nits maximum) and keeps the 60 Hz refresh rates and 5 ms response time, but those are features that are well in-line with casual gamers who want to make the move towards a higher, 4K resolution. Besides, the 60 Hz refresh rate is likely the best one to take advantage of with the current crop of graphics cards on the market - at least for the most recent and demanding titles.

The panel features a 178º angle of view and 1.07 billion colors reproduce 122% of the sRGB color gamut as well as 103% of the NTSC color gamut. The Brilliance 272P7VUBN also ships factory-calibrated to a Delta E < 2 accuracy. Height, tilt, and swivel are available, as well as a 90 degree rotation capability. I/O stands at 1x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x HDMI 2.0a, 1x USB Type-C (with DP 1.2, 65 W PD, data), as well as a 2-port USB 3.0 hub and 1x 3.5 mm headphone port.

EIZO today announced a limited edition monitor that's sure to attract attention: likely positive due to its feature-set, likely negative due to its small diagonal. The Foris Nova is built fully in aluminium and packs an impressive amount of features for the admittedly small diagonal: the 21" display is a 4K OLED one with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio, 330 nits maximum brightness and 1.07 billion colors. That small diagonal does have its benefits though: the pixel density is a very impressive (for desktop monitors) 204 pixels per inch. The 60 Hz refresh rate is nothing to glow at, but the 0.4 ms response time surely point to an amazing 60 Hz gaming experience.

There is HDR certification in the form of HDR10 and the royalty-free Hybrid Log-Gamma (HLG), and connectivity is taken care of by 2x HDMI ports that support Deep Color and the HDCP 2.2 and 1.4 copy protection protocols. There are two 1 W speakers, VESA support,1x headphone jack and 1x line-out mini jack. The production is limited to only 500 units, and the Foris Nova will be available from November 1st in the U.S., Europe, China and Japan. No word on pricing - EIZO is asking users to contact them directly for orders and pricing. That serves as a warning, if any more were needed: this won't come cheap.

Acer America announced today that its new 27-inch ConceptD monitors are now available in the United States. These monitors were designed for creators, including graphic designers, filmmakers, architects and engineers. The ConceptD CP7271K P and ConceptD CP3271K P support creative professionals with the premium performance required for color-critical and graphic-intensive projects.

Color accuracy, resolution and the ability to work with HDR content are top priorities for creative professionals who need a monitor that can display finely detailed design concepts and 3D content. Those who work with video require a high refresh rate, critical for ensuring blur-free images.

Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) is opening up to the idea of porting PlayStation-exclusive games to the PC, which is growing in popularity on the backs of titles that play best on this platform, such as Fortnite and Minecraft. At the moment, Shawn Layden, who heads SIE, is interested in putting some its first-party titles (developed and published entirely by SIE) on the PC platform. Compared to arch-rival Microsoft, Sony's garden has had taller walls. Microsoft has interests in both its Xbox console, and the Windows PC ecosystem, particularly the Microsoft Store, and has shepherded many of its ecosystem partners to co-develop for both platforms. Its latest move is the Xbox for PC GamePass, that brings about some coherence between the PC and Xbox.

Sony is gearing up for the next round of the Console Wars against Microsoft, in which its PlayStation 5 console will compete with Microsoft's codenamed "Project Scarlett" console. Both consoles will be designed for 4K Ultra HD televisions, with preparation for higher resolutions, such as 8K. Speaking on the development, Layden said "We must support the PlayStation platform — that is nonnegotiable. That said, you will see in the future some titles coming out of my collection of studios which may need to lean into a wider installed base."

Taking the lead in producing laptops for creators, MSI continues to expand its dream-weaver series, now unveiling a complete product line designed specifically for creatives and content creators. MSI presents the world's very first laptops equipped with the latest best-in-class processors; its newest technological innovation will make a grand debut with Intel at the IFA exhibition from September 6th to 11th. The industry pioneering Prestige 14 & 15 feature the most powerful 10th Gen Intel Core i7 processor and True Pixel display. A must-have product paired with top-performing technology that will undoubtedly fulfill and enhance the life's work of creators.

As creative devices and software continue to improve, heavy computing ability has become a crucial function for creators. MSI, always striving to create breakthrough technologies and achieve innovative excellence, has introduced the pioneering Prestige and Modern series. Outfitted with the latest processor, the Prestige series are the world's first laptops powered by a 10th Gen Intel 6-core CPU and deliver at least 50% faster performance for a more fluid creative workflow, especially during multi-threaded processing.

Alienware have announced their new flagship gaming monitor, which manifests in the form of the AW3420DW monitor. This is a 34" monitor with 4K (3440 x 1440) resolution powered by a fast, 120 Hz refresh rate IPS panel. Alienware have designed their Nano Color technology into this monitor, which means that it can cover 98% of the DCI-P3 and 134.5% of the sRGB color gamuts.

The 350 nits brightness are nothing to write home about, and exclude any sort of HDR rendition on this monitor from the start. The 1000:1 contrast ratio and the "fast" GtG response time should be more than enough for most gamers' needs, and the 1900R curvature should ensure all points of the monitor are at the same focal distance for improved image quality. NVIDIA's G-Sync makes an appearance, and output connectors include 1x DisplayPort 1.2, 1x HDMI 1.4 port, 4x USB 3.0 and 3.5-mm audio connectors. There's RGB lighting on the back of the monitor, and the full retail price of this piece of kit will go for $1,499.

Elgato, the leading provider of hardware and software for content creators, today announced the launch of Elgato 4K60 Pro MK.2. Boasting the most advanced features in its class, 4K60 Pro MK.2 sports 4K60 HDR10 capture, ultra-low latency Instant Gameview technology, up to 240Hz passthrough, and more. Fitting easily into small form factor cases, this compact PCIe capture card is less than half the size of its predecessor, and with an MSRP of just $249.99, makes 4K content creation more accessible than ever.

Building upon the original acclaimed 4K60 Pro, 4K60 Pro MK.2 empowers content creators to capture gameplay in the highest resolution and dynamic range possible. 4K HDR10 capture at 60 fps (frames per second) lets you play high-fidelity games while simultaneously streaming to Twitch in 1080p at 60 fps and recording 4K60 HDR10 footage to your hard drive. Instant Gameview technology lets you monitor your capture feed with ultra-low latency, perfectly syncing your broadcast with your gameplay. Support for an impressive array of resolution and refresh rate combinations, such as 1080p 240Hz and 1440p 144Hz, enables high frame rate gameplay while capturing via a dual-PC setup.

ASUS Republic of Gamers (ROG) today announced Strix XG438Q, the world's biggest and fastest 4K UHD FreeSync 2 HDR gaming monitor, offering the perfect balance of smooth visuals and high contrast HDR performance for incredibly immersive gameplay. The new display features a 43-inch 4K UHD panel with an astonishing 120Hz refresh rate, high-dynamic-range (HDR) technology with 90% DCI-P3 professional color gamut coverage and exceptional contrast for DisplayHDR certification, plus support for AMD Radeon FreeSync HDR technology.

Strix XG438Q also includes GameFast Input technology for responsive, lag-free control that heightens gameplay experiences and gives games a vital edge over their opponents.

Display specialist AOC announces the new addition to its 90 Series aimed at professionals. The 27" (68.6 cm) U2790PQU offers 4K resolution (3840x2160 pixels) and a pixel density of 163 ppi, resulting in crisp images. The U2790PQU's IPS panel and 10-bit colour depth produce 1.07 billion colours, enabling subtle colour transitions. While the grey finish of its body and the 3-side frameless design make this monitor stand out in its class, its future-proof technical specifications, including the height-adjustable ergonomic stand and blue light reducing features, make the monitor a great choice for professionals and prosumers looking for a top-class solution.

Ultra HD, or simply 4K resolution (3840x2160 pixels) is slowly but surely going to replace the current mainstream 1080p (Full HD) and 1440p (Quad HD) monitors. The U2790PQU is a monitor that will be especially appreciated by content creators, video editors, digital artists, but also people working with excel sheets and other information dense applications. The extra-sharpness and vivid details thanks to the 4K resolution, together with the colour accuracy and 10-bit colour depth of the U2790PQU's IPS panel are a perfect match for the kind of work done by professionals in these fields.

The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) today announced that it has released version 2.0 of the DisplayPort (DP) audio/video standard. DP 2.0 is the first major update to the DisplayPort standard since March 2016, and provides up to a 3X increase in data bandwidth performance compared to the previous version of DisplayPort (DP 1.4a), as well as new capabilities to address the future performance requirements of traditional displays. These include beyond 8K resolutions, higher refresh rates and high dynamic range (HDR) support at higher resolutions, improved support for multiple display configurations, as well as improved user experience with augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) displays, including support for 4K-and-beyond VR resolutions.

The advantages of DP 2.0 are enjoyed across both the native DP connector as well as the USB Type-C connector, which carries the DP audio/video signal through DisplayPort Alt Mode. DP 2.0 is backward compatible with previous versions of DisplayPort and incorporates all of the key features of DP 1.4a, including support for visually lossless Display Stream Compression (DSC) with Forward Error Correction (FEC), HDR metadata transport, and other advanced features. The increased video bandwidth performance of DP 2.0 carried over the USB-C connector enables simultaneous higher-speed USB data transfer without compromising display performance. DP 2.0 leverages the Thunderbolt 3 physical interface (PHY) layer while maintaining the flexibility of DP protocol in order to boost the data bandwidth and promote convergence across industry-leading IO standards.

ASUS ROG at AMD's Next horizon's event introduced the world's first Display Stream Compression (DSC) capable monitor. The new, 43" behemoth makes use of industry-standard DSC to enable 144 Hz gaming at 4K resolution via a single data cable, with no need to hack image fidelity down to pieces (potentially) by usage of chroma subsampling. AMD's Navi chips will feature this technology, which is why ASUS ROG took to AMD's event to showcase the new monitor.

FreeSync 2 HDR support is guaranteed, as is a Display HDR 1000 rating for increased contrast and improved visuals for HDR content. There's 10-bit color depth available, and the display covers up to 90% of the DCI-P3 gamut. No pricing or release date have been confirmed.

Sony has finalized the design and specification of its PlayStation 5 entertainment system. Unlike buzzwords Microsoft threw around like "8K capable" for its "Project Scarlett" console, Sony has a slightly different design goal: 4K UHD at 120 Hz, guaranteed. The most notable absentee at E3 2019, Sony is designing the PlayStation 5 to leverage the latest hardware to guarantee 120 frames per second on your 4K display. Much like "Project Scarlett," the SoC at the heart of the PlayStation 5 is a semi-custom chip co-designed by AMD and Sony.

This unnamed SoC reportedly features an 8-core/16-thread CPU based on AMD's latest "Zen 2" microarchitecture, which is a massive leap from the 8 low-power "Jaguar" cores pulling the PS4 Pro. The GPU will implement AMD's new RDNA architecture. The SoC will use GDDR6 memory, shared between the CPU and GPU. Much like "Project Scarlett," the PS5 will include an NVMe SSD as standard equipment, and the operating system will use a portion of it as virtual memory. There will also be dedicated hardware for 3D positional audio. Sony also confirmed full backwards compatibility with PS4 titles.

AOC has partnered with Studio F.A. Porsche to bring a duo of monitors to market, bridging the gap between AOC's expertise and Porsche's design capabilities. The partnership has resulted in two monitors: the U32U1, which features a large, 31.5" diagonal, and the Q27T1, which sees a smaller 27" footprint. The change in size brings a change in resolution as well, with the U32U1 featuring a 4K resolution, while its 27" sibling does with a QHD resolution (2560 x 1440). Both monitors carry an IPS panel with 90% DCI-P3 coverage, but the U32U1 offers HDR 600 certification and HDR 10 support on its 10-bit panel. The Q27T1 shaves all of that in favor of an anti-glare coating.

Phillips announced the latest in their Brilliance line of PC monitors. The 329P9H monitor features a 31.5" diagonal with a 4K (3840 x 2160) resolution. The panel is of the IPS type, and a fairly basic one at that when it comes to features gamers expect: a 60 Hz refresh rate and 5 ms response times aren't the most attractive for serious gaming - but then again, this monitor isn't really being marketed for serious gaming. And there's life in the PC world besides that one.

For those users that still think this monitor is interesting, the anti-glare coating and 350 nits of brightness should be interesting propositions for a more work-inspired usage scenario. The 178º angle of view and 1.07 billion colors join a wider than usual color gamut, covering 108% of the sRGB, 90% of the NTSC CIE1976, or 87% of the Adobe RGB color spaces to serve creative professionals' (or just color-correct amateurs) a precise environment. The Brilliance 329P9H also ships factory-calibrated to a Delta E < 2 accuracy. Height, tilt, and swivel are available, as well as a 90 degree rotation capability. I/O stands at 1x DisplayPort 1.2 input, 1x DisplayPort 1.2 output, 2x HDMI 2.0a, 1x USB Type-C (with DP 1.2, 65 W PD, data), as well as a 4-port USB 3.0 hub (one supports fast charging) and one Ethernet, GbE port. The recommended price for the Philips 329PH9 stands at £809, so MSRP in the US should land around the $899 mark.

At The National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB Show) today, Intel and Netflix announced a new high-performance video codec that is available as open source and royalty-free to content creators, developers and service providers. Scalable Video Technology for AV1 (SVT-AV1) offers performance and scalability in video processing.

"The SVT-AV1 codec offers both high performance and efficiency. And compared to today's most popular codec (H.264 AVC), SVT-AV1 can help service providers save up to half their bandwidth, delivering leading-edge user experiences that can be quickly and cost-effectively delivered at a global scale. This codec makes it possible for services ranging from video on demand to live broadcast of 4Kp60/10-bit content on Intel Xeon Scalable processors, including the recently launched 2nd-Generation Intel Xeon Scalable processor," said Lynn Comp, Intel vice president of the Network Platforms Group and general manager of the Visual Cloud Division.

If you were waiting for another OLED solution in the PC monitor space to enter the market, the ASUS ProArt PQ22UC may be answering part of your prayers. However, it likely doesn't fit your bill at all when it comes to affordability or choice of features for a gaming-centered solution. The ProArt PQ22UC features an OLED panel with 4K resolution, support for HDR, and a 10-bit panel for increased color reproduction. Aiding in color reproduction and accuracy for its professional aspirations is the fact that this monitor already comes factory-calibrated for a Delta E < 2 color accuracy rating.

The ASUS ProArt PQ22UC has an announced 1000000:1 contrast ratio (remember the pure blacks of OLED), 14-bit internal lookup table, and support for Gamma values of 2.6, 2.4, 2.2, 2.0, and 1.8. There's Micro HDMI and dual USB-CTM ports which support AC power input, data transfer speeds of up to 5 Gbps and 4K UHD output. Pricing? You'd rather not know it: it's going for €5.160,90 (Austrian retailer) or £4,699.00 in the UK.

NEC Display Solutions of America, Inc., a leading provider of commercial LCD displays and projectors, today announced the V554Q, a large-format 4K UHD display packed with commercial-grade features and a slim new design to blend into any environment. Like other new models in the C & V Series, the V554Q features an industry-best anti-reflective high haze coating, full external control and network capabilities through LAN, and SpectraView Engine Technology, which allows for complete color control.

"We've listened to our customers in designing the V554Q to be the best 55-inch display tailored for commercial and corporate signage needs," said Ben Hardy, Senior Product Manager at NEC Display Solutions. "The V554Q has best-in-class, high-haze anti-glare coating, updated connectivity, and both landscape and portrait orientation support to seamlessly fit any digital signage environment."

Apple today updated its iMac line with up to 8-core Intel 9th-generation processors for the first time and powerful Vega graphics options, delivering dramatic increases in both compute and graphics performance. From consumers to pros alike, users will notice their iMac is faster for everyday tasks all the way up to the most demanding pro workloads. This boost in performance, combined with its gorgeous Retina display, sleek all-in-one design, quiet operation, fast storage and memory, modern connectivity and macOS Mojave, makes iMac the world's best desktop.

"Customers are going to love the huge boost in iMac performance. With up to 8-core processors and powerful Vega graphics, the iMac lineup is stronger than ever," said Tom Boger, Apple's senior director of Mac Product Marketing. "With its stunning Retina display, amazing design, twice the performance, and macOS Mojave that our customers love, iMac is by far the best desktop in the world."

The Division 2 is shaping up to be one of the hottest releases of 2019 - particularly as the other shared world, third-person shooter, Anthem, has fared somewhat below expectations. And while Anthem offers very impressive visuals, it also comes with relatively steep performance requirements - at least comparing with The Division 2's requirement of an RX 480 for 1080, 60 FPS gaming. For 4K, 60 FPS, you'll require a much bigger hardware commitment, in the form of AMD'S Radeon VII or NVIDIA's RTX 2080 Ti graphics cards, with a minimum of 16 GB system RAM and a Ryzen 7 2700X or Intel Core I7-8700X CPU.

The Snowdrop engine The Division 2 makes use of, developed in-house by Massive Entertainment, features a particularly impressive DX12 implementation, which should offer some 10-20 fps improvement in certain scenarios. DSO Gaming, testing in the private Beta, saw differences between 59 FPS under DX 11 and 80 FPS, in the minimum frame rate, for the same scene. So if you're not running DX 12 or a DX 12 capable card, know that even a graphics card with the same performance as yours, but that supports the DX12 renderer, will bring tangible performance benefits - particularly if you have an AMD card, due to the title's extensive use of Async Compute. The Division 2's release is set for March 15.

Display specialist AOC announces a brand-new gaming monitor, the 28" (71.1 cm) G2868PQU with Ultra HD / 4K (3840x2160 pixels) resolution.

To meet the demands of gamers looking for crisp and vivid imagery and sharp gameplay, the display boasts a next-gen HDR-ready TN panel with 1 ms response time. The G2868PQU also supports AMD FreeSync which eliminates stutter and screen-tear caused by mismatched image frames between the graphics card and the monitor. All these features ensure a fluid, smooth 4K gaming experience. The monitor becomes available in Europe in March 2019.

MSI is proud to officially announce AMD Radeon VII, the world's first 7nm gaming graphics card. The all-new Radeon VII is designed to provide exceptional performance and amazing experiences for the latest AAA, esports and VR titles, demanding 3D rendering and video editing applications, and next-generation compute workloads.

"AMD Radeon VII is the highest-performance gaming graphics card we have ever created," said Scott Herkelman, corporate vice president and general manager, Radeon Technologies Group at AMD. "It is designed for gamers, creators and enthusiasts who demand ultra-high quality visuals, uncompromising performance and immersive gaming experiences."

China-based Hisense came out at CES 2019 with quite an ingenious new display solution that has (speculatively) a much better chance of faster PC monitor integration that OLED. OLED's implementation in PC monitors has been excruciatingly slow despite recent developments of the technology - mainly due to some underlying problems for PC's mostly fixed-image use-cases with its UI elements. As a result, display technology in the monitor space has been somewhat stagnant. Hisense, with its dual-panel ULED XD solution, whoever, could have a much cheaper and easier to implement solution that could bring another technology player to the PC monitor market.

The ULED XD solution basically crams two panels in front of the LED array. One is a 4K, RGB VA panel. This is your run-of-the mill implementation. However, there's a second panel sandwiched between the RGB and LED array in the form of a greyscale, 1080p resolution panel. What does this particular implementation offer, you ask? Well, it just so happens that different lighting conditions across the same RGB image are expanded upon by the grayscale monitor, even if it works at a lower resolution - it only serves to increase contrast if high and low luminosity areas, with black areas being supported by the blacks of the grayscale monitor. And even at that resolution, look at these as local dimming zones - over 2 million of such across a single panel.