Why it matters: AU Optronics, a major manufacturer of display panels, just demoed several new display technologies they're working on at SID's Display Week 2022. The showdown included a 480Hz 24-inch desktop monitor, a 480Hz 16-inch laptop panel, ultrawide and notebook AmLED (Adaptive mini LED) screens, and a laptop display with integrated cameras.
AUO's latest 24-inch 480Hz panel is aimed at monitors, while the 16-inch panel is intended for notebook displays. Both are advertised to have response times around 1ms, full HD resolution, and use TN technology.
It's interesting to see TN still in use for high-end displays, considering that we've been getting more and more high refresh rate IPS and VA panels.
AUO didn't mention when we're going to see the first products using these displays on the market, although TFTCentral claims they are planned to go into production sometime this year.
Also see: Hitting 360Hz with the Asus ROG Swift PG259QN
It's worth noting that Blurbusters tested a prototype 480Hz monitor a few years ago, although it was only capable of handling that refresh rate at a resolution of 960x540. In that article, they found that there is a noticeable difference between 240Hz and 480Hz, albeit with significantly diminishing returns.
There's also the question of whether graphics cards can render games at such high frame rates. These displays are mainly going to be used for esports titles, such as Valorant and CS:GO, where hitting 500+ FPS at 1080p is possible with a decent GPU and the right CPU.
AUO also showed off a couple of AmLED panels (Adaptive mini LED, not to be confused with AMOLED), a laptop display with integrated cameras designed to get rid of notches and thick bezels, several screens made for automotive use, a color ChLC tablet panel which uses ambient light instead of a backlight, and more.