In addition to the entirely expected news about the upcoming RTX 2060, Nvidia CES presentation this weekend included a surprise about its G-Sync display standard. That screen-tear and input-lag-smoothing technology will soon work with select monitors designed for VESA's competing DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync protocol (which is used in AMD's FreeSync monitors).

In announcing the move, Nvidia says the gaming experience on these variable refresh rate (VRR) monitors "can vary widely." So Nvidia says it has gone to the trouble of testing 400 different Adaptive-Sync monitors to see which ones are worthy of being certified as "G-Sync Compatible."

Of those 400 tests, Nvidia says only 12 monitors have met its standards so far. They are:

Acer XFA240

Acer XG270HU

Acer XV273K

Acer XZ321Q

AOC AGON AG241QG4

AOC G2590FX

Asus MG278Q

Asus XG248 / XG258

Asus VG258Q

BenQ XL2740

Starting with an Nvidia driver update on January 15, these G-Sync Compatible monitors will automatically be able to take advantage of G-Sync's basic variable VRR features when used with Nvidia 20-series and 10-series graphics cards. Owners of other Adaptive-Sync monitors will be able to manually enable VRR on Nvidia graphics cards as well, but Nvidia won't certify how well that support will work.

Nvidia also stresses that monitors actually designed from the start with G-Sync in mind will be the only ones able to take advantage of features like "full refresh rate range from 1Hz to the display panel’s maximum rate... variable overdrive, refresh rate overclocking, ultra-low motion blur display modes and industry-leading HDR with 1,000 nits, full matrix backlight and DCI-P3 color."

Open up

Besides being unexpected good news for gamers who already own one of these FreeSync monitors, this is also great news for gamers that want to add VRR to their Nvidia graphics card setup without breaking the bank. G-Sync monitors generally retail for hundreds of dollars more than similar FreeSync competition, a premium they were able to demand in part because of that exclusive compatibility with Nvidia's market-leading graphics cards (though higher hardware manufacturing costs and additional G-Sync features like those listed above also play some part in the value proposition).

Expanding that compatibility will likely make Nvidia's cards more appealing to gamers who don't want to spend that premium money on a top-of-the-line monitor. At the same time, it could make monitor manufacturers less likely to put themselves through Nvidia's "300 test" certification process for the G-Sync standard (gamers that recently paid top dollar for the G-Sync label might also be a bit put off).

In any case, it's always heartening to see hardware manufacturers softening the more exclusionary portions of their ever-evolving war of standards. We're reminded of Oculus' decision to officially offer Facebook Spaces support on competing VR headsets. Let's hope it's the start of a trend.