480Hz gaming monitors are incoming if prototype screen is to be believed

You've got the souped up GPU, overclocked your processor and have a mechanical keyboard with all the trimmings. The completion of your PC gaming super-set up would usually be a high-refresh rate monitor, somewhere in the 144Hz or 240Hz. But the goalposts for high-end monitors might be about to move again.

The monitor specialists at Blur Busters have got their hands on what they claim is a prototype 480Hz screen, capable of insanely-smooth visuals.

According to Blur Busters, it's actually a 4K 120Hz panel that is able to run at higher refresh rates at lower resolutions. So, potentially, it could be running at 240Hz at 1440p, and 480Hz at 1080p or 720p.  

Overkill?

There would definitely be a trade off then between screen resolution and refresh speed, but it's often speed that's of more concern than ultra-sharpness for the competitive gamer that such displays are aimed at.

Actually building a rig fast enough to push that many frames per second consistently would be a challenge though, and there's no mention of Nvidia's G-sync or AMD Freesync technologies being supported. There's the issue of cabling, too – HDMI 2.1 can manage 120Hz at 4K and 8K resolutions, though it's unclear if it could scale to higher refresh rates at lower resolutions.

While we await clarification, it's worth noting that Acer and Asus are working on 4K 144Hz panels. Could these too offer what Blur Busters prototype claims?

• Could this technology make its way into the best laptops?