Earlier this year, Alienware (Dell’s brand for gaming products) released a new gaming monitor with a refresh rate of a whopping 500Hz, making for the smoothest gaming monitor to date. That monitor had since released, but it has a big problem, which is its price — at a starting price point of $829.99, it’s by no means a cheap monitor. Now, though, Alienware is set to release a cheaper version of that monitor, as long as you’re willing to forego NVIDIA G-Sync.
Alienware has announced the AW2524HF monitor, and as you might be able to guess by the name, it’s a submodel of the AW2524H monitor, which was introduced early this year during CES 2023. It is, for the most part, identical. It has a 24.5-inch IPS display, it has a 16:9 aspect ratio, and more importantly, it has that buttery-smooth 500Hz refresh rate. So really, what’s different about this monitor to warrant its release as a different model with a different price point? Namely, we don’t have NVIDIA G-Sync, but instead, Alienware is changing G-Sync for AMD’s FreeSync Premium technology.
Both AMD FreeSync and NVIDIA G-Sync technologies serve the same purpose: keeping screen tearing and input lag at bay, and keeping your gameplay as smooth as possible. But AMD’s FreeSync technology is an open standard, while NVIDIA’s isn’t. G-Sync is exclusive to NVIDIA GPUs and requires proprietary hardware and certification, which is why G-Sync monitors come at a price premium compared to non-G-Sync monitors. Yet, Alienware’s 500Hz monitor was only available in a G-Sync flavor, which is part of why it costs so much.
If you don’t care about G-Sync (FreeSync can be used with most NVIDIA graphics cards as well), you can get this one, because it’s otherwise identical — and by getting rid of G-Sync, Alienware was able to knock down the price to $649.99. Still on the expensive side, but it’s $180 less. The monitor will be available starting on September 12th, so make sure to get yours on Dell’s website or on your retailer of choice starting on that date.
