The world’s first 1,000Hz gaming monitors are expected to make their commercial debut next year, with reports suggesting that at least two Chinese brands have such products in the pipeline. If the reports are true, the new displays will crash through the current 750Hz ceiling found on the world’s current fastest monitors, but it’s not clear if the impact of such speeds will be noticeable.
The reports were first picked up by FlatPanelsHD, which said that the Chinese monitor maker AntGamer this week revealed plans for a new 1,000Hz gaming monitor that’s being developed in partnership with the U.S. chipmaker AMD. Few details about the monitor’s specifications are known at this time, except that it will be fitted with a TN LCD panel and support both black frame insertion and feature LED local dimming zones.
According to AntGamer and AMD, the monitor is designed for rapid-paced action games such as Counter Strike 2 and Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds, and will launch sometime in 2026.
Meanwhile, AOC has not confirmed its plans, but a leak surfaced by Chinese language media suggests that it’s working on a 27-inch monitor that will support dual refresh rates – either 500Hz at QHD resolution or 1,000Hz at 1080p. The leak didn’t mention what type of panel is being used.
AOC is also believed to be developing a second, 27-inch monitor with a refresh rate of 360Hz, featuring Nvidia G-Sync Pulsar technology, which enables a “1,000Hz effect”. The Pulsar technology has not yet launched commercially and has been delayed repeatedly, so it’s impossible to know how it will perform, if it launches.
However, FlatpanelsHD rightly points out that just having a 1,000Hz monitor, which refreshes its display at 1,000 times per second, is not enough for the super-slick and smooth gaming experience it promises. That’s because motion clarity is dependent on other factors besides just the monitor’s refresh rate. For instance, OLED monitors with only half the refresh rate have been shown to achieve motion clarity that’s similar or even superior to LCD displays. In other words, a 720Hz OLED monitor is still likely to outperform a 1,000Hz LCD monitor, at least in terms of viewer perception.
Another issue is the quality of TN LCD panels, which are generally considered to be worse than IPS LCD and especially OLED displays, with noticeably lower colour accuracy and contrast.
Users will also want to consider connectivity. A 1,000Hz monitor will require a blazing-fast link to whatever console or PC is plugged into it. Fortunately there are a few options, with DisplayPort 2.1 being able to handle 1,000Hz at up to 1080p. However, that’s only true when Display Stream Compression is enabled, and it cannot support HDR graphics.
A possible alternative is the new HDMI 2.2 specification that was unveiled in June. According to the the HDMI Forum, it supports bandwidth of up to 96 gigabytes-per-second, significantly more than DisplayPort 2.1’s 80Gbps, which should mean it’s capable of hitting 1,000Hz refresh rates. However, support for this new standard will likely take some time to arrive, and it’s not clear if next year’s monitors will be able to do so.
A third possibility – especially when we consider that AntGamer and AOC are both Chinese companies – is the General Purpose Media Interface or GPMI spec, which was announced earlier this year. It has been developed by a consortium of Chinese tech giants and is billed as the first real competitor to HDMI, and it will be available in two versions – Type-C and Type-B.
The Type-C version is strangely inferior to the latter, being able to support 96Gbps bandwidth, matching that of HDMI 2.2. Type-B, on the other hand, will be able to support an impressive 192Gbps of bandwidth. As such, this new specification could be just what AntGamer and AOC need to take advantage of their new monitor’s impressive speeds.
Both companies will likely have more to say about their upcoming monitors in January at the 2026 Consumer Electronics Show.
