The California Energy Commission has put energy regulations into place in regards to gaming monitors (just like on gaming desktops) with the aim of making them more efficient. This may result in some companies being unable to ship certain gaming monitors to California due to high power consumption, similar to Dell being unable to ship select Alienware gaming desktops for the same reasons.
The policy considers a monitor's maximum powered-on power consumption, how much energy it consumes when turned off and in sleep states, as well as the size of the screen (the larger the size, the looser the regulations). The energy laws also take into consideration OLED panels and curved displays.
But that's not all. The categories delve even deeper by expanding to both G-Sync Ultimate and FreeSync panels, with specific regulations for each. The extra hardware in the G-Sync Ultimate displays consumes extra power, which is why both FreeSync and G-Sync Ultimate are differentiated.
California's measurements are based heavily on EnergyStar recommendations on power efficiency. All monitor testing is done at 200 nits of brightness.
Effectively, the new energy restrictions applied to monitors made on or after January 1, 2021 require displays to be 15-20% more efficient (less power-hungry) than previous regulations.
Idle wattage is a major concern for the state of California, as the new regulations state that gaming monitors need to ship with 1.2-watts of power consumption or less when operating in sleep mode or in the power-off mode.
In a recent YouTube video, JayzTwoCents found that G-Sync monitors could have major problems complying with this requirement. All G-Sync monitors he tested were consuming almost 15 watts in the idle state or power-off state.
If JayzTwoCents' testing holds true, any G-Sync monitor with this kind of draw could potentially be prevented from sale in California for not complying with the 1.2-watt idle mode if they were produced in 2021.
California states that "A manufacturer may ship with additional features enabled, even if they were turned off in testing." This means any added features, like G-Sync, RGB LEDs (for aesthetics, not the display), KVM switches, or more are not regulated as long as they are switched OFF during testing.
This is possibly how Nvidia and its monitor partners may get G-Sync Ultimate monitors on shelves: by turning off the G-Sync module during testing.
If that's the case, California's new energy regulations won't likely have any impact on new gaming monitors. However, don't be surprised if a select few models become unavailable in the coming weeks or months due to the new regulations.
