Month: May 2022

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So, you're looking at a monitor or laptop that says it has Adaptive-Sync or variable refresh rates. Maybe it's Nvidia G-Sync or AMD FreeSync. Maybe the vendor was detailed enough to include an Adaptive-Sync range, indicating the refresh rate range, as well as a response time figure and overdrive feature promising extra-smooth video playback. But then you see a bunch of other monitors and laptops claiming the same thing. How can you tell which display will offer a better media experience?

To help, the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) launched a certification program Monday for PC monitors and laptop displays with Adaptive-Sync. The Adaptive-Sync Display Compliance Test Specification (Adaptive-Sync Display CTS) aims to provide more insight into the screen tear-fighting technology.

The program, which has already certified some products, has more than 50 criteria for its two tiers: MediaSync Display, which is focused on video playback and requires an Adaptive-Sync range of at least 48 to 60 Hz, and Adaptive-Sync Display, which is focused on gaming and requires an Adaptive-Sync rage of at least 60 to 144 Hz.

Enlarge / In 2026 we might well see a Red Bull F1 car powered by a Porsche hybrid powertrain. (credit: Dan Mullan/Getty Images)

Rumors that Volkswagen Group is poised to enter Formula 1 have circulated for years. Every few months, often in a European car magazine, we'll read about an unnamed VW Group board member who says it's happening, then it all goes quiet for a few more months. But now it's really for real, says VW Group CEO Herbert Diess, as the 2026 rule change offers the perfect opportunity.

For a while, VW Group moving to F1 barely even made sense. The two high-technology, high-engineering brands in the group—Porsche and Audi—were both already spending F1-sized budgets to compete against each other in sportscar racing. That's a far more road-relevant form of motorsport, and one where both companies proved new technology that's now commonplace in their road cars.

But then Dieselgate happened, and Audi's diesel-powered hybrid Le Mans conquerer had to go. A year later, Porsche's even faster hybrid program was shuttered, having won everything there was to win. Across the group, brands scaled back their motorsports programs, focusing on electric ones like Formula E and VW's Pikes Peak champion.

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Earth Day was April 22, and its usual message—take care of our planet—has been given added urgency by the challenges highlighted in the latest IPCC report. This year, Ars is taking a look at the technologies we normally cover, from cars to chipmaking, and finding out how we can boost their sustainability and minimize their climate impact.

In South America’s Atacama Desert, salt flats are dotted with shallow, turquoise-colored lithium brine pools. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, children chip at the ground for cobalt. In China, toxic chemicals leach neodymium from the earth.

This is the energy mineral rush. People around the world are scrambling, drilling, drying, and sifting to get at a range of metals needed for our energy transition. Renewable energy technologies are central to the fight against climate change, but they’re heavily reliant on minerals—naturally occurring, solid materials made from one or more elements. But extracting and refining them presents humanitarian, environmental, and logistical challenges.