First AMD FreeSync Capable Gaming Displays and Drivers Launched, Tested

MojoKid writes Soon after NVIDIA unveiled its G-SYNC technology, AMD announced that it would pursue an open standard, dubbed FreeSync, leveraging technologies already available in the DisplayPort specification to offer adaptive refresh rates to users of some discrete Radeon GPUs and AMD APUs. AMD's goal with FreeSync was to introduce a technology that offered similar end-user benefits to NVIDIA's G-SYNC, that didn't require monitor manufacturers to employ any proprietary add-ons, and that could be adopted by any GPU maker. Today, AMD released its first FreeSync capable set of drivers and this first look at the sleek ultra-widescreen LG 34UM67 showcases some of the benefits, based on an IPS panel with a native resolution of 2560x1080 and a max refresh rate of 75Hz. To fully appreciate how adaptive refresh rate technologies work, it's best to experience them in person. In short, the GPU scans a frame out to the monitor where it's drawn on-screen and the monitor doesn't update until a frame is done drawing. As soon as a frame is done, the monitor will update again as quickly as it can with the next frame, in lockstep with the GPU. This completely eliminates tearing and jitter issues that are common in PC gaming. Technologies like NVIDIA G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync aren't a panacea for all of PC gaming anomalies, but they do ultimately enhance the experience and are worthwhile upgrades in image quality and less eye strain.

Comments

Why still 1080?

[BobSutan]

I've got a 24" monitor that's 10 yeas old and it's native resolution is1900x1200. Why the regression in recent years back to 1080? You'd think monitors today would have continued advancing. Sure, give them 1080 capability, but still they should have a much higher native resolution by now.

Tearing

[Morlenden]

"This completely eliminates tearing and jitter issues that are common in PC gaming."

Adaptive sync should fix tearing but it won't do much for jitter. That has to be fixed in the game program. Jitter occurs when frames, each representing a point in time, are displayed at different times than the ones they represent. A game program must try to advance the simulation time for each frame an amount that matches the time that will elapse before the frame is displayed, but it can be difficult to know what the simulation and rendering time will be for a frame. Usually that time isn't constant and it can vary a lot when physics, AI, garbage collection, rendering and other per-frame steps can all have unpredictable variations in time.

Still, it's good to have tearing fixed, and to have the option of choosing arbitray frame rates, not just the even divisors of some fixed screen rate.