Today AMD have unleashed Freesync upon the world. A way to get the benefits of IQ at high FPS. We take a look.
AMD Freesync Review
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AMD Freesync Review
- Thread starter tinytomlogan
- Start date
Today AMD have unleashed Freesync upon the world. A way to get the benefits of IQ at high FPS. We take a look.
AMD Freesync Review
Did you switch to AMD then dude?
Thelosouvlakia
Classy-Fried-Chicken
There's going to be a 29 UWS monitor with free sync! oooooooooh <3
consider it already bought
consider it already bought
I should be covering other screens shortly both of the Free and G variety
barnsley
born in a.....
oooh, I'll keep my eyes pinned. I'm after a new monitor as my current one is nothing special. a 780Ti is a bit overkill for a 1080p monitor :/
Im not taking this off topic so just keep your eyes peeled
WYP
News Guru
Yeah, I got an R9 290X when the GTX 970 issues game to light.
Wraith
Bettyswollocks
Awesome Guv, censored :lol:
Really do like the idea behind adaptively syncing GPU - Monitor, Monitor - GPU, it's great stuff, but with all that extra computational work there is a slight by-product which you experienced at high fps which is the ghosting or incorrect grey-to-grey feedback from the monitors native 1ms refresh, which gets a pounding as the GPU and game go too fast. I know NVIDIA had problems with this in the early days on the G-Sync development, still it's early days with this tech and will only get much much better in time.
Really do like the idea behind adaptively syncing GPU - Monitor, Monitor - GPU, it's great stuff, but with all that extra computational work there is a slight by-product which you experienced at high fps which is the ghosting or incorrect grey-to-grey feedback from the monitors native 1ms refresh, which gets a pounding as the GPU and game go too fast. I know NVIDIA had problems with this in the early days on the G-Sync development, still it's early days with this tech and will only get much much better in time.
NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Read the review, good read as always! However the YT vid isn't processed all the way through.. so its watch a mintute- wait 10- over and over
AMD did a Meet the Experts partners conference yesterday at 9PM CDT and said that if you have the same model of monitor then FreeSync will work with eyefinity during the QA session.
IDK if AMD uploaded the conference but a user on the LTT forum uploaded the video yesterday.
Maybe they were mistaken or maybe when you were getting briefed they were mistaken...IDK, just wanted to bring it up.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP3kj0_5P0Y&t=1557
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NeverBackDown
AMD Enthusiast
Currently though they have not released drivers that enable Xfire/Eyefinity. Thats why Tom said that. AMD could be using a in house driver for all we know. Or they are preparing to release it soon. Either way it will eventually work. Hopefully this gives them an oppurtunity to improve upon it
Masterfryzz
New member
I only managed to get into the first few minutes of the review, before I was shocked by Tiny Tom Logan's announcement that he will stop swearing in his videos by popular demand.
Nooooo..... they did it.... damn you all to hell
Who am I now going to learn the british english pronounciation of swearwords from?
Nooooo..... they did it.... damn you all to hell
Who am I now going to learn the british english pronounciation of swearwords from?
Mysterae
New member
Nice review as always, but have you been to see the doctors to get the splinters removed from sitting on the fence J/king, I understand it's a difficult thing to review; although we all want to know what is better, it's the monitor that was being reviewed, not the freesync technology and the whole review managed that. I noticed that you didn't give a rating in the video review though, too preoccupied with trying not to swear I bet!
It does raise a question - going forward, when reviewing GPUs from either side of the fence are you going to use a freesync and g-sync monitor where applicable?
Regarding freesync generally, it probably wasn't a hard decision for AMD to release the drivers without crossfire working and it was a good thing. Yes, it's a bit of a blow for those folk with crossfire but the demographic running a single card must be way higher. As long as a fix is inbound of course; if they never fix it (unlikely) they will have dropped a massive bollock.
J/king, I understand it's a difficult thing to review; although we all want to know what is better, it's the monitor that was being reviewed, not the freesync technology and the whole review managed that. I noticed that you didn't give a rating in the video review though, too preoccupied with trying not to swear I bet!It does raise a question - going forward, when reviewing GPUs from either side of the fence are you going to use a freesync and g-sync monitor where applicable?
Regarding freesync generally, it probably wasn't a hard decision for AMD to release the drivers without crossfire working and it was a good thing. Yes, it's a bit of a blow for those folk with crossfire but the demographic running a single card must be way higher. As long as a fix is inbound of course; if they never fix it (unlikely) they will have dropped a massive bollock.
Just wanted to comment after watching your video review for this:
VESA Adaptive-Sync and AMD FreeSync are interchangeable with one another.
FreeSync is basically an AMD certification process on top of Adaptive-Sync to guarantee that everything works as intended.
There is no difference in hardware between an "Adaptive-Sync" or a "FreeSync" branded display.
G-Sync on the other-hand is a proprietary NVIDIA technology where they control the supply of hardware modules required to implement it, and they will not license it to other vendors. In other words, neither Intel nor AMD are able to support G-Sync even if they wanted to.
Since Adaptive-Sync is an official (though optional) part of the VESA DisplayPort spec now, as long as you have a GPU with a DisplayPort 1.2a or newer port, you're a driver update away from Adaptive-Sync or FreeSync displays working with NVIDIA/Intel GPUs.
I would not recommend that anyone buy a G-Sync display now.
As with all things NVIDIA, it costs more, and their aim is to lock you into their platform.
Adaptive-Sync/FreeSync does not require proprietary hardware.
While it is only currently supported on AMD cards, there is nothing preventing Intel or NVIDIA from supporting it.
I don't think that Intel/NVIDIA would be able to use the "FreeSync" branding, but FreeSync displays would still work if they add Adaptive-Sync support.
Unfortunately, NVIDIA have said that they do not currently have any plans to support the Adaptive-Sync standard.
But I think that will have changed in a year or two.
We have already seen leaked drivers which support Adaptive-Sync on certain notebooks that are using NVIDIA hardware, since it possible to implement Adaptive-Sync with the existing eDP1.4 connections that notebooks use.
And we know that it must be Adaptive-Sync, since there is no G-Sync module or other hardware inside those devices.
G-Sync displays do not have a future.
While I am sure they will be supported on NVIDIA cards for as long as DisplayPort exists, there is no reason for manufacturers to continue making G-Sync displays now, and they will never work on Intel/AMD hardware.
Though NVIDIA may be on top as far as GPU performance/efficiency is concerned right now, that could easily change. Do you want to lock yourself into one platform?
Adaptive-Sync/FreeSync is an open spec which should work with any vendor's GPUs down the line once Intel/NVIDIA release driver updates to support it.
While I don't know about Intel, I'm sure that NVIDIA will eventually.
Of course that doesn't help if you have a shiny new NVIDIA card and want to buy a display now. Personally I'd still be leaning towards buying an Adaptive-Sync display and simply treating it as a regular 144Hz monitor with the NVIDIA card until they add support for it.
I'm strongly in favour of voting with my wallet and would rather be without, than support this behaviour from NVIDIA.
VESA Adaptive-Sync and AMD FreeSync are interchangeable with one another.
FreeSync is basically an AMD certification process on top of Adaptive-Sync to guarantee that everything works as intended.
There is no difference in hardware between an "Adaptive-Sync" or a "FreeSync" branded display.
G-Sync on the other-hand is a proprietary NVIDIA technology where they control the supply of hardware modules required to implement it, and they will not license it to other vendors. In other words, neither Intel nor AMD are able to support G-Sync even if they wanted to.
Since Adaptive-Sync is an official (though optional) part of the VESA DisplayPort spec now, as long as you have a GPU with a DisplayPort 1.2a or newer port, you're a driver update away from Adaptive-Sync or FreeSync displays working with NVIDIA/Intel GPUs.
I would not recommend that anyone buy a G-Sync display now.
As with all things NVIDIA, it costs more, and their aim is to lock you into their platform.
Adaptive-Sync/FreeSync does not require proprietary hardware.
While it is only currently supported on AMD cards, there is nothing preventing Intel or NVIDIA from supporting it.
I don't think that Intel/NVIDIA would be able to use the "FreeSync" branding, but FreeSync displays would still work if they add Adaptive-Sync support.
Unfortunately, NVIDIA have said that they do not currently have any plans to support the Adaptive-Sync standard.
But I think that will have changed in a year or two.
We have already seen leaked drivers which support Adaptive-Sync on certain notebooks that are using NVIDIA hardware, since it possible to implement Adaptive-Sync with the existing eDP1.4 connections that notebooks use.
And we know that it must be Adaptive-Sync, since there is no G-Sync module or other hardware inside those devices.
G-Sync displays do not have a future.
While I am sure they will be supported on NVIDIA cards for as long as DisplayPort exists, there is no reason for manufacturers to continue making G-Sync displays now, and they will never work on Intel/AMD hardware.
Though NVIDIA may be on top as far as GPU performance/efficiency is concerned right now, that could easily change. Do you want to lock yourself into one platform?
Adaptive-Sync/FreeSync is an open spec which should work with any vendor's GPUs down the line once Intel/NVIDIA release driver updates to support it.
While I don't know about Intel, I'm sure that NVIDIA will eventually.
Of course that doesn't help if you have a shiny new NVIDIA card and want to buy a display now. Personally I'd still be leaning towards buying an Adaptive-Sync display and simply treating it as a regular 144Hz monitor with the NVIDIA card until they add support for it.
I'm strongly in favour of voting with my wallet and would rather be without, than support this behaviour from NVIDIA.
steverebo
New member
Well I pulled the plug and bought an ASUS Swift Gsync monitor and personally it was the best money I have ever spent.
I am currently experiencing the smoothest and most fluid and enjoyable game play I have ever had on the pc platform and I mean ever, its like nothing else and the 144hz refresh rate just makes it better and adds clarity to the whole experience.
I have no regrets on the amount I spent and would happily recommend the monitor to anyone.
I am currently experiencing the smoothest and most fluid and enjoyable game play I have ever had on the pc platform and I mean ever, its like nothing else and the 144hz refresh rate just makes it better and adds clarity to the whole experience.
I have no regrets on the amount I spent and would happily recommend the monitor to anyone.
Don't get me wrong, there is absolutely nothing wrong with existing G-Sync displays.
The tech works and adaptive refresh rates are a great thing compared to V-Sync.
But I cannot in good conscience recommend that anyone buy into a proprietary locked-down platform for a display, now that we have an open standard for it.
Displays are something which are likely to survive many system upgrades, and on top of that, the G-Sync module means that the same display is going to cost more, since Adaptive-Sync does not require that additional hardware inside the monitor.
Ideally it's going to end up becoming a standard feature in any DisplayPort-equipped screen a year or two from now.
NVidia are full of sh*t saying they won't support VESA's Adaptive Sync, since for example the Asus G751 runs G-Sync without NVidia's module and instead uses the Adaptive Sync inherent to laptop displays eDP.. Which I guess proves that NVidia's proprietary G-Sync is pretty much identical to the technology used in laptops since like 2008, which is what "FreeSync" is based on and expanded into desktop displays.
I wonder if NVidia haven't actually violated some patents since obviously their gfx drivers will run G-Sync through either their expensive shitty G-Sync scaler module as well as eDP displays, and then call it their own proprietary technology. Something tells me the licensing for VESA eDP/DisplayPort does not allow this type of use?
It comes down to NVidia's customers to convince them to hop on the standardization-train that will benefit EVERYONE in the long run. Otherwise NVidia users will be forced to pay extra for monitors that has their scaler, and at the same time be limited to having a monitor with only one displayport.. I honestly hope there aren't too many fanboys that go "NVidia rules, G-Sync is best"..
But I wonder how many monitor manufacturers that wants to sell monitors with a displayport that does not follow VESA standards? I mean they can't really market these products unless they put in bold on the boxes "Note: This product does not fully support the DisplayPort standard by limiting the functionality of Adaptive Sync to only work with graphics cards manufactured by NVidia". LOL?
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I got thinking.. Since the Asus G751 runs G-Sync through the panel's eDP and not a G-Sync module, should that not also mean that you could run FreeSync with a G-Sync monitor? With a little driver tweaking perhaps?
I wonder if NVidia haven't actually violated some patents since obviously their gfx drivers will run G-Sync through either their expensive shitty G-Sync scaler module as well as eDP displays, and then call it their own proprietary technology. Something tells me the licensing for VESA eDP/DisplayPort does not allow this type of use?
It comes down to NVidia's customers to convince them to hop on the standardization-train that will benefit EVERYONE in the long run. Otherwise NVidia users will be forced to pay extra for monitors that has their scaler, and at the same time be limited to having a monitor with only one displayport.. I honestly hope there aren't too many fanboys that go "NVidia rules, G-Sync is best"..
But I wonder how many monitor manufacturers that wants to sell monitors with a displayport that does not follow VESA standards? I mean they can't really market these products unless they put in bold on the boxes "Note: This product does not fully support the DisplayPort standard by limiting the functionality of Adaptive Sync to only work with graphics cards manufactured by NVidia". LOL?
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I got thinking.. Since the Asus G751 runs G-Sync through the panel's eDP and not a G-Sync module, should that not also mean that you could run FreeSync with a G-Sync monitor? With a little driver tweaking perhaps?
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