Heyyo,
Could see this panel exploding in the affordable e-sports area, maybe shifting demand on the lower end GPU market?
Probably true since the AMD R9 380 is quite inexpensive and can still provide great performance for 1920x1080 resolutions.
For competitive games like Counterstrike you need a higher refresh rate than 60hz (as you also need a high fps).
Yes and no... a higher refresh rate definitely gives you a little bit of edge by having less ghosting and less blur when you spin fast, but it doesn't automatically make you a better gamer.
Back in the days of early CSS with that poop netcode that had serious interpolation issues? Having a tick rate of 100 and setting your up and down matching to 100 and having your framerate dip below 100 fps? Yeah that made a difference... nowadays with the much fixed up netcode brought along since Orange Box's Source Engine update and CSGO having better hitboxes? 60fps with a tick rate of 60 does fine.
I'd say having a 7.1 surround headset that can give more accurate indication of footstep direction would give you even greater edge than a high refresh monitor when the average gamer only uses stereo speakers or headphones.
My only complaint about Freesync was that at first it wasn't free. What I mean is some one like say Samsung were selling a monitor the same as the one without it for more money.
Hmm, that could also just be Samsung thinking "more features = higher price" is my guess. Adaptive sync is all the craze these days and I can see Samsung wanting to literally cash in on it.
Tbh makes me sad that Sharp never thought to venture into Adaptive Sync desktop monitors... instead they decided to just close their doors on TV sales. Maybe different manufacturing equipment is needed? I'm not sure... but Panasonic made that change to try and save their panel division by making GSync monitors when I've previously never heard of a Panasonic consumer desktop monitor and only production-quality monitors with crazy price tags.
For the article... this part here:
These monitors show that what FreeSync will be in the future, a normal feature for monitors which does not have a hefty price premium. With Intel now looking to adopt the VESA Adaptive Sync/FreeSync standard and such affordable monitors coming out with FreeSync capability it would not be much of an exaggeration to say the G-Sync may be starting to lose the battle against FreeSync.
For me? Thats another yes and no tbh... I don't know many people who use the HD Graphics for actual gaming... especially the i7-5775c and the i5-5675c which would be the most suitable iGPUs for gaming right now from Intel. It's still cool they are planning to add AMD's FreeSync, but I don't think it will make a massive insane impact on the sales of FreeSync monitors. It'll definitely help though.
I still think AMD should work with FreeSync monitor manufacturers to have a "dummy proof" system in place that has a popup with an option to detect FreeSync Monitors and their specific variable refresh range and set AMD's Frame Rate Target Control max FPS to match the monitor's VRR... but at the same time, I think AMD sees the current VRR maximum not matching the monitor's maximum refresh rate as a weakness since even the monitor manufacturers don't openly advertise their VRR.