Nesrie
6278
So if you have two free sync monitors, one of them has the little check box that says Gysync compatible and the other doesn’t, then they’re both the same but Nvidia just won’t give the first one their seal of approval so it doesn’t’ get to use Gysnc?
There’s a 2nd checkbox in the nvidia drivers that allows you to enable VRR for non-Gsync compatible monitors. It’s just not guaranteed to work well but, in reality it works just as well as it does with an AMD card.
According to what Stusser said earlier, a monitor that is Gsync compatible has FreeSync, but a FreeSync monitor is not necessarily Gsync compatible, so your statement seems dubious to me. I mean, if something isn’t guaranteed to work well, that could be an issue.
Nvidia’s own marketing is literally that “GSync Compatible” is freesync where Nvidia has signed off that the Freesync VRR are within what they consider acceptable, no flickering, etc… It’s literally just Nvidia signing off that “yes this is a good VRR experience by our standards”.
Freesync by itself has a wide range of how well it’s implemented, and Nvidia is piggy backing off of that fact to say “these are good implementations and these are bad”. Any good Freesync monitor prior to the “GSync Compatibility” label being even thought of has been retroactively given the label without any hardware or firmware changes.
Nesrie
6282
I gave up trying to find Gysnc monitors, and only occasion encounter the Gysn compatible ones.
So I have something like this:
The biggest one is not, and the little guy is. These days I mostly focus on type, resolution and refresh rate, maybe a few other things but not this sync stuff much.
You seem to know a bit about this, so I thought I would ask. What is this telling me my small monitor can do that the big one can’t?
If you click the non-gsync compatible one below you’ll see:
That bottom checkbox allows you to enable VRR on a non-GSync compatible monitor. All that it means is that NVidia hasn’t certified that it’s VRR performance is up to their standards. So it may mean that the Freesync implementation only runs on a small range of FPS (i.e. only between 50-60fps, so a dip to 49fps will cause tearing). It may also mean that their VRR implementation is buggy and thus you may get some flashing or ghosting when enabled.
The important thing to note is that Even NVidia admits that these aren’t NVidia only issues.
So the problem is that lots of monitors have terrible FreeSync capabilities in general because the spec is a lot looser than hardware GSync. So NVidia is trying to say “these are guaranteed to have good VRR performance despite not having any additional hardware”. Some monitors that aren’t GSync Compatible (like my LG 4ks) work fine with GSync Compatibility on, some suck (but they suck with AMD cards as well).
Nesrie
6284
Good to know. I guess I will check that box and see if I notice anything.
I tried to find Gsync monitors, they’re just not commonly found or they’re the ones that cost more than many computers.
rei
6285
Blur busters maintains lists
stusser
6286
Right, gsync compatible is just Nvidia certifying a VRR monitor isn’t crappy. This doesn’t mean non-certified monitors are bad, just that they aren’t known good.
I would buy any monitor certified gsync compatible or freesync premium.
Terminology is being thrown around free and loose here. To be precise:
- G-Sync is an NVIDIA proprietary technology to enable variable refresh rates. It requires a hardware module and certification process.
- FreeSync is an open standard which AMD created for variable refresh rates. It does not specify any specific performance characteristics for compatible displays.
- Adaptive-Sync is the VESA DisplayPort
implementation of branding for Variable Refresh Rate (VRR).
- HDMI Variable Refesh Rate (VRR) is FreeSync for HDMI - an optional part of the HDMI 2.1 standard, although it was implemented on HDMI 2.0 by many monitor manufacturers.
- FreeSync Premium is a standard for FreeSync which defines minimum performance characteristics for displays, such as refresh rates.
- FreeSync Premium Pro was called FreeSync 2. It adds HDR display qualifications (better than DisplayHDR 400 standard but less than DisplayHDR 600). It also defines low latency standards for compatible displays.
- Apple ProMotion is Apple’s implementation.
- Qualcomm Q-Sync is another implementation.
arrendek
6288
VESA adopted the open freesync standard, it’s not a separate unique standard: https://blurbusters.com/vesa-adopts-freesync/
Good point. I should have said “branding for” rather than “implementation of”.
Editer
6291
The awesome thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from!
instant0
6292
That is indeed the best part.
Reading about HDMI VRR/Freesync on televisions is good stuff.
It seems like Nvidia Gsync is the only standard that means you get somewhat quality product when you purchase it… So maybe those 150-200$ isn’t wasted after all.
The really silly thing is almost all of these are exactly the same thing!
That is exactly what AMD is trying to address with the new “FreeSync Premium” branding. The horse may have escaped the barn already though.
Alas poor Freesync, I barely knew him!
I hadn’t actually known FreeSync Premium was a thing, so thanks for that.
morlac
6296
That article is already out of date. There have been a bunch of really good new monitors out since Febuary. Check rtings.com and dispalyninja.com.
Aceris
6297
I suggested at work we get an 3090 RTX to make a demo of some experimental volumetric rendering tech really slick. I did not expect to be taken seriously… when I was I had to regretfully point out they were out of stock.
