Freesync monitors to start releasing in November

There is a rumor going around that AMD is planning to bring the FreeSync variable refresh rate standard to the market as soon as possible, more specifically, between November and Q1 2015. FreeSync is set to be an open standard, free of licensing costs, directly competing with Nvidia's own G-Sync solution, which requires monitors to be built with a specific scaler to allow the GPU to control the refresh rate and is only compatible with Nvidia graphics cards.

FreeSync will use the industry standard Display Port adaptive sync protocols to set minimum and maximum refresh rates during games. This means frame presentation to the user will never be delayed or impaired by two way processes.

Source.

Since AMD's FreeSync solution comes with no licensing fees for vendors, it also comes with no expensive proprietary hardware or communication overhead, meaning that these monitors should end up being cheaper compared to Nvidia G-Sync solutions.

However, there are downsides to FreeSync, for a start it won't be compatible with all video cards during games and not all games will support variable refresh rates. So far for games, you'll need an R9 295 X2, R9 290x, R9 290, R9 285, R7 260X or R7 260 GPU in order to use FreeSync. Older 7000 series cards will be compatible for video playback.

Nvidia has previously announced that it will not be supporting FreeSync and will instead be focusing on its own proprietary technology.

AMD recently released an FAQ, answering quite a few questions surrounding FreeSync. You can read that, HERE.

Discuss on our Facebook page, HERE.

KitGuru Says: To begin with, FreeSync is going to suffer from compatibility and adoption rate issues. However, in a few years time, it may have evolved to the point that it could be a true competitor to Nvidia's G-Sync but to the disappointment of AMD fans, it is going to take some time. 

Source: Fudzilla

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