Currently, there are two competing display standards that can provide smoother gameplay and refresh rates synchronized to GPU frame production — Nvidia’s proprietary G-Sync standard, and the VESA-backed Adaptive-Sync (AMD calls this FreeSync, but it’s exactly the same technology). We’ve previously covered the two standards, and both can meaningfully improve gaming and game smoothness. Now, Intel has thrown its own hat into the ring and announced that it intends to support the VESA Adaptive-Sync standard over the long term.

This is a huge announcement for the long-term future of the Adaptive-Sync. Nvidia’s G-Sync technology is specific to their own GeForce cards, though a G-Sync monitor still functions normally if hooked to an Intel or AMD GPU. The theoretical advantage of Adaptive-Sync / FreeSync is that it can be used with any GPU that supports the VESA standard — but since AMD has been the only company pledging to do so, the practical situation has been the same as if AMD and Nvidia had each backed their own proprietary tech.

Intel’s support changes that. Dwindling shipments of low-end discrete GPUs in mobile and desktop have given the CPU titan an ever-larger share of the GPU market, which means that any standard Intel chooses to back has a much greater chance of becoming a de facto standard across the market. This doesn’t prevent Nvidia from continuing to market G-Sync as its own solution, but if Adaptive-Sync starts to ship standard on monitors, it won’t be a choice just between AMD and Nvidia — it’ll be AMD and Intel backing a standard that consumers can expect as default on most displays, while Nvidia backs a proprietary solution that only functions with its own hardware.

Part of what likely makes this sting for Team Green is that its patent license agreement with Intel will expire in 2016. Back in 2011, Intel agreed to pay Nvidia $1.5 billion over the next five years. That’s worked out to roughly $66 million per quarter, and it’s high-margin cash — cash Nvidia would undoubtedly love to replace with patent agreements with other companies. There’s talk that the recent court cases against Samsung and Qualcomm over GPU technology have been driven by this, but Nvidia likely love to sign a continuing agreement with Intel to allow the company to offer G-Sync technology on Intel GPUs. If Intel is going to support Adaptive-Sync, it’s less likely that they’d take out a license for G-Sync as well.

The only fly in the ointment is the timing. According to Tech Report, no current Intel GPU hardware supports Adaptive-Sync, which means we’re looking at a post-Skylake timeframe for support. Intel might be able to squeeze the technology into Kaby Lake, with its expected 2016 debut date, but if it can’t we’ll be waiting for Cannonlake and a 2017 timeframe. Adaptive-Sync and G-Sync are most visually effective at lower frame rates, which means gaming on Intel IGPs could get noticeably smoother than we’ve seen in the past. That’s a mixed blessing for AMD, which has historically relied on superior GPU technology to compete with Intel, but it’s still an improvement over an AMD – Nvidia battle where NV holds the majority of the market share.