AMD announced a competitive and affordable solution to tackle Nvidia's Gsync, it goes under the name FreeSync also known as Adaptive Sync. AMD right now is demonstrating desktop monitors and no longer laptops supporting the technology. Freesync will make the monitor dynamic as well. G-Sync and FreeSync will get rid of screen tearing and tiny sync stuttering/pulsing.

The protocol FreeSync / Adaptive Sync will be embedded into DisplayPort 1.2a and eDP (embedded Displayport), there is a catch though, manufacturers of monitors are free to decide wether or not to support the technology. At Computex there are supported monitors on display, AMD however will not reveal the manufacturers just yet. The Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) already announced the addition of 'Adaptive-Sync' to its popular DisplayPort 1.2a video interface standard. So you guys know, Nvidia does more or less the same thing, yet it requires a 200 USD module to be embedded into a compatible monitor.

AMD claims that as long as the manufacturer will stick to the Displayport 1.2a standard it will support FreeSYnc/ Adaptive Sync and as such that would be free. We do have some reservations about that statement as the monitor definitely needs to be compatible with the standard, and that requires R&D and the right hardware scaler to back that up. That or AMDs implementation could add additional CPU overhead to do a lot of stuff on the software side of things. We are not sure yet as to how that will pan out.

If you like to learn more about the 'overall' technology, have a peek at our G-Sync article. Both companies use different methodologies, but the outcome is nearly similar. FreeSync / Adaptice Sync monitors will be available in Q4 of this year. The photo is courtesy of Tweakers.net (see source link).





