FreeSync is AMD’s counter to G-Sync, and promises to provide the same advantages without the need for hardware changes or additions providing the screen supports VBLANK.
While v-sync is able to help keep screen-tear out of our fast-paced shooters, it does so at a cost of the overall frame rate by limiting it, and that can cause stutters.
The latest Catalyst drivers for AMD’s GPU and APU line apparently support this FreeSync feature but the controls have yet to be given over to end users. AMD is touting this as a free alternative to Nvidia’s G-Sync which in some cases requires a bit of hardware to be hooked up to monitors that aren’t natively compatible.
A demo of AMD’s FreeSync was shown at CES 2014 and blogged by AnandTech.
“In the case of the Toshiba Satellite Click, the panel already supports variable VBLANK. AMD’s display engines have supported variable VBLANK for a couple of generations, and that extends all the way down to APUs. The Satellite Click in question uses AMD’s low cost Kabini APU, which already has the requisite hardware to support variable VBLANK and thus variable display refresh rates (Kaveri as well as AMD’s latest GPUs should support it as well). AMD simply needed driver support for controlling VBLANK timing, which is present in the latest Catalyst drivers. AMD hasn’t yet exposed any of the controls to end users, but all of the pieces in this demo are ready and already available.”
The video below shows two laptops with the left at 30fps v-sync, and the right with FreeSync. V-sync, or vertical synchronisation, helps combat the dreaded screen tearing but lowers frame rates wasting precious GPU power.
