Gadgetory

to ensure you don't miss a single hardware box video hit subscribe then tap the Bell welcome back to hardware unboxed over the past few weeks I've been looking into and exploring the world of free sync - now this isn't a new technology with first announced at CES 2017 but it's only now that we're starting to see the free sync to ecosystem expand with new display options as HDR and wide gamut monitors become more of a reality over the next year there's no better time to discuss routing to than now and from what I've been reading online there's a fair bit of confusion around what free sync to really is how it functions and how it differs from the original iteration of free sync this video will explore and explain racing - as the technology currently stands and it's a little different to the tech AMD announced more than a year ago while a detailed video coming in the next week we'll go through my impressions of using a free sync to monitor here's a quick refresher on the original free sync the name free sync is just a brand name that refers to AMD's implementation of adaptive synchronization technology this Tec essentially allows the display to vary it's a refresh rate to match the rendering of a graphics processor so that for example a game running at 54 FPS is displayed at 54 Hertz and win that game bumps up to 63 FPS the display also shifts to 63 Hertz this synchronization reduces stuttering and screen tearing compared to a monitor operating in a fixed refresh rate say 60 Hertz displaying a game running at an unmatched render ate like 50 for FPS free sync requires a few modifications to the displays internal controls and also a compatible graphics processor to function invidious competing technology that achieved similar results g-sync uses an expensive proprietary controller module free sync is an open standard in fact it was adopted as the official visa adaptive sync standard so any display controller manufacturer can implement the technology the core technology of free sync is just this one feature adaptive sync display manufacturers able to integrate freesync in to their display through whatever means they like provided it passes adaptive sync validation on certified as freezing compatible only means that monitor supports adaptive sync there's no extra validation for screen quality or other features so just because a monitor has a free sync logo on the box doesn't necessarily mean it's a high quality product and this is where free sync two comes in it's not a replacement to the original free sync and it's not really a direct successor so the name free sync to is a bit misleading what it does provide though are additional features on top of the original free sync feature set every free sync to monitor is validated to have these additional features so the idea is that a customer shopping for a gaming monitor can buy one with a free sync to badge knowing it's of a higher quality than standard free sync monitors both free sync and free sync to will coexist in the market while the naming scheme doesn't suggest it freezing to is effectively AMD's brand for premium monitors validated to a higher standard while free sync is more of a mainstream option you're not getting old technology by purchasing a monitor with original free sync tech in fact the way adaptive sync works in free sync and free sync to is identical instead free sync monitors simply miss out on the more premium features offered through free sync tune so what are these features well it breaks down into three main areas high dynamic range low framerate compensation and low latency let's tackle HDR support first when AMD originally announced true sync - that went into detail on how their implementation of resync 2 was going to differ from a standard HDR pipeline freezing twos HDR tone mapping was supposed to use calibration and specification data sent from the monitor to the PC to simplify the tone mapping process the idea was the games themselves would tone map directly to what the display was capable of presenting with a free sync to transport passing the data straight to the monitor without the need for further processing on the monitor itself this was in contrast to standard hgr tone mapping pipelines the C games tone map - an intermediary format before the display then figures out how to turn that to its capabilities having the games do the bulk of the HDR tone mapping work we're supposed to reduce latency which is an issue with HDR Gami at the moment that's our AMD detailed free sync to HDR implementation back at CES 2016 and teen well it sounded nice in theory one of the key issues raised at the time was that games themselves had to tone maps specifically to freezing to displace this meant games would have needed to integrate a free sync to API if this HJ implementation was ever to succeed and we all know how difficult it is to convince a game developer to integrate a niche technology as free sync to stands right now that original HDR implementation isn't quite ready yet Ami's websites freaking freezing to simply list the technology as including support for displaying HDR content and there is no mention anywhere of free sync to supported games and when you actually use a free sync to monitor HDR support rise entirely on Windows 10 HDR implementation for now which is improving slowly but isn't at the same level AMD's original solution is set to provide in an ideal environment the reason for this is free sync to support was only introduced in AMD's GPU services 5.1.1 in September 2017 so game developers have only had the tools to implement free sync to sgp you side tone mapping for a bit over seven months now getting these sorts of technologies implemented in games can take a long time and right now there's no word on whether any currently released games have used a gs5 1.1 in the development process one of the features AMD mentioned as part of their HDR implementation was automatic switching between HDR and SDR modes so you could game using the full HD are capabilities of your display while returning to a comfortable SDR for desktop apps unfortunately this too doesn't seem to be functional right now instead freezing to once again makes use of Windows standard HD implementation that doesn't handle the HDR 2 SDR transition too well however while the implementation might not be anything special at the moment freesync 2 does guarantee several things relating to HDR all loosing two monitors support HDR you're guaranteed to get an HDR capable monitor if it has a free sync to badge freezing 2 also ensures you can run both adaptive sync and HDR at the same time for an optimal gaming experience and finally AMD states that all three sync two monitors require twice the perceptual color space of srgb for better brightness and contrast it's unclear exactly what AMD may by twice the perceptual colorspace but the idea is a free sink to monitor would support a larger than srgb gama and higher brightness than a basic gaming monitor and it does appear that ambhi's fruiting to validation process is looking for more than just a basic HJ implemented so far every free sync to monitor that's available has been announced meets at least the industry standard display HDR 400 specification this is a fairly weak HDR spec but I have seen some non free sync - supposedly HDR capable monitors failed to even meet the display HDR 400 spec so at least with free Singh - you're getting a display that meets the new minimum industry standard for monitor HDR of course some monitors will exceed display HDR 400 like the original set of Samsung freesync 2 monitors such as the CH 370 and CH 390 both of these displays meet the display h gr 600 spec ideally I'd have liked to see free sync to stipulate and display HDR 600 minimum but for hundreds of peak brightness from display HDR 400 should be fine for an entry level HDR experience the second main free sync to feature is reduced input latency which I briefly touched on earlier HDR processing pipelines have historically introduced a lot of input lag particularly on the display side however freesync 2 stipulates low latency processing for both SDR and HDR content AMD hasn't published a specific metric that they are targeting for input latency however it's safe to say fifty to a hundred milliseconds of lag like you might get with the standard HD ITV would not be acceptable for a gaming monitor how freezing to is achieving low latency support in 2018 appears to be more on the display side than the original implementation announced at the start of 2017 as I mentioned when discussing precinct to use HDR implementation the original idea was to push all tone mapping into the game engine to cut down on display side tone mapping thereby reducing input latency as a displays slow processor wouldn't need to get involved as much as games haven't started supporting free sync - yet today it seems this latency reduction is purely coming from better processing hardware in the display for example current Samsung crusing two monitors include a low latency mode which is automatically enabled when facing to is enabled the final key feature is low framerate compensation this is a feature that goes hand-in-hand with adaptive sync ensuring adaptive sync functions at every frame rate from zero fps up to the maximum refresh rate supported by the display there is one simple reason why we need low framerate compensation displays can only vary their refresh rate within a certain window for example 48 to 144 Hertz if you wanted to run a game below the minimum supported refresh rate say it 40 FPS when the minimum refresh rate is 48 Hertz normally you'd be stuck with standard screen tearing or stuttering issues like you get with a fixed refresh monitor that's because the GPUs rendering is out of sync with the displays refresh rate lower frame rate compensation or LFC extends the window in which you can sync the render rate to the refresh rate using adaptive sync when the frame rate falls below the minimum refresh rate of the monitor frames has simply displayed multiple times and the display runs at a multiple of the required refresh rate in my previous example to display 40 fps using LFC every frame is doubled and then this output is synced to the display running at 80 Hertz you can even run games at say 13 fps and have that sync - a refresh rate in this case the monitor would run at 52 Hertz to exceed the 48 Hertz minimum and then every frame would be displayed four times the end result is LFC effectively removes the minimum refresh rate or adaptive sync displays but for NFC to be supported the modernise have a maximum refresh rate there's at least double the minimum refresh rate this is one not all free sync monitors support LFC some come with just 48 to 75 Hertz refresh windows which doesn't meet the criteria for LHC however in the case of free sync to every monitor validated for this spec will support LFC so you won't have to worry about the minimum refresh rate of the monitor this wouldn't be a look at free sync - in 2018 without exploring what free sync 2 monitors are actually available right now and what monitors are coming up currently there are only 3 free sync 2 monitors on the market and all from Samsung's quantum dot lineup the C 27 HD 70 and C 32 HD 70 as 27 and 32 inch 1440p forty-four hurt someone whose respectively along with this stupidly wide c49 HG 90 a double 1080p 144 Hertz monitor all three are display HDR 600 certified set for release this year are several other options we have the Ben QE X 3203 are a 32 inch curved VA panel with a 144 Hertz refresh rate and 1440p resolution certified for display HDR 400 the AOC agon AG 322 QC 4 is another free sync to monitor and it appears to use the same panel has the BenQ monitor we were just talking about so it has the same specifications then there's the Philips 436 m6 v BPA be seriously hunain tap monitor which is a 43 inch 4k 60 Hertz display sporting display HDR 1000 certification yep that's right 1000 nits of peak brightness in this panel the last thing I mentioned here is GPU support freezing to requires an AMD graphics card as you might expect of an AMD technology and according to this list everything from a Murray's rx 200 series or newer with the exception of a few products is supported there's also a bunch of ap use with integrated graphics that will work as well if you have an NVIDIA GPU freesync 2 monitors will still work and you will get most of the benefits including support for HDR what you won't get is adaptive sync support so if you want that you'll need to find a monitor with invidious equivalent g-sync HDR technology that's it for this exploration of free sync - I hope you all learn something and now have all the information you need for this upcoming next wave of gaming monoliths consider supporting us on patreon so we can continue to improve our display testing and I'll catch you in the next one