Wednesday, September 24th 2014

NVIDIA Sacrifices VESA Adaptive Sync Tech to Rake in G-SYNC Royalties
NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology is rivaled by AMD's project Freesync, which is based on a technology standardized by the video electronics standards association (VESA), under Adaptive Sync. The technology lets GPUs and monitors keep display refresh rates in sync with GPU frame-rates, so the resulting output appears fluid. VESA's technology does not require special hardware inside standards-compliant monitors, and is royalty-free, unlike NVIDIA G-SYNC, which is based on specialized hardware, which display makers have to source from NVIDIA, which makes it a sort of a royalty.
When asked by Chinese publication Expreview on whether NVIDIA GPUs will support VESA adaptive-sync, the company mentioned that NVIDIA wants to focus on G-SYNC. A case in point is the display connector loadout of the recently launched GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970. According to specifications listed on NVIDIA's website, the two feature DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, and not DisplayPort 1.2a, a requirement of VESA's new technology. AMD's year-old Radeon R9 and R7 GPUs, on the other hand, support DisplayPort 1.2a, casting a suspicion on NVIDIA's choice of connectors. Interestingly, the GTX 980 and GTX 970 feature HDMI 2.0, so it's not like NVIDIA is slow at catching up with new standards. Did NVIDIA leave out DisplayPort 1.2a in a deliberate attempt to check Adaptive Sync?
Source:
Expreview
When asked by Chinese publication Expreview on whether NVIDIA GPUs will support VESA adaptive-sync, the company mentioned that NVIDIA wants to focus on G-SYNC. A case in point is the display connector loadout of the recently launched GeForce GTX 980 and GTX 970. According to specifications listed on NVIDIA's website, the two feature DisplayPort 1.2 connectors, and not DisplayPort 1.2a, a requirement of VESA's new technology. AMD's year-old Radeon R9 and R7 GPUs, on the other hand, support DisplayPort 1.2a, casting a suspicion on NVIDIA's choice of connectors. Interestingly, the GTX 980 and GTX 970 feature HDMI 2.0, so it's not like NVIDIA is slow at catching up with new standards. Did NVIDIA leave out DisplayPort 1.2a in a deliberate attempt to check Adaptive Sync?
114 Comments on NVIDIA Sacrifices VESA Adaptive Sync Tech to Rake in G-SYNC Royalties
Probably the reason AMD pushed for adaptive sync as a standard, cheap easy way to get their tech in monitors. If they tried going about nvidia's way they don't have the weight with most companies to do it.
Perhaps when a monitor capable of using the new VESA spec actually is announced then nVidia can test to see if they can support it with a patch or an update to their cards or if they need a new line of cards to support it.
As it is right now, they'd be guessing since there are only Gsync capable monitors on the market.
If I read that quote exactly the way it's stated, I'm reading it as the guy saying, "(Today) we're focusing only on gsync (because there aren't any Freesync/Adaptive Sync (VESA's)-capable monitors out right now)."
And until they're even announced, it's going to be hard for nVidia to fully test said monitors out to be sure they can guarantee compatibility. Meanwhile, you want them to, what? Take sales away from Gsync because of monitors that might be available in six months, but probably will be out in 12?
Heh.
Likely the last feature that would make me choose a card would be PhysX.
blogs.msdn.com/b/directx/archive/2014/10/01/directx-12-and-windows-10.aspx