With its Arc "Alchemist" graphics solutions, Intel is introducing a new in-house display refresh-rate technology alongside support for VESA Adaptive Sync, which it calls Smooth Sync. This feature is targeted at notebooks and desktops with fixed-refresh rate displays, which lack support for Adaptive Sync. The technology works to counteract the screen-tearing effect caused by the GPU putting out frames at a higher rate than the display's refresh rate, letting gamers set V-sync to "off" in their games, and enjoy the lowest possible input latencies.

The way Intel Smooth Sync seems to work, is that V-sync is disabled in game, the GPU puts out the maximum frame-rate that it can, and then a lightweight dithering filter blurs off the screen-tear zone on the display. The idea is that this filter imposes a far less latency cost than V-sync, so even budget-segment notebooks with fixed refresh-rate displays can enjoy the benefits of low-latency gaming, without the screen-tear. Smooth Sync is a software-level feature that's part of the latest Arc graphics drivers, and will work with Arc "Alchemist" graphics processors.