AMD in an announcement on Tuesday, announced changes to its AMD FreeSync display requirements. The updated requirements should vastly reduce the flood of 1080p and 1440p displays with lower refresh rates, such as 75 Hz, from boasting of FreeSync support. AMD has three tiers of FreeSync based on the refresh-rate and features such as HDR. The base tier FreeSync feature now calls for a desktop monitor or TV to come with a refresh rate of at least 144 Hz, if its horizontal resolution is under 3440 pixels. This would cover everything 2560 x 1600, to 2560 x 1440, to the popular 1920 x 1080, and certain ultrawide resolutions such as 2560 x 1080.

To qualify for the FreeSync Premium tier, which customers use to identify high refresh-rate displays; a desktop monitor or TV with a horizontal resolution under 3440 pixels now needs at least 200 Hz of refresh rate. Displays with over 3440 pixels (which should include 4K Ultra HD), now need at least 120 Hz to qualify for FreeSync Premium. AMD isn't clear on what refresh-rate it takes for a 4K UHD display to qualify for the base FreeSync tier. Moving on, the top FreeSync Premium Pro tier, which helps customers identify displays that not only have high refresh-rates but also HDR; nothing is changed—the display must feature HDR on top of meeting the new requirements for FreeSync Premium. The story is different for notebook displays. For the base FreeSync tier, a refresh-rate of 40-60 Hz will do; and for FreeSync Premium, you need at least 120 Hz. HDR on top of this gives you FreeSync Premium Pro. All displays will need FreeSync hardware support (which essentially builds on top of VESA Adaptive Sync).