G-Sync is Dead. VESA Adds Adaptive-Sync to DisplayPort Standard

[Recus]

Serious question: how do you feel when paying for free product?

There are few AMD cards, which already support this technology, but unfortunately you won’t find a single monitor which is DisplayPort 1.2a compatible.

So how will users get FreeSync working on their systems?

To use Project FreeSync, users will require: a monitor compatible with DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync, a compatible AMD Radeon GPU with a DisplayPort connection, and a compatible AMD Catalyst graphics driver. AMD will release a compatible graphics driver to coincide with the introduction of the first DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync monitors.

 

[Breit]

If you're running things in a window, then the usefulness of adaptive sync is questionable. The only reason you would run a program in windowed mode would be if you cared about the content of more than one window; however, each window will be rendering/refreshing at different rates. If you software synchronizes to one window with a variable refresh rate, then every other window's cadence looks even worse than with a fixed refresh rate. For example if you're trying to display a video and a 3D rendering, then focusing upon the 3D rendering will cause the video to become a stuttering mess. The highest fixed refresh rate that a monitor can display will be the best compromise for a multiple window environment.

I think he is talking about running a game for instance in windowed fullscreen mode and some other apps on a secondary monitor. This is especially useful if you want to switch between the game and some other apps (like TS or a chat tool). This is something you can't do with an app running in true fullscreen mode, at least on windows.
The use case for a game in a small window and a video playing on the same monitor may be very limited.

 

[Mussels]

Woooo, another reason for PC gaming master race to lord it over the console peasants!


(goddamnit, now where do i get a 46", 4K HDTV with this tech?)

 

[Steevo]

Woooo, another reason for PC gaming master race to lord it over the console peasants!


(goddamnit, now where do i get a 46", 4K HDTV with this tech?)

I think you mean a 52" sir.


On a side note its amazing how a partial implementation that costs enough money that if I were to purchase it I could afford a newer or additional card to remove the need for it gets so much support, and people fall over themselves to talk about how great it is, reminds me of apple peasants.

 

[Mussels]

I think you mean a 52" sir.


On a side note its amazing how a partial implementation that costs enough money that if I were to purchase it I could afford a newer or additional card to remove the need for it gets so much support, and people fall over themselves to talk about how great it is, reminds me of apple peasants.

46" fits my desk nicely at present. maybe 50" if the bezel is thinner

 

[birdie]

What's up with the open NVIDIA hatred on this website? Do you envy them or what?

Can you tone down the titles of your future articles to make them less derogatory?

G-Sync offers a fine control over the display and decreased lag - that kind of thing is not available in the updated VESA standard. You just cannot implement G-Sync features as a software update to the standard. Deal with it and stop pouring sh*t on NVIDIA.

Yes, they may look greedy but they are not a non-profit organization, they have to earn money to survive.

 

[OneCool]

This must be a new thing called "nVidia gets there ass handed to them week" I like it

 

[Prima.Vera]

What's up with the open NVIDIA hatred on this website? Do you envy them or what?

Is only natural when you start to ask ridiculous prices for your hardware and lock down proprietary techs.

 

[birdie]

I remember almost everyone here loved Mantle (and DirectX before it) and both are 100% proprietary technologies.

Your comment makes no sense.

 

[Mussels]

I remember almost everyone here loved Mantle (and DirectX before it) and both are 100% proprietary technologies.

Your comment makes no sense.

mantle doesnt require you to buy a new graphics card AND monitor to use it. 3D monitors died for that same reason. directX and mantle support a lot more existing hardware.

 

[birdie]

mantle doesnt require you to buy a new graphics card AND monitor to use it. 3D monitors died for that same reason. directX and mantle support a lot more existing hardware.

Mantle is not supported by both NVIDIA and Intel.

G-Sync is not supported by both AMD and Intel.

For G-Sync you don't have to buy a new GPU either - it's supported by every GPU starting from Kepler.

Now tell me, why Mantle is better?

 

[Mussels]

Mantle is not supported by both NVIDIA and Intel.

G-Sync is not supported by both AMD and Intel.

For G-Sync you don't have to buy a new GPU either - it's supported by every GPU starting from Kepler.

Now tell me, why Mantle is better?

because mantle doesnt require me to buy a new monitor.

you've gone far beyond apples and oranges here, you're comparing coconuts to coconut crabs.

 

[ValenOne]

What's up with the open NVIDIA hatred on this website? Do you envy them or what?

Can you tone down the titles of your future articles to make them less derogatory?

G-Sync offers a fine control over the display and decreased lag - that kind of thing is not available in the updated VESA standard. You just cannot implement G-Sync features as a software update to the standard. Deal with it and stop pouring sh*t on NVIDIA.

Yes, they may look greedy but they are not a non-profit organization, they have to earn money to survive.

Your "that kind of thing is not available in the updated VESA standard. You just cannot implement G-Sync features as a software update to the standard" statement is wrong.

For gaming adaptive sync support (i.e. refresh rate driving by GPU), AMD's FreeSync/VESA's A-Sync requires desktop GCN 1.1 video cards. From GCN 1.1's point of view, it requires a new monitor and driver software. VESA's DP 1.2a with A-Sync feature was based from existing eDP 1.0's A-Sync standard.

Older GCNs has A-Sync for video and power saving modes.

 

[SQUIDZILLA]

Thats the thing, Nvidia did the foot work already and created their own logic board/Gsync so the manufacturers didn't have to do the work.

it will be interesting to see what happens down the road.

I don't think Nvidia did anything but try and make a quick buck off of an un-utilized, already present technology by telling people that essentially adaptive frame times for monitors is unique to only Nvidia's technology and because they convinced people that their G-Sync technology was unique, they charged a premium for having their unnecessary hardware that did nothing but add cost and make Variable refresh rate a proprietary technology. Even AMD mentioned that they didn't understand why Nvidia did what they did with G-Sync

 

[Mussels]

what nvidia did, was made their own connection standard, really.

at the time they did it, DVI and DP couldnt do it - so they made a new 'connector' that required a compatible GPU and monitor.

now that DP can do it, we still need a new GPU and monitor - its just not locked to nvidia.

 

[SQUIDZILLA]

what nvidia did, was made their own connection standard, really.

at the time they did it, DVI and DP couldnt do it - so they made a new 'connector' that required a compatible GPU and monitor.

now that DP can do it, we still need a new GPU and monitor - its just not locked to nvidia.

Im pretty sure it was supported before Nvidia revealed G-Sync. It just wasn't available on external desktop monitors but it could have been.

"Adaptive-Sync is a proven and widely adopted technology. The technology has been a standard component of VESA's embedded DisplayPort (eDP) specification since its initial rollout in 2009. As a result, Adaptive-Sync technology is already incorporated into many of the building block components for displays that rely on eDP for internal video signaling. Newly introduced to the DisplayPort 1.2a specification for external displays, this technology is now formally known as DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync."

 

[SQUIDZILLA]

what nvidia did, was made their own connection standard, really.

at the time they did it, DVI and DP couldnt do it - so they made a new 'connector' that required a compatible GPU and monitor.

now that DP can do it, we still need a new GPU and monitor - its just not locked to nvidia.

 

[SQUIDZILLA]

what nvidia did, was made their own connection standard, really.

at the time they did it, DVI and DP couldnt do it - so they made a new 'connector' that required a compatible GPU and monitor.

now that DP can do it, we still need a new GPU and monitor - its just not locked to nvidia.

Infact this entire article is just copied from displayport.org's website in the article where they announced the new display port standard.

 

[Xzibit]

Anandtech - Computex 2014: AMD Demonstrates First FreeSync Monitor Prototype

Monitor is a Nixeus IPS 2560x1440 Nixeus Vue 27D with a firmware update

 

[ValenOne]

Anandtech - Computex 2014: AMD Demonstrates First FreeSync Monitor Prototype

Monitor is a Nixeus IPS 2560x1440 Nixeus Vue 27D with a firmware update

It looks like birdie's comment was wrong. A firmware update LOL.

 

[Xzibit]

Yeah, they got it to work on a current monitor with a IPS panel none the less.

Monitors are already adopting DP 1.2a. Dell released 3 new monitor all with DP 1.2a. Don't know if they will be "FreeSync" capable but goes to show DP 1.2a is being adopted and hit retail before a official G-Sync monitor did.

 

[mousespecial14]

This article I found makes a good point about the different syncs out there though. "AMD claims that monitors will be available in 6-12 months. If there are delays, then this could leave G-Sync viable for a couple of years." -- http://toptengamer.squidoo.com/top-g-sync-monitors . And then we have to remember that nothing's really free; still freesync has to be cheaper.

 

[Xzibit]

This article I found makes a good point about the different syncs out there though. "AMD claims that monitors will be available in 6-12 months. If there are delays, then this could leave G-Sync viable for a couple of years." -- http://toptengamer.squidoo.com/top-g-sync-monitors . And then we have to remember that nothing's really free; still freesync has to be cheaper.

Nvidia has to adapt DP 1.2a or higher and rework G-Sync. One of the advantages of VESA adaptive-sync is being a standard. Unlike G-Sync it wont have to use the AUX bandwidth to communicate and thus not sacrificing the audio component of DisplayPort. Not to mention probably one of the quirks G-Sync is facing since they haven't been able to get it to work with MSTs so far. They already are DP 1.2a MST on the market.

They also don't bring up or address that Nvidia will have to compete with TCOM companies which are well establish and at a competative or lower price to break into that market. Nvidia likes to sell stuff at a high premium we saw its short lived cycle in the mobile phone market in US because of it.

I'd wait for the 2nd gen of these products to make a decision myself. I wouldn't want to get a G-Sync monitor only for Nvidia to switch to DP 1.2a+ standard or have the first kinks worked out of VESA adaptive-sync if they are any. Things will move along faster once Nvidia and AMD are playing on the standards they both are part off.

 

[HM_Actua1]

"AMD is actively working with these scaler vendors to bring Adaptive-Sync support into their higher-end scalers, and the company expects the mainstream scalers to gain support for the features very soon as well. The process isn’t progressing as slowly as we thought, although the AMD spokesman did make it clear that it was still too early to discuss exact commitments."

Let me know when that is ACTUALLY TRUE. Until then I say BS, NV tried and couldn't get them to budge, so created a way to do it themselves. Too early to discuss commitments because there are ZERO to discuss. If scaler companies don't make the hardware, how far are you going to get? About as far as NV did I suspect. If it was progressing quickly why would you put a couple of YEARS? Also since there are moles everywhere, I'm sure NV will know when they decide to cooperate and at that point they can choose to drop gsync or lower the price to force more sales (it does sell a gpu also). It's up to them to figure out which way is better for their business and I'm sure their bean counters will be hard at work...LOL.

http://www.blurbusters.com/gsync/list-of-gsync-monitors/
The list is growing for gsync monitors announced. Not sure when it was last udpated but I'm sure more will be announced in the next 5 months. The only reason we don't see more already is the amount of time it takes to tune it for each panel (hence the cost). It would sure speed things up if they get a rev2 our or something that can just be applied to all monitors easily. Considering the difficulty in even doing it NV's way, I'm still wondering how GOOD AMD's solution will really be when someone finally is allowed to test it gaming across a dozen titles or so.

"couple years down the road"
This is a jump on Gsync that is ALREADY HERE? ROFL. "speed to market" means nothing if it takes years to actually GET to market. AMD said nothing here, no clearing the air, just more of what they HOPE will happen. Meanwhile monitors with gsync will be out in quite good numbers for xmas (meaning on a good number of monitors). Your comment is crazy. In order to have a jump on gsync you have to be FIRST don't you? Not in a COUPLE OF YEARS, right? Is it 6-12 months or a couple of years now?

"We can expect to see almost all mainstream and high-end monitors support Adaptive-Sync in the future."
Umm...There's that scaler problem that has to be worked out with the 4-5 vendors the AMD guy mentioned...Remember, NV said they tried and nobody would budge (that R&D costs money), so again, this is why they did it themselves. It is also why you DON'T give it away freely after doing that R&D. Make no mistake the scaler companies will charge the monitor people, and the monitor people will in turn charge YOU. The same thing happened with gsync. This is no different, it's just not AMD doing it to you, it's the scalers/monitor makers who will.

"If we wanted to do something over HDMI right now, it would have to be proprietary, and we would rather not do that."
ROFL...

So in other words "Nvidia had no choice but to do it proprietary because that is all they had available to work with, and since we don't want to be blamed for charging you, we'll wait for years maybe until scalers cooperate so it can be blamed on them or monitor makers"...LOL.

If scaler makers move at all it will be due to them losing sales because Gsync is included INSTEAD of their scaler. At that point (say xmas or so when all the monitors that we know are coming with gsync are out in great numbers), they may be willing to at least do the work and charge a minimal amount for it, but they won't go for FREE, just cheaper than NV probably to win back sales from Gsync monitors. You see, without vast numbers of gsync selling yet, they have no fears, but that ends at xmas. You could say, AMD's success at getting it into monitors is solely based on Nvidia's success at selling Gsync this xmas...ROFL. If NV succeeds you'll see scaler vendors ramp up some R&D to get new scalers out the door to stop gsync from taking all their sales. It's that simple. Then again, if NV can drive the cost down as sales ramp up they may lose anyway. That's how cuda got entrenched. By the time AMD actually did something they already had years in cuda and owned 90% of the market.

What air got cleared? No commitments discussed and no "it will be out on X day", so what got cleared up? The 4-5 scalers still haven't committed here either or it would be in the post. All I see is "it's taking long, so we thought we'd make more some more fluff noise and keep saying words like FREE when we know it isn't FREE for scalers or vendors".

Even the monitor makers have to pay some R&D to get their monitor to pass for the label. Why the heck would AMD not reveal a monitor that CAN be used today with adaptive sync unless it, well, CAN'T? Are you unable to purchase it with this different firmware that can use it because brand X wants to make you buy a new monitor?

Fuzzy, fuzzy, fuzzy...Not clear at all.

 

[HM_Actua1]

Nvidia has to adapt DP 1.2a or higher and rework G-Sync. One of the advantages of VESA adaptive-sync is being a standard. Unlike G-Sync it wont have to use the AUX bandwidth to communicate and thus not sacrificing the audio component of DisplayPort. Not to mention probably one of the quirks G-Sync is facing since they haven't been able to get it to work with MSTs so far. They already are DP 1.2a MST on the market.

They also don't bring up or address that Nvidia will have to compete with TCOM companies which are well establish and at a competative or lower price to break into that market. Nvidia likes to sell stuff at a high premium we saw its short lived cycle in the mobile phone market in US because of it.

I'd wait for the 2nd gen of these products to make a decision myself. I wouldn't want to get a G-Sync monitor only for Nvidia to switch to DP 1.2a+ standard or have the first kinks worked out of VESA adaptive-sync if they are any. Things will move along faster once Nvidia and AMD are playing on the standards they both are part off.

That's assuming you think DP isn't backwards compatible?