Microsoft extended variable refresh-rate (VRR) to games that don't natively support it, through a new global setting under Graphics Settings. To access this setting, you must have the latest Windows 10 May 2019 Update (version 1903), a display that supports NVIDIA G-Sync, AMD FreeSync, or VESA Adaptive-Sync, and a graphics processor with a WDDM 2.6-compliant driver that supports these VRR technologies. For now, this setting only works with DirectX 11 games in exclusive-fullscreen mode. Microsoft clarified that this setting is not designed to override the VRR options presented by the control panels of your display driver provider (eg: NVIDIA Control Panel or AMD Radeon Settings). The option is disabled by default, and isn't visible to users who don't meet both the hardware- and software-requirements of VRR.

Product context: HP showcased their new and upcoming Omen X Emperium 65 at CES, an NVIDIA BFGD (Big Format Gaming Display) with all the features the company deems premium and attractive to gamers: 4K resolution, a huge, 65" diagonal AMVA panel, HDR (1,000 nits of peak luminance and 95 percent of the DCI-P3 color gamut) , G-Sync, and 120 - 144Hz refresh rate (144 Hz is overclocked) with a gray-to-gray response time is rated for 4ms. It features an incorporated sound bar with 120 W of power and three amps. An integrated NVIDIA Shield makes an appearance as well as a multimedia juggernaut solution. All of this in a $4,999 body, launching in February 2019.

Thoughts: Rollback. A $4,999 price-tag. Maybe this is just me, but NVIDIA seems to be finally introducing their BFGDs at the worst possible time, considering the company has just formally announced that their GeForce graphics cards would be finally supporting VESA's VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) standard. This brings with it FreeSync support - for monitors and, we'd expect, TV's as well, considering that the driver solution will be toggable by users even in a non-NVIDIA certified display.

In what could spell very interesting things for the uptake of the Freesync 2 open-standard, Digital Foundry has confirmed that Microsoft's upcoming "Project Scorpio" console will leverage AMD's FreeSync 2 standard so as to improve fluidity of frames. The objective is, as usual, to eliminate tearing and reduce stutter, allowing the GPU to trigger the display refresh rate at exactly the same frequency as it can churn out frames. The FreeSync 2 revision of the open standard is HDR-compatible, which means it supports what is being touted as The Next Big Thing in image quality. Like always, the available FreeSync-supported band will still depend on the panel's actual specifications. Additionally, the Scorpio is going to offer support for the upcoming VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) implemented within the HDMI 2.1 specifications.

Though TV panels don't support either of those standards currently, AMD has teased that FreeSync support on TVs would be possible - and upcoming. If true, and if this FreeSync support were to take off, this might spell an increased uptake on AMD's open standard implementation of VRR over NVIDIA's G-SYNC. The adoption of these VRR technologies would also allow developers to perhaps change their performance targets (say, from 60 FPS to 45 FPS), while also increasing fluidity of games that struggle to maintain their target frame rate. The Scorpio could be the first mainstream piece of tech to offer widespread support for VRR standards, thus increasing the user base and industry adoption rate of this technologies, which can only be good. To say that this adoption spells the death of NVIDIA's proprietary G-SYNC is nothing more than wild, boastful speculation; saying it could drive FreeSync and HDMI's VRR implementation towards mainstream usage is not. And that could mean a slow push of G-SYNC towards a niche PC-monitor solution with reduced uptake from monitor manufacturers.