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CES kicks off this Thursday, which means a number of companies are announcing new products, capabilities, and technologies they intend to bring to market in 2017. AMD tossed its chapeau into the ring with a discussion of FreeSync 2 — the follow-on to the FreeSync (VESA refers to this as Adaptive-Sync) standard that competes with Nvidia'due south G-Sync in the display business. FreeSync, similar Thousand-Sync, is designed to synchronize your display'due south refresh rate with your GPU. This guarantees that y'all don't miss a frame's worth of content if a new frame shows upwards more rapidly than your monitor can display it. Both FreeSync and Grand-Sync can dramatically improve game smoothness, and the lower the frame rate is by default, the bigger the advantage of enabling it.

AMD's FreeSync ii is meant to build on and expand the advantages of FreeSync. Unlike that applied science, which relied on a single feature, there are several facets to FreeSync 2 that nosotros need to talk nearly. First, FreeSync is meant to standardize HDR support on Windows (it's currently somewhat erratic). While Sony was able to flip a switch and enable HDR on all PlayStation 4s and PS4 Pros, moving an HDR signal from Windows to a monitor is more complex. At present, many HDR monitors struggle to convert a game's tone mapping nether Windows 10 into a properly-displayed output on an HDR monitor. The technology works, only there's significant lag involved, exacerbated by the fact that HDR10 requires tone mapping twice — once from games to the brandish pipeline, and over again from the pipeline to the display'due south color space. With FreeSync 2, AMD wants to alter this.

AMD-HDR

The graphic above shows how AMD's FreeSync 2 eliminates the trouble by handling information technology directly in hardware. In AMD's FreeSync two standard, games would tone map to the native colors of a FreeSync ii-uniform monitor. AMD's GPU drivers then pass that data along to the console, which displays it without any of the additional processing. This significantly cuts input lag and could make HDR easier to use in modern games.

AMD-HDR-2

Because Windows generally takes a dim view of this kind of color infinite overwriting, FreeSync 2 allows for fashion switching. When you're using your desktop or running conventional applications, information would exist handled by the standard SRGB color gamut that Windows prefers. Bound into a game or application that uses HDR, and AMD's driver support would kicking in to enable its advanced functionality. Leave the game, and you drop back down to SRGB.

The other advantage of FreeSync two is that AMD is tightening its requirements for the standard. Currently, FreeSync displays must offer at least 2x the lowest refresh rate (meaning a 30Hz display must be capable of at least 60Hz). The ideal range is 2.5x (24Hz – 60Hz). At that bespeak, games tin can offer Depression Framerate Compensation, or LFC, which means that the GPU sends frames twice to smooth gameplay and avert hiccups. Extending support down to 24Hz from 30Hz may not audio like a huge change, but it helps ensure that all only the biggest stutters are smoothed out and improved. FreeSync 2 will require this as a minimum feature where FreeSync did not.

Developer buy-in, display price

Unlike FreeSync, which by and large doesn't crave any kind of 'sensation' from a game, FreeSync 2 would require specific support from game developers and engine creators. AMD is partnering with monitor manufacturers to design displays that would be able to deactivate their own tone mapping to let the GPU take over. Game developers would nonetheless demand to map their ain titles to specific displays, and it would need to happen seamlessly so that users don't have to worry well-nigh fiddling with special modes just to enable HDR.

To pull all this off, AMD volition need to work with game engine developers, game studios, and ramp up a more detailed testing and evaluation process on the monitor side of things as well. One of the major selling points for FreeSync over 1000-Sync is that the technology doesn't really bear a premium. With FreeSync 2, even so, AMD is aiming for the high end of the market, and FreeSync won't be phased out just because FreeSync two ships. The implication is that FreeSync volition remain a valid option for people who just want the improved frame timing, while gamers looking for something a little more high-end volition take FreeSync 2 as a feature.

One affair that would assistance AMD's efforts would be prominent buy-in from Intel. Dorsum in August 2015, Intel said information technology would support Adaptive-Sync / FreeSync in future Intel CPUs. We've since heard rumors that AMD may take licensed a GPU to Intel or might build one for them, and buy-in from Intel (whether AMD builds its GPUs or not) would exist a huge win for the future of the FreeSync standard. Every bit things stand up, AMD likes to tout how many FreeSync panels are on the marketplace compared with a relative paucity of G-Sync displays. But this show of forcefulness is undercut by how Nvidia dominates the high-end gaming market that caters to the kinds of customers that might seek out and buy a gaming monitor with FreeSync or G-Sync support.

AMD has not stated if it will accuse royalties for the more than difficult testing and validation cycle these new monitors will crave. Its decision could have a significant impact on how One thousand-Sync and FreeSync 2 display prices compare in the future, as well every bit how much buy-in the company gets for its products. And of course all of this volition swivel significantly on how strong a product Vega turns out to be. There's cypher wrong with pairing a FreeSync or K-Sync brandish with a lower-cease graphics menu (in fact, such cards stand up to benefit the almost from this pairing), only the kind of people who buy $200 GPUs often don't turn around and purchase $500 – $750 monitors. We'll need more information on toll and positioning earlier we can fully evaluate FreeSync 2.