[AT]AMD Demonstrates "FreeSync", Free G-Sync Alternative, at CES 2014

[NTMBK]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7641/amd-demonstrates-freesync-free-gsync-alternative-at-ces-2014

AMD has been relatively silent on the topic of NVIDIA’s variable refresh rate G-Sync technology since its announcement last year. At this year’s CES however, AMD gave me a short demo of its version of the technology.

Using two Toshiba Satellite Click notebooks purchased at retail, without any hardware modifications, AMD demonstrated variable refresh rate technology. According to AMD, there’s been a push to bring variable refresh rate display panels to mobile for a while now in hopes of reducing power consumption (refreshing a display before new content is available wastes power, sort of the same reason we have panel self refresh displays). There’s apparently already a VESA standard for controlling VBLANK intervals. The GPU’s display engine needs to support it, as do the panel and display hardware itself. If all of the components support this spec however, then you can get what appears to be the equivalent of G-Sync without any extra hardware.

This sounds promising! We might actually see some traction for variable refresh rates if manufacturers can shoehorn it in at no extra cost. Good to see AMD recognising that G-Sync is a useful technology.

 

[blackened23]

Also:

AMD’s demo isn’t quite as nice as NVIDIA’s swinging pendulum, and we obviously weren’t able to test anywhere near as many scenarios, but this one is a good starting point. The system on the left is limited to 30 fps given the heavy workload and v-sync being on, while the system on the right is able to vary its frame rate and synchronize presenting each frame to the display's refresh rate. AMD isn’t ready to productize this nor does it have a public go to market strategy, but my guess is we’ll see more panel vendors encouraged to include support for variable VBLANK and perhaps an eventual AMD driver update that enables control over this function.

Doesn't sound that promising to me. But if it happens, that would be great, assuming it is on G-sync's level. AT indicated that it isn't.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Also:

Sigh... Really every thread. Geez I'm sick of the spam here.

Warning issued for thread crapping.
-- stahlhart

 

[bystander36]

The unfortunate part, is this appears to only work on a couple mobile displays. It doesn't sound like it'll work on monitors without change on those displays. It'll likely require something like the G-sync chip to work.

 

[blackened23]

Sigh... Really every thread. Geez I'm sick of the spam here.

Feel free to put me on ignore if you want this place to be the new AMD zone with positive AMD news 24/7. :whiste: In fact. Please put me on ignore. If you can't take critique of AMD. You won't hesitate to make a thread about "nvidia tax", while ignoring inflated AMD prices, which hey that's fine with me. That's cool, it's whatever to me. Critique nvidia all you want. I can ignore the cognitive dissonance of the "nvidia tax" statement as well, given current mining inflated prices, right? That critique doesn't really get to me. I don't care. But if critique of AMD bothers you:

Ignore feature. Use it.

I think some people probably do want this to be the new AMD zone.

Warning issued for inflammatory language.
-- stahlhart

 

[sontin]

After the "OpenPhysics" nonsense, i dont care.
Showing is easy, bring it to the market is much harder.

 

[Stuka87]

Very cool. Not having to spend a bunch of extra money on add-in hardware, and having it work with any GPU that supports the variable VBLANK (VESA standard) is awesome.

 

[moonbogg]

This seems like they are reaching only to undercut Nvidia's new tech. Whatever AMD is talking about is a fantasy that might come true some day, kind of like Mantle. But Nvidia has something coming to market, ready to go very soon that is shown to actually work. I like AMD products as of late, but I feel this jab was cheap and paper thin.

 

[f1sherman]

OK I'll admit.

While G-Sync Demo speaks for itself,
here... I have no idea which screen was supposed to be delivering "better" animation

 

[BallaTheFeared]

If it was that easy I doubt nvidia would have come up with the board they did, let alone get six monitor vendors to waste their time bringing gsync to market.

 

[monstercameron]

leave it to AMD to follow standards...

 

[NTMBK]

Doesn't sound that promising to me. But if it happens, that would be great, assuming it is on G-sync's level. AT indicated that it isn't.

I thought that they were talking about the quality of the demo (the windmill rendering looks pretty rough), not the quality of Freesync. *shrug* And G-Sync was only announced 2 1/2 months ago, having a working alternative already using off the shelf hardware is pretty impressive.

 

[NTMBK]

If it was that easy I doubt nvidia would have come up with the board they did, let alone get six monitor vendors to waste their time bringing gsync to market.

You doubt that NVidia would find an excuse to sell people more of their silicon?

 

[blackened23]

I thought that they were talking about the quality of the demo (the windmill rendering looks pretty rough), not the quality of Freesync. *shrug* And G-Sync was only announced 2 1/2 months ago, having a working alternative already using off the shelf hardware is pretty impressive.

It all sounds great on the surface. Free and open standards. That is AMD's battle cry for marketing while under-delivering. This is what AMD said about HD3D, which they have since abandoned. Free and open standards. Now they don't even bother updating it and the HD3D driver is done by a third party which charges you for the HD3D driver.

If it happens, great. AMD needs to put the money where their mouth is though and bring products -- monitors -- to market. They need to shut up and convince panel makers to bring products to market. I highly doubt they will convince anyone to do that - sounds like a jab at nvidia TBH. Nothing more nothing less. I hope AMD proves me wrong with actual monitors that use it. Do you think that will happen? Sounds like yet another marketing stunt to me.

Like I said though. Hope they prove me wrong. If panel makers do indeed replicate G-sync with a free alternative, that would be great across the board.

 

[blastingcap]

I like the idea of GSYNC and it's more elegant than what AMD's proposing if I'm reading it right. I don't like the idea of paying an early adopter tax for GSYNC though. Especially if it means I have to sell my relatively new eIPS triple-monitor setup. So I will keep playing wait and see.

Edit to add: I didn't catch this part until I looked closer: "The GPU’s display engine needs to support it, as do the panel and display hardware itself. If all of the components support this spec however, then you can get what appears to be the equivalent of G-Sync without any extra hardware."

If that's the case, this is NOT an answer to GSYNC as long as most panels don't support it. If a few mobile panels already support it, fine, but I don't game on mobile. So whether i go GSYNC or FreeSync, I'd have to upgrade my monitors. Ugh.

 

[sontin]

OK I'll admit.

While G-Sync Demo speaks for itself,
here... I have no idea which screen was supposed to be delivering "better" animation

The biggest problem is that the demo has the same framerate.

/edit: Thinking about it: Why do they use V-Sync on the left one? Makes no sense. Looks like fake without moving elements and a variable frame rate.

 

[3DVagabond]

Very cool. Not having to spend a bunch of extra money on add-in hardware, and having it work with any GPU that supports the variable VBLANK (VESA standard) is awesome.

+1 :thumbsup:

I would rather that than pay an extra $300 for a mediocre monitor and be limited to one brand of GPU.

 

[Hdgamer]

It's hard to believe anything AMD says will come to fruition anymore. They are having a horrible track record in my opinion.

Did they ever fix frame pacing on thier drivers pre 290 cards? No
Is Mantle out yet? No
Their high end cards were lousy. Noisy, hot, and now way overpriced (I know you can argue it's not their fault but it is what it is) Not to mention the variance in performance card to card.
Now FreeSync?

I would not buy an AMD product right now hoping that what they say is coming to the market is actually going to make it and be what they hype it up to be. Nvidia at least does what they say they will do and have to say I've been impressed with their products the last couple of years. AMD needs to catch up quick.

 

[Stuka87]

OK I'll admit.

While G-Sync Demo speaks for itself,
here... I have no idea which screen was supposed to be delivering "better" animation

Well, its nearly impossible to tell when you are watching an overly compressed 30fps video on the internet. You would have to download the original uncompressed video to see the real difference. Plus watch it on a display that did not have issues itself.

 

[blastingcap]

leave it to AMD to follow standards...

GSYNC is not a "standard." It's an implementation of an idea. So it's more AMD copying NV's idea. Sort of like how NV copied AMD's Eyefinity idea.

 

[monstercameron]

It's hard to believe anything AMD says will come to fruition anymore. They are having a horrible track record in my opinion.

Did they ever fix frame pacing on thier drivers pre 290 cards? No
Is Mantle out yet? No
Their high end cards were lousy. Noisy, hot, and now way overpriced (I know you can argue it's not their fault but it is what it is) Not to mention the variance in performance card to card.
Now FreeSync?

I would not buy an AMD product right now hoping that what they say is coming to the market is actually going to make it and be what they hype it up to be. Nvidia at least does what they say they will do and have to say I've been impressed with their products the last couple of years. AMD needs to catch up quick.

ok what does past issues have to do with the technology freesync? stay OT and dont sync this thread into another crap war.

 

[sontin]

The reason why it's hard to see a difference is because both run with V-Sync. The right one should look smoother because of the 50Hz.

But i dont see anything related to G-Sync. G-Sync allows variable, synchronize frame rates. What i take away from the demo is that the framerate with FreeSync need to be same every time.

 

[NTMBK]

GSYNC is not a "standard." It's an implementation of an idea. So it's more AMD copying NV's idea. Sort of like how NV copied AMD's Eyefinity idea.

VESA V-BLANK is a standard, though.

 

[blackened23]

ok what does past issues have to do with the technology freesync? stay OT and dont sync this thread into another crap war.

AMD's past history of delivering is relevant. Sorry if that bothers you. I'd bet money that free-sync will never come to fruition. Hope they prove me wrong. But i'm almost sure that it will be like nearly everything AMD does. All talk and all marketing.

With g-sync , you know it's happening. It is real with monitor vendors making g-sync panels. Where the panel vendors for freesync? AMD has no plan to bring this to market. Hell, this was STATED in the article linked by the OP. What does that tell you? They have NO CONCRETE PLANS for this to come to market? How many monitor manufacturers have they convinced? I'd bet that number is between -1 and 0. The article even states:

AMD isn’t ready to productize this nor does it have a public go to market strategy

Don't get me wrong. If it happens, great. I just don't exactly have faith in AMD delivering. IMO, they just want people to have the perception that there is a g-sync alternative coming. When there probably isn't. Which is why the article states that AMD has talked to zero manufacturers and does not have a concrete plan to bring it to market.

 

[bystander36]

VESA V-BLANK is a standard, though.

If it is a standard not included in most displays, then it will require displays to include what ever is needed to make it work. It may still cost extra for these displays.

If this does work as well as G-sync, for the variable refresh rate part of G-sync, then this is good in that we don't have to marry a brand when buying a monitor. If it is not as good, then we'll have to make a choice.