Update for AMD Freesync & Crossfire Support

[Warsam71]

Hello everyone,
I just wanted to share with you the below update:

[FONT=&quot]“AMD fans have been outspoken about their love for the smooth gameplay of AMD FreeSync™ technology, and have understandably been excited about the prospect of using compatible monitors with the incredible performance of an AMD CrossFire™ configuration. After vigorous QA testing, however, it’s now clear to us that support for AMD FreeSync™ monitors on a multi-GPU system is not quite ready for release. As it is our ultimate goal to give AMD customers an ideal experience when using our products, we must announce a delay of the AMD Catalyst™ driver that would offer this support. We will continue to develop and test this solution in accordance with our stringent quality standards, and we will provide another update when it is ready for release”[/FONT]

[FONT=&quot]Source: http://forums.amd.com/game/messageview.cfm?catid=454&threadid=186533&enterthread=y[/FONT]

 

[RaulF]

Glad you posted this Sam, just yesterday i send a tweet asking where the driver was.

Thanks for following up.

P.S. I hope you guys are working with BenQ on the the XL2730Z. There seems to be a problem right now with this monitor and freesync.

http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/reviews/benq_xl2730z.htm

That's the review.

FreeSync Performance and the XL2730Z Display


From a monitor point of view the use of FreeSync creates a problem at the moment on the XL2730Z at the moment. The issue is that the AMA setting does nothing when you connect the screen over DisplayPort to a FreeSync system. This applies whether you are actually using FreeSync or not, you don't even need to have the option ticked in the graphics card settings for the problem to occur. As a result, the setting appears to be in the off state, and changing it to High or Premium in the menu makes no difference to real-World response times or performance. As a result, response times are fairly slow at ~8.5ms G2G and there is a more noticeable blur to the moving image. See the more detailed response time tests in the previous sections for more information, but needless to say this is not the optimum AMA (response time) setting on this screen. For some reason, the combination of FreeSync support and this display disables the AMA function.

This only happens when you are using a FreeSync enabled graphics card, FreeSync capable drivers and the DisplayPort interface. If you switch to DVI or any other interface (which don't support the FreeSync feature) even from the same graphics card/driver then AMA behaves as it should again. If you use DisplayPort but revert to an older non-FreeSync enabled driver package then AMA works as it should. If you use a non-FreeSync supporting AMD card, or a card from NVIDIA/Intel then AMA functions as it should. It's only when all 3 things are combined that the problem seems to occur. Obviously if you eliminate one of them to make AMA work properly, you lose the advantage of FreeSync dynamic refresh rate control. The only exception is if you enable the Blur Reduction mode, where the AMA function then works properly regardless of your system configuration.

Having spoken to BenQ about it the issue is a known bug which apparently currently affects all FreeSync monitors. The AMD FreeSync command disturbs the response time (AMA) function, causing it to switch off. It's something which will require an update from AMD to their driver behaviour, which they are currently working on. It will also require a firmware update for the screen itself to correct the problem. Both are being worked on and we will aim to update this review when it is fixed, hopefully within a couple of weeks. Assuming that fixes the issue the performance when using a FreeSync system should be much better than now, as you can move from AMA Off to the better AMA High setting. At the moment if you use the FreeSync function, or even just have a FreeSync enabled system in place, the response times are slower than they should be by a fair amount, and so you will experience a moderate amount of blur. If you need to, you can always switch to DVI or another interface other than DisplayPort to benefit from the AMA setting (but lose FreeSync).

It is unclear at the moment what would be required to update an existing XL2730Z model, and what would be required in terms of new firmware. We will update this review section when we know more.

And that their footnote on freesync with the BenQ monitor.

 

[DiogoDX]

Hoping that the freesync crossfire driver is on a different branch and you will release new divers for the May releases (witcher 3 and PC Cars).

 

[Techhog]

Now for the people who would have complained about the driver being broken at release to complain about it being delayed.

Good on AMD trying to get it right the first time.