Earlier this week at CES 2019, Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of NVIDIA, announced that his company will be releasing a patch that will enable specific FreeSync monitors to make use of the GPU company’s G-Sync technology. At this current moment, there are 12 FreeSync monitors that have passed NVIDIA’s prerequisites. From a total of 400 other FreeSync monitors.
FreeSync, or Adaptive sync, is a form of monitor refresh rate. Unlike Vertical sync (or V-Sync), and much like NVIDIA’s G-Sync technology, FreeSync prevents screen tearing on the monitor by utilising the (AMD Radeon) GPU. One of FreeSync’s main appeal to display manufacturers is that it’s open source. Compared to NVIDIA’s G-Sync, which is a proprietary piece of technology, and installing the module on to monitors requires manufacturer to fork out a licensing fee.
At the moment, here’s the list of FreeSync monitor that will be receiving getting the G-Sync compatibility patch:
- Acer XFA240
- Acer XG270HU
- Acer XV273K
- Acer XZ321Q
- Agon AG241QG4
- AOC G2590FX
- ASUS MG278Q
- ASUS XG248
- ASUS VG258Q
- ASUS XG258
- ASUS VG278Q
- BenQ XL2740
Providing G-Sync compatibility to these monitor does come with its own set of hurdles. For instance, some FreeSync monitors would suffer from blanking; a phenomenon that causes a FreeSync monitor with a high refresh rate to black out at random periods within a game. In addition, NVIDIA still has another 100 FreeSync monitors to test out for compatibility.
NVIDIA will be releasing the driver that will allow for G-Sync compatibility for the monitors on January 15. If your PC is running on an NVIDIA GeForce graphics card, and your gaming monitor just so happens to be one of the 12 models listed above, count yourself lucky.
