At CES 2020, AMD announced an overhaul of its FreeSync program, which now includes over a thousand monitors and over 50 televisions. A brand new tier called FreeSync Premium is being introduced to guarantee two key aspects of the 'high-performance gaming experience': 120Hz refresh rate at a minimum of 1080p resolution and the low frame rate compensation (LFC) feature, which ensures that even when the frame rate drops below the minimum refresh rate supported by the display the gameplay experience remains smooth (by displaying the frames multiple times).
According to AMD, there are already over 300 monitors certified for this tier, thanks to the ramp-up in production that happened from 2018 onward as exemplified in the graph below.
FreeSync Premium Pro, on the other hand, is really a rebranding of the previous FreeSync 2 HDR tier. Interestingly, the updated FAQ provides some additional insight on how High Dynamic Range (HDR) content is displayed in this tier.
The implementation of HDR in FreeSync Premium Pro differs from a conventional HDR pipeline. In the case of FreeSync Premium Pro, the display passes specifications and data straight to the PC. This allows games to directly tone map to the display, skipping bulky intermediate steps and helping reduce input latency. Furthermore, the baseline HDR requirements are greater than HDR 400 to provide at least twice the perceived color volume as SDR.
| FreeSync | FreeSync Premium
NEW |
FreeSync Premium Pro
Previously known as FreeSync 2 HDR |
|---|---|---|
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Below you can watch a recent video where AMD provided a glimpse into the certification process for FreeSync displays.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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