You might have a gorgeous gaming monitor paired with the most powerful GPU on the market — but if the two aren’t in sync, you can still fall victim to the dreaded screen tearing phenomenon. The solution: adaptive sync technologies like NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync, which help keep your GPU and monitor on the same page by synchronizing their frame rates.
So, how do these technologies work, and what’s the difference between all the terms you’ll see out there, like G-Sync Compatible and AMD FreeSync Premium? You’ll learn all about these standards in our guide below, so dive in and see what’s going on with today’s adaptive sync technology!
What’s the Purpose of Adaptive Sync?
Adaptive sync (also known as Variable Refresh Rate or VRR) is a technology that synchronizes the rate of frame output from a GPU with a monitor’s refresh rate. This prevents screen tearing, a phenomenon in which a partially-loaded frame occupies half the screen, creating a disorienting “tear” effect that looks like the two frames have been sloppily smashed together.
Earlier generations of PC gamers most often fought screen tearing by enabling the vertical sync (V-Sync) setting available in many games. V-Sync fixes misaligned frame rates by (essentially) capping the GPU’s maximum frame output at whatever the monitor can handle. However, V-Sync can be a drag on graphics performance that introduces input lag problems.
Enter adaptive sync, a successor technology to V-Sync that provides a better way of keeping your monitor and GPU in sync. This technology goes by various names, including NVIDIA G-Sync and AMD FreeSync, which are basically the same tech, even if they work slightly differently. Let’s look at the basic process of how it works.
How Adaptive Sync Works
- When a GPU draws a new frame, it sends it to the monitor for display.
- The adaptive sync monitor detects the GPU’s frame rate and automatically adjusts the monitor’s frame rate to match it.
- With the monitor and the GPU running at the same frame rate, you get to enjoy smooth graphics with no screen tearing or judders.
- The monitor’s refresh rate adjusts dynamically when the frame rate changes, ensuring hiccup-free graphics performance.
Thanks to adaptive sync, screen tearing is largely a thing of the past for many PC gamers. Practically every gaming monitor on the market now offers some adaptive sync compatibility, so it’s definitely a feature that every PC gamer should look for when deciding on a new gaming display.
There are two major standards for adaptive sync that you’ll find on today’s monitors and graphics cards (and a third one that’s coming up). Next up, we’ll look at what they are!
Adaptive Sync Technologies
1. NVIDIA G-Sync
NVIDIA’s G-Sync standard was the first adaptive sync technology to hit the market. While only displays with NVIDIA’s proprietary hardware can use the full-featured G-Sync (meaning it comes at a price premium), the G-Sync Compatible standard allows many monitors compatibility with both.
G-Sync Compatible means a monitor is tested for basic compatibility with G-Sync, but may not support premium features like HDR. However, it may also be compatible with non-NVIDIA-based cards, while higher-level standards like G-Sync are compatible only with NVIDIA GPUs. (Remember that using an incompatible card doesn’t mean the monitor won’t work — just that you won’t have access to the full G-Sync features.)
2. AMD FreeSync
AMD’s FreeSync is an open standard that’s free for manufacturers to use. (Consequently, it’s more widely supported than G-Sync.) In most cases, FreeSync will work with either an AMD or NVIDIA card, although the performance of NVIDIA cards won’t offer the built-in optimizations that these cards have for G-Sync. (It also works with Intel’s new line of graphics cards.)
FreeSync also has three tiers, none of which come at a price premium: FreeSync, FreeSync Premium, and FreeSync Premium Pro. Higher tiers add features such as guaranteed HDR support and low frame rate compensation technology (since adaptive sync can become unreliable if your GPU’s frame rates drop too low).
3. VESA Adaptive Sync
The VESA Adaptive Sync standard is a generic open standard that any manufacturer can use — and, in fact, it’s the technological basis for the FreeSync standard. Although it’s fairly new and not yet ubiquitous, look for this standard to become more common as monitor manufacturers look to broaden their compatibility.
Should I Buy a G-Sync or FreeSync Monitor?
The easy answer is to choose the adaptive sync technology that corresponds to your graphics card brand (NVIDIA or AMD). Most experts say that people can’t tell the two apart in a test, so neither is strictly better or worse. It’s all about choosing a better option for your particular PC, and often, the easiest way to do that is to choose a monitor optimized for the make of your card.
However, that’s not always the case. Here are some final thoughts to take with you when you go shopping:
- Both NVIDIA and AMD maintain lists of certified compatible monitors. These aren’t always complete and up-to-the-minute, but they’re a good place to start.
- The higher levels of the G-Sync standard (G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate) will require you to stay within the NVIDIA ecosystem. If you think you might want to switch card brands later, FreeSync may be a better choice.
- Look for HDMI 2.1 and/or DisplayPort on your gaming monitor since you’ll need these connectors to use the most adaptive sync technologies. This isn’t hard since nearly all gaming monitors will have one or the other (often both), but it’s worth noting.
- For those who just use their PC for office work or even for creative software, you probably don’t need to worry about adaptive sync at all. It’s a solution for a problem (screen tearing) that’s pretty much exclusive to gaming since video frame rates don’t fluctuate the way they do in games.
If you’re a PC gamer who’s still not using adaptive sync, now is a great time to treat yourself! Tons of reasonably priced gaming monitors are now available with G-Sync and/or FreeSync, and you might be shocked at the smooth performance you’ve been missing.