AMD has released new certification criteria for its VRR (variable refresh rate) standard FreeSync. Manufacturers who want to have their displays certified according to one of the three FreeSync levels will have to meet stricter requirements in the future. Specifically, AMD is now demanding higher refresh rates, but differentiates between notebooks on the one hand and monitors and televisions on the other.
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AMD presented and explained the changes in a blog post. For the simplest certification level called FreeSync, displays and TVs up to a horizontal resolution of 3440 pixels must achieve at least 144 Hertz; for FreeSync Premium at least 200 Hertz are required. Displays with higher resolution should reach at least 120 Hertz. The rules are less strict for laptop displays; 40 to 60 Hertz is sufficient for simple FreeSync and at least 120 Hertz for FreeSync Premium, regardless of the resolution. Monitors that have already been certified should be allowed to retain their classification; The rules therefore only apply to new models.
FreeSync requirements according to AMD |
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FreeSync |
max. Bildwiederholfrequenz: 40-60 Hz |
< 3440 Horizontal resolution: |
FreeSync Premium |
max. Bildwiederholfrequenz: ≥ 120 Hz |
Max. refresh rate up to a horizontal resolution of 3440 pixels: ≥ 200 Hz |
FreeSync Premium Pro |
FreeSync Premium + AMD FreeSync HDR |
FreeSync Premium + AMD FreeSync HDR |
144 Hertz also for TVs
Oguzhan Andic, the author of the blog post, cites technical development as the reason. When AMD introduced FreeSync in 2015, 60 Hertz was still considered “great for gaming”, but since then not only the graphics cards have become much more powerful and can rely on new acceleration technologies. There have also been advances in monitors, both in resolution and refresh rates. Most gaming displays today support at least 144 Hertz, says Andic. It is noteworthy that AMD itself expects at least 144 Hertz for televisions, which not all current models necessarily achieve. There are various reasons for this, such as simply a panel that is too slow or an outdated HDMI port that lacks the bandwidth for the required combination of resolution and refresh rate. Since the current versions of game consoles such as Xbox and Playstation only support 120 Hertz, this has not been a restriction so far.
FreeSync is AMD's counterpart to Nvidia's G-Sync. Both were developed to prevent jerking and image tearing at low or very high frame rates if the frame rate delivered by the graphics card differs from the (fixed) one set on the monitor. Unlike VSync, in which the graphics card depends on the monitor and therefore may not be able to exploit its potential, VRR techniques work the other way around: the screen dynamically adapts its frame rate to that of the graphics card within a specified refresh rate range. To do this, the monitors must be certified by the GPU manufacturer and the graphics driver must support the feature. We have put together more information about the functions of gaming displays in our buying guide for monitors.
(bkr)