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AMD's Freesync technology is almost here and Samsung's leading the charge

By Salehuddin Bin Husin - on 20 Nov 2014, 9:43pm

AMD's Freesync technology is almost here and Samsung's leading the charge

Samsung's the first in the world to release a Freesync compatible monitor, pictured here.

2015 might just be be a banner year for gaming. Not because of great games (for that we have to wait till E3 next year to know what's coming) but because of upcoming gaming technology. AMD's Freesync and Microsoft's DirectX 12 both hit their stride next year and from all indications, both look set to usher in a new era for gaming.

Freesync has been in the works for a while now and although we've known about it, seeing it in action is a whole different story. At its very basic level, Freesync eliminates screen tearing in games if your hardware is not up to snuff at displaying a constant frame rate, or when there's a lag in frame refreshes. While this won't make much of a difference to those with high end gaming rigs (as those rigs won't have any problems with regard to frame rate), for gamers on a budget, this will be a godsend as it delivers a smooth as butter experience on-screen, even if you're playing with frame rates under 30. Freesync can prevent tearing in games displaying frames as low as 9 frames a second, but honestly, if you're getting that kind of a performance on your rig, you need more help than Freesync. Here's a short highlight of Freesync from Richard Huddy, AMD's chief gaming scientist (and yes, that's his official title):-

Freesync is a better alternative than Vsync because Vsync causes input lag as well as lowering overall frame rates on less than capable hardware. It also causes stuttering which can be jarring in fast paced games. So while Vsync is an option in pretty much every game nowadays, enabling it is as much a drawback as it is a perk.

If you're unsure how Freesync stacks up to NVIDIA's similar G-Sync, here's a handy comparison courtesy of AMD.

Now that AMD's got you curious about Freesync, we bet that you're wondering what monitors support Freesync. Samsung's got you covered there. 

Samsung's only announced two different models that support Freesync at this time, but they probably won't be the last.

The Samsung UE590 (which come in 23.6 and 28 inches) and the Samsung UE850 (which come in 23.6, 27 and 31.5 inches) are currently the only announced models from Samsung (or anybody really) that'll support Freesync. We've seen one of them in action (we don't know which one because nobody would tell us which model we were looking at when asked), and it certainly works as advertised so if you have lingering questions about the tech, don't. It works and we've seen it.

Sadly, we don't know when the monitors will be available other than 2015. We don't know how much they'll cost too. We figure that once Freesync is locked for a public release (beta or otherwise), Samsung will spill the beans on the monitors. Till then, just sit tight.

Meanwhile, to find out even more about Freesync , tune in to this earlier news piece. Also, you'll also want to know which AMD GPUs and APUs support Freesync.

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