AMD promises FreeSync drivers are coming in December, displays a bit later

AMD's Richard Huddy revealed at PDXLAN that the company will launch its FreeSync drivers in December 2014. The technology has been a long time coming, AMD introduced the concept in September 2013 as an alternative to NVIDIA's G-Sync technology. FreeSync doesn't require a special chip but will require a new display that supports Adaptive Sync, and those screens are still 1-2 months away.

Where are the displays that support Adaptive Sync technology? My. Huddy said that they are still 1-2 months away, but noted that there is one display on the market today that can support it after a firmware update. This means that after a free firmware update that ‘FreeSync’ will be up and running. Not all AMD Radeon video cards will support FreeSync though as only AMD Radeon R7 260/260X as well as Radeon R9 290/290X video cards with DisplayPort 1.2a video outputs will be able to utilize this technology. AMD expects Adaptive Sync (FreeSync) displays will run $100 less than a comparable NVIDIA G-Sync ready display. AMD believes that they will be able to deliver a value to gamers that NVIDIA won’t be able to match. This is because no current NVIDIA GeForce GTX video card is ready to support Adaptive Sync. Not even the mighty NVIDIA GeForce GTX 980/970 Maxwell video cards support it. NVIDIA is clearly promoting G-Sync and is all-in with that whereas AMD is going the open standard route. Is the gaming experience the same on both variable refresh rate solutions? We aren’t sure as we have haven’t been able to game on FreeSync, but we know G-Sync works great.

Source: Legit Reviews