G-Sync is a proprietary adaptive sync technology developed by

Nvidia Nvidia CorporationOfficially written as NVIDIA and stylized in its logo as VIDIA with the lowercase "n" the same height as the uppercase "VIDIA"; formerly stylized as VIDIA with a large italicized lowercase "n" on products from the mid 1990s to ...

aimed primarily at eliminating

screen tearing Screen tearing is a visual artifact in video display where a display device shows information from multiple frames in a single screen draw. The artifact occurs when the video feed to the device is not synchronized with the display's refresh ...

and the need for software alternatives such as Vsync. G-Sync eliminates screen tearing by allowing a

video display A display device is an output device for presentation of information in visual or tactile form (the latter used for example in tactile electronic displays for blind people). When the input information that is supplied has an electrical signal t ...

refresh rate The refresh rate (or "vertical refresh rate", "vertical scan rate", terminology originating with the cathode ray tubes) is the number of times per second that a raster-based display device displays a new image. This is independent from frame ra ...

to adapt to the

frame rate Frame rate (expressed in or FPS) is the frequency (rate) at which consecutive images ( frames) are captured or displayed. The term applies equally to film and video cameras, computer graphics, and motion capture systems. Frame rate may also ...

of the outputting device (

graphics card A graphics card (also called a video card, display card, graphics adapter, VGA card/VGA, video adapter, display adapter, or mistakenly GPU) is an expansion card which generates a feed of output images to a display device, such as a computer mo ...

integrated graphics A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a specialized electronic circuit designed to manipulate and alter memory to accelerate the creation of images in a frame buffer intended for output to a display device. GPUs are used in embedded systems, mob ...

) rather than the outputting device adapting to the display, which could traditionally be refreshed halfway through the process of a frame being output by the device, resulting in screen tearing, or two or more frames being shown at once. In order for a device to use G-Sync, it must contain a proprietary G-Sync module sold by Nvidia. AMD has released a similar technology for displays, called FreeSync, which has the same function as G-Sync yet is

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. Nvidia built a special collision avoidance feature to avoid the eventuality of a new frame being ready while a duplicate is being drawn on screen (something that could generate lag and/or stutter) in which case the module anticipates the refresh and waits for the next frame to be completed. Overdriving pixels also becomes tricky in a non-fixed refresh scenario, and solutions predicting when the next refresh is going to happen and accordingly adjusting the overdrive value must be implemented and tuned for each panel in order to avoid ghosting.

Hardware

The module carries all the functional parts. It is based around an Altera Arria V GX family

FPGA A field-programmable gate array (FPGA) is an integrated circuit designed to be configured by a customer or a designer after manufacturinghence the term ''Field-programmability, field-programmable''. The FPGA configuration is generally specifi ...

featuring 156K logic elements, 396 DSP blocks and 67 LVDS channels. It is produced on the TSMC 28LP process and paired with three DDR3L DRAM chips to attain a certain bandwidth, for an aggregate 768MB capacity. The employed FPGA also features a

LVDS Low-voltage differential signaling (LVDS), also known as TIA/EIA-644, is a technical standard that specifies electrical characteristics of a differential, serial signaling standard. LVDS operates at low power and can run at very high speeds ...

interface to drive the monitor panel. It is meant to replace common scalers and be easily integrated by monitor manufacturers, who only have to take care of the power delivery circuit board and input connections. GPU: *Nvidia GeForce GTX 650 Ti Boost GPU or higher. (G-Sync, G-Sync Ultimate) *Geforce 10 series (Pascal) and above. (G-Sync Compatible) Driver: *R340.52 or higher. *R417.71 or higher (G-Sync Compatible) Operating system: *Windows 7, 8, 8.1, and 10 *Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris *Windows 10 x64 (G-Sync Compatible) System requirement: *Must support DisplayPort 1.2 directly from the GPU. (Displayport 1.2a for G-Sync Compatible) Monitor: *G-Sync monitor connected natively via DisplayPort v1.2 or higher (1.2a for G-Sync Compatible)

Criticism

G-Sync faces some criticism due to its proprietary nature and the fact that it is still being promoted when free alternatives exist, such as the

VESA VESA (), formally known as Video Electronics Standards Association, is an American technical standards organization for computer display standards. The organization was incorporated in California in July 1989To retrieve the information, sear ...

standard Adaptive-Sync which is an optional feature of

DisplayPort DisplayPort (DP) is a digital display interface developed by a consortium of PC and chip manufacturers and standardized by the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA). It is primarily used to connect a video source to a display device su ...

version 1.2a. While AMD's FreeSync relies on the above-mentioned optional component of DisplayPort 1.2a, G-Sync requires an Nvidia-made module in place of the usual scaler in the display in order for it to function properly with select Nvidia

GeForce GeForce is a brand A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, ...

graphics cards, such as the ones from the GeForce 10 series (Pascal). However, there do exist G-Sync compatible monitors that can also utilize AMD's FreeSync. The G-Sync module itself has also been criticised for drawing power when the monitor is switched off, while comparable technologies don't draw any power when the monitor is switched off. A basic test by Tech YouTuber JayzTwoCents showed that monitors with the G-Sync module draw approximately 14W continuously when the monitor is off, and that comparable monitors without the G-Sync module draw 0.0W when the monitor is off.

List of G-Sync-enabled monitors

List of upcoming G-Sync-enabled monitors

List of G-Sync enabled desktop GPUs

G-Sync notebook

Nvidia announced that G-Sync will be available to notebook manufacturers and that in this case, it would not require a special module since the GPU is directly connected to the display without a scaler in between. According to Nvidia, fine tuning is still possible given the fact that all notebooks of the same model will have the same LCD panel, variable overdrive will be calculated by shaders running on the GPU, and a form of frame collision avoidance will also be implemented.

"Big Format" gaming displays

At CES 2018 Nvidia announced a line of large gaming monitors built by HP, Asus and Acer with 65-inch panels, 4K, HDR, as well as G-Sync support. The inclusion of G-Sync modules make the monitors among the first TV-sized displays to feature variable refresh-rates.

G-Sync Compatible displays

At CES 2019, Nvidia announced that they will support variable refresh rate monitors with FreeSync technology under a new standard named G-Sync Compatible. All monitors under this new standard have been tested by Nvidia to meet their baseline requirements for variable refresh rate and will enable G-Sync automatically when used with an Nvidia GPU. However, users with any Freesync monitor, including those that are not officially certified may choose to enable the G-Sync option in the Nvidia Control Panel. Unlike G-Sync, G-Sync Compatible displays are only compatible with the GTX 10-series and onwards.

References

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External links

Nvidia G-Sync overview
Computer display standards Film and video technology Nvidia