FreeSync is an adaptive synchronization technology for LCD and

OLED An organic light-emitting diode (OLED or organic LED), also known as organic electroluminescent (organic EL) diode, is a light-emitting diode (LED) in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compound that emits light i ...

displays that support a

variable refresh rate Variable refresh rate (VRR) refers to a dynamic display that can continuously and seamlessly change its refresh rate without user input. A display supporting a variable refresh rate usually supports a specific ''range'' of refresh rates (e.g. 30 ...

aimed at avoiding

tearing Tearing is the act of breaking apart a material by force, without the aid of a cutting tool. A tear in a piece of paper, fabric, or some other similar object may be the result of the intentional effort with one's bare hands, or be accidental. U ...

and reducing stuttering caused by misalignment between the screen's

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 rate ...

and the content's frame rate. FreeSync was developed by

AMD Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. (AMD) is an American multinational semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, that develops computer processors and related technologies for business and consumer markets. While it initially manufactur ...

and first announced in 2014 to compete against

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 ...

's proprietary

G-Sync G-Sync is a proprietary adaptive sync technology developed by Nvidia aimed primarily at eliminating screen tearing and the need for software alternatives such as Vsync. G-Sync eliminates screen tearing by allowing a video display's refresh rat ...

. It is royalty-free, free to use, and has no performance penalty.

Overview

FreeSync dynamically adapts the display refresh rate to variable frame rates which result from irregular GPU load when rendering complex gaming content as well as the lower 23.97/24/29.97/30 Hz used by fixed video content. This helps remove stuttering delays caused by the video interface having to finish the current frame and

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 r ...

when starting a new frame in the middle of transmission (with

vertical sync Analog television is the original television technology that uses analog signals to transmit video and audio. In an analog television broadcast, the brightness, colors and sound are represented by amplitude, phase and frequency of an analog s ...

off). The range of refresh rates supported by the standard is based on the capabilities reported by the display. FreeSync can be enabled automatically by

plug and play In computing, a plug and play (PnP) device or computer bus is one with a specification that facilitates the recognition of a hardware component in a system without the need for physical device configuration or user intervention in resolving resou ...

, making it transparent to the operating system and end user. FreeSync is not limited to only AMD graphics cards, FreeSync is also compatible with select Nvidia graphics cards and select consoles. Transitions between different refresh rates are seamless and undetectable to the user. The sync mechanism keeps the video interface at the established pixel clock rate but dynamically adjusts the

vertical blanking interval In a raster scan display, the vertical blanking interval (VBI), also known as the vertical interval or VBLANK, is the time between the end of the final visible line of a frame or field and the beginning of the first visible line of the next fra ...

. The monitor keeps displaying the currently received image until a new frame is presented to the video card's

frame buffer A framebuffer (frame buffer, or sometimes framestore) is a portion of random-access memory (RAM) containing a bitmap that drives a video display. It is a memory buffer containing data representing all the pixels in a complete video frame. Mode ...

then transmission of the new image starts immediately. This simple mechanism provides low monitor latency and a smooth, virtually stutter-free viewing experience, with reduced implementation complexity for the timing controller (TCON) and display panel interface. It also helps improve battery life by reducing the refresh rate of the panel when not receiving new images.

Technology

The original FreeSync is based over

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 ...

1.2a, using an optional feature that

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, searc ...

terms Adaptive-Sync. This feature was in turn ported by AMD from a Panel-Self-Refresh (PSR) feature from Embedded DisplayPort 1.0, which allows panels to control its own refreshing intended for power-saving on laptops. AMD FreeSync is therefore a hardware–software solution that uses publicly-available protocols to enable smooth, tearing-free and low-latency gameplay. FreeSync has also been implemented over

HDMI High-Definition Multimedia Interface (HDMI) is a proprietary audio/video interface for transmitting uncompressed video data and compressed or uncompressed digital audio data from an HDMI-compliant source device, such as a display controlle ...

1.2+ as a protocol extension. HDMI 2.1+ also has its own native variable refresh rate system.

FreeSync tiers

AMD FreeSync technology is split up into three tiers known as AMD FreeSync, AMD FreeSync Premium, and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro. AMD FreeSync requires the display to pass certification for low latency and refresh rate variation to match the render output of the graphics card. AMD FreeSync Premium mandates further requirements of Low Framerate Compensation (LFC) and at least 120 Hz refresh rate at FHD resolution. LFC helps ensure that when the framerate of a game is running below the minimum supported refresh rate of a display, the frames are displayed multiple times so the framerate remains in the supported refresh rate of the display and smooth gameplay is maintained. AMD FreeSync Premium Pro adds luminance and wide color gamut requirements.

FreeSync Premium Pro

In January 2017, AMD announced the second generation of FreeSync known as FreeSync 2 HDR. In January 2020, AMD Announced FreeSync 2 HDR was rebranding to FreeSync Premium Pro. Requirements include removing the minimal frame rate and setting a maximum on screen latency. FreeSync Premium Pro also doubles the color volume with support for

wide color gamut In color reproduction, including computer graphics and photography, the gamut, or color gamut , is a certain ''complete subset'' of colors. The most common usage refers to the subset of colors which can be accurately represented in a given cir ...

color spaces and increased display brightness, enabling direct support of HDR-capable displays by video-card device driver and application software. Display's

DisplayID DisplayID is a VESA standard for metadata describing display device capabilities to the video source. It is designed to replace E-EDID standard and EDID structure v1.4. The DisplayID standard was initially released in December 2007. Version 1.1 ...

EDID Extended Display Identification Data (EDID) and Enhanced EDID (E-EDID) are metadata formats for display devices to describe their capabilities to a video source (e.g. graphics card or set-top box). The data format is defined by a standard published ...

metadata for color primaries and maximal/minimal luminances are used to adjust the

tone mapping Tone mapping is a technique used in image processing and computer graphics to map one set of colors to another to approximate the appearance of high-dynamic-range images in a medium that has a more limited dynamic range. Print-outs, CRT or L ...

step when writing to the

, thus offloading color space and transfer-function processing from the OS

color management In digital imaging systems, color management (or colour management) is the controlled conversion between the color representations of various devices, such as image scanners, digital cameras, monitors, TV screens, film printers, computer printer ...

and the video interface circuitry, which reduces output latency.

List of supported displays

A list of FreeSync, FreeSync Premium and FreeSync Premium Pro monitors can be found on th
AMD FreeSync Monitor database
A list of FreeSync, FreeSync Premium, and FreeSync Premium Pro TVs can be found on th
AMD FreeSync TV database

FreeSync-compatible APUs and GPUs

All AMD GPUs starting with the 2nd iteration of Graphics Core Next support FreeSync. Nvidia 10-series, 16-series 20-series and 30-series GPUs with driver version 417.71 or higher support FreeSync. Console APUs: * AMD Durango APU in Microsoft Xbox One console. (FreeSync) * AMD Edmonton APU in Microsoft Xbox One S console. (FreeSync Premium Pro previously known as FreeSync 2.0 with HDR) * AMD Scorpio APU in Microsoft Xbox One X console. (FreeSync Premium Pro previously known as FreeSync 2.0 with HDR) * AMD Lockhart APU in Microsoft Xbox Series S console. (FreeSync Premium Pro previously known as FreeSync 2.0 with HDR) * AMD Scarlett APU in Microsoft Xbox Series X console. (FreeSync Premium Pro previously known as FreeSync 2.0 with HDR)

References

External links

Freesync Monitors

AMD FreeSync homepage

Adaptive-Sync whitepaper
March 2014
Enable Freesync
* {{AMD graphics AMD products Computer display standards Film and video technology VESA