Quote:There are hundreds of monitor models available capable of variable refresh rates (VRR) using the VESA DisplayPort Adaptive-Sync protocol. However, the VRR gaming experience can vary widely.

To improve the experience for gamers, NVIDIA will test monitors. Those that pass our validation tests will be G-SYNC Compatible and enabled by default in the GeForce driver.

G-SYNC Compatible tests will identify monitors that deliver a baseline VRR experience on GeForce RTX 20-series and GeForce GTX 10-series graphics cards, and activate their VRR features automatically.

Support for G-SYNC Compatible monitors will begin Jan. 15 with the launch of our first 2019 Game Ready driver. Already, 12 monitors have been validated as G-SYNC Compatible (from the 400 we have tested so far). We’ll continue to test monitors and update our support list. For gamers who have monitors that we have not yet tested, or that have failed validation, we’ll give you an option to manually enable VRR, too.

Quote:Gamers who don’t own one of these 12 panels will still be able to use FreeSync with an Nvidia GPU; they just won’t have automatic support. Expect Nvidia to still monetize the G-Sync branding program, since that’s their own work. It isn’t clear how seriously gamers should take the fact that Nvidia claims to have evaluated more than 400 panels with just 12 passing — while it’s true that FreeSync ships on a much broader range of monitors and therefore encompasses a much wider range of quality settings and capabilities, that doesn’t mean all of the displays that failed to pass Nvidia’s quality tests will have visible differences from the panels that do. If you’re running 300 different IQ tests on the same display, you’re definitionally running some very nitpicky testing. Without knowing more about why displays might fail, we can’t say anything about the implications of failing.

Gamers who have shucked out substantial premiums for G-Sync monitors aren’t likely to be pleased with this announcement, but it’s great news for anyone who wants Adaptive Sync support on an Nvidia GPU without paying a huge, useless premium. Adaptive Sync is a great feature that improves the subjective experience of gaming at lower frame rates and we’re glad to see broader ecosystem support across the industry.

G-Sync, when invented, was a great idea. It ushered in an era in which gamers can expect better game experiences, even when running at the same frame rate. There’s not much better for gaming as a whole than an experience improvement like that. But it’s long past time for Nvidia to stop trying to lock the capability up behind a paywall for its own customers based on nothing more than an arbitrary software lock intended to force gamers to buy its own products. We’re glad to see the company making this change. It never should have taken this long.

Quote:The other feature introduced with the GeForce Game Ready 417.71 WHQL drivers is support for "G-Sync Compatible Monitors." With the new drivers installed, both RTX 20-series and GTX 10-series graphics cards will be able to enable G-Sync for monitors that weren’t specifically built for the variable refresh rate (VRR) utility.
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Of course, Nvidia still thinks people would be better off buying true G-Sync monitors. Note that expanding G-Sync support to FreeSync monitors doesn’t mean Nvidia no longer cares about how well monitors designed specifically for use with its GPUs perform. This is Nvidia extending an olive branch, not waving a white flag.

Yet, it’s not hard to imagine many people who own Nvidia-powered graphics cards buying FreeSync monitors now that they support G-Sync at least a little bit. G-Sync monitors typically cost a lot more than their FreeSync counterparts, and for people who don’t care about anything other than VRR, it makes sense to save money by purchasing a so-called G-Sync Compatible Monitor.

The GeForce Game Ready 417.71 WHQL drivers are available now via Nvidia’s website and the GeForce experience app.

Quote:Now, via a post on NVIDIA's GeForce forums, ManuelGuzmanNV, with a Customer Care badge, has said, in answer to a users' question on Variable Refresh-Rate support for NVIDIA's 9000 series, that "Sorry but we do not have plans to add support for Maxwell and below". So this means that only NVIDIA's 1000 and 2000-series of GPUs will be getting said support, thus reducing the number of users for which VRR support on NVIDIA graphics cards is relevant. At the same time, this might serve as a reason for those customers to finally make the jump to one of NVIDIA's more recent graphics card generations, in case they don't already own a VRR-capable monitor and want to have some of that smoothness.

Quote:TechSpot has now tested seven FreeSync displaysSEEAMAZON_ET_135 See Amazon ET commerce with an Nvidia graphics card to try and determine exactly what kind of problems Nvidia gamers might or might not encounter. There have been literally hundreds of FreeSync displays, but by testing some of the more prominent models, reviewers should be able to spot-check whether the problems with FreeSync compatibility are as dire as Jen-Hsun predicted. First, the website tested the following six:

• Acer KG251QF (24-inch, 1080p, 30-144Hz)
  
• BenQ EL2870U (28-inch, 4K, 40-60Hz)
  
• Viotek GN24C (24-inch, 1080p, 48-144Hz)
  
• AOC C27G1 (27-inch, 1080p, 48-144Hz)
  
• Viotek GN32LD (32-inch, 1440p, 48-144Hz)
  
• Philips Momentum 43 (43-inch, 4K, 48-60Hz)
  

Each of the displays above worked flawlessly, with all features and supported capabilities enabled.

The seventh and only panel that failed to work with Adaptive Sync on an Nvidia GPU wasn’t a surprise. The Viotek NB24C only supports FreeSync over HDMI, which AMD implemented via a custom protocol, whereas Nvidia is only supporting FreeSync via DisplayPort. HDMI won’t add support for Variable Refresh Rate (that’s the formal name of the term) until HDMI 2.1. This does have implications for TV support since most-to-all of the FreeSync TVs currently available only support it over HDMI. (It’s not clear if any TVs are implementing this capability over DisplayPort.)
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There’s always the possibility that specific displays will prove to be incompatible with GeForce cards, but TechSpot’s findings echo our own expectations that there’s no fundamental problem with FreeSync as a standard. Features like HDR and Low Framerate Compensation appear to be fully supported as well. Despite the negative conversation around FreeSync support at CES, Nvidia’s engineers appear to have done their job well as far as compatibility and support.