Sync Your Games to Perfection: The Ultimate Guide to AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync

Everywhere it goes, video gaming evolves with smooth play being the ultimate goal. A key enabler of smooth play is a somewhat obscure technology: Adaptive Sync. There are two main camps in Adaptive Sync currently, AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync. We take a deep look into each of them. Verdict: What is the best Adaptive Sync tech?

The Sync Saga: Understanding FreeSync, G-Sync, and VSync

The Dawn of Smooth Gaming

Every monitor is accompanied by an inexorable pulse: its refresh rate, the number of times per second it can update its image. The higher that figure, the better, because that’s directly related to how smoothly an action sequence will look – whether you’re flinging yourself over a hedge of squatting zombies, or elbowing your way through rush-hour in Grand Central Station. But there is one annoying caveat, because your GPU and your monitor have to be calibrated just right. And this is where the trio of VSync, FreeSync and G-Sync make their appearance.

We might start with VSync, a blunt mechanism for reducing screen tearing by restricting the GPU to output no more than one frame during a single sweep of the display. But it was clunky and jumpy; if the GPU pushed more than it was authorized to, it would stutter. AMD and Nvidia came to the rescue with their more sophisticated interventions FreeSync and G-Sync, respectively.

The Battle Royale: FreeSync vs. G-Sync

Clash of the Titans

Both maintain a desired constant between your display and graphics card to try to ensure a tear-free experience. But FreeSync and G-Sync are only superficially alike. ASUS G-Sync ultrawide gaming monitor. Photo © PicUnd/ShutterstockThe former looked like it had dropped out of the sky, the latter an evolution While G-Sync was invented from the ground up, it relied on proprietary hardware in monitors to guarantee synchronicity. Nvidia used this approach because its G-sync monitors couldn’t be built without them. FreeSync, by contrast, took an open-hardware path, working with graphics cards made by Nvidia’s rival AMD. It made use of the Adaptive Sync feature of DisplayPort connections, which are now very common and used across all brands of graphics cards and monitors, and which didn’t require any additional proprietary hardware.

Initially, Nvidia’s tech was positioned as the more competent – and more expensive – solution, but AMD has now closed that gap drastically. Whether you choose one over the other is now more down to taste and ecosystem than technically superior design. Monitors themselves are increasingly being made to be work with either.

Navigating the Sync Spectrum

G-Sync monitors are divided into G-Sync Compatible, G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate, each with different levels of fidelity, colour accuracy and HDR support. True G-Sync offers proprietary HDR with features such as Variable Overdrive and G-Sync Ultimate adds some of the best HDR performance credentials in the market.

AMD, though, fragments FreeSync into FreeSync, FreeSync Premium, and FreeSync Premium Pro – while all three tiers have the core adaptive synchronisation advantage, Premium and Pro take that a step further with higher refresh rates, HDR, and stricter certification criteria to ensure games play out more consistently across multiple panels.

The Verdict: Syncing Your Gaming World

A Choice Without Regret

Whether using an AMD GPU with a FreeSync monitor or an Nvidia card with a G-Sync panel, you can feel confident that your games will run smoother. With so many modern monitors able to work with AMD and Nvidia GPUs, it becomes easier for those of us with a little cash to be guided by performance and feature preferences rather than ones that gravitate around compatibility.

Thanks to the proliferation of Adaptive Sync technologies, there is now an option available to gamers at most budgets and performance requirements. The most important thing is that whatever you choose, be it G-Sync or FreeSync, is turned on to unlock the smoothest, most immersive gaming experience possible.

Understanding SYNC

These are all problems that Adaptive Sync technologies like FreeSync and G-Sync address by almost perfect overlapping your monitor’s refresh rate with your GPU’s frame output. Removing screen-tearing, stuttering and high input lag are vital to keeping your experience on your gaming PC as smooth as possible. And as technology soldiers forward, the importance of these sync technologies will only increase.

FAQs about Selling Sync with Gizmogo

What is Sync, and why is it important for my gaming monitor?

‘Sync’ stands for Adaptive Sync, which is the full name of AMD FreeSync and Nvidia G-Sync technologies. It is absolutely essential if you want your system’s GPU to match its output framerate with the monitor’s refresh rate to avoid screen tearing and reduce stuttering for a smoother gameplay.

Can I use an Nvidia GPU with a FreeSync monitor?

Indeed, modern Nvidia GPUs are to industry standards such that they are compatible with FreeSync monitors through the ‘G-Sync Compatible’ initiative, letting you enjoy the benefits of Adaptive Sync with a generic display that is not G-Sync specific.

What's the difference between FreeSync Premium and FreeSync Premium Pro?

FreeSync Premium demands a minimum 120Hz refresh rate at FHD resolution, and includes the lower-latency, tearing-free Low Framerate Compensation (LFC) technology. While that standard is a step up from FreeSync, FreeSync Premium Pro adds more stringent HDR standards and the FreeSync Premium Pro HDR pipeline leading to better in-game colour and brightness levels.

Is there a significant price difference between FreeSync and G-Sync monitors?

In general, since FreeSync doesn’t require the use of Nvidia’s proprietary hardware, it can be found in less expensive monitors. This is less true today than previous years, as support for both technologies has grown in the market.

How do I sell my old monitor for an upgraded Sync capable model with Gizmogo?

Simply put your old monitor on Gizmogo, verify that your monitor appears to work, ask for an instant quote on Gizmogo.com, then ship it to us free, receive payment for it promptly, and then you are ready to purchase that shiny new Sync-ready monitor (and still have money in your wallet).

Finally then, whatever camp you’re in – Team AMD or Nvidia, FreeSync or G-Sync – adopters of these technologies in their gaming belts should be embraced. Gaming should be more fluid and immersive and more fun as a result. And that my friends is all that really matters. Related Reading: 11 Tips To Boost Your Laptop Performance 5 Useful Things You May Not Know Linux Can Do Intel HD Graphics: Does It Hinder My Gaming Experience?