14 DAY TRIAL // AMD has just revealed through its Radeon Technologies group that it is planning on making the FreeSync technology available through HDMI in early 2016.
AMD is making some very big changes to its strategy, and it looks like branching off Radeon Technologies from the main company has paid off. They have already pushed for a new driver (with some problems), and now they want to give a powerful blow to the competition by offering FreeSync via HDMI.
Since FreeSync (AMD) and G-SYNC (Nvidia) are not really available on affordable hardware, most of the users don't have a lot of knowledge or contact with this particular technology. They both do the same thing, with the caveat that it's achieved in different ways. Nvidia does it with the help of extra hardware in the monitors, and AMD's solution works only with monitors that have DisplayPort.
It's not a complicated feature. With FreeSync or G-SYNC, the video card tells the monitor to adjust the refresh on the fly in order to match the FPS of the content, like games, for example. This eliminates all sorts of tearing, a problem that was usually dealt with, in a limited way, by the V-Sync option.
Both of these solutions are more expensive than the bulk of what's available, meaning simple HDMI monitors. Now AMD is trying to do something different by making sure that its technology will work via HDMI, which is a big step forward.
AMD is full of surprises
After revealing the Crimson driver, now AMD is trying to win over some of the users by providing FreeSync to all. There is a catch, though. It's not something that can be done with backwards compatibility. It needs to be implemented in the HDMI standard, so it means that monitors that will be released from now on (no clear date on when that's happening) will support this feature if you have AMD hardware.
"AMD is enabling FreeSync support over HDMI in early 2016, making smooth gaming experiences more accessible to everyone. FreeSync through HDMI will be supported on all AMD APUs and GPUs that already support FreeSync via DisplayPort, and AMD is working with ecosystem partners including LG, Samsung and Acer to deliver FreeSync over HDMI-compatible displays," says AMD in its official announcement.
Radeon Technologies is also working to improve High Dynamic Range (HDR) compatibility, but that will only be available with high-quality displays that will be able to support better brightness and contrast.