AMD FreeSync vs Nvidia G-Sync - the adaptive sync battle

Mei · 21 Jan 2015 at 17:43

not just laptops anyway they major getting into phones & tablets
i dont see nvidia/snapdragon equivalents lasting more than 2years now intel going full steam, they getting ridiculous

Gregster · 21 Jan 2015 at 17:50

melmac said:
Well, it's a funny point But, Think about this, AMD are going to be advertising all their GCN based APU's with having Freesync and smoother gaming, power saving etc. So it's something that Intel's IGPUs don't have.

Will it make a big difference in sales of AMD APUs? I don't know, but it might. And will Intel take that chance and leave adaptive sync alone? Especially since most of their latest IGPU's just need a driver update.

Power saving and video playback will be two things that appeal to some people. So it's not all about gaming either.

Very true and could be a big selling point for the APUs. It might even save AMD's bacon

setter · 21 Jan 2015 at 17:54

ubersonic said:
Turn it off in the BIOS?

Yep, I know you can. But personally I don't see the point of an igpu on an enthusiast k series chip, as anyone buying one is likely to have a half decent discreet gpu. The money saved by doing away with it could be spent better fixing the thermal problems haswell cpu's have.

Mei · 21 Jan 2015 at 18:02

id quite like a 2nd cpu built in

sort of like compute stick power that i could run other stuff on while i game, some games rly dont like sharing cpu, gpu's they dont seem so bad on

bru · 21 Jan 2015 at 18:19

melmac said:
Well, it's a funny point But, Think about this, AMD are going to be advertising all their GCN based APU's with having Freesync and smoother gaming, power saving etc. So it's something that Intel's IGPUs don't have.

Will it make a big difference in sales of AMD APUs? I don't know, but it might. And will Intel take that chance and leave adaptive sync alone? Especially since most of their latest IGPU's just need a driver update.

Power saving and video playback will be two things that appeal to some people. So it's not all about gaming either.

Don't forget that you need a motherboard with a display port output as well and as of now OCUK only sell one FM2 board with a Display port output.
As well as out of the 10 FM2 APU's that OCUK have listed only 2 of them are Freesync compatible. You could use a kabini APU but there are no Display port motherboards for those listed at all.

melmac · 21 Jan 2015 at 18:41

bru said:
Don't forget that you need a motherboard with a display port output as well and as of now OCUK only sell one FM2 board with a Display port output.
As well as out of the 10 FM2 APU's that OCUK have listed only 2 of them are Freesync compatible. You could use a kabini APU but there are no Display port motherboards for those listed at all.

That's not really relating to the point though, AMD can still advertise the APU as having these features.

Mei · 21 Jan 2015 at 18:48

lol well they can but more mobo makers need to include display port
i mean its more useful than dvi at this point, or the 200 usb plugs they normally put on the back

bru · 21 Jan 2015 at 18:56

Well yes, they can advertise all these things how ever they want, but if people cannot actually buy and use them then it is pretty pointless.
For example Kabini APU's are freesync compatible.

YOUR BASKET
1 x AMD Athlon 5350 2.05GHz Quad Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £43.99
1 x AMD Athlon 5150 1.60GHz Quad Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £35.99
1 x AMD Sempron 3850 1.30GHz Quad Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £26.99
1 x AMD Sempron 2650 1.45GHz Dual Core Processor - Retail (Socket AM1) £23.99
Total : £140.56 (includes shipping : £8.00).

There you go that is the complete list of Kabini APU's that OCUK sell.
They can advertise them as Freesync compatible all they like, nobody using one of those is going to be buying a specialist gaming monitor with Displayport, especially seeing as OCUK don't sell any Displayport AM1 motherboards.

Gregster · 21 Jan 2015 at 19:02

Well done Bru and that kinda makes a mockery of AMD's APU running Freesync then. You need a new mobo, assuming they will be bringing one out with DP.

melmac · 21 Jan 2015 at 19:52

bru said:
Well yes, they can advertise all these things how ever they want, but if people cannot actually buy and use them then it is pretty pointless.
For example Kabini APU's are freesync compatible.

There you go that is the complete list of Kabini APU's that OCUK sell.
They can advertise them as Freesync compatible all they like, nobody using one of those is going to be buying a specialist gaming monitor with Displayport, especially seeing as OCUK don't sell any Displayport AM1 motherboards.

Again, your missing the whole point. well done.

It doesn't matter what else you need to buy to get it working. You can still advertise Freesync as a feature of any GCN APU.

Just like Nvidia can advertise 3D on any of their cards, but you still need to buy kit and a compatible monitor. And will a card like the GT 610 and lower be able to play in 3D in any sort of playable frame rate? Nope, but they still advertise it as a feature.

I know people who play games on their computers on intel graphic cards and have more expensive monitors than I have.

But, again, none of this matters to my point. AMD can still list this as a feature of their GCN APUs. And go back and read my post that you quoted originally, I questioned whether it would make any difference to APU sales or not.

Mei · 21 Jan 2015 at 20:00

everyone knew this coming in, if they could have made it happen on hdmi i think they would have, or atleast gsync should have been

its betting on the connection being used and even if you invest heavily into it doesnt mean it will work out, look at apple & thunderbolt for an example of that, even with their 100billion are looking back to usb on their new stuff

many manufacturers saying they are backing it is a good sign tho, will we see displayport as much as hdmi2 is the big question, i hope so but everyone is still guessing
if people want to buy mb & screens with displayports and not hdmi you'd hope they will make more of them

melmac · 21 Jan 2015 at 20:07

Gregster said:
Well done Bru and that kinda makes a mockery of AMD's APU running Freesync then. You need a new mobo, assuming they will be bringing one out with DP.

Are you saying that AMD can't advertise freesync as a feature of their GCN APUs?

I know of at least one AM1 motherboard with a display port from ASrock. So they are available. And I am sure more motherboard manufacturers will come out in future with display ports, especially as there are more powerful APUs coming out.

But this is all irrelevant to what I was saying, since AMD CAN advertise their APUs as having this feature, will Intel follow suit and set up their own "freesync" feature. Because to a lot of people more features = better.

Rusty0611 · 21 Jan 2015 at 20:15

Yeah of course they can advertise it but that doesn't mean it's even close to being realistic. It should be false advertising really. Same as your 3D example on low end nVidia cards.

Gregster · 21 Jan 2015 at 20:46

melmac said:
Are you saying that AMD can't advertise freesync as a feature of their GCN APUs?

I know of at least one AM1 motherboard with a display port from ASrock. So they are available. And I am sure more motherboard manufacturers will come out in future with display ports, especially as there are more powerful APUs coming out.

But this is all irrelevant to what I was saying, since AMD CAN advertise their APUs as having this feature, will Intel follow suit and set up their own "freesync" feature. Because to a lot of people more features = better.

No, I am stating facts but if there is a mobo that supports DP1.2A, then happy to get facts wrong

, I don't care for AMD gamers who use APU's either and again, they should get a better computer.

eddyr · 21 Jan 2015 at 21:08

It just needs to be DP output not a DP1.2a version on the mobo.

We are not far off AMD (or the more expensive intel models) APU's capable of all right performance at 1080p. If *disclaimer* the Carrizzo with ~R9 265 perf rumour is even halfway true it could be right around the corner.

Martini1991 · 21 Jan 2015 at 21:14

Gregster said:
No, I am stating facts but if there is a mobo that supports DP1.2A, then happy to get facts wrong , I don't care for AMD gamers who use APU's either and again, they should get a better computer.

That means they're not facts.
And that's an elitist attitude.

Not that I think the whole Kaveri/Freesync thing is "okay", but it's no worse than crap GPU's being advertised on their box as gaming heavy weights.

Final8y · 21 Jan 2015 at 21:16

If the APU has the feature then its has the feature period, its not false advertising in the slightest, its down to the mobo makers to have the display port for it.

Gregster · 21 Jan 2015 at 21:16

Martini1991 said:
That means they're not facts.
And that's an elitist attitude.

Not that I think the whole Kaveri/Freesync thing is "okay", but it's no worse than crap GPU's being advertised on their box as gaming heavy weights.

The whole thing was tongue in cheek and I thought you knew me better than that

Mei · 21 Jan 2015 at 21:17

internet > jokes!

Martini1991 · 21 Jan 2015 at 21:17

eddyr said:
It just needs to be DP output not a DP1.2a version on the mobo.

We are not far off AMD (or the more expensive intel models) APU's capable of all right performance at 1080p. If *disclaimer* the Carrizzo with ~R9 265 perf rumour is even halfway true it could be right around the corner.

Kaveri would be capable if bandwidth wasn't an issue, but it is, and unless something's drastically changed, it'll affect Carrizzo too.

Same hype, different product.

And are we sure it *just* needs to be DP output? Sounds like guessing to me.