FreeSync coming next month! (?)

[Martini1991]

Some people are building from scratch, This is not rocket science.

And they'd opt to go for a low GPU set up and buying a freesync monitor because they care about frame rate?

Rather than a bog standard 1080p panel with a ~100 quid GPU?

 

[Orangey]

Here's an interesting thought. If the consoles have freesync capability baked in (and I believe they do), when they release new mobo revisions/slims/etc it's possible a DP port could be added much like HDMI was added to the Arcade 360 onwards. It could either be used as a differentiator or excuse to flog later models (like the slim). But we don't know how flaky the hardware is this time around, people were constantly getting replacements last gen because of RRoD/YLoD. It's hard to say if it would be a big enough selling point to shift updated models to current owners. Although gsync owners swear by it in the case of heavy fps variance, which is a big problem on consoles. IMHO I think you could sell it, at the very least to CoD addicts who would plonk down the money for a screen no problem if they thought it gave them an edge.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Here's an interesting thought. If the consoles have freesync capability baked in (and I believe they do), when they release new mobo revisions/slims/etc it's possible a DP port could be added much like HDMI was added to the Arcade 360 onwards. It could either be used as a differentiator or excuse to flog later models (like the slim). But we don't know how flaky the hardware is this time around, people were constantly getting replacements last gen because of RRoD/YLoD. It's hard to say if it would be a big enough selling point to shift updated models to current owners. Although gsync owners swear by it in the case of heavy fps variance, which is a big problem on consoles. IMHO I think you could sell it, at the very least to CoD addicts who would plonk down the money for a screen no problem if they thought it gave them an edge.

Don't the consoles have hardware like 7850s?
Isn't it only the R9 290/290X that support FreeSync in games? (Maybe 260?)

 

[bru]

Here's an interesting thought. If the consoles have freesync capability baked in (and I believe they do), when they release new mobo revisions/slims/etc it's possible a DP port could be added much like HDMI was added to the Arcade 360 onwards. It could either be used as a differentiator or excuse to flog later models (like the slim). But we don't know how flaky the hardware is this time around, people were constantly getting replacements last gen because of RRoD/YLoD. It's hard to say if it would be a big enough selling point to shift updated models to current owners. Although gsync owners swear by it in the case of heavy fps variance, which is a big problem on consoles. IMHO I think you could sell it, at the very least to CoD addicts who would plonk down the money for a screen no problem if they thought it gave them an edge.

99% of consoles are used on TV's. So freeSync will be of no use to them whatsoever, of course Sony and Microsoft could respin the boards to have a DP output to cater for that small minority that would get a new Freesync monitor just for their console but I doubt it.
Not sure if the Jaguar APU's have FreeSync capability anyway.

 

[Confused Stu]

Here's an interesting thought. If the consoles have freesync capability baked in (and I believe they do), when they release new mobo revisions/slims/etc it's possible a DP port could be added much like HDMI was added to the Arcade 360 onwards. It could either be used as a differentiator or excuse to flog later models (like the slim). But we don't know how flaky the hardware is this time around, people were constantly getting replacements last gen because of RRoD/YLoD. It's hard to say if it would be a big enough selling point to shift updated models to current owners. Although gsync owners swear by it in the case of heavy fps variance, which is a big problem on consoles. IMHO I think you could sell it, at the very least to CoD addicts who would plonk down the money for a screen no problem if they thought it gave them an edge.

That is a very interesting thought. In order for it to work though, they'd need to revise the ports on the console (as you said, not a big deal), potentially revise the GPU a little (if it isn't freesync-gaming compatible) and then freesync/DP1.2a would have to have a wide enough adoption rate among TVs to make it worthwhile for Sony/MS to make the change. I personally can't see the adoption rate among TVs being high enough to warrant Sony/MS actually doing the first two changes.

That said, there might be enough consoles attached to monitors to make it worthwhile. Or one console manufacturer may decide to hype this to the heavens to provide a reason their console is better than the competitors, which may spur enough owners to demand a compatible TV and then it all snowballs nicely. Unfortunately my crystal ball isn't working as well as some vocal people on the forum, so I have no idea how that could play out, but that certainly is an interesting thought Orangey.

 

[Orangey]

Don't the consoles have hardware like 7850s?
Isn't it only the R9 290/290X that support FreeSync in games? (Maybe 260?)

I had heard that they have the capability, but I'm not sure. The chip inside consoles is a semi-custom job which was finalized much later than the actual Tahiti design.

 

[James J]

I don't see what all the fuss is over the 30fps thing that various nvidia and AMD fans are spouting in this thread. Nvidia, just like AMD, have confirmed that their technologies support a range of refresh rates that are set by the panel used. Notice the bold underlined part lol. Why do you think the AMD refresh rates are so variable? Its because the tech works best with those panels. Nvidia confirmed that they also support a very similar range of refresh rates, due to them only changing based on the panel thats used. Due to there only being a handful of Gsync monitors models out at the moment, its only natural that we haven't seen the entire line up yet.

Think of this technology like any other graphics technology. When the 780 and titan gpus came out, the 780 ti didnt exist, but they could do it from day 1. Just a different combination of parts, thats all.

 

[melmac]

Here's an interesting thought. If the consoles have freesync capability baked in (and I believe they do), when they release new mobo revisions/slims/etc it's possible a DP port could be added much like HDMI was added to the Arcade 360 onwards. It could either be used as a differentiator or excuse to flog later models (like the slim). But we don't know how flaky the hardware is this time around, people were constantly getting replacements last gen because of RRoD/YLoD. It's hard to say if it would be a big enough selling point to shift updated models to current owners. Although gsync owners swear by it in the case of heavy fps variance, which is a big problem on consoles. IMHO I think you could sell it, at the very least to CoD addicts who would plonk down the money for a screen no problem if they thought it gave them an edge.

Don't the consoles have hardware like 7850s?
Isn't it only the R9 290/290X that support FreeSync in games? (Maybe 260?)

All GCN APU's have the capability to use freesync in games. The problem is that consoles don't have a display port.