PCGH asks Nvidia on Gameworks

[Rroff]

So your "of gsync monitors on the way" is on paper and in people's dreams.

The fact is its had more than enough time to get established and all we have is two.

Free-Sync has every chance to make it, IMO next to G-Sync especially.

G-Sync adds £100 - £150 to the cost of the monitor, that is not £150 thats going to the monitor vendor, no, its going to Nvidia.

So you know what that is, its £150 that the customer does not have to spend on other things, like a new Motherboard while they are Browsing the Asus G-Sync screen.

Free-Sync is of minimal cost to the vendor, that minimal cost maybe reflected in the price, what Free-Sync also does is give vendors a marketing tool to encourage ppl to upgrade their existing screens.
What it does not do is take a huge chunk of a costumers finances going to Nvidia that they could have spent with them.

While I'm not a big fan of the direction taken we do however actually have g-sync monitors with more on the horizon AOC, Acer and Asus all have models coming and probably more.

Unless AMD actually actively support or pay a monitor manufacturer to properly implement free-sync forcing others to follow suit its going to be awhile til anything happens at all on that front. (Until there are actual monitors in the pipeline supporting it its worth nothing more than talk).

 

[bru]

Not forgetting that Nvidia had G-Sync in their drivers since 331.93 that's 27/11/2013.

Even if you could get an Adaptive-Sync compatible monitor there are no drivers for it as of yet, and going by previous AMD driver arrival issues it 'could' well be case that the monitors will turn up and there be no driver support.

 

[Gerard]

Not forgetting that Nvidia had G-Sync in their drivers since 331.93 that's 27/11/2013.

Even if you could get an Adaptive-Sync compatible monitor there are no drivers for it as of yet, and going by previous AMD driver arrival issue it 'could' well be case that the monitors will turn up and there be no driver support.

They had g sync in their drivers for the limited amount of people that got a diy kit and obviously it needed to be in the drivers for demonstrations. AMD have demonstrated adaptive sync so obviously its in internal drivers, as there's no diy kit its pointless to have it in public drivers.

While I'm not a big fan of the direction taken we do however actually have g-sync monitors with more on the horizon AOC, Acer and Asus all have models coming and probably more.

Unless AMD actually actively support or pay a monitor manufacturer to properly implement free-sync forcing others to follow suit its going to be awhile til anything happens at all on that front. (Until there are actual monitors in the pipeline supporting it its worth nothing more than talk).

Its part of a standard, not as if they have to force anything, if monitors have the specific version of display port then it incorporates that standard.

 

[Rroff]

^^ And how long until that standard is adopted unless someone is proactive about it?

 

[Gerard]

^^ And how long until that standard is adopted unless someone is proactive about it?

They're already talking with monitor companies so if press samples are due late this year obviously some monitor companies are already on board.

 

[James J]

So your "of gsync monitors on the way" is on paper and in people's dreams.

The fact is its had more than enough time to get established and all we have is two.

Free-Sync has every chance to make it, IMO next to G-Sync especially.

G-Sync adds £100 - £150 to the cost of the monitor, that is not £150 thats going to the monitor vendor, no, its going to Nvidia.

So you know what that is, its £150 that the customer does not have to spend on other things, like a new Motherboard while they are Browsing the Asus G-Sync screen.

Free-Sync is of minimal cost to the vendor, that minimal cost maybe reflected in the price, what Free-Sync also does is give vendors a marketing tool to encourage ppl to upgrade their existing screens.
What it does not do is take a huge chunk of a costumers finances going to Nvidia that they could have spent with them.

Boo hoo? Everything has gone up in price when it comes to PC components, so why bleet on about monitors too? It use to be £250-300 for a very top end gpu back in 2004, now its £450+.

As for gsync, you do realise I'm typing this whilst looking at a gsync enabled monitor right and have been doing for over 2 months now? Where is your fabled market saving freesync? No consumer owns a piece of that tech yet, whilst gsync is already to market lol.

Freesync isnt of minimal cost to a vendor at all as it requires a whole new PCB and interface to the screen itself, whilst requiring specific types of screen to start with. You really are miss guided if you think it'll be a few quid more than a current gaming panel with the same basic spec.

 

[James J]

They had g sync in their drivers for the limited amount of people that got a diy kit and obviously it needed to be in the drivers for demonstrations. AMD have demonstrated adaptive sync so obviously its in internal drivers, as there's no diy kit its pointless to have it in public drivers.




Its part of a standard, not as if they have to force anything, if monitors have the specific version of display port then it incorporates that standard.

Thats not strictly true, as that display port simply allows the transmission of data at different refresh rates, thats it. The panel itself has to be capable of vblank technology and have a specific set of performance characteristics to accomplish it. If it was simply a matter of switching out the display port for a newer one, it would be a kit just like gsync, but for less than £30.

 

[Gerard]

Thats not strictly true, as that display port simply allows the transmission of data at different refresh rates, thats it. The panel itself has to be capable of vblank technology and have a specific set of performance characteristics to accomplish it. If it was simply a matter of switching out the display port for a newer one, it would be a kit just like gsync, but for less than £30.

Well id imagine to be in compliance with the standard the panel would have to be of a specific type that's suited to the refresh rates. Obviously cost would depend on how high the hz go on the monitor. I'm well aware its not just a display port upgrade. Would make zero sense for the port to support it but not the panel so obviously the panel type is part of the compliance to the standard.

 

[James J]

Well id imagine to be in compliance with the standard the panel would have to be of a specific type that's suited to the refresh rates. Obviously cost would depend on how high the hz go on the monitor. I'm well aware its not just a display port upgrade.

The problem with that though is these panels are all very high performance. The chance of it appearing in a cheaper monitor is pretty much slim to none, at least for the first year or so after launch anyway.

 

[Rroff]

They're already talking with monitor companies so if press samples are due late this year obviously some monitor companies are already on board.

Wake me up when something actually happens

 

[Gerard]

The problem with that though is these panels are all very high performance. The chance of it appearing in a cheaper monitor is pretty much slim to none, at least for the first year or so after launch anyway.

Looking for a 4k one myself so its gonna cost a bit more anyway

 

[Rroff]

^^ Acer 4K with G-Sync will be available in about a month and less than £100 premium (averaged) on the other similar panels :S

 

[James J]

Looking for a 4k one myself so its gonna cost a bit more anyway

Ha I know what you mean, but people like us aren't the "bread and butter" of the industry sadly. I fear that monitors will end up just like PSU's with multiple different standards still in circulation at any one time due to different requirements and technology progression.

 

[Gerard]

^^ Acer 4K with G-Sync will be available in about a month and less than £100 premium (averaged) on the other similar panels :S

Yup, be interesting to hear feedback on it, though its one of those "have to see it in person to notice it" kind of things. Videos don't do a good job of showcasing it.

Ha I know what you mean, but people like us aren't the "bread and butter" of the industry sadly. I fear that monitors will end up just like PSU's with multiple different standards still in circulation at any one time due to different requirements and technology progression.

Just have to see how it goes I suppose, with a bit of luck we don't have to get greased up before clicking buy

 

[LtMatt]

Johan's said that they had no help from AMD when implementing mantle?

That'd be stupid if true, given it's the début game for their new API.

Who said that?

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

I do like that with G-sync and whatever AMD's version is it's "G-Sync is here now" and "Well 'Free-Sync is on it's way, all in due time".

But with Mantle and DirectX 12 it's "Mantle is here now, DirectX isn't! End of story!"

I believe Acer are doing a 4K G-sync monitor for £600 (and I think Gibbo has questioned if it should be less). £600 isn't bad for a 4K monitor G-sync or not at this point in time. So we're supposed to believe that this monitor would be £450 or less if it was a 4K 'Free-Sync' monitor?
I mean by the time a 4K 'Free-Sync' monitor comes out then £450 might be the sort of price we'd expect to pay, but now I don't think you can get a 4K monitor for that much unless it's on offer.
Also, I believed AMD when they said Mantle would be here in December and then again when they said January, so I'm not gonna hold my breath for 'Free-Sync' in January...

Also, aren't a lot of laptops supposed to already have this feature because of the way the monitors are connected? Couldn't 'they' put it in the drivers so that 'we' could use it on them?

 

[Gerard]

I do like that with G-sync and whatever AMD's version is it's "G-Sync is here now" and "Well 'Free-Sync is on it's way, all in due time".

But with Mantle and DirectX 12 it's "Mantle is here now, DirectX isn't! End of story!"

Also, I believed AMD when they said Mantle would be here in December and then again when they said January, so I'm not gonna hold my breath for 'Free-Sync' in January...

Difference being Direct x isn't exclusive to either brand, and secondly Microsoft dragged their heels on working on a new version because they're more console oriented these days.

As for mantle and the delay its pretty obvious that was down to dice, battlefield 4 was broken from launch and its only recently they've made larger changes to get the game working properly.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

Difference being Direct x isn't exclusive to either brand, and secondly Microsoft dragged their heels on working on a new version because they're more console oriented these days.

As for mantle and the delay its pretty obvious that was down to dice, battlefield 4 was broken from launch and its only recently they've made larger changes to get the game working properly.

Isn't there talk that Nvidia might use the Adaptive-sync stuff too? Or is this VESA standard not open to all?

 

[Gerard]

Isn't there talk that Nvidia might use the Adaptive-sync stuff too? Or is this VESA standard not open to all?

They have the option of using it, remains to be seen if they do or not.

 

[GoogalyMoogaly]

They have the option of using it, remains to be seen if they do or not.

Still pretty sure the VESA standard isn't going to be exclusive to one brand.