How much does freesync and gsync matter?
Posted by Xcelsiior@reddit | buildapc | View on Reddit | 5 comments
I am looking to buy a new monitor and make my current monitor a secondary.
For relevancy, I have an RTX 3080Ti GPU and a DELL 27” 2560x1440p, 144hz, 1ms monitor w/ gsync.
I’d like to size up to a minimum of 32” but I can go higher, nothing crazy big though. I’d like it to be curved as well, with a matching 144hz or higher 165/240.
All of the monitors that I have looked at online that I actually like are all freesync or freesync “premium” and no option for gsync. So how bad is it to have an nvidia card on a freesync monitor?
JakeRay@reddit
Often Freesync monitors are "G-sync compatible" as well. Probably in like, 99% of all cases. So, G-sync works on those monitors, but there is a difference between those and monitors with dedicated G-sync modules. I recommend looking it up online.
Some people swear against using G-sync on "compatible" monitors, and I'm not able to deny their experience with it, but personally, I went from a 27" Dell G-sync Module monitor to a 32" Dell G-sync Compatible monitor, and I've had no issues. At least, no extra issues that weren't already there on the first one.
Still, it's a good idea to look up user reviews for every monitor you consider buying, especially if you want to use a specific feature.
Emerald_Flame@reddit
FreeSync and "GSync Compatible" are effectively the same thing. Both use the VESA Adaptive Sync standard. FreeSync is just AMD's marketing name for their implementation of it and "GSync Compatible" is Nvidia's marketing name for it.
With these standards, if it works on 1 side, it'll work on the other too. The reason a lot of monitors don't have the "GSync Compatible" sticker is because Nvidia's validation process for the manufacturer to be allowed to put that sticker on their box is more expensive and also harder to pass. So in many cases, to save money, they just don't do the validation. But it'll generally still work.
Occasionally, you can run into a monitor that's not quite up to snuff and even though it has FreeSync, it may not work great with Nvidia cards and you can encounter things like blinking, black frames, etc. But that is extremely rare these days, and if you read any decent review they'd call out issues like that.
Note: "GSync" and "GSync Compatible" are not the same thing. If something is labelled "GSync Compatible" it should work with both Nvidia and AMD cards. If it's labelled "GSync" that is Nvidia exclusive.
nivlark@reddit
How old is your current monitor? Unless it's 7+ years old, you already have a FreeSync monitor. Nvidia lost this particular format war circa 2017, and from that point on all monitors have been FreeSync (actually VESA Adaptive Sync, but it's the same thing). Nvidia just pays monitor companies to still put G-Sync branding on some of their panels.
nivlark@reddit
How old is your current monitor? Unless it's 7+ years old, you already have a FreeSync monitor. Nvidia lost this particular format war circa 2017, and from that point on all monitors have been FreeSync (actually VESA Adaptive Sync, but it's the same thing). Nvidia just pays monitor companies to still put G-Sync branding on some of their panels.
niglor@reddit
You can enable “G-sync compatible” in nvidia control panel on a freesync monitor and it does the exact same thing (variable refresh rate).