Back in January, AMD was showing off its alternative to Nvidia's G-Sync – FreeSync. This alternative was built on open standards; it worked on panels with VESA's variable VBLANK support, which is occasionally found in laptops. While panels in desktop monitors could theoretically support the technology, the connectivity means didn't, making it rather difficult to implement. Only embedded-DisplayPort had support.
AMD could simply use its own protocol and hope that a number of display manufacturers would implement this technology, but it would probably end up being a rather fruitless effort. The idea AMD has always had with FreeSync was to have it widely implemented, and this would only really be possible if it is adopted in standards.
For that we have VESA. A report on the French website Hardware.fr states that AMD has approached VESA and suggested implementing the technology in the specifications for the DisplayPort 1.2a standard. The report also states that the proposal has been accepted.
That said, do note that it will still be optional for manufacturers to implement the technology themselves. Nvidia, who invested a lot of dough into its proprietary G-Sync, might probably prefer not to adopt it, though it might be forced to do so in the long run as we'd imagine few display manufacturers will implement G-Sync if there is a free and open standard available.
FreeSync, as well as G-Sync, are technologies aimed at eliminating tearing in games.
Hardware.fr’s source remains unknown, so be sure to treat this like a rumor – it is always possible that the above never happened. All things considered though, it doesn't seem all that unlikely.
