LG Rolling out G-Sync Compatibility to OLED TVs

By Niels Broekhuijsen
published

For kicking back on the sofa and enjoying big-screen PC gaming.

(Image credit: LG)

LG is bringing G-Sync Compatibility (opens in new tab) to its 2019 OLED (opens in new tab) TV lineup this week, making them the only G-Sync-capable TVs currently on the market. If you prefer kicking back on your sofa instead of at your desk and love big-screen gaming but don't want to ditch your PC, this could be your alley. 

The G-Sync update will be pushed to the TVs through a firmware update on the E9 (55-inch and 65-inch), C9 (55-inch, 65-inch and 77-inch) and B9 (55-inch and 65-inch) range. Of course, in order to enjoy the screen tear fighting benefits of G-Sync Compatibility, you'll need to connect one of these TVs to a gaming PC (opens in new tab) running an Nvidia graphics card (opens in new tab). 

The firmware update will first be pushed out in North America, with other markets following later. If you can’t wait, head over to your TV’s firmware page on LG’s support site to download it manually.

The TV-gaming monitor rivalry will surely heat up now. Today's TVs can't match the speedy refresh rates of the best gaming monitors (opens in new tab). But with G-Sync Compatibility, LG just made PC gaming on TVs much more feasible. Additionally, OLED gaming monitors are a rarity. Only the $4,000 55-inch Alienware AW5520QF (opens in new tab) is currently available. Those with a hankering for the latest in display tech may want to consider LG's G-Sync Compatible TVs, especially with them starting at about $1,400 (opens in new tab). 

Niels Broekhuijsen
Niels Broekhuijsen

Niels Broekhuijsen is a Contributing Writer for Tom's Hardware US. He reviews cases, water cooling and pc builds.

Topics
Monitors
2 Comments Comment from the forums
  • setx
    Wow, looks like nV pays press a lot to write all the "G-Sync Compatible" nonsense articles.

    It's not G-Sync, it's Adaptive-Sync (and it wouldn't even be that wrong to call it FreeSync). The actual G-Sync is a dead technology that relies on stuffing proprietary nV chip into displays for ~200$ premium. No firmware update can make such chip appear.
    Reply
  • cryoburner
    Of course, in order to enjoy the screen tear fighting benefits of G-Sync Compatibility, you'll need to connect one of these TVs to a gaming PC running an Nvidia graphics card.
    This is inaccurate. Since "G-Sync Compatible" is just Nvidia's branding for FreeSync displays that have been certified to meet their arbitrary standards for G-Sync, it means that any graphics card with support for adaptive sync should support the feature equally well on these screens. That goes for all of AMD's recent graphics cards, and likely Intel's as well once they join the market next year, along with the Xbox One and almost certainly next year's new consoles from Microsoft and Sony. In fact, I believe these screens already featured FreeSync support, so not much has really changed, aside from Nvidia finally adding support for Adaptive Sync over HDMI with their latest drivers. On LG's end, their firmware update likely just makes some minor changes, like having adaptive sync enabled by default, which Nvidia requires for certification, and maybe using Nvidia's branding to refer to it.

    So, no, the "screen tear fighting benefits" of adaptive sync shouldn't require an Nvidia card, and as was already stated, the entire article repeatedly using "G-Sync Compatible" and nothing else to refer to adaptive sync makes it sound like a paid advertisement. The important thing left out of this article is that Nvidia's latest driver enables adaptive sync support over HDMI, something only AMD's hardware did to this point. And apparently, this should work on other screens supporting FreeSync over HDMI as well, not just these LG panels. According to Nvidia's press release...

    If you don’t own a LG TV, but do own a display or TV that only supports Variable Refresh Rates via HDMI, you can try enabling HDMI VRR by installing the new Game Ready Driver, and enabling G-SYNC as detailed above. As these displays and TVs have yet to through our comprehensive validation process, we can’t guarantee VRR will work, or work without issue.
    Reply