It’s been almost six months since Nvidia announced the G-Sync Compatible program at CES 2019, which enables its adaptive sync technology on FreeSync monitors that meet its criteria, and today at Computex 2019 the company shared a bit about what it’s learned from the program.
A quick primer: G-Sync is Nvidia’s solution to screen tearing, stuttering, and other issues that can occur when playing games at high frame rates. FreeSync is effectively AMD’s answer to G-Sync. In January, Nvidia answered back with the G-Sync Compatible program to simultaneously expand G-Sync’s reach and smack talk AMD in the process. (Or at least question the quality of monitors that rely on FreeSync instead of G-Sync.)
Nvidia said it’s tested 503 monitors to date. Just 28 (5.6%) have been certified G-Sync Compatible; 475 failed the company’s tests. The reasons varied: 273 failed because they didn’t support variable refresh rates between 60 Hz and 144 Hz; 202 failed because of “image quality issues.” Those problems ranged from minor inconveniences, such as flickering, to more serious issues that required “power cycling and Control Panel changes every single time.”
The company also offered a breakdown of the maximum refresh rates for the monitors it tested based on their VRR tech:
Just remember that Nvidia’s intent for the G-Sync Compatible program is only partly to make G-Sync more widely available. Like we said above, it’s also meant to bolster the marketing for G-Sync monitors, as evidenced by the company’s repeated mentions of how G-Sync and G-Sync Ultimate monitors offer more features than their G-Sync Compatible and FreeSync counterparts. These aren't impartial conclusions; they're stat-based talking points.
For those of you curious about the difference between G-Sync and FreeSync, we offered an impartial comparison of G-Sync and FreeSync in mid-April. We've also offered our guidance on choosing a monitor, our picks for the best gaming monitors of 2019, and explained how to enable G-Sync on compatible monitors.
