NVIDIA Demonstrates Issues with Non-Validated FreeSync Monitors at CES 2019

[cageymaru]

At CES 2019, NVIDIA announced that it was going to support Adaptive Sync monitors that passed its certification process. Out of over 400 monitors tested, only 12 were deemed "G-SYNC Compatible." NVIDIA has created a display at CES 2019 to highlight issues that non-validated FreeSync monitors may exhibit. Gordon Mah Ung of PCWorld went by the display and documented some of the issues that NVIDIA was concerned about.

Nvidia says that not all FreeSync monitors are created equal -- in fact only 12 out of more than 400 are certified to be G-Sync-compatible. Gordon checks out some examples of FreeSync monitors that don't stack up.

 

[DF-1]

wait they created a bad display to show off why some dont work?
why not show it on the 300 other available ones instead

 

[Brokennails]

I'll be curious to see end user results later this month.....

 

[DukenukemX]

wait they created a bad display to show off why some dont work?
why not show it on the 300 other available ones instead

To justify the purchase of buying Gsync.

 

[TangledThornz]

Interesting. Thankfully I already have a g-sync monitor but this is good news for those that don't.

 

[Nobu]

wait they created a bad display to show off why some dont work?
why not show it on the 300 other available ones instead

They don't want to pick on any of their current partners' products, and probably don't want to burn bridges with potential partners.

 

[ecuador]

Basically they are claiming that if you bought a FreeSync monitor there is a 97% (388/400) chance you have one that doesn't work properly, even with AMD. I don't have or care about FreeSync, but wouldn't such a widespread issue be well known by now?

 

[Accursed]

Have they released a list of the 12 that do work?

 

[euskalzabe]

Wait, Gordon's implying that display would also blink with a Radeon? Which is designed to work with the Freesync monitor? Yeah, no. I call bullshit. It may flicker like that with a Geforce due to it not being validated properly, but there's no way in hell it works like that with a Radeon. It was designed to work VRR with it. If Freesync got us flickering displays, nobody would buy it. It's starting to stink of Nvidia shady tactics, once again.

Have they released a list of the 12 that do work?

Yes.

 

[MaZa]

Wait, Gordon's implying that display would also blink with a Radeon? Which is designed to work with the Freesync monitor? Yeah, no. I call bullshit. It may flicker like that with a Geforce due to it not being validated properly, but there's no way in hell it works like that with a Radeon. It was designed to work VRR with it. If Freesync got us flickering displays, nobody would buy it. It's starting to stink of Nvidia shady tactics, once again.

Check the Youtube comments. I do not have a Freesync screen so I cannot validate if they are true but consensus seems to be that some screens may flicker when FPS drops outside of their operating range but AMD should disable the Freesync in those cases (should, apparently there are some screens with faulty EDID information so blinking may still occur) where Nvidia probably does not.

 

[piscian18]

I wish I could have been there to open up one of the monitors and find wood screws.

 

[Shmee]

Looks like NVidia is locking the cards to framerates that those panels aren't designed for. I bet if you went in to the NVidia control panel and entered in your FreeSync framerate range the flickering and the blurring would go away. It is just NVidia trying to mislead people in to paying for their stamp of approval. When all it will do is insure the card has a framerate profile in the driver for that monitor model.

 

[Advil]

The issue is whether the Freesync panel is capable of doing every single thing a GSync hardware solution and certified panel can do. It's not exactly surprising that with an open standard the answer is no most of the time.

What we need to see is what the panels CAN do or what settings are necessary to alleviate the issues.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Well that's a bummer, I don't suppose we could get a document documenting what their specific criteria are could we?

 

[DooKey]

To justify the purchase of buying Gsync.

GSync just works.

 

[alxlwson]

Well that's a bummer, I don't suppose we could get a document documenting what their specific criteria are could we?

Should have that info when the driver is released, I would imagine.

 

[viper1152012]

Well my CFG73 has worked on adaptive sync flawlessly since I got it last year..... So I think a truck load of salt is in order...

 

[Lakados]

Not all freesync monitors have implemented it the same, depending on how they chose to support the spec and what equipment they have packaged inside you can get wildly different experiences depending on the frame rates it is trying to sync to.

 

[thecold]

I've seen flickering on some freesync monitors. I'll wait and see what happens.

 

[chaos4u]

Funny thing is, it would seem if this flicker and blurring was such a problem. one would think we would have heard more about it.

most likely these monitors only do this when you enable gsync. other wise they play fine. even on amd intel and or ghastly cirrus logic.

seems like there is intentional misleading of whats going on here.

oh well we will soon see .should be quite interesting in the display forums when this driver becomes available.

 

[JosiahBradley]

I have a Freesync display and used it with AMD cards before my upgrade to a 1080 Ti. I will report back the experience produced by both of them. Spoiler: It worked flawlessly when I was on AMD hardware. Now to see if nVidia fucks my shit up.

 

[joobjoob]

Also non certified gsync monitors were shown to cause hairloss, weight gain, impotency, and racism.


Seriously, thanks for follow up on this.


I'm definitely going to try it out on my Samsung 4k.

 

[iamjanco]

Free-Sync, G-Sync, Adaptive Sync, or VRR, the SJWs will likely label its cabling gender neutral. Nothing binary comes out of the Bay Area.

 

[NWRMidnight]

How pathetic! This is a driver issue. AMD had the same issues in the past, all fixed by driver updates. Yet, Nvidia's first go around using the open standard, with their arrogance, they automatically remove themselves as being the issue, and instantly blame the monitors in there "certification" process. I can see if a handful of the 400 failed, but when it is 388 out f 400, it is not the monitors that are the problem.

NVIDIA! Fix your damn drivers!

 

[Phail]

Benq Zowie XL2730 here with an MSI 1080ti, works great. Not my system. We will see what happens after the update.

 

[bigdogchris]

If AMD can get it to work on the 400 tested monitors, why can't Nvidia? There are probably fixes to these issues, they just don't want to spend the time and money on it.

Remember, per Gordon, Nvidia claims the remaining monitors behave this way with FreeSync as well. Can anyone confirm these type of issues?

 

[KazeoHin]

Yeah, every Freesync screen I've observed has had no issues, however I've only ever used 144hz screens with LFC capability.

 

[JosiahBradley]

I have a Freesync display and used it with AMD cards before my upgrade to a 1080 Ti. I will report back the experience produced by both of them. Spoiler: It worked flawlessly when I was on AMD hardware. Now to see if nVidia fucks my shit up.

As an added bonus I just found out CRU supports custom freesync ranges by editing the monitor EDID. I will do testing with OFF/ON/CUSTOM.

 

[Araxie]

Wait, Gordon's implying that display would also blink with a Radeon? Which is designed to work with the Freesync monitor? Yeah, no. I call bullshit. It may flicker like that with a Geforce due to it not being validated properly, but there's no way in hell it works like that with a Radeon. It was designed to work VRR with it. If Freesync got us flickering displays, nobody would buy it. It's starting to stink of Nvidia shady tactics, once again.

I have a samsung C24F390 and a Samsung C27F591 that both blink the shit out with freesync enabled in some tittles paired with an RX 580. and also flicker when are out of Freesync range. enabling FlickerFree in the F591 also prevent Freesync from working.. so yeah, issues are out there in Freesync panels with AMD GPUS.

 

[Qthulu]

So the adaptive sync monitors work great on AMD hardware but nvidia cant make it happen lol

 

[ol1bit]

I like that they showed bad freesync monitors! These would be bad on AMD as well. The tech has been easy to do. Nivida was just milking it, and certifying that every G-sync monitor worked good., On the plus side if you order one of these and it sucked, send it back.

 

[NWRMidnight]

I want to add that low quality, out of spec, and failing cables can cause the same issues as well, and don't fall under the assumption that the supplied cables that come with the monitors are adiquate, as they are not always of good quality.

 

[jpcahn1]

I have a 1080 it with a Samsung 32 inch free sync 2 monitor. I will be testing this driver out on day one and report back if I see these issues.

 

[daringx]

I want to add that low quality, out of spec, and failing cables can cause the same issues as well, and don't fall under the assumption that the supplied cables that come with the monitors are adiquate, as they are not always of good quality.

Good point! A bad cable will exhibit similar flickering and I have been a victim of that myself.

Here's a good post on how to edit your monitor's settings with a 3rd-party utility to avoid issues with Freesync. Presumably it should work just as well to remedy any issues on Nvidia hardware for unsupported monitors.

 

[tybert7]

Reading the comments on that video had one guy point out why that monitor and some others blink. It seems like the nvidia driver might be forcing the display to run vrr mode below the rated threshold of the display. You know how a lot of the freesync monitors only have a vrr range of say, 50-75Hz? Well if the nvidia driver is forcing it to run like the top flight displays that go down to around 30Hz then it causes flickering. Same thing happens on amd gpus when the range is set below what the monitor supports. My guess is any displays rated for freesync 2, that higher amd certified freesync spec should work well.

Not sure about that cloudy display effect with the busted overdrive though, that is probably a different issue.

 

[ecktt]

It's nice to see NVidia extending support. That said, I recently fixed a computer with a very similar flicker, evening in the BIOS/uEFI, with Intel integrated graphics and GSyync monitor. Turns out, the MSI Z170A SLI Plus does not like XMP and integrated graphics active at thesame time. There might be more to the flicker than just driver support.

 

[Staples]

Given that a lot of Freesync monitors are 75hz at most and have a range only as low as 48hz, it is NOT surprising that only a handful of monitors meet the criteria that Gsync requires.

I have a 40-75hz freesync range and I take advantage of it with an AMD card but I am not fooling myself here. It is nothing comparable to a Gsync certified monitor.

 

[Dodge245]

Just been checking my monitor specs for this 144hz to 48 Hz model: AG322QCX

There's a couple of Agon, AOC monitors on the supported list so I'm hoping that this vrr works ok, if the issue is frames going below the Hz rating then I'd suggest the graphics card in use wasn't powerful enough?

 

[M76]

Basically they are claiming that if you bought a FreeSync monitor there is a 97% (388/400) chance you have one that doesn't work properly, even with AMD. I don't have or care about FreeSync, but wouldn't such a widespread issue be well known by now?

Self validation is more important to people than you'd think. I've had issues with freesync and nobody seemed to collaborate my experience. By issues I mean when the display went close to the lower limit of the freesync range I'd see extreme strobing, like a pwm backlight on steroids.

 

[M76]

I want to add that low quality, out of spec, and failing cables can cause the same issues as well, and don't fall under the assumption that the supplied cables that come with the monitors are adiquate, as they are not always of good quality.

Well I've found that the supplied cables are the only good quality cables. None of my high hz and or resolution displays even worked with any other cable than the one supplied. Even when I spent 30 on branded gold plated cable it wouldn't even display an image at 2560x1440@144hz.