AdaptiveSync to challenge G-Sync and FreeSync on PCs

VESA’s standard for syncing Hz with FPS becomes official, but are nVidia and AMD onboard?

PC gamers already enjoy the benefits of three different Hz/FPS “sync” technologies and they now get to have a fourth one at their disposal. (Image: Onur Binay, Unsplash)

In terms of technologies designed for smoothing out frame rates in video games, PC gamers are rather spoilt for choice compared to console gamers: while the latter usually have to make do with Variable Refresh Rate (VRR), the former have had nVidia G-Sync and AMD FreeSync at their disposal for years now (as well as VRR with the latest generation of graphics cards). So it’s not like the PC crowd needed another standard for the same function, but it looks like it’s getting one anyway: VESA, the organization that sets the most commonly accepted interface standards for the computer industry, just announced its first official AdaptiveSync Display and MediaSync Display certification programs for PC and laptop monitors.

AdaptiveSync essentially strives to do what VRR, G-Sync and FreeSync have been already doing: synchronize the refresh rate of the display to the frame rate of the content coming from a source, in a way that presents the resulting moving image tear-free and stutter-free. VESA claims to have prepared “a comprehensive and rigorous set of more than 50 test criteria, plus an automated testing methodology and specific performance mandates” for PC monitors and laptop screens…