AMD Launches FreeSync 2 For Smooth HDR Experience

After having their launch slides leaked out earlier in the day, AMD has now launched their new FreeSync 2 solution. With the full presentation out, we can provide a lot more details about the new technology and software. Coexisting alongside FreeSync, FreeSync 2 offers improved performance, stricter compatibility as well as a new focus on HDR gaming.

The first issue FreeSync 2 addresses is the specified refresh rates. Compared to G-Sync, FreeSync only works when refresh rates are within a certain bound supported by a monitor. This means if the frame rate drops too much, FreeSync won’t be active when it is most needed. AMD has introduced LFC (low framerate compensation) in software but it requires monitor support. For FreeSync 2 certified monitors, LFC support is mandatory. The new FreeSync standard also tries to push wider HDR adoption. Certified panels must have a minimum allowed dynamic color and brightness range that’s twice as vibrant as standard sRGB displays for HDR compatibility.

This is where the rest of FreeSync 2 comes in. Right now, the HDR display pipeline, the game maps the scene then sends it to the monitor which may not support the same spectrum range, requiring further mapping, This adds latency due to the length two stage process. With FreeSync 2, AMD has the new FreeSync 2 Transport act as a single stage process. It will communicate monitors native spectrum to the game which will map to that directly. This means when the input stream head to the monitor, no extra processing is required. Since this requires the new FreeSync API, AMD is also keeping the usual Windows display pipeline for regular sRGB use to minimize compatibility issues. Drivers will detect the outputs and automatically switch between sRGB and HDR modes.

As you might have noticed, for everything to work, a lot of parties have to get together. First, the display hardware vendor has to support FreeSync 2 and get their display certified. AMD then has to provide the new API to the developer along with the display information. Lastly, the developer has to support the new API in order to get the lower display latency. It remains to be seen how wide adoption will be but the market is there. All GCN 1.1 and newer GPUs will have FreeSync 2 support.