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AMD has expanded on its FreeSync technology’s certification today with the announcement of AMD FreeSync Premium and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro.
FreeSync is AMD’s free-to-use answer to variable refresh rates, helping to eliminate screen tearing and reduce stuttering. It’s a direct competitor to Nvidia’s rather more expensive G-Sync tech, although has somewhat suffered from the open standards contributing to less reliable quality.
The new FreeSync certifications look to put paid to this uncertainty, introducing three tiers of FreeSync branding based on the quality of the monitor.
Standard FreeSync displays offer tear free gaming with low flicker and low screen latency.
Monitors with FreeSync Premium branding offer those baseline benefits plus low frame rate compensation and they must be least 120Hz with 1920 x 1080p screen resolution.
At the top-end there’s FreeSync Premium Pro. This offers the same benefits as FreeSync Premium as well as HDR capabilities and low latency in both SDR and HDR modes.
“The FreeSync Premium Pro tier, previously known as FreeSync 2 HDR, delivers uncompromised high-performance gaming with stunning visual HDR fidelity,” explains AMD product marketing manager Nan Huang. “As games have evolved, immersive visual experiences are more important than ever. Gamers demand high performance and high-fidelity visual gaming experiences. Displays certified for the AMD FreeSync Premium Pro tier include highly accurate luminance and wide color gamut testing to enable an exceptional HDR visual gaming experience.”
AMD’s obviously keen to let customers know that the basic FreeSync tier isn’t going to offer a terrible experience either. It’ll be worse than Premium or Pro, naturally, but Huang says “The base FreeSync tier remains as an industry baseline for monitors, laptops, and TVs that have been designed and tested to meet a quality standard of performance. Regardless of tier, all FreeSync monitors go through a comprehensive certification process, which tests various aspects such as no tearing, low flicker, and low latency to enable highly responsive gaming.”