Each year, top technology companies around the globe congregate at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) to announce the latest in tech innovations and breakthroughs. CES 2019, in Las Vegas, NV, was no different with a monumental number of announcements.
However, there is one announcement, in particular, we’d like to shed a little more light on. This announcement came from NVIDIA regarding G-Sync compatibility on gaming monitors. NVIDIA’s graphics card will now support numerous
FreeSync and Adaptive-Sync monitors with their new driver update.
After passing NVIDIA’s rigorous testing, select monitor’s will become validated and join the “G-Sync compatible” list. Few have made the cut, but that doesn’t mean that your monitor won’t be able to run
G-Sync technology, or that you have to wait for the final testing results to come out. Thankfully, NVIDIA has allowed users to test this out on their own as NVIDIA evaluates more monitors and updates their list.
So, what does this mean for your monitor? How do you enable “G-Sync compatible” manually?
(To download the GeForce Driver 417.71, please go to the GeForce Website.)
In simple terms, NVIDIA announced that a new driver for their GTX 10 and 20 Series Graphics cards will enable G-Sync on almost all Adaptive-Sync monitors.
In the past, you had to choose between NVIDIA G-Sync monitors (with a chip) OR an Adaptive-Sync (non-chip) monitor—which are mostly FreeSync certified. Here’s the list.
The specialized chip, produced by NVIDIA, increased the cost of G-Sync monitors.
This was unfortunately then passed down to gamers.
In a spectacular 180, the chip will no longer be required for G-Sync to be enabled on Adaptive-Sync (FreeSync) monitors. This means, most FreeSync monitors will be able to run G-Sync via your NVIDIA GPU and the new driver update!
A more technical takeaway of the announcement:
For an advanced explanation on how the technology works, as well as a list of ViewSonic monitors that work with the Driver update, keep reading below. (Or click here to go to the list)
G-Sync from NVIDIA, FreeSync from AMD, and Adaptive-Sync from DisplayPort, pretty much follow the same principles when implementing Variable Refresh Rate technology. VRR tech slows down or speeds up parts of the screen to make sure that the
complete image will appear at once - avoiding image tearing or artifacts while in game.
For immersive games that do not need particularly high frame rates, sync technology allows for reduced image tearing.
However, this comes at a cost.
Slowing down images can reduce your frame rate, and in scenarios where you need as many of your frames as possible, Sync capabilities can affect speed.
Which is why it is never used in professional level competitive gaming situations. (Pros turn sync tech off).
ViewSonic carries both FreeSync and G-Sync products, so how should you navigate our product pages?
We at ViewSonic have done in-house testing on our products and welcome the community to test our monitors as well!
If you currently own a ViewSonic Gaming Monitor, we appreciate the support! If your monitor is not listed below, it does not mean G-sync will not work on your monitor. Follow the instructions below and you may be able to enable G-Sync if the monitor has FreeSync or Adaptive-Sync.
Below are the XG Series monitors that we have confirmed to work with the driver update:
XG350R-C |
XG3240C |
XG2401 |
XG2701 |
XG2402 |
XG2730 |
XG240R |
XG3220 |
XG2530 |
|
To enable G-Sync, follow these steps:
NVIDIA G-Sync Driver Support can be broken down into four segments each of which will be supported by the new driver to different extents.
To see a list of G-Sync and G-Sync compatible monitors, please visit NVIDIA’s website.
Here at ViewSonic Elite, we appreciate what NVIDIA has done with the driver update, opening up support, as this is finally introducing a wider range of monitor features for those customers who are already using GTX Series 10 & 20.