If you are a gamer and building a gaming P.C with a high refresh rate monitor, then you may have heard about G-Sync. And there is mixed opinion on this technology on the internet.
So, the most crucial question is, what is G-Sync and whether it is worth the extra cost? And is there any similar technology available?
In this article, we’re going to describe G-Sync in the most straightforward way, how it can improve your gaming skills, it’s downsides and should you buy a G-Sync compatible gaming monitor.
Standard monitors with 60fps(Frames Per Second) gives you a constant speed of frames all the time. But, this is not the case with GPUs, as GPUs cannot produce frames at a constant rate because of the different number of factors. So, GPUs can provide frames faster or slower than the monitor, which creates out of sync images on display.
And trust me, if this happens, you won’t be able to play games. So, to solve this problem, standard monitors use V-Sync technology.
V-Sync forces the graphics cards to produce the same number of frames as the monitor.
It also puts a limit to the maximum number of frames provided by the GPUs to solve the issue. However, this also creates a new problem that is stuttering.
As V-Sync limits, the maximum fps produced by GPUs to match with the monitor, but FPS formed by GPUs is not constant, and sometimes it can fall below the fixed rate of monitors. This fps drop leads to stuttering and input lag.
This technology keeps the standard display with 60fps in sync. However, if we go beyond 60Hz, V-Sync is a disaster as we are getting a high refresh rate monitor to increase performance.
G-Sync solves both issues of screen tearing and stuttering by using a very different approach. G-Sync communicates with the monitor to continually keep the refresh rate in sync with the inevitable framerate fluctuations of GPU, thus keeping the two in sync without having to impose any limit on the FPS.
In simple words, Nvidia’s G-Sync technology forces monitor to keep up with the ever-varying frequency of GPUs.
So, if your graphics card is producing 90 frames per second (FPS), your monitor will operate at a 90Hz refresh rate. If you run into a situation that forces your graphics card’s framerate to drop, then G-Sync will decrease the monitor refresh rate frequency to match the new framerate that the GPU is working.
So, G-Sync makes the games smoother by eliminating the screen tearing and stuttering issues.
Well, there is no downside to this technology; it makes the game smoother without any compromises. But a gaming monitor with G-Sync is going to put a hole in your pocket(they are quite expensive).
There is one more problem of compatibility, as you can only use G-Sync with Nvidia’s GPUs.
The main reason why G-Sync enabled monitors are expensive is because of its approach to adaptive sync. Nvidia uses a hardware-based solution instead of a cheaper way, which is to use software to force the monitor to sync with the frame rate.
G-Sync monitors have a hardware module added in it, whose sole function is to operate at the ever-changing refresh rate.
If you don’t have a huge budget, but you still want a monitor with 144Hz, then you really should be grateful to AMD. This company has also created its version of adaptive sync, which is known as FreeSync. It can also provide the same performance without the hardware module integration. Of course, it will not be as good as a monitor with a hardware module, but it will do the job.
The answer to this question is entirely different for each user. If you have a high budget and building a completely new gaming P.C, you’ll likely want to check one of the higher-end G-Sync displays out there and be sure to use Nvidia’s, Graphics Card.
However, If you are working with a tighter budget and you are interested in NVIDIA GPU. Then you’re not entirely out of luck as NVIDIA has released GeForce drivers that make NVIDIA GPUs compatible with some of the FreeSync monitors.
If you already have a computer with an AMD graphics card in it, you’re either going to have to switch to an NVIDIA GPU (which is going to up your costs even more) or—probably the better option—choose a Freesync monitor instead.