Friday, October 18th 2013
NVIDIA Introduces G-SYNC Technology for Gaming Monitors
Solving the decades-old problem of onscreen tearing, stuttering and lag, NVIDIA today unveiled NVIDIA G-SYNC technology which, for the first time, enables perfect synchronization between the GPU and the display. The result is consistently smooth frame rates and ultrafast response not possible with previous display technologies.
Several years in the making, G-SYNC technology synchronizes the monitor's refresh rate to the GPU's render rate, so images display the moment they are rendered. Scenes appear instantly. Objects are sharper. Game play is smoother.
"Our commitment to create a pure gaming experience led us to G-SYNC," said Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of the GeForce business unit at NVIDIA. "This revolutionary technology eliminates artifacts that have long stood between gamers and the game. Once you play on a G-SYNC monitor, you'll never want to go back."
Since their earliest days, displays have had fixed refresh rates -- typically 60 times a second (hertz). But, due to the dynamic nature of video games, GPUs render frames at varying rates. As the GPU seeks to synchronize with the monitor, persistent tearing occurs. Turning on V-SYNC (or Vertical-SYNC) eliminates tearing but causes increased lag and stutter as the GPU and monitor refresh at different rates.
G-SYNC eliminates this tradeoff. It perfectly syncs the monitor to the GPU, regardless of frame rate, leading to uncompromised PC gaming experiences.
G-SYNC technology includes a G-SYNC module designed by NVIDIA and integrated into gaming monitors, as well as hardware and software incorporated into certain Kepler-based GPUs. (A full list of GPUs that support NVIDIA G-SYNC is available here.)
Leading Game Developers Blown Away
Game developers have quickly embraced the benefits of G-SYNC technology, which enables their games to be played seamlessly.
"The huge gains in GPU rendering power over the past decade have enabled developers and artists to create increasingly complex 3D scenes and worlds. But even on the highest end PC, the illusion of reality is hampered by tearing and stutter. NVIDIA G-SYNC elegantly solves this longstanding problem. Images on a G-SYNC display are stunningly stable and lifelike. G-SYNC literally makes everything look better." - Tim Sweeney, founder, EPIC Games
"NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology is a truly innovative solution to an ancient legacy restriction with computer graphics, and it enables one to finally see perfect tear-free pictures with the absolute lowest latency possible. The resulting output really allows your mind to interpret and see it as a true continuous moving picture which looks and feels fantastic. It's something that has to be seen to be believed!" - Johan Andersson, technical director, DICE
"With G-SYNC, you can finally have your cake and eat it too -- make every bit of the GPU power at your disposal contribute to a significantly better visual experience without the drawbacks of tear and stutter." - John Carmack, co-founder, iD Software
Rollout Plans by Monitor Manufacturers
Many of the industry's leading monitor manufacturers have already included G-SYNC technology in their product roadmaps for 2014. Among the first planning to roll out the technology are ASUS, BenQ, Philips and ViewSonic.
"ASUS strives to provide the best gaming experience through leading innovations. We are excited about offering NVIDIA's new G-SYNC technology in a variety of ASUS gaming monitors. We are certain that it will impress gamers with its incredible step-up in smoothness and visual quality." - Vincent Chiou, associate vice president, Display Business Unit, ASUS
"We are extremely thrilled to build G-SYNC into our professional gaming monitors. The two together, offering gamers a significant competitive advantage, will certainly take PC gaming experience to a whole new level." - Peter Chen, general manager, BenQ Technology Product Center
"We can't wait to start offering Philips monitors with G-SYNC technology specifically for gamers. We believe that anyone who really cares about their gaming experience is going to want one." - Sean Shih, global product marketing director, TPV Technology, (TPV sells Philips brand monitors)
"Everyone here at ViewSonic is pumped about the great visual experience that G-SYNC delivers. We look forward to making the most of this technology with our award-winning line of gaming and professional displays." - Jeff Volpe, president, ViewSonic
Enthusiasm by System Builders and Integrators
A variety of the industry's leading system builders and integrators are planning to make G-SYNC technology available in the months ahead. Among them are Digital Storm, EVGA, Falcon Northwest, Overlord and Scan Computers.
"A look at G-SYNC is a look at the future of displays. Having to go back to a standard monitor after seeing it will start to annoy you. It's that good." -Kelt Reeves, founder and CEO, Falcon Northwest.
"G-SYNC is a ground-breaking technology that will deliver a flawless gaming experience. We're hugely excited that our customers will be able to enjoy incredible gameplay at any frame rate without tearing or stutter." - Elan Raja III, co-founder, Scan Computers.
Several years in the making, G-SYNC technology synchronizes the monitor's refresh rate to the GPU's render rate, so images display the moment they are rendered. Scenes appear instantly. Objects are sharper. Game play is smoother.
Since their earliest days, displays have had fixed refresh rates -- typically 60 times a second (hertz). But, due to the dynamic nature of video games, GPUs render frames at varying rates. As the GPU seeks to synchronize with the monitor, persistent tearing occurs. Turning on V-SYNC (or Vertical-SYNC) eliminates tearing but causes increased lag and stutter as the GPU and monitor refresh at different rates.
G-SYNC eliminates this tradeoff. It perfectly syncs the monitor to the GPU, regardless of frame rate, leading to uncompromised PC gaming experiences.
G-SYNC technology includes a G-SYNC module designed by NVIDIA and integrated into gaming monitors, as well as hardware and software incorporated into certain Kepler-based GPUs. (A full list of GPUs that support NVIDIA G-SYNC is available here.)
Leading Game Developers Blown Away
Game developers have quickly embraced the benefits of G-SYNC technology, which enables their games to be played seamlessly.
"The huge gains in GPU rendering power over the past decade have enabled developers and artists to create increasingly complex 3D scenes and worlds. But even on the highest end PC, the illusion of reality is hampered by tearing and stutter. NVIDIA G-SYNC elegantly solves this longstanding problem. Images on a G-SYNC display are stunningly stable and lifelike. G-SYNC literally makes everything look better." - Tim Sweeney, founder, EPIC Games
"NVIDIA's G-SYNC technology is a truly innovative solution to an ancient legacy restriction with computer graphics, and it enables one to finally see perfect tear-free pictures with the absolute lowest latency possible. The resulting output really allows your mind to interpret and see it as a true continuous moving picture which looks and feels fantastic. It's something that has to be seen to be believed!" - Johan Andersson, technical director, DICE
"With G-SYNC, you can finally have your cake and eat it too -- make every bit of the GPU power at your disposal contribute to a significantly better visual experience without the drawbacks of tear and stutter." - John Carmack, co-founder, iD Software
Rollout Plans by Monitor Manufacturers
Many of the industry's leading monitor manufacturers have already included G-SYNC technology in their product roadmaps for 2014. Among the first planning to roll out the technology are ASUS, BenQ, Philips and ViewSonic.
"ASUS strives to provide the best gaming experience through leading innovations. We are excited about offering NVIDIA's new G-SYNC technology in a variety of ASUS gaming monitors. We are certain that it will impress gamers with its incredible step-up in smoothness and visual quality." - Vincent Chiou, associate vice president, Display Business Unit, ASUS
"We are extremely thrilled to build G-SYNC into our professional gaming monitors. The two together, offering gamers a significant competitive advantage, will certainly take PC gaming experience to a whole new level." - Peter Chen, general manager, BenQ Technology Product Center
"We can't wait to start offering Philips monitors with G-SYNC technology specifically for gamers. We believe that anyone who really cares about their gaming experience is going to want one." - Sean Shih, global product marketing director, TPV Technology, (TPV sells Philips brand monitors)
"Everyone here at ViewSonic is pumped about the great visual experience that G-SYNC delivers. We look forward to making the most of this technology with our award-winning line of gaming and professional displays." - Jeff Volpe, president, ViewSonic
Enthusiasm by System Builders and Integrators
A variety of the industry's leading system builders and integrators are planning to make G-SYNC technology available in the months ahead. Among them are Digital Storm, EVGA, Falcon Northwest, Overlord and Scan Computers.
"A look at G-SYNC is a look at the future of displays. Having to go back to a standard monitor after seeing it will start to annoy you. It's that good." -Kelt Reeves, founder and CEO, Falcon Northwest.
"G-SYNC is a ground-breaking technology that will deliver a flawless gaming experience. We're hugely excited that our customers will be able to enjoy incredible gameplay at any frame rate without tearing or stutter." - Elan Raja III, co-founder, Scan Computers.
147 Comments on NVIDIA Introduces G-SYNC Technology for Gaming Monitors
I can only see G-Sync being useful or desired by consumers if it did the following:
1. Increased Frame Rate Performance. If this gimmick actually increased your FPS. As if there was some form of loss or leakage in performance, and G-Sync prevented that from happening. Instead of actually getting 60 FPS on Tomb Raider with maxed out graphics settings, you're only getting 32 FPS. G-Sync would push it closer to 60 FPS.
To imply that NVidia users need a hardware component in the monitor to improve video fidelity, also implies that NVidia cards still suffer from their own form of micro stutters and screen tearing.
Sadly, in my opinion, I think this is the only innovative niche NVidia could come up with in such a short period of time. Especially when the spot-light just got wider, and it was placed on AMD since RX9 series, Consoles, and AMD Mantle have been the top buzz in the news as of late. AMD is gaining momentum. NVidia wants to push it's own game bundle. No surprise there. Copying the concept from AMD to continue competition, and react to the current situation. AMD is pushing AMD Mantle (can be used by both AMD and NVidia), TrueAudio, DX11.2 Support, PCIe CrossfireX through the PCIe Bus, and the buzz about the RX9-290 possibly outperforming GTX Titan. It seems like AMD lit a match under NVidia's foot besides Microsoft. Now, NVidia is reacting...
If this niche is proprietary, nobody is going to buy it unless the 3rd party benchers like Techpowerup.com, Anandtech.com, and others glorify it. Otherwise, I see this as an unnecessary, supplemental feature that's cause the NVidia Base Consumers to purchase more NVidia products for outrages prices with very little improvements...
TrueAudio doesn't mean squat , and R290X is not really the answer to Titan at all , you will see that when the review comes about.The only real advantage for AMD now is Mantle, but it remains to be seen whether they will really get it to shine or not .
On the other hand, NVIDIA always has been the brute force of advancement in the PC space, AMD just plays catch up, and today's announcements just cements that idea.
NVIDIA was the first to introduce the GPU, SLi, Frame Pacing (FCAT) , GPU Boost ,Adaptive V.Sync, first to reach unified shader architecture on PCs, first with GPGPU , CUDA , PhysX , Optix (for real time ray tracing) , first with 3D gaming (3D Vision) . first with Optimus for mobile flexibility , first with Geforce Experience program , SLi profiles , shadow play (for recording) and game streaming .
They had better support with CSAA , FXAA , TXAA , driver side Ambient Occlusion and HBAO+ , TWIMTP program , better Linux , OpenGL support, .. and now G.Sync! all of these innovations are sustained and built upon to this day.
And even when AMD beat them to a certain invention , like Eyefinity , NVIDIA didn't stop until they topped it with more features , so they answered with Surround , then did 3D Surround and now 4k Surround.
NVIDIA was at the forefront in developing all of these technologies and they continue to sustain and expand them till now , AMD just follows suit , they fight back with stuff that they don't really sustain so they end up forgotten and abandoned ,even generating more trouble than they worth. Just look at the pathetic state of their own Eyefinity and all of it's CF frame problems.
In short AMD is the one feeling the heat, NOT NVIDIA, heck NVIDIA now fights two generations of AMD cards with only one generation of their own, Fermi held off HD 5870 and 6970 , Kepler held off 7970 and x290 ! and who knows about Maxwell !
G-Sync is meant to be used in conjunction with frame pacing; both solve different problems. G-Sync has nothing to do with NVidia specific issue; it is one faced by any output with a fixed refresh rate. Monitors currently only draw whole frames at a fixed interval. Therefore, if your framerate output by your video card is lower than your monitor's refresh rate, then you will have some frames duplicated and others not resulting in judder.
Let me explain the difference, using an example where you are displaying a game at 45fps on a 60Hz monitor. This should be helpful to anyone who is confused about the purpose of G-Sync. Let's use a small portion of this scenario (1/15 second or 4 60Hz frames)
Scenario 1 has no frame pacing or G-Sync:
2ms - Frame 1 is written to the video buffer
4ms - Frame 2 is written to the video buffer
16.7ms - Frame 2 is displayed on the monitor since it is the most recent frame
33.4ms - Frame 2 is displayed on the monitor again since it is still the most recent frame
35ms - Frame 3 is written to the video buffer
50ms - Frame 3 is displayed on the monitor since it is the most recent frame
66.7ms - Frame 3 is displayed on the monitor again since it is still the most recent frame
In Scenario 1, the effective frame rate is 30fps since only two distinct frames were displayed by the monitor. The frames were displayed for identical periods of time, so the framerate appears smooth.
Scenario 2 has frame pacing but no G-Sync:
2ms - Frame 1 is written to the video buffer
4ms - Frame 2 is written to the video buffer
16.7ms - Frame 1 is displayed on the monitor since it is the oldest frame in the video buffer
33.4ms - Frame 2 is displayed on the monitor since it is the oldest frame in the video buffer that is still newer than Frame 1, and Frame 1 is deleted from the video buffer
35ms - Frame 3 is written to the video buffer
50ms - Frame 3 is displayed on the monitor since it is the oldest frame in the video buffer that is still newer than Frame 2, and Frame 2 is deleted from the video buffer
66.7ms - Frame 3 is displayed on the monitor again since no newer frames are available
In Scenario 2, the effective frame rate is 45fps since three distinct frames were displayed by the monitor. However, the third frame was displayed for twice as long as either of the first two, so judder is experienced.
Scenario 3 has frame pacing and G-Sync:
0ms - G-sync realizes that the graphics card is generating frames at an average of 45fps and adjust's the monitor's refresh rate to 45Hz
2ms - Frame 1 is written to the video buffer
4ms - Frame 2 is written to the video buffer
22.2ms - Frame 1 is displayed on the monitor since it is the oldest frame in the video buffer
44.4ms - Frame 2 is displayed on the monitor since it is the oldest frame in the video buffer that is still newer than Frame 1, and Frame 1 is deleted from the video buffer
35ms - Frame 3 is written to the video buffer
66.6ms - Frame 3 is displayed on the monitor since it is the oldest frame in the video buffer that is still newer than Frame 2, and Frame 2 is deleted from the video buffer
In Scenario 3, the effective frame rate is 45fps since three distinct frames were displayed by the monitor. In addition, all three frames were displayed for equal amounts of time, so no judder is experienced.
The whole point of this is to have a variable refresh rate on the monitor. Standard frame pacing can't adjust the monitor's refresh rate; it only helps to make sure that all the frames generated by the graphics card are displayed. Nothing currently can remove all judder when the frame rate is different the monitor's refresh rate. This is what G-Sync aims to solve
G-Sync won't improve frame rate, but it will make lower frame rates look better. This is something that cannot be solved with frame pacing alone.Adaptive V-sync was meant to reduce the performance impact of V-sync; it doesn't change anything visually. The idea behind Adaptive V-sync is that if your monitor's refersh rate is higher than the frame rate output of your graphics card at any given time, then V-sync does nothing and the extra computational power required by V-sync is wasted. Adaptive V-sync turns off V-sync in this situation thus resulting in extra performance when the frame rate is low.
See www.geforce.com/hardware/technology/adaptive-vsync/technology
Jesus, I kinda wish Intel did pursue that dGPU thing... 3 GPU players = pretty much no one affording to fragment an already mother-less and scattered segment of modern video gaming...
AMD might not be perfect, but at least they are more open-minded and aware that walled-garden features aren't the future... They're the Linux of computer hardware...
Give me SteamOS/Mint + OGL w/ good driver support & a low-level API and I'm game.
In regards to some other posts, this can not be done with a firmware upgrade for monitors, and no current videocard/monitor combination is free from the terrors of constant or even occasional micro stuttering / tearing... Some people's eyes seem to be less sensitive to it though.
Cant wait for a test drive, but it will make me sad to have to trade off my crossfire 7950 setup..
good bye SLi microstuttering. Give me naooo :eek:
I can't believe you guys are calling this useless. :mad:
Guru3D - NVIDIA G-SYNC Overview - Shaky Cam Voice ...
With the current Asus VG248QE going for as low as $249-$269. Is the $130+ mark-up on G-Sync ($399) worth it.
or
Are you better off saving it for a second monitor since its 50% of the price.
Will it be a set price or scale with screen size $$$$
name non proprietary nv tech? someone was blind on a videocardz thread as well, physx on the cpu is multiplatform & in many games+consoles! the new FCAT method runs anywhere, FXAA (although i want to say that's one guy), how about helping devs add DX10 or 11 support? not all nv sponsored titles have locks on them, amd has done the same in helping codemasters games be good looking & efficient
sure GPU physx & cuda are very annoying, not doubting that, it's not 'good guy nvidia', but many things start out proprietary to show that they work
we should be pressuring VESA/displayport/hdmi for an adaptive refresh technique like this :respect:
i dont get why nv doesnt license things out so that everyone can enjoy instead of locking down to only their platform (look at bluray, it's standard, just a royalty is paid, it's not locked to sony products)
just cuz we didnt hit a perfect or open world doesnt mean we should destroy it, this is still better than deciding between matrox+rendition+3dfx+whoever else all at once if you want to play various games in the 90s :banghead:
but dropping frames to what? 5fps@5Hz and calling it a holy grail????? :confused::twitch:
gimme a f*cking break! :banghead:
im too old to jump this bait, so im kinda happy i cant afford to buy nvidia g-card :laugh: