[AT]NVIDIA G-Sync Review

[Homeles]

After spending a few days with G-Sync, I’m just as convinced as I was in Montreal. The technology, albeit a relatively simple manipulation of display timing, is a key ingredient in delivering a substantially better gaming experience.


In pathological cases the impact can be shocking, particularly if you’re coming from a 60Hz panel today (with or without v-sync). The smoothness afforded by G-Sync is just awesome. I didn’t even realize how much of the v-sync related stutter I had simply come to accept. I’d frequently find a scene that stuttered a lot with v-sync enabled and approach it fully expecting G-Sync to somehow fail at smoothing things out this time. I always came away impressed. G-Sync also lowered my minimum frame rate requirement to not be distracted by stuttering. Dropping below 30 fps is still bothersome, but in all of the games I tested as long as I could keep frame rates north of 35 fps the overall experience was great.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7582/nvidia-gsync-review

 

[Stuka87]

It looks like a promising technology, especially once its available on displays that are actually worth buying. This initial display is pretty much junk. Would also love to see it become an open standard so than Intel and AMD GPU's could make use of it.

 

[ShintaiDK]

It makes you wonder, why for example something like DisplayPort didnt add this.

Simple sync between output and input.

G-Sync is nice, but it is really a workaround style fix.

 

[cbrunny]

Interesting stuff. I assume nVidia owns a patent on this technology? Licensing to AMD/Intel? Or each with their own proprietary version 10 years from now?

 

[ShintaiDK]

Interesting stuff. I assume nVidia owns a patent on this technology? Licensing to AMD/Intel? Or each with their own proprietary version 10 years from now?

I dont think you can patent what is essentially just a buffer. I dont see any special technology involved.

 

[Grooveriding]

Reading Anand's review it sounds like gsync is only helpful if you are sitting at sub 60fps, so for someone like me who generally never sees framerates lower than 60 it won't do much for me. Seems a little counter-intuitive; be running a mid-range video card and spending another $400+ to get a gsync enabled monitor and smooth out your low frame rate gaming instead of just buying a top end card or multiple mid-tier cards and run your games at 60fps.

I think where this could be helpful is at 4K, where even if you have a high end GPU setup, 4K still plays abysmally at high settings. This could help to make 4K gaming feel decent rather than crap using good settings, plus you'd be using a decent display panel by default rather than a crappy 1080p TN.

At 1080P it seems pointless and your money would be better spent on moving up to a GPU setup that runs your games at 60fps minimums, a pretty easy feat these days with all the GPU power available. Or better yet getting yourself a decent monitor instead of a 1080p TN screen. They say IPS screens will come with it eventually, but it's one of the universal complaints I see reviewers mention and I echo myself. TN is a woeful compromise to use something intended to improve IQ that comes at the cost of one of the most detrimental display techs, TN, to the quality of your image.

 

[parvadomus]

It seems easy to implement. So easy, that I smell a simple driver on AMD could make it work. Or maybe RadeonPro (but I dont think so).

 

[Stuka87]

Interesting stuff. I assume nVidia owns a patent on this technology? Licensing to AMD/Intel? Or each with their own proprietary version 10 years from now?

There is not any new technology really. The transport mechanism has been there. The only thing new is intercepting the displays "draw call" to display the image on screen and then telling the display when to actually display the image.

 

[Erenhardt]

The smoothness afforded by G-Sync is just awesome. I didn’t even realize how much of the v-sync related stutter I had simply come to accept

Since when single card stuttering is noticeable? I thought frame time variance with single cards is so small, that it requires special monitoring tools to tell the difference.:hmm:

 

[f1sherman]

It seems easy to implement. So easy, that I smell a simple driver on AMD could make it work. Or maybe RadeonPro (but I dont think so).

riiight... I need more on my fiddling plate. It's not like running something like R9 290 is not already a full blown hobby.

It will be really interesting to see how Intel/AMD respond.
Disruptive technology like this is sure to make its way in all kinds of displays.
The only question is - AT WHAT PACE :hmm:

 

[lehtv]

Since when single card stuttering is noticeable? I thought frame time variance with single cards is so small, that it requires special monitoring tools to tell the difference.:hmm:

With V-sync on, if your framerate drops below the refresh rate, say 40-50 fps instead of solid 60, the monitor can't display all of the frames because some of them miss the synchronised point in time when they should be reaching the frame buffer (based on refresh rate). This causes stuttering because the monitor ends up skipping some of the frames - some frames you see are at the 'right time', some are 'delayed'. With constant 60 fps, no frames are skipped, instead exactly one frame gets displayed at every refresh.

What G-Sync does it adapts the refresh rate of the monitor to the framerate, which means that no matter what your framerate is, no frames are skipped, and all frames are displayed 100% so no tearing either.

 

[Zanovar]

Reading Anand's review it sounds like gsync is only helpful if you are sitting at sub 60fps, so for someone like me who generally never sees framerates lower than 60 it won't do much for me. Seems a little counter-intuitive; be running a mid-range video card and spending another $400+ to get a gsync enabled monitor and smooth out your low frame rate gaming instead of just buying a top end card or multiple mid-tier cards and run your games at 60fps.

I think where this could be helpful is at 4K, where even if you have a high end GPU setup, 4K still plays abysmally at high settings. This could help to make 4K gaming feel decent rather than crap using good settings, plus you'd be using a decent display panel by default rather than a crappy 1080p TN.

At 1080P it seems pointless and your money would be better spent on moving up to a GPU setup that runs your games at 60fps minimums, a pretty easy feat these days with all the GPU power available. Or better yet getting yourself a decent monitor instead of a 1080p TN screen. They say IPS screens will come with it eventually, but it's one of the universal complaints I see reviewers mention and I echo myself. TN is a woeful compromise to use something intended to improve IQ that comes at the cost of one of the most detrimental display techs, TN, to the quality of your image.

Indeed,ill pass on gsync 1080p TN panels and wait for higher res ips panels with gsync,could be a long wait though?,not sure havent a clue.

 

[moonbogg]

Without seeing a G-Sync monitor myself I can't really judge of course, but I am wondering how much benefit someone would get in a situation like mine. I use a 120hz 1080p monitor and, of course, my frame rate is not always at 120. Its usually like 80 or 90 or something like that, sometimes closer to 60 or 70 at times. Rarely it will even drop to below 60, but that's kind of rare. What would G-sync do for me? Smooth things out a little bit maybe? Can't see myself ditching my 27" TN for another 27" TN with G-Sync really. Maybe I'm just used to it, but I don't recall ever being distracted or bothered by tearing.

EDIT: Also, lets say they come out with a nice IPS display with G-Sync that runs at 60hz. In that case G-Sync might do nothing for me if I'm almost always above 60fps, and then I'd have to deal with the slow pixel response of IPS. My gaming experience might actually get worse, wouldn't it? Of course image quality would be better (until I move the mouse that is and the image smears like an oil painting, but it would be a smooth oil painting?)

 

[ShintaiDK]

Is your FPS drops also always above 60?

 

[moonbogg]

Is your FPS drops also always above 60?

If you are asking me, my FPS drops are sometimes below 60, but I have a 120hz display, so G-Sync should help with anything below 120fps I would think? I don't know, I'm a little confused and would have to try a monitor myself to see. Also, I'm not excited about paying a premium for another TN panel. I did that with the 3D vision 2 monitor I have now.

 

[Remobz]

Indeed,ill pass on gsync 1080p TN panels and wait for higher res ips panels with gsync,could be a long wait though?,not sure havent a clue.

The question is how long of a wait?

 

[ShintaiDK]

If you are asking me, my FPS drops are sometimes below 60, but I have a 120hz display, so G-Sync should help with anything below 120fps I would think? I don't know, I'm a little confused and would have to try a monitor myself to see. Also, I'm not excited about paying a premium for another TN panel. I did that with the 3D vision 2 monitor I have now.

Your problem is the exact same as for 60hz displays. Even if you got 120hz. Desynced frames.

 

[Zanovar]

The question is how long of a wait?

aye,lets hope everyone involved gets their arses into gear.

 

[96Firebird]

Sounds promising, I hope we get some decent G-sync displays relatively soon as I noticed a portion of my aging monitor is starting to screw up... 🙁

 

[bystander36]

I dont think you can patent what is essentially just a buffer. I dont see any special technology involved.

There is far more to it than a buffer. They also have to have a scaler on the monitor to adjust to different refresh times. That is why it requires special monitors, and not just anything with a displayport.

 

[smackababy]

Your problem is the exact same as for 60hz displays. Even if you got 120hz. Desynced frames.

It is less noticeable with 120hz though, due to you have more "synced" frame rates. On a 60hrz, 40FPS would desync, but if I understand it correctly, on 120hz, it won't be.



This technology sounds promising, but it really has to come out on better monitors for me to give it a try. I currently have a 120hz, but I have been eyeing some other monitors and looking to upgrade. I wouldn't go with anything less than 1440p right now. 4K is most likely my next upgrade if the Dell monitors are actually well performing.

 

[Termie]

Reading Anand's review it sounds like gsync is only helpful if you are sitting at sub 60fps, so for someone like me who generally never sees framerates lower than 60 it won't do much for me. Seems a little counter-intuitive; be running a mid-range video card and spending another $400+ to get a gsync enabled monitor and smooth out your low frame rate gaming instead of just buying a top end card or multiple mid-tier cards and run your games at 60fps.

I think where this could be helpful is at 4K, where even if you have a high end GPU setup, 4K still plays abysmally at high settings. This could help to make 4K gaming feel decent rather than crap using good settings, plus you'd be using a decent display panel by default rather than a crappy 1080p TN.

At 1080P it seems pointless and your money would be better spent on moving up to a GPU setup that runs your games at 60fps minimums, a pretty easy feat these days with all the GPU power available. Or better yet getting yourself a decent monitor instead of a 1080p TN screen. They say IPS screens will come with it eventually, but it's one of the universal complaints I see reviewers mention and I echo myself. TN is a woeful compromise to use something intended to improve IQ that comes at the cost of one of the most detrimental display techs, TN, to the quality of your image.

Do you use V-sync? Because if not, you still get tearing, which is a quality issue (though not a performance issue).

Personally, I almost always use V-sync where my games run above 60fps, and I don't have an issue with it. From the description of Gsync, I don't think it will be an improvement over a system locked at 60fps with Vsync.

By the way, Tom's has a very good write-up on it too: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/g-sync-v-sync-monitor,3699.html

 

[bystander36]

It is less noticeable with 120hz though, due to you have more "synced" frame rates. On a 60hrz, 40FPS would desync, but if I understand it correctly, on 120hz, it won't be.



This technology sounds promising, but it really has to come out on better monitors for me to give it a try. I currently have a 120hz, but I have been eyeing some other monitors and looking to upgrade. I wouldn't go with anything less than 1440p right now. 4K is most likely my next upgrade if the Dell monitors are actually well performing.

According to the write ups of people who have reviewed it, the tech is still much better than current 120hz monitors.

They also find it much better than their IPS screens, despite being a TN display. Not based on color, but by smoothness.

http://www.hardwarecanucks.com/forum/hardware-canucks-reviews/64586-week-nvidias-g-sync-monitor.html

There will be IPS displays with it, eventually, so you can have both. However, I may be going for one of these, because I also like 3D Vision.

 

[bystander36]

Do you use V-sync? Because if not, you still get tearing, which is a quality issue (though not a performance issue).

Personally, I almost always use V-sync where my games run above 60fps, and I don't have an issue with it. From the description of Gsync, I don't think it will be an improvement over a system locked at 60fps with Vsync.

By the way, Tom's has a very good write-up on it too: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/g-sync-v-sync-monitor,3699.html

Two things would change with the G-sync monitor. 1st, it is on 120hz or higher refresh monitors, so you'd have higher FPS, and it removes the added latency v-sync causes when triple buffering is on and maintaining 60 FPS (pretty much always in games today that build in triple buffering).

 

[moonbogg]

Too bad they can't sell a G-Sync module of some kind that you connect between your monitor and PC. That way anyone with any monitor can use it and they still can sell the G-Sync tech. I know it might not work that way but it would have been nice, especially if you actually like your current monitor.