FreeSync Hacking - A Refreshing Change

[Mr Evil]

When I upgraded my CPU to a Ryzen, I also switched from Windows 7 to 10 due to difficulties with USB3 support. I tried to reinstall the driver for my Samsung U32E850R that I had modified to increase the FreeSync range from 40-60Hz to a more useful 33-60Hz, but Windows wouldn't let me because the driver isn't signed. It wouldn't work even if I disabled driver signing or enabled test mode. Thank you Microsoft for taking control of my computer away from me!

I happened to remember hearing that Custom Resolution Utility had gained support for adjusting FreeSync ranges, so I had a go with that instead. Not only was this far easier than the convoluted driver surgery process, but it also let me adjust the maximum refresh rate, whereas hacking the driver only worked if I adjusted the minimum alone. To do that with CRU, you need to both adjust the maximum FreeSync range as described in its instructions. and increase the refresh rate in the monitor's "detailed resolutions" to the same value.

Weirdly, I couldn't get the minimum quite as low after the maximum was raised, but I got it to 37-67Hz. I took a blurry photo of a frame skipping test to be sure:

Sadly 37-67Hz isn't quite enough for Low Framerate Compensation to work, but it's still a nice increase in range over what I had before, and much better than the default.

 

[Flapdrol1337]

There are quite a few games out there that have built in fps limiters, but you can often only set them to 30 or 60 fps. In that case it's very nice to have the upper limit of freesync above 60, even if it's only 63 or something.

Ingame fps limiters are almost always superior to external tools, capping with external tools gets you more latency.

 

[Mr Evil]

...capping with external tools gets you more latency.

That's interesting. I was thinking about latency recently after noticing that games feel subjectively more responsive after upgrading to Ryzen, even when the frame rate is unchanged (I'm 100% GPU limited in anything new), and wondered if maybe the total frame latency was responsible. Maybe if I get some free time one day I'll cobble together a device to measure it.

 

[Bacon1]

Ingame fps limiters are almost always superior to external tools, capping with external tools gets you more latency.

Yep, good video on that here: