Tyler123
Member
What is FreeSync? What is the VRR? How to activate FreeSync on Xbox One or other devices? The technosphere is in turmoil. Since a CES marked by the announcement of televisions with marketing centered on the players and monitors always evolving, or even since the announcement of its support on Xbox One, the Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) is on everyone's lips. This “new” technology brings with it a number of barbaric terms (FreeSync, G-Sync, Adaptive Sync…) and as many questions. What's the point ? How it works ? What must be done to benefit from it? So here is the complete guide that answers your questions.
What is the Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for?
First of all, to fully understand the purpose and benefits of VRR, it is necessary to dwell on the problems that technology is supposed to solve. Let's go for the technical minute (or two).
We are talking about video games here. We therefore have on one side a source (PC, console) and on the other a display (monitor, TV).
On the source side, PCs and consoles must calculate each image before sending them to the display. The time required for this calculation depends on the power of the machine and the volume of data to be calculated. This volume varies constantly during the game, potentially from one image to another depending on whether you are looking at a simple wall or whether you are witnessing a battle with lots of effects, AI, etc.
On the display side, any screen whatsoever displays the flux it receives at a fixed frequency which depends on its characteristics and its setting. For example, a 60Hz screen refreshes the display 60 times per second. Each image is thus displayed in 1 / 60th of a second, or 16.67 ms, during which the screen progressively scans the image received from top to bottom, one line after another (vertical scanning).
To summarize, we therefore have on one side a source which sends images at irregular intervals, and on the other a screen which displays these images at perfectly regular intervals. The result is desynchronization phenomena which systems such as V-Sync, G-Sync and FreeSync, or VRR more generally, try to remedy.
What is the Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) for?
First of all, to fully understand the purpose and benefits of VRR, it is necessary to dwell on the problems that technology is supposed to solve. Let's go for the technical minute (or two).
We are talking about video games here. We therefore have on one side a source (PC, console) and on the other a display (monitor, TV).
On the source side, PCs and consoles must calculate each image before sending them to the display. The time required for this calculation depends on the power of the machine and the volume of data to be calculated. This volume varies constantly during the game, potentially from one image to another depending on whether you are looking at a simple wall or whether you are witnessing a battle with lots of effects, AI, etc.
On the display side, any screen whatsoever displays the flux it receives at a fixed frequency which depends on its characteristics and its setting. For example, a 60Hz screen refreshes the display 60 times per second. Each image is thus displayed in 1 / 60th of a second, or 16.67 ms, during which the screen progressively scans the image received from top to bottom, one line after another (vertical scanning).
To summarize, we therefore have on one side a source which sends images at irregular intervals, and on the other a screen which displays these images at perfectly regular intervals. The result is desynchronization phenomena which systems such as V-Sync, G-Sync and FreeSync, or VRR more generally, try to remedy.
