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Xbox One X

Every bit time has passed, the various console generations have get more similar, both to each other and to PCs. Information technology's become common for games to launch on multiple platforms simultaneously and the SoCs inside the Xbox I and PS4 are both built by AMD. Now, Microsoft has announced that the Xbox One Due south and Xbox 1 X (See on Amazon) will pick up a major PC characteristic — support for AMD's FreeSync standard.

FreeSync (AMD), G-Sync (Nvidia) and Adaptive Sync (the overarching VESA standard) are three names for technologies that do the aforementioned thing: Synchronize the refresh rate timing of the display to the frame rate of the GPU.

An AMD slide explaining FreeSync / Adaptive Sync. Nvidia'south G-Sync accomplishes the same thing.

With both FreeSync and G-Sync in-market, monitor manufacturers take tended to bake in FreeSync support more than oft than K-Sync, possibly because Nvidia's version of this feature uses a proprietary ASIC on the desktop and because of reported licensing costs. While the verbal details on the latter aren't known, there are more than FreeSync panels in market and at much lower price points.

Ane of the major reasons to exist excited about seeing a characteristic like FreeSync launch for consoles is because consoles typically target lower frame rates than PC titles. Synchronizing the output between the GPU and the brandish has a larger touch on the lower the frame rate. It's easier to encounter the impact of FreeSync at 60fps than at a hypothetical 120fps, and information technology's easier withal to encounter information technology at 30fps compared with 60fps.

Microsoft has already stated it is adding 1440p support to the Xbox One Ten and S, and so calculation FreeSync is a further boost to overall image quality and the experience of gaming on a console. The upcoming update volition also permit the console to find when a TV has an Auto Low Latency mode and to switch the panel into that configuration before gaming, then to switch it back thereafter.

At this point, a like Sony announcement seems likely. Information technology'd exist more interesting if Sony didn't go this route, just that seems extremely unlikely. Sony enjoys a comfortable pb position in the console wars this cycle, with current sales estimated at 36.3M for Xbox One, 75.9M for Sony, and 14.9M for the Nintendo Switch. So far, the Xbox's biggest rival hasn't shown any inclination to give Team Xbox an like shooting fish in a barrel win, and I dubiety they'll exercise and then hither, either. Don't be surprised if we see an proclamation from Sony that they'll be rolling out similar features.

If they do, the move could further dampen market support for Nvidia's M-Sync standard. Intel has previously fabricated comments about supporting FreeSync on its GPUs, and its Radeon-equipped Core i7 fries will also offering the capability. If major Television vendors start rolling it out in response to demand from gamers, it'll further isolate G-Sync and Nvidia equally the odd visitor out that refuses to release drivers that would make its GPUs compatible with the universal solution anybody else is using.

To exist articulate on that betoken: At that place's no known reason why existing Nvidia GPUs tin't support FreeSync, salvage that Nvidia created its ain proprietary solution and wishes to proceed using that proprietary solution. Nvidia mobile GPUs do not require the same monitor ASIC that the desktop chips required when K-Sync first debuted. There may be some specific monitor timing requirements and specifications that Nvidia wants to ensure are supported on monitors it classifies as G-Sync displays, but NV GPUs already contain the hardware they need to synchronize frame output to monitor refresh rate.

Hopefully in a few more years we'll see Adaptive Sync back up folded into everything, regardless of branding, with loftier levels of console support. We'd like to encounter gamers of all sorts benefit from the feature.

At present read: The Best Xbox One X-Enhanced Games for $20 or Less and The Best Gratuitous Games on the Xbox I