Nvidia has been pretty active at CES this year and AMD hasn't been quiet either. This iteration of CES saw AMD showcasing its complete lineup of FreeSync capable monitors. The resolution on the SKUs ranges upto 4K while refresh rate ranges upto 144Hz (the arguably over-rated gold standard for butter smooth gameplay). However, the more keen eyed of our readers will spot something very interesting in this lineup. Something that I will point out later in this article. Some of the information has been sourced from Computerbase.de
An old stock photo showing the FreeSync demo running on monitors @AMD Public Domain
FreeSync lineup showcased at CES 2015 - known pricing starts from $380 price point
Last year at CES, AMD demoed FreeSync technology for the first time and this time around, they are showcasing the tech with design wins from multiple vendors, the biggest of the lot being Samsung and LG. A total of 5 Manufacturers are currently (publicly) on-board with FreeSync: Samsung, LG, BenQ, Viewsonic and Nixeus. Anyways without any further ado, here is the complete lineup of FreeSync enabled monitors for all your stuttering/lag/tearing issues in gaming:
| FreeSync Capable Monitors at CES 2015 - WCCFTech | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Manufacturer | Model | Size | Resolution | Refresh Rate |
| BenQ | XL2730Z | 27 Inch | 2,560 × 1,440 | 144Hz |
| Nixeus | NX-VUE24 | 24 Inch | 1,920 × 1,080 | 144Hz |
| ViewSonic | VX2701mh | 27 Inch | 1,920 × 1,080 | 144Hz |
| LG Electronics | 29UM67 | 29 Inch | 2,560 × 1,080 | 75Hz |
| LG Electronics | 34UM67 | 34 Inch | 2,560 × 1,080 | 75Hz |
| Samsung | UE590 | 23.6 Inch | 3,840 × 2,160 | 60Hz |
| Samsung | UE590 | 28 Inch | 3,840 × 2,160 | 60Hz |
| Samsung | UE850 | 23.6 Inch | 3,840 × 2,160 | 60Hz |
| Samsung | UE850 | 28 Inch | 3,840 × 2,160 | 60Hz |
| Samsung | UE850 | 31.5 Inch | 3,840 × 2,160 | 60Hz |
Now we also know the pricing of two of the models here, namely the LG 29UM67 and 34UM67. The 29 inch variant costs 319 (377 USD) Euros and the 34 Inch variant costs 549 (648 USD) Euros. While that might seem like a lot of dough for a monitor, this is actually a pretty reasonable price considering competing solutions from G-Sync will cost around 600 - 750 USD. Now some of the monitors here are IPS based, including the BenQ SKU, as AMD's Roy Taylor has himself confirmed scratch that, AMD's PR seem to be inaccurate, BenQ's SKU appears to be a TN variant. IPS panels are usually more desirable because of the higher color gamut as opposed to the standard TN panels.
Now if you notice carefully, the only overlapping manufacturer present here that also supports G-Sync is BenQ. Neither ASUS, nor Acer are present here. At the same time, there are no reports of Samsung ( a very big player in the display market) introducing G-Sync capable monitors anytime soon. I think that the market is seeing the competing players split into red and green sides with few AIBs playing intermediary. This is the same thing that happens in GPU AIBs too, so it wont be something really unexpected, but something that could determine the future of these display technologies. If one thing is clear though, its that neither G-Sync nor FreeSync show any sign of dying as has been alleged from both sides of the camp repeatedly.
