Nvidia G-Sync Mobility Technology Will Not Require Dedicated Module – Raises Questions

Usman Pirzada

Wow, this is shaping up to be a really bad week for Nvidia. First there is the entire (currently ongoing) Geforce GTX 970 memory allocation debacle and now this. Like we told you a few weeks back, Nvidia is working on G-Sync Mobility and an article by PC Perspective (Via Videocardz.com) not only confirms this but also states that a dedicated G-Sync module will not be required. This ofcourse raises eyebrows about the need for a dedicated G-Sync module (in modern monitors) in the first place.

nvidia-gsync-mobility-laptopsNot the official logo. @Wccftech @Nvidia Corporation

Mobile G-Sync does not require dedicated module and appears to be a VESA Adaptive Sync implementation

The very reason Nvidia is putting a proprietary expensive chip in monitors is because it claims that current display technology is not up to mark for a true variable refresh rate. This is infact one of the their primary replies against FreeSync, which relies on the DisplayPort based implementation of variable refresh rate (known as VESA Adaptive Sync in eDP standard and FreeSync in 1.2a). However, as the report from PCPer states, G-Sync can and will indeed work without any dedicated module on the mobile platform, so what exactly is up on the desktop side of things? While I understand the need for a module in older (monitor) hardware, current implementations of DisplayPort should more than suffice in providing a much better experience than VSync.

There is one caveat as is always with these things. The module-less implementation was leaked by GameNab and consists of Drivers that appear to be buggy. The laptop monitor is being detected as G-Sync enabled and is clearly superior to a non-G-Sync alternative. It raises some very interesting questions about the G-Sync technology and this is where it gets interesting. Analysis done by PCPer reveals that you arent paying such a huge premium for nothing, there is a pretty noticeable difference between a dedicated module and this one. Further investigation by them revealed that the notebook clearly had no dedicated module and was using only the standard eDP channels.

Since these drivers apparently use VESA Adaptive Sync over eDP, theoretically, modded drivers on the desktop side are a possibility. If it can work on monitors of gaming luggables without a dedicated module, than logic dictates it should most certainly be able to work on standard monitors. I admit I have no experience with driver modding, but it appears that regardless of what Nvidia claims in their marketing, the technology behind FreeSync is essentially supported. This particular implementation of G-Sync seems awfully similar to the FreeSync mobility implementation from where I am standing; a Free-G-Sync if you may.

 

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