At Advanced Micro Devices Inc.’s (AMD) Future of Compute event, Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. has adopted and plans to launch ultra-high-definition (UHD) monitors featuring AMD’s FreeSync technology.
Targeted at gamers, the UHD monitors are slated to begin shipping in March of 2015 with the UD590 available in 23.6-inch and 280inch models and the UE850 available in 23.6-, 27- and 31.5-inch models. Samsung said that the FreeSync technology will be available in all of its UHD models eventually.
For gamers, a constant problem is that the monitor and the PC are rarely in perfect sync resulting in “screen tear” where a horizontal break happens while playing a game or watching a video. While it comes and goes, it is an annoying feature, AMD said. One solution is vertical synchronization, or v-sync, that lets the monitor set the pace of the refresh rates. The problem with this is that v-synch causes massive frame rate dips resulting in lag and other performance issues.
AMD claims that FreeSync will enable refresh rates synchronized to the frame rate of AMD Radeon graphics cards and accelerated processing units (APUs) to reduce latency and eliminate any of these “screen tear” defects during gaming and video playback.
Joe Chan, VP of Samsung Electronics’ Southeast Asia headquarters, said in a statement the FreeSync technology has been added to its 2015 visual display UHD roadmap with the belief the technology will allow users, including gamers, to enjoy videos and games “without stuttering or tearing on their monitors.”
In other AMD gaming news, game developer Capcom said it is adding the AMD Mantle API to its Panta-Rhei engine in order to enhance gaming performance and visual quality of upcoming Capcom games. The API has already been adopted by Crytek, DICE and Oxide for their proprietary game engines.
Also at the Future of Compute event, AMD launched a high performance processor dubbed Carrizo and a mainstream processor called Carrizo-L as part of AMD’s APU product roadmap. Both devices are targeted at accelerating gaming and productivity applications and to enable UHD 4K monitors. Both devices are slated for availability for mobile devices in the first half of 2015 and by the mid-year in laptops and All-in-One systems.
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