If you recall, AMD has its FreeSync technology, something also referred to as Adaptive-Sync by computer display organization VESA. It’s the type of technology that came just in time to put an end to choppy and stuttering gameplay, tears, and any interference between processor and monitor. As a technique that has been of use to over 20 monitor companies, 120 displays, plus countless happy customers, why not an updated version. Naturally dubbed FreeSync 2, this second generation of anti-lag is said to merely build on its primitive success, with some additional areas of improvement.

The original FreeSync did its best to make everything run smooth and lovely during high maintenance gaming, where stress on the video card and monitor would tend to cause an imbalance between framerates and refresh rates. FreeSync 2 may be enough to eradicate any, if not all, mishaps in this environment; a standard gearing itself to directly compete with Nvidia’s G-Sync technology in the display biz. Surely, both are abundantly equip to synchronize your computer display with its GPU, still, FreeSync 2 has a couple of newly added perks.

Getting right down to it, there are now several facets of FreeSync 2, including a new way to standardize HDR support on Windows, which is currently not as stable as it could be. Since HDR monitors have some erratic tendencies at the moment, meaning, under Windows 10, they struggle to convert a game’s tone mapping into correct output. The lag needs some focus, and FreeSync 2’s standard, within very small words, aims to alleviate this by handling it directly in hardware, a.k.a. toning maps “to the native colors of a FreeSync 2-compatible monitor”.

Hence, AMD’s GPU drivers are (more) able to reduce lag, and cut any extra processing, which makes modern games more fun, as they utilize HDR technology better than before. This also means an advantage to the SRGB color gamut. See, FreeSync 2 allows for mode switching, where Windows usually takes dimmer views of color space overwriting. In theory, once inside any application that utilizes HDR, AMD will jump right into a higher color quality than standard, giving you smoother than ever gaming.

The other convenience identified with FreeSync 2 is AMD’s utmost efforts in discipline when it comes to tightening standards in refresh rates. Current stats show FreeSync 2 offering 2 times the lowest, or a 30Hz display expelling that of 60Hz, in the very least (they say the ideal range is 24Hz to 60Hz). Luckily, when this is the case in gaming, we see games offering what is referred to as Low Framerate Compensation (LFC). In this scenario, games send frames twice as fast and performance is smooth as it can be.

Stutters no more! Smoothed and improved performance is what it’s all about with AMD’s FreeSync technology. However, interestingly enough, game “awareness” of this generation requires support from game developers and engine creators. That’s new, but at least we do know AMD and monitor developing companies are all the way in, designing displays “that would be able to deactivate their own tone mapping to let the GPU take over”. All-in-all, the point is that AMD is working to connect the game engine directly to the HDR display, and although we don’t have a date of a specific market release, it’s being suggested that the market will hear from AMD’s second generation of FreeSync in the first half of the year.