How to activate g

In this tutorial we will see how to activate G-Sync on a FreeSync monitor to be able to make one technology compatible with another. If you have one of these monitors with AMD FreeSync technology and an Nvidia card, you will be interested in this tutorial.

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In mid-January, we learned the news that finally the world's largest manufacturer of desktop graphics cards, Nividia, was going to provide us compatibility between its G-Sync technology and AMD FreeSync technology, which is, to date Today the most used in gaming monitors and mid-high range.

Before taking a look at the simple procedure, let's take a look at what these two technologies consist of from the giants of desktop graphics cards.

What is AMD FreeSync Technology

FreeSync technology is an invention of the manufacturer AMD to achieve dynamic screen refresh rates, or what is the same, provide adaptive synchronization (VRR) on monitors connected via DisplayPort and already HDMI.

FreeSync is responsible for solving problems with image cuts and stuttering or stuttering on monitors when the rate of images per second that a graphics card sends does not match those of the monitor itself. In this way, we can minimize the latency in the interface and the input and completely eliminate this stuttering that occurs in video playback and, above all, in games.

The great advantage of AMD FreeSync is that it is an open source technology, and as such has been used by a large majority of monitor manufacturers. But of course, we will already be thinking, Nvidia will not have its own technology too? Of course it does, and we'll see it now.

In principle, the graphics cards compatible with FreeSync technology are:

• Radeon RX Series VegaRadeon RX 400 and 500 Series Radeon R9 / R7 300 Series (except R9 370 / X) Radeon Pro Duo (2016 edition) Radeon R9 Nano Series and FuryRadeon R9 / R7 200 Series (except R9 270 / X, R9 280 / X)

Nvidia G-Sync and its compatibility with AMD FreeSync

Nvidia also has its own VRR technology, which does exactly the same thing, synchronizing the refresh rate of Nvidia graphics cards with the refresh rate of monitors that implement this technology. In addition to this, G-Sync HDR technology has also been implemented to improve the performance of HDR compatible monitors.

The great disadvantage of G-Sync is that it is not an open source technology, and manufacturers who want to implement it will either have to pay for its license or be customers of Nvidia. This is why FreeSync is much more widespread, undoubtedly an important handicap for Nvidia cards.

At this point, we are aware that AMD is not Nvidia, and therefore Nvidia cards should not be compatible. This was true until about a month ago, when Nvidia took action on the matter and seeing that FreeSync was such a widespread technology, it decided to make both technologies compatible. This compatibility was released with the Nvidia GeForce 417.71 drivers, once installed and having a G-Sync compatible graphics card and a monitor with FreeSync technology, we can pair them and make them fully compatible.

For its part, the graphics cards compatible with G-Sync technology are:

• Nvidia GeForce 20 series (RTX) Nvidia GeForce 10 series (GTX 1000+)

In addition to this, Nvidia announced that it will inform the monitors that have complete compatibility with FreeSync, although thanks to these new drivers we can be the ones to activate this option manually on any FreeSync monitor.

How to activate G-Sync on FreeSync monitor and make it compatible

Enough talk and let's see how we can do this on our monitor. For the example, we have the ViewSonic XG240R monitor and an Nvidia GTX 1060 Founders Edition graphics card. We both have them connected through a DisplayPort 1.2 connector.

Currently, monitors that have DisplayPort 1.2 or higher will be compatible with AMD FreeSync. Similarly, monitors that have an HDMI 2.0b interface will also be compatible with it.

Well, to access the Nvidia configuration panel, we will have to go to our desktop and right-click on it. Then we must click on the " Nvidia Control Panel " option.

We recommend first going to the section " Control 3D settings " and navigating to the " Vertical synchronization " option, located in the " Global settings " tab. Here we will have to make sure that the option "Use the settings of the 3D application" is activated. In this way, it will be the application in which we are, for example, a game, which is responsible for activating or deactivating the vertical synchronization of our screen. If this option is not active, we could get a conflict between the game itself with its option, and that of this controller.

Now yes, we are going to go to the section " Configure G-SYNC " and we are going to activate the option " Enable G-SYNC, G-SYNC Compatible " and we are also going to choose the option " Enable for Windowed and full screen mode ". And finally we will have to activate the main option: “ Activate the configuration for the selected screen model “.

In this way, we will have already activated G-Sync on the FreeSync monitor, and both technologies will be compatible.

What if this option does not appear in my Nvidia controller?

It is possible that you have a monitor with FreeSync and a card compatible with G-Sync and this option does not appear. In this case you must verify that you have the connecting monitor by DisplayPort 1.2 or higher (see the monitor specifications), or by HDMI 2.0b.

It may also be because you do not have this option activated on your monitor directly from its hardware. To do this, open the OSD menu of the monitor and look for the FreeSync option and activate it.

Demo the G-Sync Pendulum

To better understand what it is to have a monitor with G-Sync or FreeSync, one with V-Sync (fixed vertical synchronization) and the other with nothing, Nvidia provides us with a simple tool that consists of swinging a pendulum under a 3D environment.

When we deactivate the V-Sync option in the application, we will notice that the image is fragmented, when we activate V-Sync we will notice that the video is choppy, and finally if we activate G-Sync we will notice an absolute smoothness in the movements. It is in this way that we can verify that the G-Sync technology compatible with FreeSync works correctly.

If the pendulum is not completely fluid or has inter-cut or stuttering, it will mean that the connection of both technologies is not optimal. You can download the Pendulum software from the Nvidia website. It will be as easy as installing and running it, once inside you can choose one of the three options and go comparing.

We recommend that you take a look at our guide on which graphics card I buy.

You already know a little more about these technologies, how they work and how to make them compatible. In addition, we have seen the pendulum test to verify that everything is correct. Now it is your turn to perform these steps. Does everything work correctly with your FreeSync monitor? Otherwise, leave us a comment in the box below, or visit our Hardware forum where the community can surely help you faster.