AMD Freesync for Crossfire postponed

Compliant image even at lower frame rates is the promise of the synchronization technology Freesync, which after a protracted launch is now starting to appear in more and more gaming screens. Although AMD, in collaboration with the standardization body VESA, has succeeded in creating an open alternative to Nvidia’s proprietary G-Sync, there are more crucial differences. One of these is that the technology is not yet usable with multiple graphics processors.

After vigorous QA testing, however, it’s now clear to us that support for AMD FreeSync monitors on a multi-GPU system is not quite ready for release. […] We will continue to develop and test this solution in accordance with our stringent quality standards, and we will provide another update when it is ready for release.

Now AMD announces that the intended driver that will provide support for Freesync along with several graphics cards in Crossfire has been postponed indefinitely since it was discovered that the software does not live up to the quality requirements. This time, AMD does not dare to make any promises but stops by stating that the driver will be released when it is ready.

However, AMD has more and more serious concerns with the technology. One of the most debated is that of the display panel overdrive does not work with Freesync and that annoying edge shadows also occur. SweClocker’s image expert Thomas Ytterberg describes the problems in the recently published review of the gaming screen Acer XG270HU:

In short, Freesync causes some image problems compared to a situation where AMD’s technology is not involved. So it’s not enough to turn off Freesync in the Catalyst Control Center. If a Freesync-capable graphics processor drives the screen via Displayport, white border shadows appear everywhere, even around text and graphics in Windows. At the same time, the Overdrive setting has no effect, resulting in more noticeable lag.