Microsoft Announces Upcoming Support For AMD’s FreeSync On Xbox One & Xbox One X

With both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 equipped with AMD graphics, it’s long been assumed that FreeSync support wouldn’t be an impossibility. After all, these consoles are more PC-like than ever, something Microsoft in particular has proven with its Xbox platform being integrated with Windows.

Well, support is now official for at least one team. FreeSync is coming to Xbox, as announced by AMD’s FreeSync guru Antal Tungler during an “Inside Xbox” event held last night. I feel like this is a great thing for owners of the original Xbox One, as it’s underpowered versus even the OG PlayStation 4. But, Xbox One X owners will still be able to take great advantage, especially if 4K is the target. It could be that Sony would have to rework some of its OS to support FreeSync, but it’d definitely be possible if the company wanted to support it. Hopefully it does.

Samsung’s 27″ CHG70 1440p FreeSync 2 Display

In a nutshell, FreeSync is a variable refresh rate that reduces tearing caused by a sporadic jumping around of frames. If you’re running a 60Hz monitor, for example, you should be running the game at 60 FPS in order to sync up the frames with the refresh rate. When you can’t do that, FreeSync steps in to take over the frame-delivering duties, smartly arranging them in such a way that the entire game is smoothed out. You can be playing at 30 FPS, and it won’t feel as slow as dripping tar as the number would imply.

NVIDIA’s competing technology is G-SYNC, and when it launched, I did a side-by-side test with The Crew, and at 4K, I found I was able to enjoy gameplay at 30 FPS that felt much better than it actually was, thanks to those frame delivery optimizations. The problem with G-SYNC is that equipped displays generally carry a cost premium, whereas many FreeSync displays can be had for cheap.

Today at #InsideXbox: @antaltungler announcing @Radeon's FreeSync is coming to Xbox One S and X ?

Fantastic news for Xbox owners to experience those smooth, stutter-free frames: https://t.co/1tgShs40P1 pic.twitter.com/rwwQQcO5la

— Annie Lee (@anniearcade) March 10, 2018

A display like Samsung’s CHG70 (Amazon) is a FreeSync 2 monitor that serves the best of both worlds. It’s not 4K, but it supports 1440p, which is soon to be an officially supported resolution for Xbox One (even for games), but for PC, it has the goods to deliver upwards of 144 FPS of super-smooth gameplay (providing your GPU can keep up, of course). At over $500, that monitor might be a bit out of some price ranges, but the beauty of FreeSync is that it doesn’t pile on a tax. Right now, there’s a modest Acer FreeSync 1080p costing a mere $119 as of the time of writing. It can’t be that bad, either, scoring 4/5 stars after 241 user reviews.

It’s not clear at this point when the FreeSync update will roll out, but it’s probably safe to say we’ll see it within the next few months; perhaps sooner if Microsoft has already been working on the feature for a while. Now the world is looking at you, Sony.