HP to kill screen-tearing on laptops with AMD FreeSync

hp plans to bring freesync its affordable amd laptops later this year hpenvy15z — Image used with permission by copyright holder

Although there aren’t many things that Nvidia and AMD won’t fight over, one of the more popular sparring grounds for the pair of GPU makers as of late has been frame synchronization technology. Nvidia’s G-Sync and AMD’s FreeSync offer slightly different alternatives to traditional V-Sync, and it seems that HP has opted for the later.

Although not set to be implemented until a little later this year, before long we can expect all of HP’s consumer-facing laptops with AMD chips to come equipped with AMD FreeSync, which will help make sure that when gaming there won’t be any screen-tearing, stuttering, or other problems that can interrupt an otherwise smooth experience.

The first laptop set to be equipped with the technology is HP’s Envy 15z, which will be refreshed with a new 6th generation AMD A-series chip, code-named Carrizo. The current model is priced at $500.

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While this may be good news for AMD, it is worth bearing in mind that Nvidia GPUs tend to feature in gaming laptops more often than AMD, as the hardware tends to be a little more energy efficient and therefore cooler – which is vitally important in a notebook.

Intel is also the CPU of choice for higher-end machines from HP, though this announcement did suggest that by the end of 2016, a larger number of HP’s laptops may be powered by AMD hardware. It’s not clear if HP plans to replace some of its Intel-powered lineup with more AMD chips, but it may be that HP plans to offer new products at a more affordable price point with the new FreeSync equipped displays.

That is one big advantage FreeSync has over Nvidia’s G-Sync alternative. Without the need for proprietary hardware, it tends to be much cheaper.

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