Monitor sync

What does it do?

Monitor-syncing technology enables better communication between your graphicscardandmonitor. Whenplaying games on a PC, the frames per second ( fps) produced by the graphics card fluctuates depending on what’s happening on screen. Say you’re flying over a densely built-up urban area with lots of detail in Microsoft Flight Simulator, the number of frames your card can produce may drop, because it takes it longer to solve all the calculations that are being done behind the scenes.

How does it work?

With monitor syncing, the graphics card and the monitor are constantly aware of the other’s limitations, so if the card’s frame rate drops below the refresh rate of the monitor, the monitor won’t try to fill in the missing frames. This avoids visible “tearing”, whereby frames are started, then replaced with new frames part way through. Likewise, the graphics card won’t attempt to send more than the maximum number of frames that the monitor can handle.

What are the specs?

The original monitor-sync specification was called V-sync, but it only works with monitors with refresh rates up to 60Hz. For faster monitors with better refresh rates, look for G-sync or Freesync (logo pictured). G-sync was developed by Nvidia and works with its Geforce graphics hardware. Freesync was developed by AMD to work with its Radeon graphics cards. Look for the spec that matches your graphics hardware. For example, the HP 27xq gaming monitor (£250 from www. snipca.com/39386) supports Freesync.

Can I change it later?

Both monitors and desktop PC graphics cards are replaceable, so you can start with one type of monitor-syncing technology and switch to another later, but only by buying new hardware.