AMD Announces FreeSync Premium
AMD changes the names of its various FreeSync technologies and adds one. For example, the company is introducing a new FreeSync Premium variant and renaming its former FreeSync 2 HDR standard to FreeSync Premium Pro.
AMD will announce the changes at CES. FreeSync Premium has almost the same requirements as Premium Pro, the former FreeSync 2 HDR, but with Premium HDR support is not mandatory. That’s the only difference between the two.
Previously, there were two different FreeSync standards, FreeSync and FreeSync 2 HDR. AMD announced FreeSync in 2014 and released the standard in 2015. This had to solve, among other things, screen tearing, lower latency and reduce image flickering.
FreeSync 2 HDR followed in 2017, which, as the name suggests, added support for HDR playback. Also, lfc support became mandatory in FreeSync 2, where it was optional with the first FreeSync standard. Also, FreeSync 2 HDR displays must have a minimum refresh rate of 120Hz at a resolution of 1920×1080 pixels. At the time of writing, over 900 FreeSync displays have been released.
| FreeSync | FreeSync Premium | FreeSync Premium Pro |
| Unchanged | New | Formerly known as FreeSync 2 HDR |
| No tearing | No tearing | No tearing |
| Low latency | Low latency | Low latency with sdr and hdr display |
| Little flicker | Little flicker | Little flicker |
| Minimum 120Hz at 1080p | Minimum 120Hz at 1080p | Minimum 120Hz at 1080p |
| Compensation for low frame rates | Compensation for low frame rates | |
| Mandatory support for hdr |