One certification to rule them all: VESA announces "AdaptiveSync Display" and "MediaSync Display" VRR standards

[BachChain]

Summary

 

It seems like the Video Electronics Standards Association has had enough of various monitor manufacturers getting away with putting half-assed AdaptiveSync implementations on their products, as they today announced a new set of standards and conformance test suites that establish minimum requirements for refresh rate, responsiveness, and jitter for Variable Refresh Rate capable devices. These standards are broken into two different tiers called "AdaptiveSync Display" and "MediaSync Display". AdaptiveSync is intended for high refresh rate gaming displays, while MediaSync is meant for smooth media playback regardless of format.

 

Quotes

Quote

The Adaptive-Sync Display CTS also establishes a product compliance logo program comprising two performance tiers: AdaptiveSync Display, which is focused on gaming with significantly higher refresh rates and low latency; and MediaSync Display, which is designed for jitter-free media playback supporting all international broadcast video formats.

Quote

To obtain the Adaptive-Sync Display logo, the absolute minimum Adaptive-Sync refresh range is 60 Hz, while the maximum range is at least 144 Hz. On the other hand, the MediaSync logo requires an Adaptive-Sync range of 48 Hz to at least 60 Hz. Regarding the Adaptive-Sync Display certification, a performance tier denotes the maximum frame rate sustainable by a monitor. For example, you might see monitors labeled as Adaptive-Sync Display 240 or Adaptive-Sync 360 to denote 240 Hz and 360 Hz maximums, respectively.

VESA also specs less than 1ms of jitter across ten common standards for frame rate: 23.976, 24, 25, 29.97, 30, 47.952, 48, 50, 59.94 and 60 Hz. Regarding response times, the gaming-centric Adaptive-Sync Display tier is spec'd for equal to or less than 5 ms (gray-to-gray). That 5 ms figure is averaged over 20 tests, so display manufacturers can't pick and choose the performance metrics that fit their narratives.

Quote

VESA also attempts to crack down on factory overdrive settings, which can often introduce unsightly visual artifacts when gaming. As a result, VESA's testing requires that Adaptive-Sync Display and MediaSync Display monitors adhere to less than a 20 percent overshoot and less than 15 percent undershoot across 16 tests.

Quote

all monitors seeking to gain Adaptive Sync Display or MediaSync Display logo certification will be tested in their default configuration as shipped from the factory to level the playing field

My thoughts

Probably the best thing to happen to VRR since the AdaptiveSync standard was established. Now we don't have to deal with a dozen different manufacturer home-grown "certifications" that "tests" for whatever with who knows what requirements.

 

Sources

https://www.tomshardware.com/news/vesa-adaptive-sync-certification

https://www.adaptivesync.org/

https://vesa.org/featured-articles/vesa-launches-industrys-first-open-standard-and-logo-program-for-pc-monitor-and-laptop-display-variable-refresh-rate-performance-for-gaming-and-media-playback/

[Origami Cactus]

Really happy with the mediasync rating, wasn't expecting that.

It really is an amaxing experience to watch 24fps movies with 1ms jitter, instead of a stuttery mess that they are on a normal monitor.

[PeachGr]

Intentions are good, but let's hope they won't fck up like their display certifications *they test a black screen to the lowest brightness, then they turn it to maximum and test a while screen. Aka checker test

[porina]

1 hour ago, BachChain said:

Probably the best thing to happen to VRR since the AdaptiveSync standard was established. Now we don't have to deal with a dozen different manufacturer home-grown "certifications" that "tests" for whatever with who knows what requirements.

A dozen? From a gamer perspective there's only two families that matter at all: G-sync and FreeSync. Even if you broke their variations out I don't think I'd reach half a dozen variations. 

 

The way I see it, I'm not sure this new cert will change things much. Display/panel makers aren't going to make a load of variations for each cert, so they'll probably use the same panels which will be designed to meet all on the higher end. So higher end displays will end up with an extra sticker and not really change much. Budget displays will likely still fail to meet it. Maybe there's a bit in the middle where it is close so they try a bit harder to meet it.

 

As long as I primarily use nvidia GPUs, I'd still value GSC more than this new standard, and FreeSync is totally irrelevant. It will be interesting if someone can do a side by side comparisons of the major certs in this area, but as a user then most are not going to look at each detail. You just want to know what gives you a good experience. I don't see this as being any better than existing certs unless you're Intel as they wont have any, and falling to an industry solution will be the easiest route.

 

Also if I understand correctly this cert only applies over DP, not HDMI. So you'll still need things like GSC for TVs.

[Senzelian]

42 minutes ago, porina said:

and FreeSync is totally irrelevant.

 

42 minutes ago, porina said:

gamer perspective

You probably meant to say PC gamer.
For console gamers this will probably be quite helpful, especially in the future with PS6 and Xbox Series One Two X 720 S All Digital Edition (or whatever it'll be called)

[Salv8 (sam)]

ah yes, even more standards that'll confuse everyone. this won't go wrong!

hopefully vesa copys usb so we have even more confusing standards!

[Origami Cactus]

1 hour ago, porina said:

As long as I primarily use nvidia GPUs, I'd still value GSC more than this new standard, and FreeSync is totally irrelevant.

You do know that Nvidia has supported freesync on 10 series and upwards for a few years right through their gysnc compatible badge? Freesync premium monitors work really well, but i used an ancient freesync monitor with 48-60hz  range and that was fine too on a 1080ti.

[GhostRoadieBL]

Yay! Common standards will help the non-techy consumer choices easier and that just benefits everyone.

[porina]

10 hours ago, Senzelian said:

You probably meant to say PC gamer.
For console gamers this will probably be quite helpful, especially in the future with PS6 and Xbox Series One Two X 720 S All Digital Edition (or whatever it'll be called)

This standard is irrelevant to console gamers since it only covers DP connection not HDMI. If the display also has a HDMI input it might indirectly help, but it doesn't cover operation over HDMI. If consoles move to DP in future, then it might become relevant to that use case.

 

9 hours ago, Origami Cactus said:

You do know that Nvidia has supported freesync on 10 series and upwards for a few years right through their gysnc compatible badge? Freesync premium monitors work really well, but i used an ancient freesync monitor with 48-60hz  range and that was fine too on a 1080ti.

Strictly speaking nvidia doesn't support FreeSync, which is AMD's branding of VRR. Nvidia supports the underlying tech. Actually, that is probably not right either. They give the functionality but it is unsupported when used with displays not meeting some form of G-Sync certification. This might seem like a detail but if you have a bad experience with an nvidia GPU and a non-G-Sync certified display, you're not likely to get much help from nvidia. It is provided on an "as is" basis. Other examples of "present but not supported" could include ECC ram usage in consumer Ryzen CPUs and AVX-512 in Alder Lake.

 

Also G-Sync Compatible is far more than "it works with FreeSync" and does set minimum standards on the image quality of the display, as well as working over both DP and HDMI. Hence why this "new" VESA certification sounds awfully similar on the surface, but it will take a deeper spec comparison to see if they significantly differ anywhere. The nearest equivalent on AMD side might be FreeSync Premium.

 

A major point of both G-Sync Compatible and now this VESA certification is to set a quality standard. If you pick a display with either it should perform decently. That doesn't mean displays not meeting any certification wont work, but there may be more compromises degrading the experience.

[Doobeedoo]

Neat though, more specific spec to see.

[Brooksie359]

On 5/2/2022 at 3:12 PM, PeachGr said:

Intentions are good, but let's hope they won't fck up like their display certifications *they test a black screen to the lowest brightness, then they turn it to maximum and test a while screen. Aka checker test

Honestly I think most certs like this are meaningless because if you are really looking to see if a monitor is good then third party reviews are going to be much more reliable. I wouldn't trust any cert to really give you a good idea of the performance of a monitor. 

[PeachGr]

12 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Honestly I think most certs like this are meaningless because if you are really looking to see if a monitor is good then third party reviews are going to be much more reliable. I wouldn't trust any cert to really give you a good idea of the performance of a monitor. 

I d like to have one thou. Imagine in hd 400-hd1000 actually meant what they supposed to mean, or Nvidia ultimate etc

[Paul Thexton]

I love standards. There are so many to choose from when developing new products.