FreeSync Low Framerate Compensation – LFC
One of the most exciting new features that’s debuting with Crimson is FreeSync Low Framerate Compensation or LFC for short. Before we discuss what LFC does and why it’s a huge deal for FreeSync let’s take a step back to explain what FreeSync is.
Project FreeSync is an AMD initiative which initially kicked off back in 2013 with the vision to bring variable refresh rate monitors to market through industry standards and by working with established ASIC and monitor manufacturers. AMD proposed the Adaptive-Sync standard in 2014 to the VESA body and it has since been adopted and incorporated into DisplayPort1.2a. Interestingly, AMD also revealed to us that they’re working on implementing FreeSync via HDMI.
There are tremendous benefits to employing a variable refresh rate for gaming applications, something which we’ve discussed at length on numerous occasions. Suffice to say that we’re huge fans of variable refresh technologies, including FreeSync.
AMD’s efforts quickly came to fruition this year as we witnessed a flood of new FreeSync monitors come to market. Despite the fact that G-Sync had arrived to market a year earlier than FreeSync, we’ve so far seen considerably more FreeSync monitors come out than we have seen for Nvidia’s G-Sync. Partially thanks to the open standard nature of FreeSync and partially thanks to the significant cost advantage associated with the technology for both manufacturers and end-users.
Back in May of this year we took an in-depth look at variable refresh technologies and why they were such an important developmental breakthrough for PC gaming. We analyzed and compared both technologies from AMD and Nvidia & gave our take on the pros and cons of each.
When we looked at how the two technologies – namely FreeSync & G-Sync behaved – we found identical behaviors at large with one notable exception and that is what happens below the variable refresh rate window, LFC plays a crucial role here.
If we have two identical monitors with identical minimum and maximum refresh rates, let’s say 30-144Hz, with the only difference being that one features G-Sync and the other features FreeSync. G-Sync & FreeSync would behave differently when the game’s framerate dips below the minimum threshold which is 30 frames per second. The FreeSync monitor would revert back to being a fixed refresh rate monitor running at 144Hz. With G-Sync on the other hand the variable refresh rate functionality extends below the minimum refresh rate & this is achieved through frame duplication.
Here’s an example. If the framerate dips down to 25 frames per second (which means that it would last for 40ms on the screen) a 30-144Hz monitor simply can’t go down to 25Hz to match the framerate due to issues associated with brightness and pixel longevity. So instead G-Sync would display the same frame twice at a rate of 50Hz/50 FPS ( each frame lasting for 20ms for a combined total for both frames of 40ms ). This circumvents the limitations imposed by the minimum refresh rate of the monitor by allowing the same frame to be displayed on the screen twice really quickly, instead of once quite slowly. This applies for all framerates below the minimum refresh rate. So if for example the framerate dips down to 12.5 FPS, the frame in this instance would be displayed four times ( 20ms + 20ms + 20ms + 20ms )
This provides an experience that’s identical to a panel that’s capable of going down to 25Hz. The only downside to this technique is that it can cause a perceptible change in brightness on some panels i.e. flickering. So it’s certainly not a perfect solution but it’s still a viable and considerably better alternative to simply reverting back to a fixed refresh rate which would introduce considerable latency.
Low Framerate Compensation introduces this clever functionality to FreeSync, effectively extending FreeSync functionality below the minimum refresh rate. It’s worthy of note that while AMD did not expressly divulge its “secret sauce” so to say of how exactly LFC works due to competitive reasons, we were still given sufficient hints to indicate that it follows a similar frame duplication technique to what we’ve seen with G-Sync.
This feature is compatible with any FreeSync monitor featuring a maximum refresh rate that’s 2.5X greater than its minimum. So it will be available on all 144Hz FreeSync monitors and the Asus MG278Q which operates at 35-90Hz with FreeSync enabled.