If true, this is a big deal because Nvidia GPUs don’t natively support FreeSync.
Just unplug your FreeSync monitor from the Nvidia GPU, then plug it into your motherboard instead.
This makes the integrated Vega GPU the primary display output.
Alternatively you might use Windows 10’s new graphics configs feature to set games to use the Nvidia GPU.
Simple, easy solution to enable FreeSync while still harnessing the power of your Nvidia GPU.
So this APU method for getting FreeSync support is a bit limited.
The setup process is pretty easy.
And of course, FreeSync is enabled in Radeon tweaks.
After doing all of this, I immediately noticed a few issues.
Outside of niche hacks like this, there’s no real reason for a GPU selection option to exist.
But this doesn’t mean this FreeSync on Nvidia GPUs hack is dead in the water.
Some games have a built-in selection option allowing you to choose which GPU is used for rendering.
And it’s with this option that you could get it working in some circumstances.
So first, let’s show the baseline with the Nvidia GPU hooked up directly to the FreeSync monitor.
Keep that in mind for later.
Note this isn’t the frame rate, but the actual refresh rate of the panel.
It’s also why I’m videoing the monitor rather than using a capture card.
When FreeSync is active, the refresh rate fluctuates and you’ll see no screen tearing.
This shows, as expected, that Nvidia GPUs don’t support FreeSync.
Lastly, we get to the good stuff.
But the magic is really happening with the refresh rate number.
It’s fluctuating in line with the render rate, indicating FreeSync is working.
There’s no tearing either.
But all the rendering is being done on the Nvidia GPU.
So it definitely works.
In fact, it works quite well.
The Nvidia GPU handles the rendering, and the AMD GPU handles FreeSync.
The answer to that is yes.
This chart shows the difference in Hitman’s benchmark using DirectX 12 Ultra prefs.
Both average framerates and 1% lows take a hit of about 4 percent.
This was also the margin in Shadow of War’s average framerates reported by the benchmark.
But there are a number of problems with this Nvidia FreeSync hack.
In fact, there are so many problems I can’t see anyone actually using this trick in practice.
Then there’s the issue of Nvidia potentially blocking this.
Surely they want to keep their graphics cards only compatible with G-Sync monitors and lock people in their ecosystem.
