Enabling FreeSync on unsupported displays

Background

Recently I bought a new monitor (Lenovo ThinkVision Creator Extreme, more on that in another post), and it is my first monitor that supports FreeSync/G-Sync.

After running a demo I immediately realized how well it solves stuttering caused by frame time spikes and sub-60hz frame rate in many games.

By design, FreeSync does not require any special hardware as G-Sync does. Wouldn't it be nice to get it to work on my other non-FreeSync monitors?

How your PC recognizes your monitor

Ever wondered how your PC recognizes your monitor name and resolution? EDID (Extended Display Identification Data) is a small piece of data provided by your monitor exactly for this purpose, and describes:

Supported resolution & refresh rate

The Name

The serial number

HDR support/ brightness/ modes, if any

Color gamut

The FreeSync range, if any

etc...

As we see here FreeSync is also described in the EDID, let's try adding it manually.

Editing your EDID

On Windows we can use a tool called Custom Resolution Utility (CRU):

First let's download the tool here: https://www.monitortests.com/forum/Thread-Custom-Resolution-Utility-CRU

Run the CRU.exe and you should be able to see some info about your monitor:

Click "Add..." under the Extension block

Then click "Add..." under "Data blocks":

Then fill in the lowest - highest known refresh rate of your optimal resolution here:

Click Ok all the way till you close the CRU window. The EDID is now saved in Windows Registry.

Now let's activate the new EDID by reloading the video driver, simply double click restart64.exe After your display flickers once, go back to the video driver control panel, you should be able to see this:

It says FreeSync is supported now.

On the Nvidia control panel, it simply refers to "FreeSync" as "G-SYNC Compatible":

If the screen is not behaving correctly, simply run the reset-all.exe to go back to normal.

The demos

Here are some demos to see if FreeSync really works:

The UFO demo: https://www.testufo.com/freesync

(effect not very easy to see)

The Windmill demo from AMD: https://onedrive.live.com/?authkey=!ANHC8-fO2sYW45w&cid=2878B630296CE76C&id=2878B630296CE76C!107&parId=root&action=locate

The G-SYNC PENDULUM DEMO: https://www.nvidia.com/en-us/geforce/community/demos/

A simple VRR test: https://github.com/Nixola/VRRTest

If the demos run properly, you're good to go, enjoy your upgraded tear-free gaming~

A loose end

My Dell P2715Q is not recognized as supported even if I modified it as above, there might be some other checks preventing FreeSync from working, anyone knows?