At a Radeon Technology group summit in California this month, AMD revealed some of the plans it has for its GPU line – firmly focused around improving image quality.
One of the most significant changes will be the use of the DisplayPort 1.3 interface. Although not available yet, DP 1.3 is expected to be capable of driving up to 5k displays at high frame rates with a single cable. It would also enable HDR UltraHD displays to be driven at 144Hz – although this would require new displays to be released, first. The cable could also enable even higher refresh rates on FullHD screens, up to 240Hz.
AMD has confirmed that DP 1.3 will be in at least some of its 2016 GPUs – so we can safely assume the same is true for Nvidia.
HDMI was not forgotten, however. AMD’s FreeSync variable frame rate technology will be added to the HDMI 2.0 standard, which supports UltraHD at 60fps, next year. Currently, only DisplayPort 1.2 supports FreeSync. AMD has been working with monitor vendors such as LG, Samsung and Acer to bring the specification to HDMI.
Finally, the company announced that it will add HDR to its GPU technologies. However, there will be strict standards defining an HDR-compatible display. They will include:
- A monitor brightness of at least 600 cd/m² (these will be difficult to find! Consumer models rarely exceed 350 cd/m² – TA)
- Contrast ratios ‘close to human visual sensitivity’.
- Able to display 10-bit colour, and more than 21 billion colours total.
At first, support for the ‘Tonemapping Algorithm for Radeon Graphics’ will only be built in to AMD’s Radeon R9 300 series. It will initially support FullHD HDR gaming at 120fps over HDMI 1.4 or DisplayPort 1.2; 2560 x 1440 at 60fps; and UltraHD at 30fps.
