AMD working on FreeSync Panel Replay technology superior to Panel Self Refresh

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AMD working on adding FreeSync Panel Replay feature to Display Core Next 3.1.4+ hardware

The AMD software engineering team is working on adding a new feature to further improve on PSR. 



In some instances, the system will show the same frame to users without any changes being actually added to the frame. The most common example is office use with static content between mouse or windows movements. The FreeSync technology already greatly reduces the GPU utilization by lowering the refresh rate of each frame in synchronization with the monitor, but even at the lowest range the screen is still refreshed many times.

Back in 2021, AMD started enabling a feature called Panel Self Refresh (not based on proprietary technology), which was already supported by Intel and NVIDIA, AMD only started supporting PSR with DCN 3.1 and newer (AMD Rembrandt APU series). In short, the PSR allows the panel to locally refresh the idle images before updates frames are delivered.

Without PSR, new frame requests prevent parts of the graphics processor from powering down, which results in higher power draw of such components. AMD has been working on extending the support for PSR with a feature called FreeSync Panel Replay. This feature has been described with a patch AMD Linux display driver recently:


 
As mentioned, the frame replaying feature would reduce latency by keeping source and transmitter in synchronization, this would allow easy control of the display refresh rate. Furthermore, by replaying pixel data to the receiver, power draw could be limited as certain parts of the GPU would no longer have to be powered on. The technology should therefore be considered an evolution of PSR by adding support for more cases, and reducing latency. However, it would no longer work alongside PSR.

The FreeSync Panel Replay feature will find its use on mobile platform that already feature variable refresh rate and FreeSync support. However, it is not clear if this technology will be limited only to AMD GPUs with DCN 3.1.4 and newer.
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