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Which XMG laptops are compatible with G-SYNC and FreeSync displays?

G-SYNC vs. Adaptive Sync

External displays that support G-SYNC or AMD FreeSync via DisplayPort can be roughly divided into two categories:

  • A) Those that use a proprietary G-SYNC module (introduced in 2013).
  • B) Those that adhere to the "Adaptive Sync" standard defined by VESA (introduced in 2014).

The latter group includes all monitors advertised as "FreeSync", "G-SYNC Compatible" or "Adaptive Sync". The G-SYNC mode in newer monitors advertised with "G-SYNC ULTIMATE" now also supports the VESA standard (see discussion here).

Another way to look at it, is thus: any monitor that is known to support Adaptive Sync (VRR) on AMD graphic solutions (both laptop and desktop) will have the VESA standard implemented.

Product overview

A well sorted overview can be found here:

Monitors marked with "G-SYNC" (not G-SYNC ULTIMATE, not G-SYNC "Compatible") in NVIDIA's list use the older, proprietary G-SYNC module and require a laptop that has the DisplayPort signal directly connected to an NVIDIA graphics card. This would include all XMG laptops except XMG CORE 14, XMG FOCUS 15 and XMG FOCUS 17.

For XMG NEO series please note:

  • Models up to and including 2021 (Ryzen 5000 and Intel Core 11th Gen): HDMI and DisplayPort on dedicated graphics.
  • New model from the beginning of 2022 (Intel Core 12th Gen): DisplayPort on integrated graphics

Background information on why exactly the layout change regarding DisplayPort in XMG NEO 15 (E22) was neccessry can be found in this article: Extended info on XMG NEO 15 (E22) with Intel Core i7-12700H and GeForce RTX 3080 Tiu00a0

In other words, the following models are fully compatible with any G-SYNC and FreeSync monitors:

Adaptive Sync and FreeSync

Monitors that implement the VESA standard (i.e. that don't use the proprietary, older G-SYNC module) might prefer a connection via the NVIDIA graphics card, but can also be used via NVIDIA Optimus (MSHybrid) with a DisplayPort signal from the Intel GPU with Adaptive Sync - but only with Intel GPUs from the 11th generation Intel Core. They also work with AMD's iGPU in AMD Ryzen processors.

Thus, the following statement applies to the DisplayPort signal connected via iGPU in XMG CORE 14, FOCUS 15 and FOCUS 17: Adaptive Sync is supported on those monitors that have implemented the VESA standard (see category B). However, there seem to be a few restrictions regarding the supported game engines with the Intel GPU. We have highlighted more details about this in this article:

In the article, XMG NEO is mentioned because the article uses the internal display of the laptop (which is connected to the Intel GPU by default) as an example. The descriptions and conclusions in this article also fully apply to external monitors on XMG CORE 14 and XMG FOCUS series and any other laptop with their DisplayPort outputs wired to the Intel 11th Gen (or later) iGPU.