This weekend Tom’s Hardware hosted a private event to test the difference between G-sync and FreeSync at our hybrid center. For those not familiar with the website, it’s been around pretty much as long as computer hardware itself. It was one of the very first websites I went to for video card benchmarks, and it still is a great source of information to this day.
The battle: G-Sync Vs FreeSync
Tom’s Hardware showed up with systems provided by Digital Storm. For the showdown they were completely covered and hidden, allowing the users to experience both technology platforms without having predetermined expectations. Each user was able to try games and then fill out a survey at the end to help determine which product they liked better and why. Having a blind survey eliminates a lot of fan-boy support and makes for better information collection.
AMD Quantum with Oculus Rift
This was my first experience with Oculus Rift. While I have played with VR systems pretty much since the 90’s, this by far was the closest to retail I have ever tried out. Let me answer the most common question first. No motion sickness. Looking around or going straight up and straight down left me with no feelings of nausea whatsoever. I can’t wait to add this to my own system at home. The particular version of Oculus I tested was the Crescent Bay version. I was told it was running at 2560×1600 Resolution, and for control it came with a standard Xbox controller. The Oculus has an infrared sensor that tracks the headset’s location and direction. It has white sensor marks on the front and back of the goggles themselves. These work similarly to a mo-cap suit. The pixels looked pretty good but not the same as other displays. It almost appeared to be diagonal or diamond shaped. Overall the experience was awesome and unlike anything I have experienced in the tech world in some time. It’s a whole new level of control we’ve all dreamed about. I can’t wait for my favorite games to support it.
Back to Dinosaur Island 2
In order to test out the Oculus I was able to roam around in Back to Dinosaur Island. It’s a pretty good tech demo running off the Crytek engine. Head movement felt accurate and smooth. The game looked perfect running on the Quantum. It uses a climbing engine similar to the old Call of Duty ice climbing wall. Don’t let go of both handles at the same time. The demo section of the game was all about climbing a cliff along with pterodactyls flying overhead that were really annoyed by my choice to climb. There are a lot of cool things to see along the way and plenty of detail visible all the way down to the dandelions and butterflies floating around. Overall the world is pretty flawless and detailed.
AMD Quantum Project
It’s a very small and quiet machine for all that it’s packing. The top half of the hourglass holds the water-cooling and pump alone, while the bottom half holds everything else. It does however use a standard size external power supply. Unfortunately there currently aren’t any plans to sell these units. There is only a handful in existence and we were lucky to have one at the event. I really do feel that this is a viable system design and I would love to see more of them in the wild.
Zalman
Zalman, also at the event, brought out their new z11 Neo case as well as 3 of their ZM-M240W 3D monitors to run GTA. It’s funny how accustomed we are to one screen, but seeing other cars sneak up on my peripheral vision was really cool and added another level of realism. Almost every part inside their rig was a Zalman product, and with two 980’s there definitely wasn’t any slowdown powering those 3 displays.
MSI
MSI also had a lot of stuff to show off, like their new gaming laptop and their awesome AIO (All in one) system. These two systems looked and ran great. It’s awesome to see so much gaming power in a portable device. Those lucky enough also received a Plush MSI Dragon or MSI power bank.
Overall it was a fun event, with plenty of prizes, great food and gaming camaraderie. We look forward to having more events like this in the future. Thanks again to Tom’s Hardware and the many people who made this possible.
Check out the results from Tom’s Hardware. Which do you think should have won? Let us know in the comments below.
