Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) announced at its Future of Compute event that Samsung will be making the monitors based on its FreeSync technology, which will be released in Mar 2015. Shares of Advanced Micro were up nearly 3% and touched a high of $2.72, before closing a notch lower at $2.69.

The monitors comprise the 23.6" and 28" Samsung UD590, and also 23.6", 28", and 31.5" variants of the Samsung UE850 with AMD FreeSync support. These are ultra-high-definition ("UHD") and gradually all displays from Samsung will feature Freesync.

FreeSync is Advanced Micro’s royalty free, screen-tear eliminating technology, which it launched at CES 2014 in direct competition with NVIDIA’s (NVDA) G-SYNC technology. G-SYNC enables perfect synchronization between the GPU and the display.

For gamers, lack of perfect synchronization of the monitor and the PC results in horizontal breaks (screen tears) while playing a game or watching a video. Freesync eliminates this tradeoff by sync-ing the monitor to the PC for improved PC gaming experiences.

With the partnership, Advanced Micro will be able to bring Freesync technology into the market as quickly as possible.

After incurring losses due to the decline in PC shipments, losing market share to Intel (INTC) and entering late in the emerging markets, Advanced Micro needs to do all it can to get its business back on track.

Though the overall PC market is improving, the consumer market continues to remain under pressure. As a majority of Advanced Micro's chips are integrated into consumer desktops, it could likely suffer.

Therefore, Advanced Micro’s shift toward more conducive markets, its game console wins, adoption of new products, position in graphics and good execution are expected to pull the company out of the PC market doldrums.

Advanced Micro currently has a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). A better-ranked stock in the space is Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), which carries a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).

Read the Full Research Report on AMD
Read the Full Research Report on INTC
Read the Full Research Report on TXN
Read the Full Research Report on NVDA


Zacks Investment Research