There Are Pandas, and Then There Are Pandas.
And this isn't either of them! The Pandas we're talking about here, are watches, not bears. And what got me thinking about them (again) was a link posted this morning by @cm.rook who pointed a few of us to the very attractive (and not terribly priced) Yema "Rallygraph" Panda which, in it's most traditional arrangement, looks like the one on the left, but can also be had in the version on the right: The model on the left is a true Panda, while the model on the right is called a reverse Panda. The reason for that distinction is clear--Panda bears, only come in the first arrangement. Now at this point, everyone should be thinking about the most well-know Panda, The Rolex Panda, which is actually a Daytona, and among Rolex Daytonas, the most famous of which is the Paul Newman Daytona, which was famous first, because it was Paul's, and second because it sold at auction for $17.8 million (US Dollars). The story of that auction is well-known so I'll only...
Nov 8, 2019
Without freesync (or the competing version, G Sync for Nvidia video cards - which adds a $200 licensing fee to the cost of the screen), the information can get mismatched . As an example, the top half of the screen might produce an earlier or later image than the bottom half of the screen, resulting in distorted images.
This results in something called tearing, and obviously can be annoying if it happens often enough.
In practice, tearing usually happens to a strip in the middle of the screen being out of sync.
This is only an issue if you are playing graphics intensive video games. I have never seen screen tearing in a movie or other type of video, although in theory I guess it is possible.
There is a new version of Freesync, called Freesync 2. As the name implies, Freesync does not charge a licensing fee.
In my experience with a high refresh rate screen (144 hz), tearing is rarely an issue. But if you get a 60 hz monitor, you will want to have G Sync, or G Sync 2 which I think is also coming out.
I recommend the 34" 4k G Sync from Asus PG348Q. But it's pricey, the exttra money is just for the G Sync compared to this one.