Screen Tearing. (V-Sync)

Macwhite97

Macwhite97

Macwhite97

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Hello All,
I could probably Google this but I'm going to ask here first. So what Causes Screen tearing while I'm playing games? Every game I play I have to tick V-sync I mean it doesn't bother me at all. Just would like to know what causes it and what's a way to fix it?
Thank you in advance.
 
AFAIK, it happens because the GPU drops a new frame into the framebuffer as the monitor is reading it. The monitor reads half of the old frame and half of the new one, resulting in tearing.
 
ShakeNBake said:
I play with v-sync on 24/7 and experience no problems with input lag what-so-ever. I really don't understand where all these kinda posts come from.
Click to expand...

Another issue with vsync is that it will hold you looked at 60fps, if you drop 2 frames to 58fps, instead of having a barely noticeable drop, you actually get a massive frame drop down to 30fps, then picks back up to 60fps. Destroying any nice smooth gameplay.

VSync is only worthwhile if you are able to sit 100% above 60fps, and if you can, it's a tidier option just to frame limit to 60, if you can't keep above 60fps 100% of the time, you're probably better frame limiting to 30 and you won't have any tearing then either.

There are more ways to address tearing than V-Sync, which is a horrible, messy way of dealing with it.
 
I guess I'm more sensitive to it than most, I just can't bare the input lag I get with v sync on. If you're going to be pedantic then obviously you can play games with it on, it's just unpleasant.
 
ShakeNBake said:
I play with v-sync on 24/7 and experience no problems with input lag what-so-ever. I really don't understand where all these kinda posts come from.
Click to expand...

Indeed, always works well for me. You can't see FPS beyond your monitor's refresh rate and v-sync also fixes screen tearing. For those reasons, I always play with it on.
 
The only game I have ever got screen tearing on is the batman series, are some monitors or gpus more susceptible to tearing?
 
I tried enabling Adaptive v-sync @ Nvidia Control Panel but there WAS some tearing. Less compared to "vsync off" but still... Unplayable for me... Itried enabling Triple buffering but afaik this is only for OpenGL games , which are few....
So the question remains: How do we eliminate screen tearing and avoid frame drops at the same time???????
PS Imho triple buffering DOES help a bit....Opinions?
 
I hate playing fast FPS games with vsync on (at least on a 60hz monitor) as it feels sort of sluggish - latency I expect

On Oculus DK2 being 75hz it is much much better. (presuming you can sustain ~150fps in whatever you play - 75fps/hz per eye)

I'm sure on a 120hz monitor or gsync monitor its much much nicer.

Anyone care to weigh in on how gsync works? Or does it just sync the monitor to gpu, requiring 120fps to match both?
 
I dont play a lot of FPS games and perhaps my eyes just aren't that sensitive but i've never been aware of input lag with vsync on. How does one look out for input lag?
 
Yup, I can't stand tearing so I always use vsync, although I do it a bit differently:

Either

- enable borderless windowed mode so that the game is then using windows native vsync + triple buffering (this was a god send for shadow of mordor, the in game vsync is useless, once you go below 60FPS, it drops to 30 where as with this method, it was always >58FPS)

OR

- cap my FPS to 59 and turn vsync on in game

I am using the second method for BF 4 (although have turned triple buffering off) and notice absolutely no input lag, constant 59FPS.
 
zer said:
I tried enabling Adaptive v-sync @ Nvidia Control Panel but there WAS some tearing. Less compared to "vsync off" but still... Unplayable for me... Itried enabling Triple buffering but afaik this is only for OpenGL games , which are few....
So the question remains: How do we eliminate screen tearing and avoid frame drops at the same time???????
PS Imho triple buffering DOES help a bit....Opinions?
Click to expand...

In some games it doesn't work and you have to disable it and enable the games v-sync.
Borderlands is a good example of this
 
I think it might vary from person to person and game to game, personally i just want the best looking and smoothest game possible and the only way i can do that is by having a consistent frame rate, it's not always possible on my pc though so i have to compromise by tweaking the graphics settings to gain that consistency with frame rates so i don't have tearing stutter or lag. The problems i have found with some pc games is that i just want to enable all the graphics settings to ultra or as high as it can go, and this is where i find the frame rates are never consistent, it's up and down from any one scene within the game world i am playing in. The only other option is to purchase the best of the best gaming hardware but not all of us can afford that luxury. I'm only using two GTX 780's, an old i7-3820 cpu, 16gb ram, ssd and 1080p. V-SYNC is always off in my games, i just don't have the computing hardware power that i need to drive some of the newer games at their maximum graphics settings and have consistent 60 fps.
 
Alienfish360 said:
Another issue with vsync is that it will hold you looked at 60fps, if you drop 2 frames to 58fps, instead of having a barely noticeable drop, you actually get a massive frame drop down to 30fps, then picks back up to 60fps. Destroying any nice smooth gameplay.

VSync is only worthwhile if you are able to sit 100% above 60fps, and if you can, it's a tidier option just to frame limit to 60, if you can't keep above 60fps 100% of the time, you're probably better frame limiting to 30 and you won't have any tearing then either.

There are more ways to address tearing than V-Sync, which is a horrible, messy way of dealing with it.
Click to expand...

Frame limiting is not the same thing as v-sync. You can still get tearing with frame limiting.

Providing that your fps is always above your monitor refresh rate, vsync works perfectly fine, apart from a small amount of input lag, which depends on the game and how it implements vsync.
 
Goose said:
How does one look out for input lag?
Click to expand...

click the mouse or press a button in game, and see how long it takes for the game to carry out the action. if there is a noticeable delay between pressing the button and the game registering the command, that is input lag.
 
@ anyone who gets input lag with v-sync turned on - are you able to run the game at >60fps without v-sync, and what monitor are you using?

I mean, I've got tried 3 different monitors (including 60Hz ones), and I still don't experience any noticeable input lag with v-sync enabled on any of them :S

Is it HDTV's you are using where you experience input lag with v-sync enabled or something??

I just don't get it lol
 
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