Do you actually notice tearing on a 144hz panel?

Kashinoda · 11 Mar 2016 at 11:40

I just upgraded to a ASUS MG278Q (1440p,144hz, Freesync)

The difference from 60hz is night and day, and Freesync is amazing... at least I thought it was.

My friend says he never notices tearing since he upgraded to a 144hz panel without G-Sync/Freesync, he's particularly sensitive to tearing or artifacts just as I am.

I called him out as full of ****, turned Freesync off and honestly I'm struggling to find any instances of tearing.

I realise there's going to be less tearing as I don't have games constantly dipping over and under 60FPS, but surely I'd notice some?

I've tried with The Witcher 3, BF4, CSGO, Rocket League etc. with a range of settings (FPS caps, down-sampling from 4k to reduce FPS etc.) I can't see anything :confused:

Not complaining, tearing used to drive me crazy. But Freesync or no Freesync I struggle to see it since panel upgrade.

Rroff · 11 Mar 2016 at 11:54

If you are rendering reasonably fast and a bit above the refresh rate then the amount of tearing typically perceived will drop a lot but it will still be noticeable in some cases i.e. on BF4 I'll often not notice it for 70-80% of the game but in some places where for instance I'll poke my nose out with a tank and visually scan an enemy flag area left to right for targets there will be slightly distracting rippling with G-Sync off.

I also find it very useful for games that are capped at 60fps or have to be capped around that due to bugs, etc. as it results in a perfectly smooth playable game without any tearing or excessive input lag from V-Sync.

theMilitant · 11 Mar 2016 at 18:12

It makes sense that you'd notice tearing a lot less with higher refresh rate monitors because since the image is updated more quickly it provides less time for a greater tear to develop.

Disco_P · 12 Mar 2016 at 20:18

I wasn't particularly prone to tearing at 60Hz - I knew it was there but it didn't bother me.

However at 100Hz I have to really try to see if I am tearing. I presume it is the 10ms frames rather than 16ms frames. At 144Hz you only have a frame for 6.9ms so it'll be even less noticable.

However reading through your post, it seems you are looking for tearing at over 60Hz. Surely you'd only get tearing once you get above 144Hz as that is when frames are being made faster than they can be displayed.