Vsync on or off?

[OliverDavis]

During the day/evening I have VSync Off as I prefer it being smoother. But at night VSync goes on as GPU is no longer as stressed and is therefor quieter for the GF in bed. (She needs much more sleep then I do. 4-6 Hours for me on a work night, 8-10 for her)

Its all really down to personal preference, there is no right or wrong answer, some some VSync alternatives to reduce drawbacks.

 

[Dannyboy84]

ok wes thnx il do that

 

[MireMare]

This thread is really useful, I've been tinkering with my vsync recently while playing Far Cry 3.

What does triple buffering actually do? Do most games turn it on if you 'let the application decide' in Nvidia preferences, or should you force it on to make sure?

 

[KingBrian]

Keep it off

 

[shankly1985]

*family fortunes incorrect answer sound*

What do you think the lure of adaptive Vsync is?

No it's true, if you don't enable vsync then your gpu and monitor will be out off sync with each other.
The only way to stop screen tear is to have the gpu and the monitor talk with each other and only giving frames when the display is ready, why do you think you get input lag?
Having no vsync even on 120hz they is zero synchronization between the two in end giving you screen tear.

 

[Rusty0611]

No it's true, if you don't enable vsync then your gpu and monitor will be out off sync with each other.
The only way to stop screen tear is to have the gpu and the monitor talk with each other and only giving frames when the display is ready, why do you think you get input lag?
Having no vsync even on 120hz they is zero synchronization between the two in end giving you screen tear.

You didn't answer the question about adaptive Vsync.

Vsync on its own causes considerable input lag which is removed without it there. You only need to test a 60 Hz screen with vsync on and then a 120 Hz screen without it on to see the input lag and difference in fluidity.

On 120 Hz screens, screen tearing is far less or non existent (as it is for me) below 120 FPS. Most games I play, time spent above 120 FPS is tiny so no benefit in hindering myself with Vsync being on.

 

[ShakeNBake]

I have it on all the time and don't notice any issues with input lag.

If you have a 60Hz monitor and you are running a game at over 60fps, there really is no reason to not have it on.

Vysnc effectively stops the graphics card from working harder than it has to in order to display the maximum frame rate that your monitor can support.

 

[Yaayuh!]

On 120 Hz screens, screen tearing is far less or non existent (as it is for me) below 120 FPS. Most games I play, time spent above 120 FPS is tiny so no benefit in hindering myself with Vsync being on.

Same here, 120/144hz there is no noticeable tearing. However, i could try Counterstrike Source and see what happens, would be running ridiculous frames per second.

 

[Gregster]

60Hz monitor and I noticed tearing (screen with a line across the middle)
120Hz monitor and never noticed tearing. (maybe lucky?)

 

[Solaris]

I always have it turned on, tearing sucks and I don't really feel input lag at all (maybe my reactions are so slow the lag doesn't affect me?)

 

[LtMatt]

Different strokes for different folks on this.

I use vsync with an fps cap and triple buffering so i get the best of all worlds. You get no tearing so you have the best looking image. You have no input lag thanks to the fps limit of 2 below the refresh rate. (1 is not enough to eliminate all input lag in my opinion) You have no stutter when fps drops below 60 as the extra buffer is there to provide smoothness. Doing it this also ensures extremely smooth consistent frame times.

Regarding 120hz screens and tearing, no idea as ive never used one. I've asked many people who have them, some say tearing still occurs and some say it doesn't.

One thing i do know is id rather have a 60hz 1440p monitor over a 120hz 1080p one. Image quality is extremely important to me, more so than a quicker response time, but again this is down to the individual.

 

[skyjawa]

So you force vsync on but cap the fps to 58 and this stops or greatly reduces lag? Might give that a bash....

 

[LtMatt]

So you force vsync on but cap the fps to 58 and this stops or greatly reduces lag? Might give that a bash....

Yes it also smooths out the frame rate and frame times so you don't get large jumps. In my eyes it provides the best image quality and the best game performance. But everyone is different so just try different approaches and see which one suits you best.

 

[Rusty0611]

Different strokes for different folks on this.

I use vsync with an fps cap and triple buffering so i get the best of all worlds. You get no tearing so you have the best looking image. You have no input lag thanks to the fps limit of 2 below the refresh rate. (1 is not enough to eliminate all input lag in my opinion) You have no stutter when fps drops below 60 as the extra buffer is there to provide smoothness. Doing it this also ensures extremely smooth consistent frame times.

Regarding 120hz screens and tearing, no idea as ive never used one. I've asked many people who have them, some say tearing still occurs and some say it doesn't.

One thing i do know is id rather have a 60hz 1440p monitor over a 120hz 1080p one. Image quality is extremely important to me, more so than a quicker response time, but again this is down to the individual.

There is other benefits of 120 Hz than just a removal of input lag and often you don't know what you're missing until you've swapped.

Like you say, it's up to each person what's more important: image quality of high res (2560*1440) or 120 Hz and the large jump in fluidity and smoothness.