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Why does freesync not work sometimes?

SkeeterUK

SkeeterUK

SkeeterUK

Soldato
Joined
24 Oct 2005
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16,473
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North East
I find with my AOC Q3279VWFD8 freesync monitor with vega 56 a bit of a useless gimmick because i dont think i really have the benefits of freesync as i dont think it really works.

In x4 foundations, i have to have vsync on in order to get no tearing, if i disable it and in the drivers but keep within the 48 - 75 fps limit i still get tearing, well isnt freesync suppose to make it butter smooth and no tearing? So what gives? Thats a vulkan title tho i dont think api should affect the freesync ability should it.

Also gta sa, its a oldie but ive just been trying it and with a chill fps limit of 50-53 i get tearing with frame limiter off ingame and always off vsync in drivers. Why isnt freesync working. I had to enable vsync to stop the tearing even tho its the same fps limit with chill.

Im sure other games are like this too that i play. As generally ive felt that vsync is having to be on to stop tearing so i just put in the drivers usually always on unless im testing to see if freesync works.

The demo of the windmill seems to show it works but thats about the only place it would. I dont honestly think freesync works unless u have vsync on, which kinda negates the point of the tech tbh.

And yes ive tried all the configs in games vsync off ingame vsync on in drivers, vsync off here vsync on or off there, tried different fps limits, made sure windows is 75hz blah blah.

Is it the drivers? Is it my monitor not doing freesync properly, pff who knows.

How is your experience with freesync? Does it actually work, do you have to have vsync on to not get tearing or can you get smooth tear free gameplay without it and be in the limits of freesync.

Im sure ppl with monitors that can do above 75hz are fine so maybe limit the responses to those suck with 48-75hz monitors if poss.

Even tried cnc thing to get freesync range to 38 which didnt seem to cause any ill effects but i decided nah i rather just have it work as intended so 48-75hz.

Oh, could it just be a bad engine? Some games seem smooth as silk like a modern title like division 2. Forza on xbox pass for pc seems good too. Cant recall if i had vsync on in those tho, probs did.
 
can you check on your monitor if the refresh rate is actually changing in the games you get tearing? Iv had some issues with it not activating in certain games when I have a 2nd monitor plugged in. sometimes going windowed then back to fullscreen fixes it.
But really you shouldn't have to do anything to get it to work once enabled bar keeping the fps between the limits!
 
Mine doesnt show the refresh rate on the monitors osd fluctuating it just says freesync on one of the hor or ver lines i think. True i dont test it when in a game but on desktop but im pretty sure it wont be different.

Just checked, yeah in osd for my monitor on extra settings it just shows for h or v forgot which the word freesync, the other says 111 i think. It doesnt show the current hz as a counter in the corner of the screen or anything.
 
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My OSD doesn't update itself either but it does Everytime you open the OSD menu. So I can open it a few times while in game to check it has dropped to the frame rate
 
Hmm using enhanced sync but limiting fps with chill to 50-53 ish i did notice in the osd that the H freq wasnt the normal 111 but 89 which is 22 down so 75 down 22 would be about 53. This seemed to work in x4 foundations. I just tried enhanced sync with no vsync ingame for gta iv but i get tearing and hor freq was 111 not 89 like before so im not sure why that is. Maybe cos of the launcher? I also think it might be cos i disabled full screen optimizations so there true fullscreen, who knows. Now i want to test with enhanced sync and limiting fps in chill to see if monitor says 89 again in other games. As i think that means freesync is then working.

Why i have to do all this instead of just a on off switch which drivers have but doesnt seem to work, i dunno. No one said vsync or enh sync had to be on as well...
 
I think the issue for yourself is the monitor small window for Freesync to actually be useful.

AMD say for best experience to use vsync with freesync when the game is capped with vsync the latency is massively reduced because of Freesync syncing the frames with the hertz of the monitor.

Capping the frame rate doesn't always work with freesync when you capping towards the high end of the window because you actually bounce out of sync and will get tearing.
For example on my monitor 40/144 if I cap the frame rate I found its best to cap around 130hz this makes sure that I stay within my window of Freesync.

The other issue without using vsync on a small window you get tearing if you also come under the freesync window.

So 48/75 your frame rate will bounce around so much Freesync will have a hard time staying within that window so in your case I would enable vsync and cap frame rate at 70fps
 
I was trying to cap so it doesnt bounce around in chill min and max the same value. Rather needed in gta sa for example as too high fps the physics goes off and not nice to play. Similar with gta 4 to a degree. I think 50 was a good value, didnt do any capping near 75 as the fps is too high for my needs tbh, i.e no need for quicker fps just stable fps and one that freesync would work with so i picked 50. It stayed there.

Anyhow tried poker night at the inventory 2, the osd hor was at 111 no matter what settings in driver i tried to get freesync working. Tried mass effect 1 too just now, nothing was making the hor hz go down just stuck on 111. Grrr.
 
SkeeterUK said:
I was trying to cap so it doesnt bounce around in chill min and max the same value. Rather needed in gta sa for example as too high fps the physics goes off and not nice to play. Similar with gta 4 to a degree. I think 50 was a good value, didnt do any capping near 75 as the fps is too high for my needs tbh, i.e no need for quicker fps just stable fps and one that freesync would work with so i picked 50. It stayed there.

Anyhow tried poker night at the inventory 2, the osd hor was at 111 no matter what settings in driver i tried to get freesync working. Tried mass effect 1 too just now, nothing was making the hor hz go down just stuck on 111. Grrr.
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50hz is very close to the floor of your Freesync window. What happens if you cap the frame rate at 60fps or 65fps do you still get tearing?
 
first things first is to get the monitor to sho me in osd that it can change from 111 on the hor frew, it did once on x4 today but now i cant get it to again grr or other games. Yes i have tried different ranges in chill from 50 to 53 from 50 to 60 and more. Getting sick of testing. But i want to know from others how do get freesync working, what driver settings do you use to get it working per game profile. How do you know freesync works when if ur using vsync or enhanced sync maybe urs doesnt work eith as vsyncs doing its job with tearing fix but freesync isnt doing it just normal vsync is.
 
I had tearing when I used Freesync, especially in Overwatch, unless I had vsync on too. After getting fed up with Freesync due to multiple issues I just turned it off and in the vast majority of games I honesly can't tell - and that's with VSync forced on in the drivers. And at the end of the day, that's what matters. Saved my the stress and annoyance of something not working when it should and trying to figure out why!
 
SkeeterUK said:
first things first is to get the monitor to sho me in osd that it can change from 111 on the hor frew, it did once on x4 today but now i cant get it to again grr or other games. Yes i have tried different ranges in chill from 50 to 53 from 50 to 60 and more. Getting sick of testing. But i want to know from others how do get freesync working, what driver settings do you use to get it working per game profile. How do you know freesync works when if ur using vsync or enhanced sync maybe urs doesnt work eith as vsyncs doing its job with tearing fix but freesync isnt doing it just normal vsync is.
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I don't use vsync because my window for sync is big enough for frame rate changes. I recommend you to use Vsync because of the small window your monitor supports, Freesync works with Vsync Freesync removes the issues that came with vsync like motion judder and input lag so long you within the 48/75 you have nothing to worry about try it and see how you get on :D
 
Do you use multiple monitors by any chance? Most of the time Freesync doesnt work for me unless the monitor that I want to freesync is the only one turned on.
I have a 144hz Freesync monitor and have used it with a 120hz secondary monitor, a 60hz secondary monitor, and now I have a 55" freesync TV and its the same on all of them. If I want freesync on the 144hz monitor I have to turn off the TV, if I want freesync on the TV I have to turn off the monitor for it to work.

Vsync should not be needed at all, that means it is not working.

Not sure if its an issue with Vega cards only.
 
Just the 1 monitor.

Yes i can use vsync but then freesync isnt working as if say my fps ingame was 65 and i go on my monitor i bet it says hor freq is still 111 so my monitor isnt switching the refresh rate dynamically based on fps.
 
greatash said:
Do you use multiple monitors by any chance? Most of the time Freesync doesnt work for me unless the monitor that I want to freesync is the only one turned on.
I have a 144hz Freesync monitor and have used it with a 120hz secondary monitor, a 60hz secondary monitor, and now I have a 55" freesync TV and its the same on all of them. If I want freesync on the 144hz monitor I have to turn off the TV, if I want freesync on the TV I have to turn off the monitor for it to work.

Vsync should not be needed at all, that means it is not working.

Not sure if its an issue with Vega cards only.
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No issue with my two monitors main 1440p 144hz freesync another one a 1080p 120hz monitor none freesync.

If you TV supports HDR and your monitor doesn't that will mess with freesync on the monitor. My TV a 4k HDR none freesync if I use the TV freesync on my monitor doesn't work I believe its because my monitor isn't Freesync 2 HDR
 
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