distortion line creeping up my monitor

[simeon]

I remember this happening on one of my TV's a while back, but can't remember why.
(maybe that was also with games - console games - really can't remember.)

It's a distortion or blurr line about a half inch thick stretching horizontally across the screen and creeps up slowly from bottom to top, over and over. Only visible when I walk around in the game (DOOM3).

Is it my display (old Dell P990) ? and why only on games... doesn't do this on movie playback as far as I can tell.

Also, what refresh rate should I be running for games like DOOM3 and HL2?

thx

 

[Matthias99]

That's video tearing. It happens because your game is redrawing the screen at a higher rate than your monitor is capable of displaying, so you get portions of two frames, producing annoying motion artifacts in the output. This is only a problem playing 3D games, since video is usually at a much lower frame rate than your monitor is running at.

Enable vertical synchronization (VSYNC) in your video options to get rid of it. And/or raise the refresh rate of your monitor if you can.

 

[simeon]

thanks a lot!