Refresh rate and FPS

[GeorgeYS]

I have a question about refresh rate and FPS in games,

My CRT monitor is capable of output 1024*768 resolution at 85Hz, isn't it means that the screen was being refreshed 85 times per second? And if I play a game with, say 125fps, will I feel the difference between 85fps and 125fps? If yes, where does that extra 40 frames being displayed?

 

[richleader]

It depends on whether or not you have vsync active. This is a less than super technical explanation, but it gets the general effect: If it is active, the card only draws on refreshes, meaning that in some cases depending on timing, you could have substantially less than 85fps being displayed externally. With vsync disabled, it will attempt to draw all of those 125 frames per second, but only portions of them will be displayed because of the 85hz cap. This leads to tearing in some cases, but effectively, you ARE seeing close to 125 frames, or at least more than if vsync was active..