vsync on or off

[tornadog]

I have been gaming for about 10 years now, and I always thought vsync should be off for better framerates. But now that I am gaming on my big screen TV, tearing is more noticeable. So now is it recommended to have vsync on. Is it better to turn vsync on in the game settings, or do it in the nvidia control panel?

 

[Durvelle27]

Vsync should be on it will lock your FPS at your mas refresh rate your tv supports and its help so not tearing or jittring happens because the high fps is tom much for the tv or monitor. and in game

 

[brokEN2]

I would say yes and no. Yes if you're just playing single player games and no if you're playing online games like shooters(css,CoD,etc) cause it can delay mouse movements.

 

[Red Storm]

vsync tends to always create input lag for me, so I never ever use it and by habit always look for it to turn off first thing.

 

[Dankk]

I always thought it was a better idea to turn it on in-game (but someone can correct me if I'm wrong).

Vsync fixes screen tearing, but it also introduces input lag.

Which do you prefer? A prettier game with laggy controls, or a slightly-less pretty game with more responsive controls?

I turn off Vsync in 90% of my games because I can't stand lag, so I deal with the screen tearing instead. But in some games Vsync is OK. It really depends on the game (and personal preference).

 

[sigurros81]

I always thought it was a better idea to turn it on in-game (but someone can correct me if I'm wrong).

Vsync fixes screen tearing, but it also introduces input lag.

Which do you prefer? A prettier game with laggy controls, or a slightly-less pretty game with more responsive controls?

I turn off Vsync in 90% of my games because I can't stand lag, so I deal with the screen tearing instead. But in some games Vsync is OK. It really depends on the game (and personal preference).

I can't shoot for shit with Vsync turned on in Battlefield 3, so I have it off, though I do not even notice the screentearing if there is any in the game.

 

[gorcorps]

I won't turn it on until I notice tearing. It'll vary by game and graphics settings.

 

[tornadog]

I was playing Spec Ops the Line and noticed some tearing in cutscenes with vsync off. When I turned it on, the tearing went away and there was no input lag. I guess thats cause the game is not that demanding on the graphics side. The only other games I have installed are Medal of Honor, Sim City 4 and Diablo 3.

 

[Gordon Freemen]

I would say yes and no. Yes if you're just playing single player games and no if you're playing online games like shooters(css,CoD,etc) cause it can delay mouse movements.

On the contrary if 60fps is going to keep you from "PWNING" in CODMW2 ect then you were never going to win in the first place. Also in old games like CSS & Day of Defeat, Quake, ect the difference in mouse input locked at 60fps vsync or max fps it my be a bit more relevant because those games seem to run quite a bit faster with vsync off for some weird reason. COD lol I just always keep the frames locked @ 60fps in that game because it is easy.

 

[Barfo]

I would say yes and no. Yes if you're just playing single player games and no if you're playing online games like shooters(css,CoD,etc) cause it can delay mouse movements.

this

 

[brandonb]

Off. I'm used to tearing and it no longer really bothers me. In the past, I used to always have vsync on. In some games which go at a really high frame rate (older games for example, which may go at hundreds of FPS) I turn it on to limit the power/heat of the video card but not because of any tearing issue.

 

[SaDiZTiKStyLeZ]

I've always had it on. Haven't really noticed a whole lot of input.

 

[Anteaus]

I use V-sync 100 percent of the time unless for some wierd reason a particular program doesn't obey my driver override. The catch is that you need to force triple buffering also, or there is definitely the potential for performance drops.

Triple buffering is not always an option in games so if your trying to use ingame v-sync and your having problems, trying forcing triple buffering at the driver level and see if it helps.

 

[The Boston Dangler]

i run v-sync off unless there's an issue

 

[EltonL]

I run it off because of weird UI issues and my inability to run everything at +60FPs @ 1600x1200. If not for that I'd keep it on.

 

[Kalmah]

I use V-sync 100 percent of the time unless for some wierd reason a particular program doesn't obey my driver override. The catch is that you need to force triple buffering also, or there is definitely the potential for performance drops.

Triple buffering is not always an option in games so if your trying to use ingame v-sync and your having problems, trying forcing triple buffering at the driver level and see if it helps.

Anandtech has a good article about triple buffering for those who don't know about it or understand it fully. http://www.anandtech.com/show/2794

I try to keep vsync + triple buffering on except when it's causing input lag on competitive games. Otherwise, I really prefer the visual quality upgrade it provides.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

Adaptive vsync baby. It's the wave of the future. I use it for most everything except some of the Source based games (CS:S mainly) where locking your FPS to 60 seems to react poorly with the netcode (but my GTX 680 is monstrous overkill for that game regardless).

 

[irishScott]

I won't turn it on until I notice tearing. It'll vary by game and graphics settings.

This. I can even stand a little tearing, but there's an arbitrary threshold where it just gets too distracting and I turn it on.

 

[thujone]

Adaptive vsync baby. It's the wave of the future. I use it for most everything except some of the Source based games (CS:S mainly) where locking your FPS to 60 seems to react poorly with the netcode (but my GTX 680 is monstrous overkill for that game regardless).

this.


i've been pretty impressed with the results i've seen from it.

 

[Anteaus]

Adaptive vsync baby. It's the wave of the future. I use it for most everything except some of the Source based games (CS:S mainly) where locking your FPS to 60 seems to react poorly with the netcode (but my GTX 680 is monstrous overkill for that game regardless).

I tried this for a little while. I think it's a cool idea but as of the current drivers it causing annoying stuttering in some situations. You can tell when it engages and disengages v-sync.

 

[postmortemIA]

Keep in mind that vsync can reduce your frame rate. If 60fps is not achievable, I've seen it reduce rate to 30fps.

So it would not make sense to turn it on if your system cannot maintain 60fps.

 

[cmdrdredd]

It depends on your system too. With SLI you are limiting your performance if you have vsync on most of the time.

 

[QuantumPion]

Off unless the tearing is noticeably bad.

 

[thejunglegod]

How do you define tearing? Can i get some screenshots please?

 

[Dankk]

How do you define tearing? Can i get some screenshots please?

Screen tearing can't be captured in screenshots, because it's an anomaly created directly by the GPU and not the game itself. You could find some off-screen videos on Youtube showing what it looks like though.

This is the best example I could find. Look really closely 10 seconds in, when the camera pans to the left. The center of the screen "tears" horizontally: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElE_8OY91FA

Typically the more motion there is, the more tearing becomes visible.