Vsync?

[Compnewbie01]

With the computer I am currently building, I bought a Leadtek 6800GT for the video. I am wondering if Vsync is actually bad even the card is powerful enough. I heard it has something to do with keeping fps at the desktop's level, but do not fully understand.

 

[Unkno]

it keeps the fps at the same refreshrate (hz) of your monitor...depends if you really care about tearing or fps

 

[JBT]

With Vsync on there will be no tearing and the FPS will be limited to the refresh rate your monitor is set at. There is a bit of a performance penalty but if the FPS still stay above your refresh rate then your fine. Even if it dips a bit its not really noticable.
Some people don't mind tears while others dispise it, its all a subjective thing though.
With vsync off the card will push out as many FPS as it can. Which can cause a ripple effect on the screen. I don't mind it is some gamse while other can look like crap.

 

[VIAN]

With Vsync enabled, the graphics card waits for the monitor to refresh before starting a new frame. The key word there is 'wait'. If the graphics card waits, it's not doing anything, meaning you get less average frames per second. With Vysnc disabled, the graphics card draws as fast as possible. So, really, you are using your card optimally.

If this is all it did, many more people would choose Vsync off because it would give you performance benefits, but there are visual side effects that affect the choice, on or off, other than frame rate differences.

With Vsync enabled, you may experience slower mouse response time - if you do, it may be negligible anyway, so not too much of a problem. You also may notice jumps in frame rates. Say your refresh rate is 60Hz; you may notice jumps from 60fps down to 30fps. A jump like this is very distracting. With Vsync disabled, you may notice tearing, which is when part of the screen shows part of one frame and the other shows part of another frame. On an LCD, this is very noticeable, and I have to enable Vsync. On a CRT though, it is much less noticeable and I find it acceptable to disable Vsync.

Overall, on a CRT, I like Vsync off because my fps is more stable allowing a smoother gaming experience and tearing is minimal*, however Vsync on is more pleasing to my eyes. I do recommend Vsync on if you have a CRT that is able to display 120Hz at your chosen resolution. On an LCD however, I just can?t stand the amount of tearing and I have to enable Vsync and possibly lower settings to keep smooth gameplay.

*Tearing is minimal on a CRT once you are used to it, but going from Vsync on to Vsync off will allow you to see a lot of tearing that might frighten you away from Vsync off.

 

[JonnyBlaze]

i keep it off for fast paced fps games, especially when playing online. i turn it on for other types of games.

 

[imported_Truenofan]

quick question on the refresh rate thing, disabling vsync and running a higher frame rate that your refresh rate, what does that do(i play hl2 with 100+fps, while my refresh rate is 100hz on a crt).

 

[Matthias99]

Originally posted by: Truenofan
quick question on the refresh rate thing, disabling vsync and running a higher frame rate that your refresh rate, what does that do(i play hl2 with 100+fps, while my refresh rate is 100hz on a crt).

Running without VSync will always cause some amount of 'tearing' artifacts from the screen refresh and video card not being synchronized. It gets progressively worse as the framerate gets higher and higher compared to the refresh rate (since then you start seeing pieces of 3 or more frames on each screen refresh).

To see for yourself, lower the graphical settings/resolution in a game such that you're getting 120+FPS consistently (you may have to use an older game like Quake3 with a slower card), then set your refresh rate at 60Hz (or 150+FPS/75Hz, etc.). It's not pretty.

 

[SonicIce]

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=27&threadid=1634497&enterthread=y

 

[mdzapeer]

according to the graphs in the article http://graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/19981007/index-02.html and my own personal experience you get much smoother gameplay with vsync on i.e the frames remain relatively more constant than with vsync off.

also the results the guy took in the thread support this theory , otherwise the FPS are all over the place.

personally i would have vsync on and get constant 30 to 40 FPS then FPS which go from 40 to 85 to 60 in a few seconds.

 

[BFG10K]

I hate vsync because it can introduce mouse lag and it degrades performance much worse than a simple refresh rate cap.

But if you're going to use you should enable triple buffering as it'll stop the fractional framerate problem.

 

[DVad3r]

I've got a 2005fpw and BFG 7800 GTX card. I notice when playing HL2 that occassionaly Ill get a few white specks appear for a split second in random parts of the screen. This happens here and there and not often. Is this the tearing you guys are talking about because I am playing with V Sync off.

 

[Stretchman]

As a rule of thumb I generally keep it on. I use an Apple display and I find that I get slight tears or smudges if I don't turn it on. Sorta holds everything together, hehe.

Hightly recommened for most LCD configurations.