Waht causes tearing in games?

[nx02nx02]

Tearing in games, mainly first person shooters and other games where the camera is moving fast drives me nuts, I love playing games on my computer but I can't seem to get rid of it, even 3d mark 2000 does it.
What causes this? Is it just a thing with computer games that there is no way to get rid of it and it just needs to be accepted?
It may be videocards that cause it but I dont know for sure.
I wonder if the GeForce 4 TI4600 does it?
It would be worth buying one if it would get rid of this damn tearing.
I really dont think it is just my computer, I have seen many PCs do this, infact, every PC I have ever seen playing a FPS game tears.
Can anyone offer any info on this subject please?
Here is my system specs.

Shutte AK35GTR mobo
256 MB PC2100 Corsair
AMD XP 1700+ @ 1467mhz
nVidia (Visiontek) GeForce 2 TI 64 MB DDR
Windows 2000 SP2
DX8.1
23.12 drivers
Vsync is on auto (I have tried all different settings with this)


Here is a big question,

Is it commonly known and accepted that PC games do this?
Or is there a way to stop the tearing?

 

[Biggs]

Dude, make sure you turn ON V-sync on your graphic card's display properties page.

 

[BFG10K]

Tearing is caused by disabled vsync or game stuttering.

 

[afireinsideme]

No matter what settings you use on the quake 3 engine you will always get tearing. The only way to get not get tearing is to turn on v-sync, BUT then theirs a console comand you must set the value to 1 (forgot). But this ruins your FPS and adverage FPS, so i don't do it.

 

[Comp625]

Personally, I don't notice any tearing in most games (even Quake 3) IF my FPS is above 60 or 70. If my FPS dips below 60, then I start noticing tearing. The tearing is caused by lack of frames being outputted to your monitor (eg slow video card, slow pc, etc.)

 

[sandorski]

afire: Though it messes with your testing scores, by turning on VSync you eliminate tearing and if you get really high (200ish fps) fps to begin with you won't even notice a difference. A constant 60-85+ fps(depending on refresh rate) is all you need.

 

[jmitchell]

Taking that a little further... If you 'get' 200 fps, and your monitors refresh rate is at 85hz, you are only seeing a maximum of 85 frames per second(total). As long as your frame rate stays at your monitors refresh rate and above with v-sync on, you should not be able to see any difference. Personally, I find tearing to be just as annoying as looking at a monitor running at 60hz... the broken images are practically painful to my brain after a while. Oh and looking back and actually reading it, sandorski said the same thing.. oh well