Can someone please shed some light.. G-Sync 165Hz

gc86

Gawd
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So I've been sitting here wracking my brain on this all day and I know it's probably been asked to death here on the forum but I'm in a dire need of an answer so here is my hypothetical scenario / question.

I've been gaming on an old Shimian monitor (2560x1440 60hz) and it's due time for an upgrade.

If I'm gaming on a 165Hz G-Sync monitor but my rig is outputting 60fps, that essentially means my monitors refresh rate is locked at 60hz as well? so hypothetically, if I'm not getting no more than 60fps at any given moment with my 1080Ti, wouldn't a 144hz or 165hz traditional monitor give a smoother experience? sans the screen tearing?

Hope this makes sense, thanks guys.
 
no, the smoothness would be worse because it wouldn't be synced. there would be less motion blur, however, as the screen would be updating more frequently non-synced.
 
So, G-Sync and Freesync technology introduces a different kind of smoothness? or rather having a GPU sync'ed with a monitors refresh rate, even if its in the 60-70hz range?

Basically, there is a distinct difference between sync'ed 60hz/60fps than and just plain 60hz/xxxfps
 
So, G-Sync and Freesync technology introduces a different kind of smoothness?
if your framerate is LOCKED to 60 fps, a 60 Hz monitor with vsync on is as smooth as a monitor with gsync on (gsync has a lot less input lag, though). what gsync and freesync do is give you vsync smoothness at any framerate (within the monitor's f/gsync range) without the input lag penalty because it does not refresh until the GPU sends it a new frame whereas normally the screen is simply refreshing constantly at a fixed interval. free/gsync are meant for playing games where you framerate is highly variable.
 
if your framerate is LOCKED to 60 fps, a 60 Hz monitor with vsync on is as smooth as a monitor with gsync on (gsync has a lot less input lag, though). what gsync and freesync do is give you vsync smoothness at any framerate without the input lag penalty. they're meant for playing games where you framerate is highly variable.

I thought so, so technically, if I were to get a G-Sync monitor but was limited to 60fps (from a hardware standpoint) I would have a consistently smoother gameplay experience with a traditional 144/165hz monitor no?
 
Smoothness is best when fps and hz are in sync (or when it's an integer multiple like 120fps on 60hz or the other way around). 60fps can be perfectly smooth with a screen running at 60hz but you can get similar smoothness on a 120hz or 240hz monitor too.

However 120 or 240fps on those monitors would be far smoother (on 60hz, 120 or 240fps wouldn't be smoother but would be more responsive which is still something). The point of G-sync/Freesync (let's call it VRR) is that you don't care anymore, no matter what framerate you're getting the monitor will adapt its refresh rate and make it perfectly smooth.
 
A friend of mine, who doesn't have an account here, says the following:

If frame rate locking is done via frame rate capping techniques, it's still very smooth.

If you lock frame rates via a frame rate capping utility, frame rates are always smooth on GSYNC and FreeSync. If you lock to 45fps or 77fps, the monitor is automatically running at 45Hz or 77Hz to match the locked frame rate. One great thing about both GSYNC and FreeSync is that it's very friendly to several kinds of frame rate capping.
 
I thought so, so technically, if I were to get a G-Sync monitor but was limited to 60fps (from a hardware standpoint) I would have a consistently smoother gameplay experience with a traditional 144/165hz monitor no?

If your maximum average framerate is 60fps, g-sync is great for you because there's no way your minimum framerate is near 60. If you have a regular 60hz monitor with vsync on, your framerate will spike between 60 fps and factors of 60. With vsync on the second you drop below 60fps, you're at 30fps, below that 20, then 15, and so on. This produces very noticeable stuttering. Obviously, you can turn v-sync off, and then you'll get tearing.

With g-sync, there's no tearing and if you drop to say 55 or 45 fps, then the refresh rate will adjust downwards and there will be neither stuttering nor tearing. Arguably g-sync is MOST noticeable at lower refresh rates/framerates, because both tearing and v-sync caused stuttering are most noticeable there.

If you buy a high refresh rate monitor and just use it with v-sync off and 60fps average, you'll get tearing and the higher refresh rate doesn't really help you since you're not updating frames fast enough for the monitor, it just keeps pushing out partial frames.
 
Honestly... just get the G-sync. It's amazing...

Anything above 30 frames and it will make sure you don't stutter or tear frames. If your system can only do 60 max then so be it... but it will still be perfectly synced.

G-sync means your framerate is "locked" dynamically. If you're outputting 59 for a split second, that's the same as your monitor. Ditto for if suddenly do more than 60fps...

The only change is when you exceed your monitor's refresh rate in which case g-sync turns off and v-sync takes over.
 
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