vsync on or off?

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lodingi

2[H]4U
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Aug 24, 2003
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hello everyone. i was wondering if it's best to have vsync on or off during gaming. i would appreciate your coments.
 
On. People that have it off and have a LCD are retarded.
 
aznx said:
On. People that have it off and have a LCD are retarded.
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Hm. I guess i'm retarded. What does it do again? And won't you take a hit in FPS?
 
aznx said:
On. People that have it off and have a LCD are retarded.
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Really? I always keep it off and never experience tearing on my LCD! So am I retarded?

Anyways ignoring his ignorant post, if you experience any kind of tearing, then turn it on. Though when turning it on, you may have a decrease of your FPS. Depends on what card you have and how demanding the game is. For me, I keep it off, as I never experience any kind of tearing on my LCD, so why lose some FPS when you dont need it?
 
For the most part vsync is on if my GFX card can maintain 60 fps. However, in games like BF2 I leave it off since I don't really notice very much tearing on my LCD. And it keep my framerates up.
 
Adionik said:
Hm. I guess i'm retarded. What does it do again? And won't you take a hit in FPS?
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How can you take a "real" hit in FPS if your monitor defaults say 60hz..that's 60 refreshes a second. If your card is outputting say 200fps..you're still only getting 60 refreshes. Those 140fps go to waste.
 
Lazy_Moron said:
Really? I always keep it off and never experience tearing on my LCD! So am I retarded?

Anyways ignoring his ignorant post, if you experience any kind of tearing, then turn it on. Though when turning it on, you may have a decrease of your FPS. Depends on what card you have and how demanding the game is. For me, I keep it off, as I never experience any kind of tearing on my LCD, so why lose some FPS when you dont need it?
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Maybe your eyes are slow, or depending on the game, you won't/hard to notice.

Does it REALLY matter that you're getting 200fps instead of 60fps on a LCD monitor? Not really. :eek:
 
thanks for the responses. does more fps benefit you during multiplayer game play?
 
aznx said:
Maybe your eyes are slow, or depending on the game, you won't/hard to notice.

Does it REALLY matter that you're getting 200fps instead of 60fps on a LCD monitor? Not really. :eek:
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Before you makeanother ignorant post, where in the hell did you pull 200 and 60 from?
 
I dislike vsync, its does not look as fluid or smooth to me, I only get tearing when running outside of my screens native res of 1920x1200, and thats only sometimes. I keep vsync off at all times.
 
bLaCktIGErs91 said:
Before you makeanother ignorant post, where in the hell did you pull 200 and 60 from?
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200fps was random.
60hz was off my lcd screen (change it according to your screen's default refresh).
 
lodingi said:
thanks for the responses. does more fps benefit you during multiplayer game play?
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generally...it keeps it smoother and quicker
 
Meh, I keep VSYNC on because I get bad tearing without it.
If the tearing bothers you turn it on, if not, leave it off. There is not "correct" setting. Choose whatever looks better to you.
 
I usually prefer to have it on, whether I'm getting 200 fps or 40. I always see visual tearing during fast movement, and I really don't notice anything smoother after 50 fps or so.

I don't know the technicalities behind how vsync works, but to be basic, it removes visual tearing and limits the maximum frames per second to the refresh rate of your monitor. Most LCDs have a refresh of 60 Hz, so that'd be the max fps you could get. My CRT has a refresh rate of 85 Hz @ 1600x1200, so the max fps I can get would also be 85.

For CRT monitors, it looks best to have your fps and refresh rate exactly the same. For example, if you're playing a game that can easily hit 60 fps, and have the refresh at 60 fps, it will look REALLY smooth. That's because the screen flickers 60 times in 1 second (aka running at 60 Hz), and every flicker gets a frame. So you'll always see the image so long as the fps is equal it the refresh rate. However, if you have a game that runs at 60 fps and the monitor's refresh is at 85, it'll look less fluid. That's because the monitor is "flickering" more times than frames being displayed. It might look a bit jumpy.
 
I usually leave it off. If I see a lot of tearing on my 1905FP LCD then I'll turn it on but that's pretty rare.

I don't think there's really a "right or wrong" answer.
 
lodingi said:
hello everyone. i was wondering if it's best to have vsync on or off during gaming. i would appreciate your coments.
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Hi. Like others have said, it is not a definate plus unless you can actually identify the tearing. finding it depends on your monitor and other smaller facors like contast and sharpness (from my experiences).
 
Krayzie135 said:
sort of a noob question but...

what is tearing?


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Tearing is an artifact, mostly seen on CRT monitors, because of VSync being off. VSync is a method by which the frame in the video card's back buffer is released in sync with the monitor's refresh rate. This makes it so that each frame coming from the video card coincides with the monitor redrawing the screen. When VSync is off frames can be released from the back buffer as fast as the card can output them. When this rate exceeds the refresh rate, you get tearing.

A CRT screen has phosphors that are excited (made to glow) when struck by the electron gun inside the monitor. The phosphors continue to glow for a short period of time after the gun strikes the phosphor; this is also why people get headaches from low refresh rates, as the phosphors begin to fade before the gun scans them again, causing a fading then brightening effect that looks sort of like a strobe light.

Tearing occurs because the output from the video card exceeds the refresh rate of the monitor, usually be a fairly good margin. For example, the monitor draws frame 1, but by the time the gun gets to the bottom of the screen and returns to the top to draw the next frame, if the video card is releasing frame 4 from the backbuffer, the lower part of the screen is still retaining part of the image from frame 1 as the monitor begins drawing frame 4. If all of the objects on the screen are static and not moving you don't notice tearing, but moving objects show the difference between these two frames and as a tearing effect.
 
Add me to the retarded list, dont really notice tearing a lot. The performance hit is just too big for me to put it on.
 
Definately On,

on the 37" tearing is too noticable to leave vsync off
 
Juic3 said:
Add me to the retarded list, dont really notice tearing a lot. The performance hit is just too big for me to put it on.
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Performance hit of what? If your monitor can't display it, it doesn't really matter if your videocard is rendering it or not.
 
I also need to go to the retarded faction, I ussually have it on because I dont like tearing, but I played COD2 for a while this morning and I noticed "0" tearing, and I have an LCD, looked great though...
 
This is why I like my CRT viewsonic that does 240hz at 640x480 or 200hz at 800x600.Thus I can pull 240fps in games. It pwns. :p
 
I keep vsync on when playing World of Warcraft or Final Fantasy XI or several other games I play regularly because I get horrible tearing on my Viewsonic VP912 without it, using a digital input @ 60Hz.

On WoW in particular, with vsync off, I can get 75-80fps at 1280x1024, but the picture doesn't flow smoothly and I get a much more fluid movement if I turn on vsync and triple buffering, locking the monitor at 60fps max. My eyes are really sensitive to any kind of blurring or tearing when gaming and it gives me a headache, so it makes a big difference to me.

You might not notice it though and can leave vsync turned off. If you use a CRT monitor you probably won't notice any tearing and can leave vsync off. An LCD monitor is where you'll notice the biggest difference. You normally get a little higher fps if you keep it off, but the trade off can be annoying if you notice your visual quality degraded.
 
On, always on. I for one cannot stand "Visual Tearing" I leave it on in every game. Unfortunately, leaving it on limits the frames per second, matching it to that of your monitors refresh rate. Luckily for me my CRT's refresh rate is 100hz at 1600x1200. :p
 
great info everyone. thanks again. what is the advantage of using a higher resolution when gaming? i am using a mitsubishi diamond pro 2060u. it can handle 1600x1200 @ 85hz.
 
aznx said:
Performance hit of what? If your monitor can't display it, it doesn't really matter if your videocard is rendering it or not.
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Hmm it drops from 10 to 20 fps when I turn vsync on, thats a perfomance hit.
 
lodingi said:
great info everyone. thanks again. what is the advantage of using a higher resolution when gaming? i am using a mitsubishi diamond pro 2060u. it can handle 1600x1200 @ 85hz.
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Higher resolution will give you more of a viewing area and sharper quality. Because there are so many more pixels for the image the image will be way sharper and look way better than say a 1024x768 res.
 
It depends on the game I am running that determines if I run V-Sync or not. Generally though with dual 7900GTX's, tearing occurs on most all games at almost all resolutions. At least up to the resolutions my LCD can display. (1600x1200). Some games like Doom 3 and Quake IV don't need it as they are FPS capped anyway. So it doesn't make sense to run with it on and that way you'll always hit the FPS cap instead if having it drop occasionally.
 
i leave it off...tearing on my 19 inch trinitron isn't very noticeable or annoying.
 
Depends on the game. If I'm playing competitively or a game where fps really matter I disable vsync. If I'm playing a game that is slow paced and more about eye candy then I turn it on.

E.G. Unreal 2004 = Off

Doom 3 (offline)= On
 
Lord_Exodia said:
Depends on the game. If I'm playing competitively or a game where fps really matter I disable vsync. If I'm playing a game that is slow paced and more about eye candy then I turn it on.

E.G. Unreal 2004 = Off

Doom 3 (offline)= On
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so do more fps = better online gaming?
 
Doom 3 is capped at 60 FPS internally, so unless your refresh rate <60hz then you should turn VSYNC on, because you will incur no performance hit.
 
this question should almost be expanded to ..

do you run with low or high picture quality?

since vsync is essentially only 1 part of that equation..

i wonder how many actually run their Nvidia/ATI cards with the performance optimizations over to High Quality instead of Performance..

i personally run with it on High Quality for the same reason i run with vsync on..
 
Lazy_Moron said:
Really? I always keep it off and never experience tearing on my LCD! So am I retarded?

Anyways ignoring his ignorant post, if you experience any kind of tearing, then turn it on. Though when turning it on, you may have a decrease of your FPS. Depends on what card you have and how demanding the game is. For me, I keep it off, as I never experience any kind of tearing on my LCD, so why lose some FPS when you dont need it?
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so are you?
 
Oline61 said:
Doom 3 is capped at 60 FPS internally, so unless your refresh rate <60hz then you should turn VSYNC on, because you will incur no performance hit.
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But with VSync on, if you're at 60 fps and then the frame rate drops, it doesn't just drop a few frames: it goes straight down to 30 fps!!

Turn on triple buffering with vsync. I don't know the exact technical details, and it doesn't seem to work with every game. But when it works, such as Doom 3, the nice tear-free vsync will work without the automatic halfs in FPS. The drops will be minimal again.
 
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