Screen tearing: PC vs Consoles?

[Gdourado]

Hello, how are you?

For the past year, g-sync has ben one of the frentista news on the gaming world.

The promise to eliminaste screen tearing on games and provide a smooth gaming experience got lots of excitement.

Lately, free sync has been getting a lot of attention also,

But how about consoles?

Do consoles like the PS4 also suffer from screen tearing?

Or because consoles are designed to be used I a TV and not a PC gaming monitor with high resolutions and high refresh rates, are they free of screen tearing?

I am not really a console gamer, so I don't know this.

Can you share your experiences?

Cheers!

[Tim Drake]

Consoles do not suffer from Screen Tear as they are locked at 30/60fps by VSync which is why they have such consistent FPS.

 

This is a huge disadvantage going from console to PC though, one that I noticed instantly.

[SeanBond]

consoles won't usually suffer because they can't go beyond 60fps. However I have seen it in bioshock infinite because in that game you can uncap your frame rate, it still won't usually go above 60 unless you plant your face on a door but aside from that screen tearing isn't an issue. Again because they are not capable of above 60fps.

[Nexxus]

Consoles do not suffer from Screen Tear as they are locked at 30/60fps by VSync which is why they have such consistent FPS.

 

This is a huge disadvantage going from console to PC though, one that I noticed instantly.

lol consoles absolutely suffer from screen tearing, GT5 has some of the worst screen tearing ive seen when you get a car at speed

[cesrai]

For me never happened, neither on my PS2,PS4,Wii, never happened to me, but on PC man those lines look amazing and very straight.

[Tim Drake]

lol consoles absolutely suffer from screen tearing, GT5 has some of the worst screen tearing ive seen when you get a car at speed

No it doesn't, I have never had screen tear while playing console.

 

Not even slightly noticable from what I have seen.

 

How can it screen tear if it can't go above 60fps?

 

Also, driving at high speeds results in lower fps, not higher fps..

[Gdourado]

So, consoles run their games at either 30fps or 60fps?

On the PC, before the 120-144hz monitors, 60hz was pretty standard, so 60fps can be fine.

But on the PC side, 30fps is usually considered a very slow and laggy gaming experience.

How can consoles get away with that?

Does it have to do with the fact that you usually sit farther away from a tv than from a PC monitor?

Cheers!

[cesrai]

So, consoles run their games at either 30fps or 60fps?

On the PC, before the 120-144hz monitors, 60hz was pretty standard, so 60fps can be fine.

But on the PC side, 30fps is usually considered a very slow and laggy gaming experience.

How can consoles get away with that?

Does it have to do with the fact that you usually sit farther away from a tv than from a PC monitor?

Cheers!

I don't consider 30FPS laggy at all and not all people do too, as 30FPS is considered a playable experience by reviews.

[Aniallation]

How can it screen tear if it can't go above 60fps?

 

Also, driving at high speeds results in lower fps, not higher fps..

 

Screen tearing is when FPS is not equal to refresh rate, or a half divisible of it. 

 

I can definitely agree with screen tearing in GT5. When going fast there are frame rate dips which causes screen tearing. Vsync does not mean that there won't be tearing if there is an FPS dip.

[GoldSrc]

In Bioshock you could disable V-Sync, there was some screen tearing here and there, but man, the smoothness of the game without it was amazing.

That's the only game on consoles that I know you can disable V-Sync, all other games have V-Sync on.

[Tim Drake]

Screen tearing is when FPS is not equal to refresh rate, or a half divisible of it. 

 

I can definitely agree with screen tearing in GT5. When going fast there are frame rate dips which causes screen tearing. Vsync does not mean that there won't be tearing if there is an FPS dip.

Ah okay I wasn't sure, thanks.

 

I never experienced screen tear when I play GTA V..

[Aniallation]

I don't consider 30FPS laggy at all and not all people do too, as 30FPS is considered a playable experience by reviews.

Solid 30 is no problem, but again, it's the dips. Most of the games on my laptop get around 30FPS which is perfectly fine when it actually is around 30 and not dropping when a bunch of shit is blowing up on-screen. From 30FPS dipping down to 20, is MUCH more noticeable and annoying then 60 down to 40.

[cesrai]

Screen tearing is when FPS is not equal to refresh rate, or a half divisible of it. 

 

I can definitely agree with screen tearing in GT5. When going fast there are frame rate dips which causes screen tearing. Vsync does not mean that there won't be tearing if there is an FPS dip.

Will then what is V-sync for ?? it was supposed to eliminate tearing wasn't it ?? when frame dips and V-sync is on you get stuttering not tearing.

 

I'm right or I'm missing something ??

[Aniallation]

Will then what is V-sync for ?? it was supposed to eliminate tearing wasn't it ?? when frame dips and V-sync is on you get stuttering not tearing.

Stuttering and tearing are different things. If you had a 144Hz monitor, 100 FPS is not stuttering, it's still very smooth to the human eye, but there will be tearing as the GPU and monitor aren't synchronized.

 

Vsync prevents tearing caused by having FPS above the screen's refresh rate, but can do nothing for when FPS dips below it, that's what G-Sync and FreeSync are for.

[othertomperson]

Consoles do not suffer from Screen Tear as they are locked at 30/60fps by VSync which is why they have such consistent FPS.

 

This is a huge disadvantage going from console to PC though, one that I noticed instantly.

 

Assuming the console can run at a constant 30 fps without frame drops. Which usually isn't the case.

 

 

Stuttering and tearing are different things. If you had a 144Hz monitor, 100 FPS is not stuttering, it's still very smooth to the human eye, but there will be tearing as the GPU and monitor aren't synchronized.

 

Vsync prevents tearing caused by having FPS above the screen's refresh rate, but can do nothing for when FPS dips below it, that's what G-Sync and FreeSync are for.

 

There would be stuttering when gaming at 100fps on a 144hz monitor. Stuttering is caused by uneven frame times. Whether the frame times are long enough for you to notice them is another issue.

[Tim Drake]

 

Assuming the console can run at a constant 30 fps without frame drops. Which usually isn't the case.

I had my console for 6 years and it rarely happened, at least until games starting getting more demanding in the last 6-8 months of game releases.

[cesrai]

Stuttering and tearing are different things. If you had a 144Hz monitor, 100 FPS is not stuttering, it's still very smooth to the human eye, but there will be tearing as the GPU and monitor aren't synchronized.

 

Vsync prevents tearing caused by having FPS above the screen's refresh rate, but can do nothing for when FPS dips below it, that's what G-Sync and FreeSync are for.

Well no shit m8, I know there different things, a way of eliminating tearing is to turn V-sync on and when the FPS dips you get stuttering I'm wrong here ??? 

[cesrai]

Solid 30 is no problem, but again, it's the dips. Most of the games on my laptop get around 30FPS which is perfectly fine when it actually is around 30 and not dropping when a bunch of shit is blowing up on-screen. From 30FPS dipping down to 20, is MUCH more noticeable and annoying then 60 down to 40.

Can't disagree but that doesn't happened like rarely to me. 

[LAwLz]

Screen tearing = When your computer is rendering more frames than you monitor can display, which causes two frames to appear at the same time (top and bottom of your screen are 2 different moments). This will only happen on consoles if your TV does not support 60Hz (I have seen some 50Hz TVs) and you play one of the few console games that are 60FPS.

Edit: I have heard that this can happen when your monitor and GPU is out of sync as well, but I have not seen this happen myself.

 

 

Stuttering = When your FPS can not be evenly divided by your monitor's refresh rate. This happens all the time in movies since they are ~24FPS. Your monitor has to display 60 FPS, but you can't divide 60 by 24 evenly. So what happens instead is this:

Red indicates one frame, and blue indicates the next frame.

Frame 1 is displayed for 2 monitor updates.

Frame 2 is displayed for 3 monitor updates.

Frame 3 is displayed for 2 monitor updates.

Frame 4 is displayed for 3 monitor updates.

etc...

etc...

 

This causes the frames to be on the screen an uneven amount of time, and that's what we experience as stuttering. You can see this very clearly in panning shots.

This is fixed with Vsync because it forces the FPS to be an even multiplier of your monitor's refresh rate. This can happen in console games if the FPS is not locked and/or not stable (for example Unity dipped below 30 FPS quite often).

As soon as your FPS is not evenly dividable by your monitors refresh rate, you get stuttering.

[othertomperson]

Screen tearing = When your computer is rendering more frames than you monitor can display, which causes two frames to appear at the same time (top and bottom of your screen are 2 different moments). This will only happen on consoles if your TV does not support 60Hz (I have seen some 50Hz TVs) and you play one of the few console games that are 60FPS.

 

 

Stuttering = When your FPS can not be evenly divided by your monitor's refresh rate. This happens all the time in movies since they are ~24FPS. Your monitor has to display 60 FPS, but you can't divide 60 by 24 evenly. So what happens instead is this:

Untitled.png

Red indicates one frame, and blue indicates the next frame.

Frame 1 is displayed for 2 monitor updates.

Frame 2 is displayed for 3 monitor updates.

Frame 3 is displayed for 2 monitor updates.

Frame 4 is displayed for 3 monitor updates.

etc...

etc...

 

This causes the frames to be on the screen an uneven amount of time, and that's what we experience as stuttering. You can see this very clearly in panning shots.

This is fixed with Vsync because it forces the FPS to be an even multiplier of your monitor's refresh rate. This can happen in console games if the FPS is not locked and/or not stable (for example Unity dipped below 30 FPS quite often).

As soon as your FPS is not evenly dividable by your monitors refresh rate, you get stuttering.

 

Sometimes consoles' fps drops below 30fps. I've seen a PS3 playing Skyrim, for instance, and it's clearly dropping to about 15fps at times, and is quite often at I would say about 25. Tearing absolutely does happen when your fps drops below your monitor refresh rate (or even when they are the same but just out of sync).

 

You can test this by running something demanding with Adaptive V-sync enabled.

[SeanBond]

lol consoles absolutely suffer from screen tearing, GT5 has some of the worst screen tearing ive seen when you get a car at speed

Someone does not know what causes screen tearing... it's being above the refresh rate of your monitor or tv, which is pretty much impossible considering most games are locked at 30fps and the ones that are not are locked at 60. I don't think there has ever been a console game ever made without vsynced at 60 at the very most.

[LAwLz]

Sometimes consoles' fps drops below 30fps. I've seen a PS3 playing Skyrim, for instance, and it's clearly dropping to about 15fps at times, and is quite often at I would say about 25. Tearing absolutely does happen when your fps drops below your monitor refresh rate (or even when they are the same but just out of sync).

 

You can test this by running something demanding with Adaptive V-sync enabled.

Are you sure you mean tearing happens, and not stuttering happens? Maybe I am wrong, but I don't see how it would be possible for tearing to occur if your monitor is faster than your GPU.

You need 2 frames during 1 panel refresh for tearing to happen. If your monitor's refresh cycle is slower than the time it takes for your GPU to draw 1 frame then it is impossible to get 2 frames drawn during 1 panel refresh.

[othertomperson]

Someone does not know what causes screen tearing... it's being above the refresh rate of your monitor or tv, which is pretty much impossible considering most games are locked at 30fps and the ones that are not are locked at 60. I don't think there has ever been a console game ever made without vsynced at 60 at the very most.

 

Someone does indeed, but it doesn't seem to be Nexxus... have a play with adaptive vsync, or turn vsync off and simply force a maximum framerate of 60 in something like RivaTuner. There will be tearing.

 

 

Are you sure you mean tearing happens, and not stuttering happens? Maybe I am wrong, but I don't see how it would be possible for tearing to occur if your monitor is faster than your GPU.

You need 2 frames during 1 panel refresh for tearing to happen.

 

 

Either can happen. Fundamentally, they are both symptoms of the same problem. Uneven frametimes, but having the whole screen ready upon refreshes results in stuttering; uneven frametimes resulting in partial frames being refreshed causes tearing. In videogames they only have to be asynchronous to get tearing.

 

If a GPU is refreshing at an irrational fraction of the monitor's refresh rate, then you will still get a new frame sent during the monitor's refresh.

 

Edit: tried to clarify what I meant.

[cesrai]

Sometimes consoles' fps drops below 30fps. I've seen a PS3 playing Skyrim, for instance, and it's clearly dropping to about 15fps at times, and is quite often at I would say about 25. Tearing absolutely does happen when your fps drops below your monitor refresh rate (or even when they are the same but just out of sync).

 

You can test this by running something demanding with Adaptive V-sync enabled.

Adaptive V-sync is Nvidia exclusive, you use only V-sync not adaptive V-sync on console and other GPUs.

[othertomperson]

Adaptive V-sync is Nvidia exclusive, you use only V-sync not adaptive V-sync on console and other GPUs.

 

And?