Which poison do I pick? (v-sync, g-sync, ULMB, etc)

[Shivaxi]

Heya, I'm new to these forums but I'm not new to gaming, and I have a bit of a conundrum on my hands I am hoping perhaps I will be able to resolve or at least come to some sort of conclusion here, as at this point I have tried just about everything and researched as much as I could.

 

My current Specs:

• Windows 10 Pro
• i9-9900k OCed 5.0ghz
• RTX 2080ti
• 32gbs DDR4
• Monitor is an Asus ROG PG278QR

 

My conundrum:

 

Ideally what I am trying to do, is get the best of all worlds out of this computer and this monitor.  I want to run ULMB (ultra low motion blur), have no stuttering, no screen tearing, and no input lag.  It seems however that these 4 things are impossible to do all together at the same time, and here's why:

 

• No V-Sync:  No stutter, no input lag, can run ULMB but doesn't look quite smooth because you get screen tearing.
• V-Sync:  Can run ULMB, insanely smooth, no stutters, no screen tearing, but of course plenty of input lag...it's quite minimal at 120hz which is what I have to run the monitor at to use ULMB in the first place, but in fast paced games it's definitely noticeable and has effected my performance in very fast paced shooters.
• Fast Sync + FPS cap:  Can run ULMB, no screen tearing, negligible input lag, but of course, you get stutters because of how fast sync works, and your refresh rate not perfectly lining up to your FPS cap.  At an FPS cap of 120 (monitor refresh at 120hz), it will be smooth for about a minute, then a few seconds of bad stuttering, then smooth again, etc repeat.  I can do like, 121 FPS cap, but then every second or so there is a very slight jump/stutter as it looks to 'skip' a frame.  I can try running double FPS at 240, but of course I won't be hitting this in all games, and it won't look smooth, even at like 180 or something, creates an almost 'ghosting' effect, defeating the whole point of ULMB.  I've tested a lot of different ways of trying to smooth out fast sync, but it seems impossible unless you can control the 'tear line' of where your monitor refreshes...which leads me to the next one...
• Fast Sync + Scanline Sync (RTSS):  RTSS (Riva Tuner Statistics Server) has a fancy little thing called Scanline Sync, letting you actually control where that tear line is on your monitor, so it does not move, which means pairing it with Fast Sync can achieve flawless results, no stutter, no tearing, can use ULMB, also quite negligible input lag...however the problem with Scanline Sync is that it isn't great for newer games, due to the way it works, if you aren't constantly hitting a solid 120 fps and dip below that slightly, Scanline Sync has to lock your monitor suddenly to half that at 60 FPS, which of course is incredibly noticeable during games.
• G-Sync:  No stutter, negligible input lag, buttery smooth with no screen tearing, but of course with G-Sync, you cannot use ULMB...the one thing I really bought this monitor for.  So you're stuck with the traditional monitor 'ghosting' effect that ULMB would otherwise eliminate.

 

So yeah, I've been pulling my hair out over this for the last few days.  What do you guys do?  Or what would you choose?  I wish ULMB could run at a higher refresh rate than 120 to help minimize input lag more, or maybe if fast-sync locked correctly to your monitors refresh rate (or would that just re-introduce v-sync type input lag?) or even traditional monitors not having ghosting without the need of ULMB...why can't ULMB work with G-Sync, etc.  This stuff makes me want to go back to CRT monitors haha.  I can't believe there isn't a better way at this point to get all 4 things at this point, ULMB, no stutter, no screen tearing, no input lag...the fact that we're still sacrificing 1 thing or the other is baffling with the technology we have today...you think there'd be an ultimate solution at this point.  I realize for some people, certain things may not be an issue like screen tearing, maybe you don't notice it and you're not as sensitive, maybe the traditional 'ghosting' effect of LCD monitors don't bother you, maybe with v-sync you don't notice the input lag, etc, but I notice all of these and ideally I would love some sort of solution for all of the above if possible.

 

Anyway, I rest my case, eager to hear responses to this.  What do you guys choose?  And is there an alternate way perhaps I haven't tried yet?

[JoostinOnline]

Get a G-Sync monitor. You can enable ULMB on individual games from the Nvidia Control Panel. I use it on games that are capped at 60fps.

[Shivaxi]

Just now, JoostinOnline said:

Get a G-Sync monitor. You can enable ULMB on individual games from the Nvidia Control Panel. I use it on games that are capped at 60fps.

I have a G-Sync monitor.  It does not allow me to enable ULMB and G-Sync at the same time?  Enable G-Sync forces off ULMB in my monitors settings as well, and will not allow me to enable it unless I turn G-Sync off in the Nvidia control panel.


 

[RAS_3885]

7 minutes ago, Shivaxi said:

snip

I would use G-Sync since it gets rid of of the things that are most bothersome to me, which are tearing and stuttering.

[RAS_3885]

Just now, Shivaxi said:

I have a G-Sync monitor.  It does not allow me to enable ULMB and G-Sync at the same time?  Enable G-Sync forces off ULMB in my monitors settings as well, and will not allow me to enable it unless I turn G-Sync off in the Nvidia control panel.


 

That's because of how blur reduction works. Here's a good article with some more details.

 

https://blurbusters.com/faq/motion-blur-reduction/

[Shivaxi]

Just now, RAS_3885 said:

That's because of how blur reduction works. Here's a good article with some more details.

 

https://blurbusters.com/faq/motion-blur-reduction/

Yeah I'm aware, I was replying to Joostin who claimed he has G-Sync AND ULMB running at the same time, which cannot be true afaik.

[JoostinOnline]

5 minutes ago, Shivaxi said:

I have a G-Sync monitor.  It does not allow me to enable ULMB and G-Sync at the same time?  Enable G-Sync forces off ULMB in my monitors settings as well, and will not allow me to enable it unless I turn G-Sync off in the Nvidia control panel.


 

Yes, you can't have everything, but you can pick. You do have to pick one or the other, but it's not a universal decision.

[Shivaxi]

Just now, JoostinOnline said:

Yes, you can't have everything, but you can pick. You do have to pick one or the other, but it's not a universal decision.

Oh I see what you were saying now, basically choose one or the other depending on the game, I gotcha.  But like I said in my original post, ideally I'm looking for an all-in-one solution to all 4 of the issues, screen tearing, input lag, stuttering, motion blur...I feel like at this point we shouldn't HAVE to be sacrificing one thing or the other.

[Light-Yagami]

The 

15 minutes ago, Shivaxi said:

I want to run ULMB (ultra low motion blur), have no stuttering, no screen tearing, and no input lag

no motionblur means you need a very fast panel, probably high end TN 1ms or really high end IPS 1ms panel.

Stuttering comes from inadequate system performance and isn't monitor related. You'll get it if your CPU won't be able to keep up (or the GPU) but in your case that won't be a problem.

screen tearing means you're spitting our more frames per second that the monitor can display. To combat this, get a high hz screen or lock fps in game. Don't use V-sync, cause it introduces a couple of frames worth of input lag - at which point - why bother with a high end screen at all? But you probably won't notice it if your monitor already displays 240fps or something. So don't worry about it

No input lag is a broad spectrum. A combination of monitor response time, and system response time. But in general, higher fps means lower input lag. So just worry about that then.

 

In conclusion:

Get a 144hz (at least) monitor with 1ms response time and g-sync. Or a 240hz screen. But make sure you're buying a good one. Some have terrible response time IRL, higher than their refresh rate. In general, that means smearing and ghosting. You try to avoid that for better experience.

 

 

[Shivaxi]

Out of curiosity, I was researching some gaming monitors, and I came across this:  https://www.amazon.com/ASUS-XG279Q-Compatible-DisplayHDR-DisplayPort/dp/B083Z8JXW6

This claims to be able to do ELMB (similiar to ULMB) along WITH G-Sync, both at the same time?  Can anyone actually confirm that is doable?  Because that would essentially solve all of my issues right there if that is possible.  I previously thought that it was impossible to run G-Sync along with any of the ULMB or ELMB modes.

[Delicieuxz]

V-sync causes input lag, sometimes severe input lag, so avoid that. It's pleasure to never have to use v-sync again.