Understanding screen tearing

[Patt]

Hey guys, this is my first ever post on linustechtips forums and its a question in relation to the phenomenon of screen tearing.

 

Now i understand that screen tearing occurs when your GPU outputs more FPS then your monitors refresh rate, causing the monitor to split frames (which is where we see the tear), 

I understand how V-sync, adaptive V-sync and G-sync work, but theres one thing that i have yet to find a clear answer to.

 

After scrolling through many tech forums, googling and general research i still am trying to answer this one question. This is probably a stupid question but i need to know the answer so i buy the right monitor for my next purchase.

 

So here it is: (Without Vsync turned on) say I have a 144HZ moitor(no G-sync) and i am achieving something like 80FPS in game. Does screen tearing/stutter still occur or does the monitor simply wait for the next frame?

 

 

Any help or knowledge would be appreciated.

[MegaDave91]

Screen tearing occurs when your framerate exceeds the refresh rate of the monitor.

[JebKerman]

No it shouldn't, as the monitor is able to keep up with the GPU. Tearing (normally) only occurs when the GPU outpaces the monitor.

[IhazHedont]

Screen tearing occurs when your framerate exceeds the refresh rate of the monitor.

It it only that ?

 

Because apparently, if you have a 144hz monitor, and you run a game under this refresh rate, you still have tearing.

[MegaDave91]

It it only that ?

 

Because apparently, if you have a 144hz monitor, and you run a game under this refresh rate, you still have tearing.

Below the refresh rate causes stuttering.

[Virtual01]

In theory it will still happen. Screen tearing occurs if you exceed or fall below the refresh rate of your monitor. The only situations in which it does not occur are when you are hitting the reresh rate exactly, or a multiple of the refresh rate (30, 20, 15 FPS on a 60Hz monitor).

 

If you give me a minute I'll test it for you

[Virtual01]

@Patt

 

Yes it still happens. I turned off Gsync and Vsync on my 144Hz monitor and tested 4 different framerates in Dark Souls. The screen tearing was very obvious with 30 and 60 fps. It was one tear that would move up or down the screen and was very easy to see. My 80 and 110 FPS tests were a little different. The 80FPS test felt really janky and stuttery, with a ton of small screen tearing going on at once. No obvious lines but you can see distant objects tearing slightly in several places. Same story for 110 except the terrible stuttering feeling was lessened significantly.

 

At the end of the day, 60fps with Gsync feels and looks better than 110 without (at least in Dark Souls).

[Enderman]

1) vsync turned on:

the monitor will wait for the next frame by displaying the previous frame twice

aka dropping down to 30fps for 1 frame

this is called stuttering, and happens below or above the refresh rate of the monitor

 

2) vsync turned off

the monitor will display the previous frame until it gets the next in which case it will immediately try to display the new frame when it is received

this will cause tearing whether it is below or above the refresh rate of the monitor

[BrightCandle]

You do not understand how vsync/gsync works, you can't possibly to ask that question, sorry but that is the truth. Worse than that is the absolutely 100% wrong answers above also from people who do not understand it either. This thread is full of  incorrect answers and likely because they don't underwstand it either especially when using gsync related pictures. Sigh. The ltt forum and crowd are not a technical crowd if you want to learn you really need to be somewhere a bit more knowledgeable.

 

The correct answer is yes it tears, it tears regardless of the frame rate because that has no bearing on the vertical sync timing.