Difference between locking fps and Vsync?

[Nazilad]

What is the actual difference? If there is any...

[Curufinwe_wins]

7 minutes ago, Nazilad said:

What is the actual difference? If there is any...

So technically speaking the difference is in how the double/triple buffer works.

 

Here is a very good article on how the buffer system works.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/2794/2

[Glenwing]

30 minutes ago, Nazilad said:

What is the actual difference? If there is any...

V-Sync is not just a framerate cap that doesn't allow you go beyond 60fps (or whatever your monitor is). V-Sync will only allow your framerate to be a multiple of your monitor. That means your framerate won't just be "anything 60fps or below". With V-Sync, your framerate will be 60fps, 30fps, 20fps, 15fps, 12, 10, 6, 5, etc. Nothing inbetween. In practice this means if you can get 60fps but can't maintain it consistently, and your framerate hovers around 55-65fps, then your game will rapidly switch between 30fps and 60fps all the time, and you'll have noticeable stutters and hiccups. With a regular framerate cap, you just won't go beyond 60fps, that's all. You won't get the stuttering that V-Sync causes, but you also may get tearing since the framerate isn't in sync with your monitor anymore.

[Nazilad]

Its kind of self explanatory

[Guest Kloaked]

I'm confused by the body of your thread.

 

Are you asking what the difference is, or are you stating that the differences are self explanatory?

[thekeemo]

vysnc is tied to the refresh cycles of your monitor

FPS lock just prevents you going over a certain fps

[crystal6tak]

Normally, the GPU makes frames and they go to the monitor to be displayed. Yea?

 

V-Sync creates a frame buffer. It withholds frames outputted from the GPU, then gives them off to the monitor in a ordered fashion. This ensures the frames are complete frames (tearing happens when half a frame is delivered) and that they are delivered at consistent intervals (stuttering happens when some frames are delivered slower than others). However since V-Sync makes another layer of processing of the frames before outputting them, the user gets a delay, normally refereed as input lag. So, in a nutshell, V-Sync stops screen tearing and inconsistent frame time but increases input lag.

 

Locking FPS simply means restricting the number of frames the GPU outputs. Screen tearing and frame time variance can still be present. However there won't be any input delay.

 

Both V-Sync and locking FPS will reduce GPU usage if they were originally outputting more FPS than necessary (etc: 200 fps).

 

Hope this helps!