Can't tell difference between G-Sync and Vsync

[nO_d3N1AL]

I've had my Acer Predator XB281HK for a few months now and one of the features is GSync. However I can't tell the difference between using VSync and GSync. As someone that's always used V-Sync for 60 FPS gaming, I cannot for the life of me see what all the fuss is about. Although there's plenty of articles explaining in theory what GSync does I still don't understand it, and I certainly can't perceive the difference to gameplay, even in a fast-paced game like Gears of War. Am I blind or am I missing something?

 

Also I don't think GSync even works half the time and doesn't play well with some games.

[3rrant]

2 minutes ago, nO_d3N1AL said:

I've had my Acer Predator XB281HK for a few months now and one of the features is GSync. However I can't tell the difference between using VSync and GSync. As someone that's always used V-Sync for 60 FPS gaming, I cannot for the life of me see what all the fuss is about. Although there's plenty of articles explaining in theory what GSync does I still don't understand it, and I certainly can't perceive the difference to gameplay, even in a fast-paced game like Gears of War. Am I blind or am I missing something?

 

Also I don't think GSync even works half the time and doesn't play well with some games.

I can't either, with both freesync and g-sync I can't notice any different at 60Hz with any resolution compared to a "normal" vsync. So I've always come to the conclusion that it's a very personal (or influenced) result.

[TVwazhere]

3 minutes ago, nO_d3N1AL said:

I've had my Acer Predator XB281HK for a few months now and one of the features is GSync. However I can't tell the difference between using VSync and GSync. As someone that's always used V-Sync for 60 FPS gaming, I cannot for the life of me see what all the fuss is about. Although there's plenty of articles explaining in theory what GSync does I still don't understand it, and I certainly can't perceive the difference to gameplay, even in a fast-paced game like Gears of War. Am I blind or am I missing something?

 

Also I don't think GSync even works half the time and doesn't play well with some games.

G sync is a variation of Vsync

V sync slows down your monitor so the frame rendered matches the frame the GPU is rendering. This however, causes Input lag, meaning your inputs dont appear on screen as fast as "instant"

G sync uses proprietary firmware (nvidia claims) to get the same effect of reducing screen tearing to non existant, while not affecting input lag as much. 

If you're not playing fast paced FPS games, or games that require very precise timings, you might not notice it as much 

[Trenzit]

First off, g-sync always works, there is nothing that could do harm to anything, because all the work is done by the monitor and can't influence the game at any point.
With that 60hz panel you can only see the difference when your framerate is below 60fps, because the g-sync monitor adapts to that framerate instantly. Regular v-sync holds back the frames until the next 1/60 second interval has passed so it produces lag when the framerate dropps. With g-sync you dont have that lag and no added latency, because the frames aren't hold back but the monitor refreshes whenever a frame is finished.

[nO_d3N1AL]

But I don't notice any lag with VSync on. I've never ever noticed lag with VSync on, and I feel no difference with VSync off even in fast-paced games.

[TristanK]

Gsync is more for pro players that is the only place where it matters...for anyone else it is really not worth it...it is just for bragging rights and completely unnecessary waste of hard earned money. I have the 1080ti and 1440p monitor and vsync on and i notice no screen tearing, no lagg, and i play casual gamers and a few shooters...and i can get very high score agfainst other players in fps games even without the fancy Gsync/freesync...so yeah for regular joe home use it is pointless...even for fps games.

[EunSoo]

G-Sync also is useful for when your computer can't run games at the refresh rate of your monitor, whether that is 60hz, 144hz or something else. So if you have a 144hz monitor but your computer can only run your favorite game at 120-130 fps at the settings you like, you can still enjoy the higher refresh rate and not see screen tearing that you would without it.

 

So your use case might not need it but others might. You might not even notice the screen tearing but others may be really distracted by it. So it really is a subjective thing whether it will be helpful to you or even if you will notice it when it is in use.

[TechSquidTV]

I use V-sync when ever possible because apparently I notice screen tearing more than my friends. No one I know is using G-Sync but there is a fairly universal hate for v-sync which has never done anything but improve my game.

[Trenzit]

6 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

V sync slows down your monitor

it doesn't, it keeps back frames in v-ram so they end up in time for the monitor.

7 minutes ago, TVwazhere said:

G sync uses proprietary firmware

Yeah, because there isn't a proprietary module in the monitors. Furthermore it has no input lag at all, just the gtg response time from the panel.

4 minutes ago, nO_d3N1AL said:

But I don't notice any lag with VSync on. I've never ever noticed lag with VSync on, and I feel no difference with VSync off even in fast-paced games.

Doesn't mean there is none. You need a trained eye for that and it's not like a second. It's general the snappyness of everything. There are even slo-motion tests from linus that go deep on that topic. But as there are people protecting the xbox and thinking it's the best for gaming, not everybody has to be able to tell the difference.

 

[TristanK]

1 minute ago, Trenzit said:

it doesn't, it keeps back frames in v-ram so they end up in time for the monitor.

Yeah, because there isn't a proprietary module in the monitors. Furthermore it has no input lag at all, just the gtg response time from the panel.

Doesn't mean there is none. You need a trained eye for that and it's not like a second. It's general the snappyness of everything. There are even slo-motion tests from linus that go deep on that topic. But as there are people protecting the xbox and thinking it's the best for gaming, not everybody has to be able to tell the difference.

 

Exactly my point...you cant see it, you need a trained eye...so as I said before, pointless to buy one if you cant even see the difference yourself...why the f would you buy it than? so you can say you have a Gsync monitor?? No thanks..I rather buy a normal monitor for 500€ less

[Glenwing]

39 minutes ago, nO_d3N1AL said:

I've had my Acer Predator XB281HK for a few months now and one of the features is GSync. However I can't tell the difference between using VSync and GSync. As someone that's always used V-Sync for 60 FPS gaming, I cannot for the life of me see what all the fuss is about. Although there's plenty of articles explaining in theory what GSync does I still don't understand it, and I certainly can't perceive the difference to gameplay, even in a fast-paced game like Gears of War. Am I blind or am I missing something?

 

Also I don't think GSync even works half the time and doesn't play well with some games.

 

35 minutes ago, ErrantNyles said:

I can't either, with both freesync and g-sync I can't notice any different at 60Hz with any resolution compared to a "normal" vsync. So I've always come to the conclusion that it's a very personal (or influenced) result.

G-Sync only operates when your framerate is below the monitor's max refresh rate, when you're at your max refresh rate or above then G-Sync is deactivated and V-Sync is used. So at 60 FPS on a 60 Hz monitor of course you won't be able to tell the difference between G-Sync and V-Sync.

[Trenzit]

3 minutes ago, TristanK said:

Exactly my point...you cant see it, you need a trained eye...so as I said before, pointless to buy one if you cant even see the difference yourself...why the f would you buy it than? so you can say you have a Gsync monitor?? No thanks..I rather buy a normal monitor for 500€ less

Well wait a minute, g-sync monitors only cost 100€ more than their non g-sync counterparts and with "trained eye" i don't mean you have to have the best eyes in the world, only if you can't tell the difference between 30 and 60 fps, your eyes would be to bad for that technology to ever benefit from that.

That being said, there are people that suffer from motion sickness, which strongly occurs when the outputs are delayed to the inputs. That means they would puke all over the place even if they could not say how many milliseconds lag where seen.

I think most people could tell the difference (blind people for example not) but if you say "pah, i dont want to get a bike, because i've never driven one and dont know how to drive one" you'll never see the difference. And especially at the usual 144hz the image would get much more choppy without g-sync, so i would be concerned if you couldn't tell the difference there.

[nO_d3N1AL]

13 minutes ago, TristanK said:

Exactly my point...you cant see it, you need a trained eye...so as I said before, pointless to buy one if you cant even see the difference yourself...why the f would you buy it than? so you can say you have a Gsync monitor?? No thanks..I rather buy a normal monitor for 500€ less

I only bought my monitor because it was the cheapest 4K screen I could get, believe it or not. It just happened to have G-Sync and 1ms response time.

[TristanK]

18 minutes ago, Trenzit said:

Well wait a minute, g-sync monitors only cost 100€ more than their non g-sync counterparts and with "trained eye" i don't mean you have to have the best eyes in the world, only if you can't tell the difference between 30 and 60 fps, your eyes would be to bad for that technology to ever benefit from that.

That being said, there are people that suffer from motion sickness, which strongly occurs when the outputs are delayed to the inputs. That means they would puke all over the place even if they could not say how many milliseconds lag where seen.

I think most people could tell the difference (blind people for example not) but if you say "pah, i dont want to get a bike, because i've never driven one and dont know how to drive one" you'll never see the difference. And especially at the usual 144hz the image would get much more choppy without g-sync, so i would be concerned if you couldn't tell the difference there.

Look I am not saying there isn't a difference but there isnt enough difference for me at least to justify the additional cost. I have been playing games without gsync and freesync since forever so i dont know why i would suddenlky need one now since i really have no need for it and i assure you that 90% of people on this forum have no need for that either...unless they just want to have it cause it s "cool" to have one

[Trenzit]

3 hours ago, TristanK said:

Look I am not saying there isn't a difference but there isnt enough difference for me at least to justify the additional cost. I have been playing games without gsync and freesync since forever so i dont know why i would suddenlky need one now since i really have no need for it and i assure you that 90% of people on this forum have no need for that either...unless they just want to have it cause it s "cool" to have one

i've got mine because i've developed in my years. Now I'm not satisfied anymore with mobile phones that slide open to reveal a keyboard. Now I'm not satisfied anymore with playing games in an unconfortable position infront of an anoyyingly flickering tv and on an console that barely gets tetris running smooth. Now I really want to enjoy the things i want to enjoy and i've developed appreciation for the better quality of something like blu-ray movies.

I can even bet you there are more people who step up from their 1080p 60hz monitor to a high refresh monitor than to a 4k 60hz one, because high refresh rates make a lot more sense for gaming and with that g-sync makes even more sense.

But all that aside, there are a lot of people who want to step up their game, just to have the technical advantages on their side. That's why dpi, accuracy and latency for mouses is important. And as there are people who say "I don't see any tearing" there always will be the "I don't notice the latency" people. But for the no-compromise-gamers, who put a 1080ti and an i7 in their rig even tho it's overkill, there are plenty of people who care about even just the latency of g-sync. If you spend like 400€ on a monitor, you could as well pull out 500 and get a more roundet experience. Everything else is like bottelnecking an i7 with a gt710 especially considering everything above 1080p 60hz benefits a lot more from g-sync.

[ShoshinUK]

I'm 45 soon and a pretty competitive gamer/nerd. I'll take all the advantages I can get - just no hacks.

[pyrojoe34]

That's strange because when I got G-sync the difference I noticed was absolutely huge (especially at lower framerates), less tearing/frame-drops and smoother gaming overall. The other advantage that may be a lot harder to notice for many is g-sync has much lower latency than v-sync.

 

When comparing the two, did you actually turn off g-sync in the control panel? Turning on v-sync doesn't disable g-sync so you may just be running both simultaneously. Also you'll only notice the difference if you're running at a lower fps than your monitor's refresh rate, g-sync doesn't do anything if your fps is already higher than the refresh rate.

 

[nO_d3N1AL]

On 13/09/2017 at 7:33 PM, pyrojoe34 said:

That's strange because when I got G-sync the difference I noticed was absolutely huge (especially at lower framerates), less tearing/frame-drops and smoother gaming overall. The other advantage that may be a lot harder to notice for many is g-sync has much lower latency than v-sync.

 

When comparing the two, did you actually turn off g-sync in the control panel? Turning on v-sync doesn't disable g-sync so you may just be running both simultaneously. Also you'll only notice the difference if you're running at a lower fps than your monitor's refresh rate, g-sync doesn't do anything if your fps is already higher than the refresh rate.

 

Either way I've never noticed any of the infamously claimed inpur lag from Vsync so i don't even know if GSync is working or not, and yes I've tried with both Vsync on and off. So again i really question the purpose of GSync.

[Glenwing]

39 minutes ago, nO_d3N1AL said:

Either way I've never noticed any of the infamously claimed inpur lag from Vsync so i don't even know if GSync is working or not, and yes I've tried with both Vsync on and off. So again i really question the purpose of GSync.

The main point of it is to improve smoothness at lower framerates, the tearing elimination is really a secondary benefit since G-Sync only operates below the refresh rate, where tearing is less common anyway.

[JoostinOnline]

It's because you're using a 60hz monitor.  G-Sync is for stopping tearing and stuttering.  If you're always getting 60fps or more, then it's not going to look any different from V-Sync.

 

G-Sync and FreeSync are for high refresh rate monitors, where your frame rate often won't reach the refresh rate.

[SpaceNugget]

On 9/12/2017 at 8:04 AM, nO_d3N1AL said:

I've had my Acer Predator XB281HK for a few months now and one of the features is GSync. However I can't tell the difference between using VSync and GSync. As someone that's always used V-Sync for 60 FPS gaming, I cannot for the life of me see what all the fuss is about. Although there's plenty of articles explaining in theory what GSync does I still don't understand it, and I certainly can't perceive the difference to gameplay, even in a fast-paced game like Gears of War. Am I blind or am I missing something?

 

Also I don't think GSync even works half the time and doesn't play well with some games.

Some people have already mentioned it, but if you are getting a solid 60fps you wont notice any difference as when at the monitors refresh rate limit it functions the same as vsync (experience wise, not in terms of how it is technically accomplished). the difference is that if you drop to 59fps, instead of throwing away 29 frames every second and skipping down to 30fps (it displays each frame twice since without adaptive sync the monitor is stuck at 60hz), it just adjusts your monitor to 59hz. essentially a 29 fps improvement. This is about the simplest explanation and skips over lots and over simplifies just about everything but you see the main function of adaptive sync tech.

 

try to play a demanding game at intensive settings where you can get 60fps sometimes but not all the time and you can watch vsync snap back and forth between 30 and 60fps

[nO_d3N1AL]

Ah ok. So I guess that's why framerate drops below 60 without GSync are much more noticeable?