Freesync / G-sync

[ElusiumClearley]

So can anyone help me with FreeSync and G-Sync, because i cannot understand it at all...So if i have a normal monitor and i run a game to arround 200 FPS i will have screen stutters or what? Please help

[Majestic]

 

Have you tried googling? No offense.

[ElusiumClearley]

Not at all

 

[Vroooom]

Take your normal monitor, turn off vsync, and play a game in fullscreen. You'll see screen tearing

 

Turn on Vsync. You won't have screen tearing, but you'll see your framerate drop all the way to 30 whenever it goes below 60

 

With Freesync / Gsync, you get the full framerate, plus no screen tearing

[ElusiumClearley]

So now i cant get a GTX 1060 because the cheapest G-Sync monitor costs arround 400$ and i will have to go with RX 580, right ?

[thejackalope]

Do G-Sync and Freesync add input lag?

[ElusiumClearley]

What does that mean ?

[DocSwag]

Simply put, g sync and freesync vary the refresh rate of the monitor to match that of the graphics card.

 

It's a simple concept, but to realize why this is even something significant and understand why people go crazy about it takes some diving into what the problems created by a fixed refresh rate and varying frame rate are.

 

This article does a decent job of explaining the problems (namely screen tearing or stuttering, you normally get tearing, if you turn on v sync tearing goes away but you get stuttering)

https://www.anandtech.com/show/7582/nvidia-gsync-review

 

Basically, the main issue you get is tearing. Let's say you have a 100 hz monitor but your GPU is only outputting 75 fps. When the monitor goes through its first refresh cycle, the GPU will only be partially finished rendering the next frame. The monitor will still display the part of the next frame already rendered, though. So what you end up with is part of the screen displaying the previous frame and part of the screen displaying the next frame, which will look something like this:

As you can see, there is a clear "cut" in the middle of the screen that marks the border between the two frames displayed. This can be really distracting and I pretty much can't stand it, so I play with v sync on.

 

V sync is basically the solution to screen tearing that works anywhere. Basically, v sync waits until the frame is fully rendered before sending it off to the monitor. So if you have the previous 100 hz monitor 75 fps situation, but you had v sync on, when the monitor does its refresh and the gpu has only finished rendering half of the frame the monitor will instead output the last fully rendered frame.

 

This fixes screen tearing since the monitor only displays the last fully rendered frame. However, what you end up with is more input latency and stuttering. If you think about it, this means that if you have a 100 hz monitor, whenever the GPU isn't finished rendering the next frame in time the monitor is basically pausing the picture, which causes stutter. This can become really annoying.

 

Now that you've understood the issues that having a different refresh rate and frame rate causes, it makes sense why freesync and g sync are so nice. The monitor refresh rate is now synchronized to the frame rate, which gets rid of all of the above issues.

1 hour ago, thejackalope said:

Do G-Sync and Freesync add input lag?

I believe they add some input lag, but it's not that much. Nowhere near the amount v sync adds.

[Verrm]

2 hours ago, thejackalope said:

Do G-Sync and Freesync add input lag?

With FreeSync you get minimal input lag as monitor needs to decode signal going through DisplayPort before displaying. With Gsync its a bit better because its dedicated chip. I dont know more details but I never heard of it impacting anyone negatively. Probably its not noticible to 99% of ppl.

[thejackalope]

39 minutes ago, DocSwag said:

Simply put, g sync and freesync vary the refresh rate of the monitor to match that of the graphics card.

 

It's a simple concept, but to realize why this is even something significant and understand why people go crazy about it takes some diving into what the problems created by a fixed refresh rate and varying frame rate are.

 

This article does a decent job of explaining the problems (namely screen tearing or stuttering, you normally get tearing, if you turn on v sync tearing goes away but you get stuttering)

https://www.anandtech.com/show/7582/nvidia-gsync-review

 

Basically, the main issue you get is tearing. Let's say you have a 100 hz monitor but your GPU is only outputting 75 fps. When the monitor goes through its first refresh cycle, the GPU will only be partially finished rendering the next frame. The monitor will still display the part of the next frame already rendered, though. So what you end up with is part of the screen displaying the previous frame and part of the screen displaying the next frame, which will look something like this:

As you can see, there is a clear "cut" in the middle of the screen that marks the border between the two frames displayed. This can be really distracting and I pretty much can't stand it, so I play with v sync on.

 

V sync is basically the solution to screen tearing that works anywhere. Basically, v sync waits until the frame is fully rendered before sending it off to the monitor. So if you have the previous 100 hz monitor 75 fps situation, but you had v sync on, when the monitor does its refresh and the gpu has only finished rendering half of the frame the monitor will instead output the last fully rendered frame.

 

This fixes screen tearing since the monitor only displays the last fully rendered frame. However, what you end up with is more input latency and stuttering. If you think about it, this means that if you have a 100 hz monitor, whenever the GPU isn't finished rendering the next frame in time the monitor is basically pausing the picture, which causes stutter. This can become really annoying.

 

Now that you've understood the issues that having a different refresh rate and frame rate causes, it makes sense why freesync and g sync are so nice. The monitor refresh rate is now synchronized to the frame rate, which gets rid of all of the above issues.

I believe they add some input lag, but it's not that much. Nowhere near the amount v sync adds.

 

Yep I know about vsync and screen tearing. 

 

But with G-Sync and Freesync aren't you also having to wait for a frame to render before displaying it? 

[DocSwag]

4 hours ago, thejackalope said:

 

Yep I know about vsync and screen tearing. 

 

But with G-Sync and Freesync aren't you also having to wait for a frame to render before displaying it? 

Yes.

 

But the thing is, with v sync, once that frame is rendered, you have to wait until the next monitor refresh before it gets displayed. With g sync and freesync, it's displayed immediately.