Able to run GTAV at 4k at 60fps... but there's screen tearing

[Deyadissa]

Here is my system:
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/78Xqyc

(Note, that the Video Cards are not on pc part picker... my video cards are directly from Nvidia with no third party.)

I am running into an issue where GTAV runs at 60fps at 4k on high settings, but as soon as the framerate drops down to 55 frames, usually while driving or during explosions the game screen tears massively.

I tried turning on Smooth Vsync for SLI which helps a lot, but as soon as the game goes under 60fps, it locks it to 30 fps regardless if it was at 55 fps or not.

I can't figure out a solution to remove the massive screen tearing other than disabling SLI, which makes it run at 30-40 frames per second and defeats the purpose for me. Adaptive Sync doesn't appear to work at all in SLI.

Also when I use my monitor on my computer, smooth vsync allows it to go to 45 frames per second which is a lot better, but my TV is only 30/60 on smooth so I am not understanding how that works or why it's different.

My Settings in the game is 2 notches below optimal settings in nvidia geforce experience if you hit customize, so it's pretty much high-ultra. When I bring it down 4 notches below optimum, the game never goes below 60fps... but being I'm only struggling with the game at 55fps on much higher settings I would like to know if there is any fix for this.

Anyone have any suggestions?

 

[-Lone-]

I think you may have to like "reset" v sync. When I first played the game I didn't know there was new drivers for it and there were no problems. But after I installed the new drivers, my v sync caps at 30 fps. So what I do is every time I play/open the game I turn off v sync, then turn it back on again, that seems to fix it for me and then the cap increases back to 60.

 

[i7Baby]

Drop any AA.

What ports are you using on graphics card and monitor?

"The HDMI connectors are restricted to 30Hz, which means they’re no good for gaming, and they don’t have MHL either.
Read more at http://www.trustedreviews.com/samsung-u28d590d-review#yq5ET8rHiJXfXYiC.99"

"The panel's input lag (the time it takes for the monitor to react to a command from an input controller, as measured with the Leo Bodnar Video Signal Lag Tester) of 35.1 milliseconds is fairly quick" - for a TV

 

[Deyadissa]

Well the 30/60fps issue is not really a glitch or bug. Smooth Vsync, which works best on SLI setups locks the Vsync to a certain amount until the average FPS increases.

On my monitor, that rate is 30fps, 45fps and 60fps.
On my TV, it is only 30fps and then 60fps.

So for example, if my game drops to 55 frames per second, Smooth VSync will drop the framerate and referesh rate to 45hz/45 frames per second. This will pretty much completely eliminate all stutter and tearing, and I'm fine with sacrifcing 10fps for butter smooth movement. But, when I try this on my TV, it's taking 55fps and making it 30fps, not 45 and it's really noticeable and the tradeoff isn't worth it.


For my monitor I am using Display Port.

For the TV I am running 1080p DSR at 4k, but keep in mind that this also happens in Native Resolution. This TV is using HDMI 2.0 with MHL, input lag is about 40ms in game mode. I am replacing the Tv today with 32ms input lag and native 4k, so I don't know if that will make a difference.

 

[sizzling]

At 4k you are going to run into vram problems. Read a few posts where gtav can use over 5gbwhen run at 4k

 

[Deyadissa]

I am not running into VRAM issues, the game works flawlessly on that. VRAM issues would cause lockups and crashes, I'm not experiencing that.

I am experiencing, normal but small framerate drops on tougher scenes (like high speed driving, FPS drops down 2-5 FPS) and because of SLI, adaptive sync does not work at all, so the only viable option I have found is smooth vsync, which locks it down to 30,45 or 60. On my TV it locks to 30fps, which to me is unplayable using a mouse and keyboard (controller is fine).

I want to fix the issue about where it's not setting it to 45fps when it drops below 60fps. I can handle 45fps motion with a mouse and keyboard, it's worth the sacrifice for 0% screen tearing or stuttering percentages.

 

[-Lone-]

Actually when you run out of memory, it causes stutter and fps drops, at least that's what I have read and also experienced when I was on my previous GPU.

 

[Deyadissa]

The game is only using 3GB of VRAM out of 4GB, shouldn't that be enough free VRAM?

 

[-Lone-]

Where are you getting that reading from? Inside the game?

 

[Deyadissa]

Where are you getting that reading from? Inside the game?

Yes the game states I am using 6GB of VRAM, but since SLI doesn't increase VRAM in D11 it's actually 3GB multiplied by 2.

 

[-Lone-]

Well, the VRAM indicator inside the game is actually pretty far off. It says 4.1GB for me inside the game, but in reality I am using an average of 5GB and a maximum of 6.8GB so far, I haven't seen it gone any higher than that.

 

[Deyadissa]

What tools are you running that states it runs at 5gb maximum? Is this showing the true amount and not being doubled?


Isn't VRAM used to load textures and affects? The game runs perfectly fine at 60fps on everything except for high speed driving, which drops to 55-60fps.

 

[-Lone-]

I run 2x GPU Z every moment my PC is awake constantly monitoring every 0.1 sec of my GPU stats. Since I have the Titan X, it would show over 4GB because I have more than that. If I was on a 4GB VRAM GPU, I'm not sure how it would look, but I'm pretty sure it won't show like 5/4 GB if 4GB is the maximum, that would look weird. When I was on my previous GPU which was limited to 4GB I get these random fps drops and sudden stutters in my games and it wasn't the temperature. After I switched over, I haven't had a single stutter or big fps drops in any game I play.

 

[i7Baby]

Try changing your settings eg have no AA.

 

[Deyadissa]

I don't use AA at 4k, I use a small amount of Gaussian filter to smooth out the hardly noticable AA issues at 4k resolution.

 

[i7Baby]

What settings are you using?

 

[Deyadissa]

Sorry ~ I'm off work now so here are my settings that allow me to run 4k resolution at 55-60+ framerate in all areas of the game:

I did try FXXA to see if it would hurt me, it doesn't so I am keeping it on


Ambient Occlusion = Normal
Anisotropic Filtering = x16
DirectX Version = DirectX 11
Display Mode = Full-screen
Distance Scaling = 100%
Extended Distance Scaling = 30%
Extended Shadows Distance = 30%
Grass Quality = Very High
High Detail Steaming While Flying = On
High Resolution Shadows = Off
Ignore Suggested Limits = On
Long SHadows = On
MSAA = OFF
NVIDIA TXAA = OFF
PArticles Quality = High
Population Density =100%
Population Variety = 100%
Post FX = High
Reflection MSAA = OFF
Reflection Quality = Very High
Resolution = 3840x2160
Shader Quality = Very High
Shadow Quality = Very High
Soft Shadows = NVIDIA PCSS
Tesellation = OFf
Texture Quality = Very High
Water Quality = High


THe VRAM reported in GTA V pretty much exactly matches the VRAM usage on GPU-Z, it's only like 200MB off. So it's not a VRAM issue.

There is huge microstuterring issues when I don't use SMOOTH sync. I just got a new 4k tv in today, but the cables for it havent arrived yet so I don't know if my issue will still occour on the new TV.

 

[Deyadissa]

I fixed the problem, apparently one of the video cards wasn't fully put in because eventually that card stopped showing in windows, so I re-inserted it and screwed it in the side even tighter and not only did it fix my VYSNC, but I am able to run the game at 60fps in even higher settings now.... even while driving!

 

[bystander]

You should use Adaptive V-sync. Not smooth v-sync. Adaptive V-sync will keep v-sync on when you are able to maintain 60 FPS, and turn it off if you can't. If you are using SLI, then just leave V-sync on, if you are ok with V-sync and 55 FPS. SLI forces a form of triple buffering, so you don't have to worry about it dropping to 30 FPS, but you might notice some stuttering.

 

[Deyadissa]

You should use Adaptive V-sync. Not smooth v-sync. Adaptive V-sync will keep v-sync on when you are able to maintain 60 FPS, and turn it off if you can't. If you are using SLI, then just leave V-sync on, if you are ok with V-sync and 55 FPS. SLI forces a form of triple buffering, so you don't have to worry about it dropping to 30 FPS, but you might notice some stuttering.

Adaptive V-Sync does not work with dual cards, because it is rendering the game on two separate cards. There is a small latency between the two and it causes micro stutter. So I need to use smooth sync or no Vsync at all. I hated all of the screen tearing, it has to be smooth for me.

 

[bystander]

You should use Adaptive V-sync. Not smooth v-sync. Adaptive V-sync will keep v-sync on when you are able to maintain 60 FPS, and turn it off if you can't. If you are using SLI, then just leave V-sync on, if you are ok with V-sync and 55 FPS. SLI forces a form of triple buffering, so you don't have to worry about it dropping to 30 FPS, but you might notice some stuttering.

Adaptive V-Sync does not work with dual cards, because it is rendering the game on two separate cards. There is a small latency between the two and it causes micro stutter. So I need to use smooth sync or no Vsync at all. I hated all of the screen tearing, it has to be smooth for me.

Adaptive V-sync most certainly does work with SLI. I use it often, and it is clear as day it does as advertised.

Where on earth did you get the idea that it doesn't work with SLI? Rendering every other frame on a different card has no obstacle that prevents v-sync, or adaptive v-sync.

If you need proof, read this: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/radeon-hd-7990-devil13-7970-x2,3329-10.html

 

[Deyadissa]

Well it doesn't work for me. I get better performance with vsync off than I do with adaptive sync.

 

[bystander]

Well it doesn't work for me. I get better performance with vsync off than I do with adaptive sync.

Adaptive Vsync turns off Vsync when your FPS drop below your refresh rate. It turns on if you can reach your refresh rate. So it does cause your average FPS to be lower than without Vsync, as it prevents your FPS from going past your refresh rate.

Again, this is Adaptive V-sync, not Adaptive sync.

 

[Deyadissa]

I know what the adaptive sync does, and it's never worked for me in SLI. That's the whole reason smooth sync was made, it's much more smoother running it.

I get better motion on 1 card with adaptive sync than I do with 2 cards on adaptive sync by a significant margin.

Some people may not notice screen tears as much as I do though.

 

[bystander]

I know what the adaptive sync does, and it's never worked for me in SLI. That's the whole reason smooth sync was made, it's much more smoother running it.

I get better motion on 1 card with adaptive sync than I do with 2 cards on adaptive sync by a significant margin.

Some people may not notice screen tears as much as I do though.

Smooth V-sync was not made because Adaptive V-sync doesn't work with SLI, as it clearly does. It serves a different purpose all together. It makes it so you are running at 30 FPS solid, or 60 FPS solid, and avoids any of the middle FPS. And unlike Adaptive V-sync, it always prevents tearing. It's for those who do not want any tearing or stuttering.

Adaptive V-sync's purpose is for those who can tolerate some tearing when the FPS drops below their refresh rate. SLI has nothing to do with it. If it is not working for you, you have a driver issue, or the problem is between the keyboard and chair.

Note: Please stop saying Adaptive Sync, that is a different technology all together. That is the tech Freesync uses for variable refresh rates.